I bought my '59 Imperial in December for $5000.00, and dragged her out of a lot in Southern California where she had been sitting the past six years. The price maybe a lot, but I saw the cars potential, plus it was, and still is the car of my dreams. It cost me another $4000.00 to get her up and running, and after spending her initial month at the mechanic, she was officially handed over to me on my birthday in January. I immediately put new tires, shocks, and a new exhaust system on her to make her road worthy which was my first priority. She has had a few minor problems since then, like the power steering hose developing a leak, so I was without power steering for a few weeks while the hose got repaired. Try driving a '59 without power steering, believe me it was quite a work out which I could feel in my shoulders when I sat down to relax. I figured it was a much better work out than going to the gym and using all those machines, and for the first time
I was truly enjoying the exercise because I was still driving my Imperial. She then developed a brake leak problem which fortunately was easily remedied, but now my cookie jar on the loan I took out to buy her, and get her running again is starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. The other night she developed electrical problems on the way home from work, but got me home, and I covered her, and she is still sitting there in the parking lot waiting for my day off, when I can attack her new problem, and keep her out on the streets. My whole point to all this is, no matter how difficult things become, now that I have that elusive car of my dreams, I will never let her go! We are in this together for the rest of my life, and I will probably make provisions for someone else to take the same loving care of her after I am gone! My regular driver is a Nissan 300ZX which is a beautiful and wonderful car to drive, but if push comes to shove, that Nissan will become a for sale ad, and I will get some cheap economy car to drive to work, ju
st to keep my Imperial on the road. It all boils down to your priorities, and what you truly derive pleasure from. Sure the Nissan is a nice very sexy sports car, but the Imperial is a work of art! Bill '59 Crown
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