RE: IML: As my first question to the sage advisors on the IML- would the '64Imperial on ebay now be a good buy?

[<50scars@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Also be aware that the engineers and manufacturers have learned a thing or
two over the last 40 years about designing and building transportation
modules. Fantastic machines our old Imperials certainly are, however, as 
just dumb dependable cheap transportation modules, modern cars are far
superior. I see no passion or magic in the cars of the last 30 or more
years, but you will notice that cars now have the odomeeter digit that
actually shows 100,000 miles, not going back to 0 as Imperials and their
comtemporaries did. The cars of the 60s may have been easier to work on
than today's transportation modules are, but that was because they
required work on a far more routine basis than we want to admit.  True,
they were repairable, where much of today's cars are remove and replace,
if you can get at it.
   Which brings up another thing.  I am currently taking apart a 57
Chryler for parts.  It is clear that the car was designed to be
manufactured, not repaired.  Now I know why back when they were $50
refugees from the junkyard, I never saw one with a functioning radio. 
Possibly there was a special tool the Chrysler Dealer service dept had
to get those screws above the radio on the back of the dash, but I
guarrantee you that Joe Ling's Pizzaria and Radio repair never
succeeded in getting one out. For as large a car as the 57 Chrysler is,
working on it is nearly impossible. I have a hard time believing that
it was possible toremove and replace the heater core/air conditioning
evaporator with the engine in place.  I find it dufficult to determine
how you got the engine out of there without damageing the fiber glass
cover on the heater core/air conditioning evaporator.  The factory
dropped the completed body onto the completed chassis, so they didn't
care about how to get that assembly in and out of there with the engine
in the way.  I have the cowl cut out from the engine side, Not only is
the front seat out, but the floor is gone, too, but it is still
requiring funny little tools I have acquired over the last 50 years to
take things out of the dash.  I cannot fathom what it was like if you
had to avoid damage to the car, and try to make a living from the flat
rate manual pay rate, but get the repair done.  Maybe the engineers
were a little more cognizant of repair needs in the 60s, but I kind of
doubt it.
    While we may thing working on old cars is easier than on new ones, it
isn't all that easy.

John




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