Here I go again on my opinion of customizing. I bought my 1959 Imperial because to me it is one of the most beautiful cars ever produced. I didn't have a lot of options to get the exact model I wanted, which was basically a two door Crown Southampton with a Flightsweep deck lid, but I did find a Custom which met most of my criteria, and I am now converting it to a Crown, which requires very little cosmetic changes. The interior was my main reason for wanting a Crown, since I do not like the upholstery or pattern of the Custom interior. At present my interior is neither Custom or Crown, and is someone's bad taste of a Custom recover in all the wrong fabrics and colors. When I eventually redo the interior I plan to stick strictly to the Crown pattern, even down to the embossed crowns in the leather, but there maybe a few areas I will deviate to suit my own desires, such as the back shelf which is two tiered. I will most likely do this whole area in leather rather than the straw stuff which was originally there. I have also been thinking about doing the headliner in a pattern to match the exterior landau roof, which is an area I always thought Chrysler missed the boat on. A little more padding in the door panels, and maybe a map pocket on each side would be nice also. This is very simple customizing suited to my personal tastes, and I don't consider it a crime. I do not believe that anyone should buy one of these old cars and make it into something it is not such as a chopped low rider with wide tires and hydraulics. There is someone on the list who has an article on the site about his 1957 Imperial which was badly crashed and rusted. He chopped off the roof, and is working on making it into a roadster. To me this is a very constructive way of bringing a car which would have most likely met the crusher before its time, back to life. Finally, each car and owner have their own circumstances, and the owner ultimately holds the decision of the cars future. There is no written law which states the car must be restored to it's completely original condition, some like myself would like to make it just a wee bit better, without sacrificing the original cars integrity. None of us are going to be around forever, and neither are our cars, so enjoy life and your car while we can!
Bill '59 Crown (Conversion)
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