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1931 Chrysler Imperial roadster


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If that's an original body, and you had the frame, engine, and running gear laying around for it, it's be worth the 38K. But, I'd also question how much of the body is correct, doors look small, top frame doesn't look right...............

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Guest 1929model75

Im glad to see someone made a post about this car. I wish the seller would have taken pics of the dash. Finding a frame will be a nightmere. This sure would be a great car but it seems as though someone cobbled this one.

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I looked those pictures over real well. The owner won't give up the vin until the auction is over? That seems real suspicious to me. This car looks like it has Chrysler parts but I would really quaetsion how much of that body is an original one. Lots of things don't seem to jive. And that's not taking into account any of the obvious sins. Looks more like a nightmare than a classic to me. A Neoclassic refugee from the 1970's or early 80's more likely.

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Guest JB 36 LaSalle

Not to sound like a cynic, but if you look at the second picture, you can see coil springs and upper and lower control arms. Not sure Chrysler had them that early. Looks suspiciously like a "kit car" to me. Just sayin.

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Not to sound like a cynic, but if you look at the second picture, you can see coil springs and upper and lower control arms. Not sure Chrysler had them that early. Looks suspiciously like a "kit car" to me. Just sayin.

I read the ebay listing and it explained the chassis, it was "updated" - the original frame is long gone. It is only a "kit car" from the aspect that someone took a rare desirable CLASSIC and morphed it to a different chassis

Edited by Jim Rohn (see edit history)
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This guy has a house in Florida. He owes $600,000 on it and hints that his "reserve" is expected to cover that. He cuts grass for a living and finds cars along the way to pay for the high lifestyle. That $600K house probably couldn't get $200k today in Fla. As I read this it got funnier all the time. I wonder if he's near Palm Beach,that's where Bernie Madoff had his million dollar mansions and convinced half the town to invest with him. You might find this car in the pawn shop.

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This guy has a house in Florida. He owes $600,000 on it and hints that his "reserve" is expected to cover that. He cuts grass for a living and finds cars along the way to pay for the high lifestyle. That $600K house probably couldn't get $200k today in Fla. As I read this it got funnier all the time. I wonder if he's near Palm Beach,that's where Bernie Madoff had his million dollar mansions and convinced half the town to invest with him. You might find this car in the pawn shop.

Dave you are so funny I'm still laughin your joke!!

For myself I think that this is a fantastic looking body sitting on crap!!

Unless sacrificing a genuine perfect donnor car the investment for resurecting this beauty would be enormous; but It may worth it tho!!

The 15" Kelseys make it look "Fisher-Price" !!

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Guest Dean_H.

Hmmm... the car is located in Boulder Creek, California. Not sure where you saw Florida.

I know a little about that area. Boulder Creek is about ten minutes north of Santa Cruz. I grew up a few miles south of Santa Cruz. In those days 1970s -80s Boulder Creek was where the hard core hippies lived. It's in the mountains, a lot of the homes were strangely built on steep terrain. Many times they'd use logs, stones or whatever else they could scrounge up to make an odd shaped dwelling. It was a sight to see. I haven't driven through there in twenty some years now, maybe it's changed. Homes were generally less expensive there, (cheaper than Santa Cruz or San Jose) but I'd guess 600K would be about right for a house there today.

It's a little tempting to go check out the car, I live about an hour away. Unfortunately, I'm sort of busy with other stuff.

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My Dad taught me that if it's to good to be true.......well you know the rest. I do hope that someone that knows Chrysler does go and take a look. I question its credibility. I lived through the 70's and 80's and remember lots of cars being built, patterned after an original. The front fenders don't look right, the doors don't either, the top looks off, headlamp treatment doesn't look Imperial. It is my opinion that I would sure look at it hard and fast before dropping any money. I wonder about the current owner not being willing to provide the serial numbers up front. That puts a red flag up also. The car does provide something to talk about.......buyer beware.

Al

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Guest Dean_H.

Looking at the pictures of the real Imperial above, I'd have to agree with alsfarms on this one. It's probably not the real thing. The louvers on the hood, seem to have two rows instead of one row on each side. Also, the real car has hidden hinges. And weren't golf doors generally on the right side of the car?

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So you are only getting an original cowl and grille with roadster windshield frame? Everything else is hacked missing or badly modified. 38,000 + seems a bit steep to me being you need basically everything but the above mentioned parts to restore it. Basically a complete car minus the grille and cowl. That shouldn't be hard to find. Maybe Chrysler Corp. stilll has one in a MOPAR crate. I'll have to check the part number on that and get back to you so you'll know what to order.

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If you look closely at the doors and the opening they look frightfully close to an older MG. When the Celent was being produced they used the cowl, windshield, door frame and doors from a Austin Healy Sprite and MG midget. The doors in this homade joke are reminicent of those doors, only reconfigured to be suicide opening. Maybe these doors are MG TD or TF.

