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Don Uhl's going to check out the paisley-topped '71
Imperial this weekend. Please keep us posted, but let ME know FIRST if it's a
great bargain that you're going to pass up, won't you, Don? [As if
...]
I corresponded with the seller last year about this
car, and while it looked OK in photos, the seller could or would not supply any
documentation of the originality or authenticity of the top. While I'd like any
71 Imp, at the right price/condition, the CAD$4,500 or so that the seller was
asking seemed a bit high to me for a car that had been parked for quite a while
(IIRC) and may or may not have a rare top that may or may not need to be
replaced.
I wonder whether anyone knows whether the paisley
tops were installed at the factory or at the dealership?
I have a George Barris "Mod Tops" folder of
samples and templates that were sent to Chev dealers circa 1968, for dealer
installation on Camaros, but I've never seen a Camaro with such a top. (Not
nearly as tastefully baroque as Mopar's paisley tops).
And we all know that dealers do install tops
themselves. I sat in a Lincoln showroom in the fall of 1992 and watched a
"carriage roof" white vinyl top being installed on one of those "grass green"
Jack Nicklaus editions, to try to help move a left-over 1992 Town Car. The new
top didn't help the look of the car nearly as much as a color change would have
....
But surely the Mopar paisley tops were never
installed by dealers to try to boost the sales of slow movers, were they? And,
even more certainly, no dealer could ever have thought that a paisley top might
help boost the sale of an Imp, since prospective Imperial customers were
statistically more likely to prefer somewhat conservative and understated
fashion statements, weren't they?
Dick Woodside
(now where the heck did I put my old
bell-bottoms?)
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