Granted this is not a vehicle we would work on but this is still a great vintage vehicle, brought to us by Michael. Fan Car Friday is a segment where we want to share with the world the automobiles that our fans have. We have absolutely no affiliation/relationship with the cars, the build or the owners. This post was made with written consent from the owner.

The Imperial showed up at my front door on July 4, 2011, after a about a 4-5 month search for , “just and old car to drive”. I had a very nice 2002 BMW 540i/six speed, but wanted something older to use as my alternate transportation. T-Birds, Lincoln MkII, III, IV, V and VI’s were perused as well as Imperials, 81-83 only, and a few Oldsmobile Starfires. While looking one day, I came across this unbelievable Imperial, made contact with the owner and settled on a selling price.

While researching this unit, and then becoming the second, third owner(another fellow had bought it earlier, but his wife wouldn’t let him keep it), it became clear that this was not an ordinary 1981 Imperial. What follows is fully documented, by both the original owner, whom I tracked down in CA, by the second owner and is in a binder in the trunk of the car. Mr. Patnode put 19,000 on it in 20 years, the second owner, Mr. McDivitt, 2,000 in 10 years, and Input 1,400 on it in 7 years. It just turned 22,400 this summer. It is babied, but run enough to keep everything loose and working properly. It has taken 9 straight first place
trophies, in its class, at shows and one runner-up best of show. She’s beaut!

Mr. Patnode, the original owner was a Chrysler exec. and bought the car in the fall of 1980 in San Francisco. He was moved to LA where he still resides. He had other cars and drove this one sparingly, and never in the rain, or on a wet street. When it need cleaning, it was dusted and the polished. In 1984, Chrysler had the car repainted because the paint “failed” because of too aggressive buffing at the Windsor plant, where it was built. It is not the original color, which was Day Star Blue, but a color that cannot be matched. the closest I’ve come, through reflectometry, is a 1996 Ford truck color. This was all authorized by Chrysler, so it’s the only Imperial painted in this color. Is it a one of one? I wonder? It was completely dismantled to accomplish this and the only place you can see the original color is about an 1/16” border around the driver side door tag.

The car is, otherwise, original. The navy blue interior and Mark Cross leather seats are like new as is the carpeting, dash, etc. I have the crystal keys, umbrella, portfolio, and key fob, as well as the garage door opener and two barrel carb that was supposed to replace the EFI when it failed. Oh, it failed, but this car has a 4-bbl carb and retains the EFI air cleaner, so it still looks as though it has the EFI. It also has a Chrysler alarm system.

It has been in Hemming’s Classic Cars, July 2007 and in onlineclassics.com, May 2012.

Imperial was the Chrysler Corporation’s luxury automobile brand from 1955 to 1975, and again from 1981 to 1983. The Imperial name had been used since 1926, but was never a separate make, just the top-of-the-line Chrysler. However, in 1955, the company decided to spin Imperial off as its own make and division to better compete with its North American rivals, Lincoln and Cadillac. Imperial would see new or modified body styles introduced every two to three years, all with V8 engines and automatic transmissions, as well as technologies that would filter down to Chrysler Corporation’s other models.

The revived Imperial for 1981 was a smaller, two-door only model and this smaller size was comparable to it’s competitors the Eldorado and Mark VI.  With a long list of standard features including air conditioning with thermostatic temperature control, electronic VFD dash (including odometer, speedometer, gear selection, gasoline-use calculator, and clock), power windows, power door locks, power seats, power outside mirrors, power trunk release, tilt steering column, automatic speed control, garage door opener, and other conveniences. Because of its high level of standard equipment there were virtually no options other than a cost-free choice of wheels (color-coordinated ‘snowflake’ cast aluminum wheels or steel wire wheel covers), upholstery choice (Mark Cross leather or Yorkshire cloth), sound systems choice, 40-band CB radio, power moonroof, and the Frank Sinatra Edition package.  Frank Sinatra, who was a personal friend of Lee Iacocca, was featured in commercials and magazine ads and even recorded special songs to promote the Imperial.

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