62 Imperial With Special Ordered Interior

I found this Imperial sunk up to its frame in mud in Redford, MI back in 2006. It had sat outside uncovered for 6 years and was not running, (later found 2 stuck valves and 5 bent push rods!) some rust in the usual places and moldy interior. I was afraid someone would buy it for the motor and trans and scrap the rest of it, so of course I had to drag it home!

My interest was piqued by the yellow interior which I knew was not a factory option. Looking at the build tag on the fire wall, the trim code is 999 which is for special order. Both rear doors were also sporting Cadillac emblems, stuck on to cover what may be holes for monogram plaques or something similar.

SMS Auto Fabrics Identified the cloth insert material as matching a '62 Cadillac

The Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills was able to pull the IBM Card and said that it was purchased in Baltimore MD at Triangle Chrysler Plymouth

Originally I planned on getting it running, and cleaning up the paint and interior and driving it, but the interior was too far gone and smelled really bad! also the 413 had 2 stuck valves and a bunch of bent push rods. Having to rebuild the motor, and finding that the correct interior material was available, I decided to go forward with a restoration of the body and interior.......work is started but has been moving at a snails pace. Trunk had to be replaced and the rear quarters had a lot more rust than we originally thought.

I'm dying to figure out who bought this car originally...it had to cost a fortune new! Anyone have any suggestion to trace a car's past owners?

Great score!

What an interesting find! I would pull up the carpets and rear seat and see if the Broadcast Sheet is still lurking under there.

Craig

The Cadillac crest was obviously added by a previous owner. Also that type of Cadillac crest is from the late 60's or 70's.

What SMS matched it to does not mean that what you have couldn't be a stock Imperial or Mopar fabric. I'm sure Imperials came with lots of different fabric choices and some might have been special order in small quantities. It's not impossible that SMS made a mistake matching it to something that looks like your fabric.

SMS couldn't give me a match for some fabric that was commonly used in a Cadillac.

The first thing I did was pull the rear seat, but no such luck, and nothing has turned up as the rear seat upholstery was worked on.....Maybe I'll be lucky when they work on the front!

Look also above the glove box. Sometimes they stuck them up over the top from the back of the dash.

From looking at the online Imperial Club information for 60-'63 Imperials and LeBaron, this fabric and color were not offered. I haven't looked too much further to see if it was used in a New Yorker etc., and SMS was confident it is used in '62 Cadillac Town Sedan and they had reproduction fabric in several colors.

Here is a close up of the original back Seat. The sun has faded the cloth to an off white, but underneath is is more of a yellow gold color. Also the headliner uses the same material as the seats rather than the perforated, stretchy material, which will make that job a bit harder to do!

Here is a '62 Cadillac Sedan from Ebay with the same cloth inserts:

Here is my Imperial rear seat back recovered with the Fabric from SMS:

All in all I wish I had stumbled into this car before it was left outside to go to pot!....I would have preferred to have kept it all original and just driven it.

Nice job on the upholstery. I guess it doesn't matter what was matched to the original.

I found a shop manual for your car at Mymopar.com in case you don't have one. http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/servicemanuals/1962_Chrysler_Service_Manual.zip

You might find other useful things there.

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I found this Imperial sunk up to its frame in mud in Redford, MI back in 2006. It had sat outside uncovered for 6 years and was not running, (later found 2 stuck valves and 5 bent push rods!) some rust in the usual places and moldy interior. I was afraid someone would buy it for the motor and trans and scrap the rest of it, so of course I had to drag it home!

My interest was piqued by the yellow interior which I knew was not a factory option. Looking at the build tag on the fire wall, the trim code is 999 which is for special order. Both rear doors were also sporting Cadillac emblems, stuck on to cover what may be holes for monogram plaques or something similar.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]294971[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]294972[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]294970[/ATTACH]

SMS Auto Fabrics Identified the cloth insert material as matching a '62 Cadillac

The Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills was able to pull the IBM Card and said that it was purchased in Baltimore MD at Triangle Chrysler Plymouth

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Originally I planned on getting it running, and cleaning up the paint and interior and driving it, but the interior was too far gone and smelled really bad! also the 413 had 2 stuck valves and a bunch of bent push rods. Having to rebuild the motor, and finding that the correct interior material was available, I decided to go forward with a restoration of the body and interior.......work is started but has been moving at a snails pace. Trunk had to be replaced and the rear quarters had a lot more rust than we originally thought.

I'm dying to figure out who bought this car originally...it had to cost a fortune new! Anyone have any suggestion to trace a car's past owners?

I'm dying to figure out who bought this car originally...it had to cost a fortune new! Anyone have any suggestion to trace a car's past owners?

It might be a bit of work, but if you start with the person who sold it to you and start working backwards you just might obtain more information than you think. The below link documents my adventure trying to find the original owner of my 59 Buick...its a bit long and doesn't end the way I hoped, but it was a fun journey just the same.

http://1fine59.com/?p=66

Work progressing on the '62 Imperial.....Rust on body is patched, trunk floor replaced and seats are complete....Detailing the frame suspension and hope to have the powertrain in this winter.  Getting the old ball joints out was fun...a week's soaking in PB blaster and a 5' black pipe on the 3/4" ratchet did the trick.  I've seen B & E bodies with some suspension parts natural and lower control arms gold etc., but my suspension was too rusted to tell what they were originally so I podwercoated the frame and all of the suspension in chassis black.

Great work! Thanks for the update. 

Keep up the good work.  

I recall a relative having a black Crown Imperial with an olive green pinstripe on exterior and custom all broadcloth olive green interior (it also had a spare tire trim on the trunklid) - they  were a film distributor and also owned a bank in New Orleans.  And, yes it was a big deal to have one - I thought the Chauffeur always looked so majestic standing by the car waiting. 

Fabulous work, thanks for taking the time to update the thread!!!  That car is going to be amazing, keep the pic coming.