IML: Coaching Needed-Selling '61 Convertible & Parts Galore

[Tony Lindsey <papatony@xxxxxxx>]

As I said before, I recently re-joined the list so I could sell my '61  
Imperial and related stuff.

I was hinting around the edges of what is happening with me, because  
I'm very afraid of the future right now, and I didn't want to sound  
like I was looking for sympathy.  I'm going in for the MRI and CAT scan  
this next week, and my doctors and I are suspecting that I'm rapidly  
deteriorating due to early-onset Alzheimer's (I'm 49 this month).  My  
mom had it, too, and she died young.

I WANT to have a full, happy hobby, but my world is spiraling smaller  
and smaller at a rapid pace.  Frankly, I need to sell the car and parts  
so that I won't be leaving my husband Dennis with my credit-card debts  
after I'm unable to work any more.  I haven't been able to bring in the  
bucks like I used to, and the debts have been rising. I'm horrified at  
the idea of being a burden, so I want to diminish the impact if I can.   
I yearn to see Princess Hyacinth find a wonderful home where she can be  
shown off in public again. I'm spending a lot of time feeling  
overwhelmed, so she doesn't get driven any more.

I could sure use some coaching on the topic of selling the car and the  
parts.  I'm way out of the hobby loop these days, and so much has  
changed. Ironically, I'M the guy who kick-started a lot of the changes  
in switching the car hobby from a one-on-one system to a worldwide  
Internet thing! :->

I can't handle the back-and-forth wrangling for price domination any  
more - I've lost a lot of my edge.  The idea of arm-wrestling and  
bickering just alarms me.  Any help and ideas would be greatly  
appreciated!

--- CONDITION OF CONVERTIBLE

She's in very nice condition, but more work will be needed to bring her  
to concours condition. The interior and top need to be done, and the  
brake booster needs rebuilding.

The car was originally white with a blue interior, with ZERO options...  
 As stripped as a '61 Crown could be. For pictures and a better version  
of the story of how I got her, check out

<http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1961/TonyLindsey/WhyIloveMyImp/ 
index.htm>

When my mom died and left me a small amount of money, I dumped it all  
into getting the Imperial fixed up so that she could be pretty,  
drivable and FANCY in a heavily-factory-optioned way. She's now Formal  
Black (a proper '61 color), but the money ran out before I had a red  
leather interior and black top installed.  The interior is currently a  
colorful mix of proper-but-shabby '61 Crown Convertible parts. The  
proper rear seatback was a nightmare to find. - It's ONLY correct for  
the '60-63 Crown convertibles.

- I came to a stop when it came to getting the convertible top hardware  
and fabric installed. I wanted to do a concours-class job, but I didn't  
know how, so the top mechanism, hoses, pump and the brand-new black  
fabric top have languished in the shed with the rest of the parts. The  
windows need to be installed, too.  I've got all of that stuff.

- Mechanically, the only thing really not working right is the power  
brake booster.  I'm a big man, so stopping the car with manual brakes  
has never been a big deal.  I've got several proper spares (both kinds  
- Bellows and Canister) that can be rebuilt pretty easily.

- I've taken two full round-trip tours of California in this car for  
Statewide Imperial Meets, and for the pleasure of driving.  As long as  
I slather myself with plenty of sunscreen, she's good to go anywhere.  
In the last few years, she has been languishing under a cover with  
anti-gasoline-deterioration liquid added so she doesn't have a gummy  
residue in the fuel system. I haven't driven her in a year and a half.  
If I charge up the battery overnight, she starts right up and will  
drive wherever I want.

- She runs on the cheapest 87-octane gas they sell, since I had 1978  
440 low-compression heads installed when the engine was rebuilt. She's  
not as fast as she had been in 1961, but she can get out of her own way  
just fine.

- Nothing that is on the car that is shiny came with the car. All  
chrome is original and close to 100% pit-free.  I went through a LOT of  
parts to choose the nicest pieces, back in the days when cars like this  
still showed up in the junkyards. Nothing has been re-chromed, or  
needed to be. The spare parts are in the same condition... I gave away  
or got rid of anything that wasn't.

