It's been my experience that the non-luxury American car usually gets my exit strategy before my Cadillacs, Imperials and Lincolns. There is something to be said about the convenience of having a common car and the ease of finding spare parts for it. However, nothing beats the attention to detail and overall careful design that the American premium car brings - decades after it's been out of the lot...
Chris Middlebrook
1962 Custom Southampton
--- On Sun 06/24, John Corey < jcorey@xxxxxxxxxxx > wrote:
From: John Corey [mailto: jcorey@xxxxxxxxxxx]
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:40:07 -0400
Subject: Re: IML: Finding a good Imperial exit strategy
I hear
you. I consider myself one of the lucky ones - still working, blessed with wife and kids, but with just enough extra to feed my Imperial habit. Still, the world can be challenging and even exasperating. Old Imps even more so, therapy value notwithstanding. Yesterday, I went to the barn/garage to take out NO XQS (61 vert), in which I had just done a 1200 mile round trip to Detroit the prior week, with no problems. I found the right rear totally flat. OK, off it came and the fault proved to be a massive leak at the valve stem seal to the wheel. Weird, but easily fixed with a replacement valve stem. Done in time to clean up and go out for dinner - in the Imp. As we sat out on a lovely summer evening, a great hiss arose from the parking area. Inspection revealed that the LEFT rear stem had failed in exactly the same way! What are the odds? 100% - it just happened. OK, but it still seems unlikely and it makes me wonder what could cause it. I will replace all three
stems now - before I hit the road again.
Not looking to get out of Imperialville just yet......
jc
On Jun 23, 2007, at 8:10 PM, Hugh, 58 Imperial wrote:
When you get into Imperials and, maybe by accident, in small increments, become very committed to them, I guess many of us do not think about graceful exit strategies. There was one guy on here, a real sticker for accuracy who really went off the deep end and ended up killing himself. He had attended several shows and folks on the IML had met him. I'm sure he had any amount of serious issues in his life other than the Imperial but, evidently, the car did not provide enough relief. Over the years, evidently, I have seen many people come to the end of their Imperial trip. There are certainly easier points of entry into the old car game but none, I suspect, that are more ultimately satisfying. Many of us here,
and I count myself among them, consider driving our Imperials as a truly effective form of therapy. There a;ways comes a point when proceeding with the cars becomes less enjoyable than it once was. The old car game is best played by the young and unmarried and the retired but still very active. Middle aged folks like me, with college looming for our kids, etc, etc, etc, just can't devote the time, money and energy to these bottomless pits of wants and needs the way we might like to. However, I came away from my 58 today feeling pretty good. The rust of the floor of the car does not seem to be structural. The steering wheel is still two-thirds intact.
I think I can fudge a band aid repair over the remaining top third while I try to resolve many other issues. I don't think my time on this ride is over yet. I hate being further behind than when I started, that's for sure, but I think I can, with some effort, get the car to where I want it to be. Then I'll allow myself to think about retiring! |
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network