This add would surely make you want to by snake oil from the seller.

Brasscarguy:eek:

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One thing really doesn't jive about the seller. He states he has had bunches of cars and sold all his car parts on ebay. This is the last to go. He only has a feedback rating of 142. If you were a real old car guy and sold alot on ebay to help pay the bills you would definately have a higher rating than that as you would have had to sell quite a bit to make anything. I just swing my bills have been selling for 3 years and have nearly 7000 feedback. I couldn't find any other items for sale now or in a completed search. HMMMMMM?????

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unfortunately the original body was morphed to a jury rigged chassis

Chrysler : Imperial - eBay (item 310296973291 end time Feb-27-11 18:00:00 PST)

A rare and elegant car when it was new (and now too)

We have no iron in this fire, we are only posting this link as an FYI

Thanks for sharing. I do not understand the lack of pictures of the engine etc plus why 25 bidders have brought the price up to 39,000 usd when far from being original.

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Guest my3buicks
Thanks for sharing. I do not understand the lack of pictures of the engine etc plus why 25 bidders have brought the price up to 39,000 usd when far from being original.

Probably friends of the seller raising the bid and making it look more desirable but staying below the reserve hoping to "catch a sucker" - it's a common eBay practice.

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So you are only getting an original cowl and grille with roadster windshield frame? Everything else is hacked missing or badly modified. 38,000 + seems a bit steep to me being you need basically everything but the above mentioned parts to restore it. Basically a complete car minus the grille and cowl. That shouldn't be hard to find. Maybe Chrysler Corp. stilll has one in a MOPAR crate. I'll have to check the part number on that and get back to you so you'll know what to order.

how much would this be worth if it was a Duesenberg in the same condition?

;)

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A comparison is in order, to show just how awful that bucket of bolts is...

$(KGrHqEOKoYE0f7R7wBbBN((gJwHEw~~_12.JPG

80478d1298741157-1931-chrysler-imperial-roadster-31_chrysler-cg_imperial-rdstr-dv-10-rmm_004.jpg

There may be elements of originality, trim items, but even a perfunctory

glance shows none of the thought and elegance put into a real Imperial.

The flow of the front fenders, and the trunk height/taper at the rear.

Why does the stem to stern character line end abruptly on the plastic car?

But as the seller says, he's already sold all his other classics (except his '57 Chevy),

after having built many '57's and '67 Chevelles, so perhaps he sees the car's

beauty through jaundiced eyes. It looks like it was the basis for all the bad

castings for the National Motor Mint models.

Throw this one back to the wolves.

TG

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I don't know why I thought it was Florida. Those doors are definitely not MGTD,they look close to correct except for the hinges. I cringed at the high headlights on the wrong bar that he features as a grille guard. The horns are wrong and the cowl lights are on the fenders. The bumpers are wrong and damaged anyway. The "triple"(trippe) lights are trash and mounted on the wrong brace.If the ending bid was legit he's a fool for not taking it.

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I think the value in this is if the body is more or less still intact with original wood. The doors look pretty close. There is an additional golf door on the driver's side. I would ignore everything form the firewall forward and also the fenders, running gear, etc. If the body is correct & intact then it's worth more then 35k.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest SuperNovaSS

Hi all,

I'm a new member here. My name is Jason Booth and I live in Santa Cruz, CA. I am a friend of the owner of this car and just found this post here.

First off, a few things to clear the air:

1) The owner of this car is a very nice guy who is easy to deal with. He is not too computer savvy which one of the reasons he included a phone number in his auction. In the auction, he was only trying to give information on his background, etc.

2) Yes, the seller does not have a lot of Ebay feedback. That does not mean he has not been selling parts and cars for a long time. He just started on Ebay a few years ago. Before that, I had sold parts for him on Ebay. Before Ebay, there were still swapmeets, etc.

3) These cars are not easy to find information on like the muscle cars the owner is used to working on. I have joined this forum to help the owner determine what this car truely is. I went to his house today and took over 150 pictures of the car which I plan to post here.

4) As I said earlier, the owner is a very nice forthright guy. I feel that a few apologies are necessary from a few members who have no problem trashing a car , person, or town while hiding behind their keyboard.

That said, I plan to resize some of the pictures and upload them to photobucket. I will then post them here. If there are any specific pictures anyone would like me to post, please let me know.

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Jason

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I would take some pictures of the original features of the body, specifically the body tag, inside the doors / hinge areas, cowl, etc The more you do to show the ORIGINAL features of a 31 Imperial the better others will understand what happened to this car so many years ago ...

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Guest SuperNovaSS

Can do. When I was over taking pictures today I did get pictures of under the cowl but none of inside the doors. I will post them soon. Uploading is slow as I am on satellite internet.

Jason

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