Re: IML: Imperial love / hate relationship

[<wardle65@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I bought my 58 almost 2 years ago seen only in photos from a guy in 
Mukilteo, Washington.  There was a total of 20 odd phone calls back and 
forth to the guy I bought it from and a lot anguish while I waited for it to 
arrive here in Australia.  The deal was not without problems as I was 
promised it did have a title however after I paid for it the guy informed me 
it didn't.  He then wanted to pull out of the sale.  Anyway I organised a 
title from here in Australia.  I then organised a car carrier to pick it up 
to transport to Long Beach and the seller turned them away twice.  I was 
starting to get worried at this time and after more phone calls to the 
transport company and the seller I had organised a time agreable to both for 
pickup.  I eventually did get the car on the water and it arrived unscathed. 
My wife worried it wouldn't fit in the garage but I reassured her I looked 
at the sales brochure on the IML and the total length 225.9 inches if 
correct will just fit.  Sure enough it does with mere inches to spare.  I 
have owned Valiants and a 58 Plymouth Belvedere before but this car is the 
creme of the crop.  Nothing will part me from this fine car ever.   I love 
it.

Regards
Chris Wardle
1958 Imp Crown Coupe

om: "Hugh, 58 Imperial" <imperial58@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 4:12 AM
Subject: IML: Imperial love / hate relationship


> In the vein of Laurie's recent contribution, let me just say that bringing 
> "my" 58 into the family was never a deal breaker but it has caused some 
> intense emotional responses along the way.  First thing worth saying is 
> the car does not belong to me.  It is owned by a museum.  I used to be the 
> chairman of the board and am now it's manager, part-time, badly paid but 
> loving it.  I fell for the 58 hard.  After a long time working on it at 
> the museum, it became runnable enough to bring it home, which at that time 
> was an apartment.  I never wanted to own a house, but my wife did, and my 
> way in was a garage for the 58.  I turned down several house because the 
> car would not fit into the garage or the entrance was too awkward. 
> Anyhoo, soon enough we found a place when the car could squeeze in with 
> inches to spare on each side, and almost none fore and aft.  The funny 
> thing is that the house and the car are contemporary to each other and all 
> cars were pretty big back then but there you have it.
>
> My daughter, now 13, loved the car from the get go, especially being 
> picked from school in it.  I'd let her sit on the arm rest in the middle 
> of the back seat with a wee strap to keep her in place.  Twas she who 
> named it Mrs. Blueberry.  My best compliment on the name came from a real 
> head turner female member of my local Mopar club who said it took a real 
> man to have the guts to call his car Mrs. Blueberry and introduce it as 
> such to anyone and everyone.  I hadn't thought of it that way until then 
> but was happy to be given the idea and the ego stroke.  However, my wide 
> hated the car, completely and resolutely.  She referred to it as my girl 
> friend.  When people phoned she'd say, "Oh, he's under his girl friend, 
> let me get him for you."  My boss called once and that took more than a 
> little explaining.
>
> Anyhoo, things changed when she started riding in it.  Folks would go nuts 
> as we drove along.  Hooting, hollering, waving, big thumbs up, honking, 
> the whole tilt.  Funnily enough, I hardly noticed.  I've been in so many 
> parades and other events over the last fifteen years, I just don't see it 
> anymore. But my wife loved the attention.  She waves back and does the 
> whole happy owner thing.  The fact that spending money on the car counts 
> as a donation to a registered charity and gets us tax breaks doesn't hurt 
> either.  Now she wants me to get the car painted so it won't be so 
> embarrassing to be seen with it.  From pull back to push forward.  I'll 
> take it.
>
> Another sweet response came when my parents came to stay.  My father hated 
> the car.  It represented to him, the stolid Englishman, the worst excesses 
> of Americana.  Loud, large, and a waste of the earth's precious and scarce 
> resources.  Not my mother though, she was happier than my daughter.  Sat 
> there in the back seat doing the royal wave like she was born to it.  She 
> thought the time I spent polishing a newly acquired set of 67/68 hub caps, 
> which go so well with the 58's grill, if you happen to have 15 inch wheels 
> on your 58 and not the original 14s, was total madness.  She said she 
> wished I'd spent so much time on my studies.  Now the drop-out has written 
> and had published one book and is working on another.  I'm desperate to 
> get the Imperial onto the cover.  Time and money, as ever, are the 
> problems.  And so it goes.
>
> Hugh
>
>
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