Joined: Sat Apr 29 2006, 06:11AM
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 3
Thanks for the warm welcome guys,
I'll tell you a bit more: actually it's my 2nd '72 coupe and I used to live in Holland before we moved to New Zealand 7 months ago. I bought my first Imp in 1998 for $1300 in Oregon, it was honey dew and fairly low optioned for an Imperial (just cruise control & leather buckets). Apart from the common rust-under-the-vinyl-roof, it was a solid and reliable car and a pleasure to drive. I always kept an eye open for a better optioned Imperial untill I spotted this gold one on eBay in 2004. Needless to say I ended up as the winner and took delivery of it a couple of months later in Holland. It has these options: -Sure brake -Tilt/tele -Headlight sentinel -Cruise control -Rear defog -AutoTemp II -Remote trunk release -Trunk dress-up package -6-way power seats -AM/FM 8-track -Power antenna -Leather interior (gold) -Passenger side rear view mirror -Heavy duty torsion bars
Unfortunately the car was not as good as the seller had promised. It had a big hole in the drivers side floor and a 20 ft. paint job over a lot of bondo. Steering was awfull due to a broken flex disc and an idler arm with 1/2" play, braking was bad and the interior quite not excellent. The 727 leaked like sh*t, oil pressure of the 440 was very low and many of the options did not work. Anyway, the car was complete and not really expensive in the first place so who am I to complain
Since the compression wasn't too bad, I decided to give the engine a basic overhaul. I pulled it, cleaned it out, replaced the timing chain, valve seals, oilpump, engine mounts, gaskets, ignition system, exhaust etc etc. I also fixed the transmission leaks and installed an extra oil cooler. While the engine was out I installed a new steering gear, idler arm ($300 ) and coupler. The engine runs pretty strong now although the AVS carb could use a rebuild. There are still a lot of things to be fixed, like the AutoTempII and the Sure Brake. But I keep these for last.
Last year we moved to New Zealand so I sold the honey dew Imperial and drove the gold one and my wifes MkIII in a 40ft container, which they barely fit And since the 2 cars completely fill up the garage of current rental house, big jobs like bodywork have to wait untill we have a proper garage.
If you still want more, feel free to browse through the website in my signature (which is still in Dutch, sorry for that).
@ USS300: A fuselage Imp is the perfect ride for any bad guy! @ owatajrkiam: The massive front end is what got me into the fuselage era Mopars in the 1st place. And gas is about half from what it was in Europe, so that's not too bad. @ stitcherbob: If I ship this one back to the USofA, it will definately be the c-body with the most nautical miles of the dock! Great upholstery thread btw.
Regards, Frank
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Sat May 06 2006, 08:11AM ]</span>
A mark 3 and a Imperial..Man you must love chasing electrical gremlins. Those neighbors in NewZeland had to freak wacthing you move in with those boats. Nice cars tho