- Nothing that is electrical came with the car. I got everything from  
parts cars and swap meets back in the days when stuff like this was  
still available. I began aggressively collecting '61 Imperial Crown  
Convertible parts before I even got the car (in the mid-1980's),  
because I knew I would have one some day. I was told by an old-timer in  
the club to grab everything NOW while the getting was good, and it was  
excellent advice.

- The only thing mechanical that is on the car, and that came with the  
car, is the lower half of the engine, the propeller shaft, the rear  
axle and three of the brake drums. Everything else was missing, since  
the previous owner had used it as a parts car. The body was dinged a  
lot, but rust-free, so I had that all re-done, down to the bare metal,  
inside and out.  I have LOTS of pictures and receipts from the  
ridiculously expensive process. Thanks again, Mom, for providing the  
money!

I figured that having everything necessary was important, so I gathered  
enormous amounts of spare pieces in the last twenty years.  I have  
everything needed to finish the job - I just ran out of money and time,  
and despite my presidential work with the Imperial and Chrysler clubs,  
I have very little actual experience with RESTORING cars.  I've always  
had more fun owning them, and driving them, than in completing them.

The car needs to be completed, and it would take more money or time  
than I can spare.  I haven't done anything but make her nicer, fancier  
(in an authentic way), driveable, and more dependable.

--- SPARE PARTS

I mentioned that I have a lot of spare parts. I'm being urged by my  
husband Dennis to sell these on eBay. This picture (taken ten minutes  
ago) shows around 25-30% of the spare-parts inventory:

<http://homepage.mac.com/papatony/1961ImpInventoryPart01.jpg>

They're mostly "Jewelry" items:

- HiWay Hi-Fi for a '61
- Auto-dimming rear-view mirror for a convertible. Technically, these  
were not proper for '61 Imperial two-doors, but hey - I wanted it!
- Swivel Seats from a '61 LeBaron, Flitesweep Decklid and those two '61  
LeBaron wheelcovers you see in the pictures, all installed on the car  
already.
- Power Vent Windows (still needing to be installed)
- Power Door Locks (ditto)
- TONS of spare taillight, backup and turn-signal lenses and chrome  
assemblies.
- External shiny stuff - Eagles, emblems, and spare Flitesweep pieces  
and much more.
- Those easily-breakable interior door-handles for two-door '60-'63's.   
These were the item I have had the most trouble hanging on to. I'm very  
soft-hearted, and folks have begged me for them for years!
- A period-proper NOS "Eagle" red floor-mat that is big enough for an  
Imperial.  Most aren't.
- That "IMPERIAL" dealer showroom neon sign that you see in the  
picture.  I'm really irritated that I broke it again recently, so it'll  
have to be fixed, again.  It's very easy and inexpensive to have  
repaired at ANY neon shop.  The gas should glow pink when it's lit.  
It's overwhelmingly jazzy to see when it's on:

<http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1961/TonyLindsey/tonys-garage.jpg>

- Literature of every possible kind.  I don't think I am missing a  
single '61 Imperial article, review, or dealer/factory item. The  
crowning glory, of course, is the big Dealer Samples book or whatever  
they called it back then. I used to remember. I have every scrap of  
dealer technical information, plus rarities from the National  
Automotive History Collection.  Some stuff disappeared when I loaned it  
out a long time ago, but I still have a lot more.

- Many, many more items, too numerous to mention... Those long trumpet  
horns, dash speedo assemblies, a spare windshield, radiators,  
alternators, brake drums, wheelcovers, spare chrome trim for two-doors,  
on and on and on and on.  NONE of it is in awful or embarrassing  
condition, except for the extra interior upholstery pieces I've saved  
to help as patterns in the restoration process.  I see crap worse than  
my stuff going for big bucks on eBay all of the time.  I never BUY any  
of it, but notice it as it goes flashing past.

I haven't looked inside the boxed filing-system for years, but there  
are stacks and shelves of boxes, nicely organized (if not inventoried).

I'm open to ideas, and lots of them.  After working so hard to build a  
community, I find that I need a favor from our community in return,  
years later.  I'm an open-hearted, community-oriented, non-cynical,  
generous soul.  Folks like me are a target for scammers, so I came here  
where the nicest folks gather.  Thanks for whatever you can recommend!



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