Leather / Vinyl

[Mark and Theresa Elliott <deadfishe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This car is local to me, and I just happened to see it about 30 minutes ago 
at a local car show.  The dealer that is selling it is actually a 
consigner, I met and spoke with the owner who had taken it to the show.  He 
didn't seem to have a real in depth knowledge of Imperials (so I would 
guess that the 1 of 19 probably doesn't have a lot to back it up).  He 
bought it from the 2nd owner who had done a fair amount of restoration on 
(it sounds like the current owner has the receipts for what was 
done).  Some of the things that were redone are the front seats, which is 
leather, not vinyl, its just the wrong color (the current owner has a 
receipt for it, so I presume it is correct, and it does look like leather 
when you get close to it), the paint was redone (it doesn't look like a 
correct color to me, but I am no expert on the 67s, the owner thinks that 
there is too much metal flake in the paint, I think that there is too much 
purple), the weatherstripping, and I don't recall what the other things are 
that he told me.  He did say that he has a front end kit that will get 
installed in the next few days, and he has new (NOS) motors for the rear 
windows.

The car looks to be in good shape.  There are some blemishes (the wood on 
the interior needs to be refinished, the cardboard in the trunk could use 
replacing, the passenger mirror looked like it had some problems), but a 
pretty solid car.  The owner is asking $7500.  I think that the front seat 
is the biggest drawback.

There was also a pretty nice 55 Custom 4 door at the show.  It appeared to 
be all original, and showed a bit of wear and tear.  But for a 50 year old 
car it looked quite nice.

Mark Elliott
64 Crown 4 dr
At 05:12 PM 6/10/2004 -0700, you wrote:
>From: "Eric" <gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: IML: Leather / Vinyl
>Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 16:21:05 -0700
>Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>If one digs a little into this car dealer's other auctions, one can see his
>'66 T-Bird, shown here
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2481176930
>
>The front seats of the LeBaron look like they could have been redone in
>leather. If so, the dye wasn't correctly matched. To this dealer's credit,
>I'd bet its genuine, virgin, and natural vinyl, possibly organically grown
>from the richest petrochemicals available. From his ad, this dealer seems to
>know how to recognize original carpeting, you'd think he'd be a little more
>up on leather and vinyl.
>
>It sounds like he is pretty loose w/the facts in the 'one of 19 cars made'
>statement, too. This pattern of false advertising could be a useful tool in
>negotiating by the bid winner.
>Buyer beware of the wormy spud.
>
>Eric
>'63 Crown Four-Door
>'72 Newport Custom Sedan