RE: IML: Q: What to do with a 25k motor

In my oppinion it comes down to preserving the best factory parts that you have, that is what preservation is all about. In the end, who's going to ever know they did not all come from the same car? I am certainly not going to save some rusted out fender because it is original when I can have original rust free sheet metal. A nicer rust free fender is more original than one with a lot of patching and repair.

I had a '52 Pontiac Catalina and a '51 parts car. I have built the '52 Catalina but used the body, frame, and front fenders from the '51 after I found it to be in better shape. Turned out the '52 was loaded with bondo. I just swapped the body tags to keep the original block corresponding to the body. Now I have also bought hundreds of NOS parts for the car as well. Also used parts from numerous salvage yard cars. In the end I "saved" one car from two unrestorable ones.

Same with my Crown. Collison damage neccesitated replacing the deck lid and most of the front clip. With ebay I likely have parts on the car from well over 75 different cars of various years. I know these are extreme examples but this seems to be your scenario. Again, when it's all said and done I have two concours quality restored cars. What's it matter how I got there if they are both factory correct? As long as the car appears stock you have a restoration. In my mind, once a car has been repainted it is no longer original anyway. I think you just have to adjust your thinking. Use the best parts available to you and build the car you want. Imperials are rare enough that nobody is going to much care about anything other than the end result.

It's a '60, '61, '62, '63, '64 Imperial automobile as Johnny Cash might say....

"Pavlik, Eric" <EPavlik@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks for the response. This was more along the lines of what I was thinking.

I guess before everyone thinks I'm a criminal I should clarify.

I was more interested in what qualifies the car. What parts of a car can be changed and still be considered original? For instance I can replace a fender, a seat. a quarter panel and the car is still in tact (or at least I thought). At what point does a car's originality come in question? If I replace a part of the frame is that different?

Does the frame define the originality or is it more or something else? The question of swapping plates was inquiring on how much could be done, I have two cars that would like to make into one good one.

My apologies if I presented in the wrong way, my intent is to keep originality but obviously minimize work.

I like the Imperials and enjoy what goes on here, this seems like a great group. We had a gentleman that we knew that continuously praised the Imperials. He owned numerous ones which is probably what prompted me on the one my wife found. He passed away a few years ago at 100.

Thanks again, please don't misunderstand me.

The stuff that makes it cool is the service records showing the progression of miles over the years, with gaps occuring in the documentation when the car was parked. Mileage wasn't put on titles until long enough after 1963 to make it provable. Many '63 Imperials were driven their first 100,000 miles during the first 6 to 10 years of use. At that time, sellers were not required to report mileage and frequently changed it.

If it were mine, I would transfer all the best parts to the best car and part out the bad one.

In my opinion the 26K on the title is not worth much.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pavlik, Eric"
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: IML: Q: What to do with a 25k motor
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 09:37:55 -0500

Hi everyone,

    I'm new to this and would like to ask a question. To give a brief background:

The wife found this 63 sitting in some guys yard along with a host of other old cars (pretty cool actually). Got him to sell it to me - its a 4dr hardtop, blue with 26k original miles (yes, original). However, the body and some of the rear frame is shot, even though it was garaged (barn) for 25 yrs. Brought it home to start restoring and mechanically it is in great shape. Was actually able to get it running and drove it down the road before garaging it. My dad got excited about it and found a 'parts car' in Kansas that should be delivered tomorrow.

    My dilemma - The parts car is in much better shape body-wise than this (at least from pics), has over 100k and was a daily driver (the guy was gonna demo it). I like the original one and color, etc. It seems the best route would be to swap parts to the 'parts car' and get it running. My issue is I want to keep the originality overall but would also like the 26k label on the title.

    Q: What can be or can't be swapped to keep a title with 26k on it and still be legit? Can I swap the plates to the other with the motor and drivetrain or does it have to stay with the frame? I want to keep as much originality as possible.

Eric Pavlik
X3327

Fred
 Joslin