(first posted 3/30/2015) Some cars command your attention with their mere presence. This broad-shouldered 1972 Imperial LeBaron hardtop sedan did exactly that, while I was taking a walk through the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago on a spring Sunday afternoon.
Look at the chrome-topped fender line which sweeps in a straight line back to the C-pillar. It looks like a battering ram, albeit an elegant one. (Maybe it did serve as a battering ram at some point, judging from the wildly mismatched paint on the front fender.) This brute seems a little early-1970’s Las Vegas – sporting a dark-red, brocade suit with wide lapels, wingtip shoes (white wall tires) and a fresh dab of Brylcreem (Armor-All) to keep the pompadour and sideburns (landau top) looking right. Staring straight ahead, he means all business. He smokes unfiltered cigarettes (which he rolls himself, Pal).
My opinion is that this Imperial LeBaron (don’t call it a Chrysler) gives up absolutely nothing in class to the Cadillac DeVilles or Lincoln Continentals with which it competed in the American luxury car market of the time. I would proudly have rolled down Fremont St. in this vaunted vault and valet-parked it in front of Binion’s for all to see.
Wicker Park, Chicago, Illinois.
Sunday, May 26, 2013.
More Imperial goodness:
My CC: 1973 Imperial LeBaron by Chrysler by Alan Petrillo
Design Analysis: Fender Blades on a Fuselage – 1973 Imperial by Alan Petrillo
I’d prefer this Imperial to a concurrent year Lincoln or Cadillac. And I like my Manhattans Extra-Dry, with a twist.
+1 on looks,did Imperial have the good one/bad one build quality of the other Mopars?
I can’t give you a definite answer, but my guess is yes they probably did, even with any extra quality control/testing that came with the Imperial’s flagship status.
I think they were in fact built better than “lesser” Mopars, as I see more Imperials of this generation than New Yorkers. Given the lower production numbers, that must mean something!
The Cap’n may set me straight here, but it is my recall that Imps were more affected by workmanship issues than were Cadillacs or Lincolns. They were certainly better put together than lesser models, but they were not immune from the kind of operational problems that plagued Chrysler in the 70s. Even in the 60s, generally regarded as one of Chrysler’s better periods, independent surveys of Imperial owners made a lot of complaints about workmanship.
Resale value was notoriously low on these. I had tried a time or two to get my father to consider an Imperial in the 70s, but he leased his cars and explained the facts of life about resale value to me. His Continental Marks had stellar resale value, thus relatively reasonable payments for a car in that class.
Re the resale value. Maybe that’s why so many of them got destroyed in 60s and 70s TV show & movies, when a luxury car was called for.
From the mid ’60s on, Imperials were only built at the Jefferson Ave. plant in downtown Detroit, which dated back to the Dodge Bros. Low volume didn’t justify taking up space in a better plant, which makes sense until you consider that the $7k cars weren’t made as well as a Valiant that cost half that.
This is from memory – if anyone wants to check out Allpar or the Imp Club and correct me, feel free.
Interestingly, the Jefferson plant was leveled in the ’90s and rebuilt from the ground up. Grand Cherokees are made there – the only cars today that are actually “imported from Detroit.”
Jefferson Avenue was actually the old Chalmers Plant, and was one of Chrysler’s first production facilities, along with the Maxwell Highland Park plant. With the exception of 1959-61, when production was transferred to the old Graham-Paige Plant on Warren Avenue, all Imperials through 1975 were built at Jefferson Avenue.
I suspect, when they brought production back to Jefferson, they set up a separate assembly line – it was a sprawling plant, and running both body on frame Imperials and unit body Chryslers on the same line would be a challenge. At some point, probably in ’69, they may have gone to a single line, since by then the only unique sheet metal were the front fenders, hood, trunklid and rear caps.
“running both body on frame Imperials and unit body Chryslers on the same line would be a challenge”
Ford managed to do it at Wixom from ’67-’69, when BOF Birds & MK-IIIs were running down the line with Unibody Lincolns.
GM ran B-body Chevys and (mostly) unibody Firebirds at Lordstown from ’67-’69.
Looks like he took a punch in the chin too, which only served to piss him off.
(Thanks for the link-backs, Mr. Dennis. 🙂 )
LOL… I had some help from Paul with the link-back (still green at this, but getting better). Your car is gorgeous, Alan. That interior is sick.
I wish I had appreciated these more when they were more plentiful. When these were regular used cars, these seemed to me just another example of the cheapening of the American car, a second-rate second act after the glorious Imperials of the 60s.
I also wish I had kept in contact with old Mrs. Porter who lived behind my mother. I cut grass for her for a time. She and her husband always bought used Imperials. A triple dark green 72 LeBaron 4 door replaced a 64 Crown. But the car in the garage next to the 72 was a gold 67 Crown with that metallic gold leather interior. No way could that 72 stand up to the bright, chrome-laden 67. But now, I would take either of them in a heartbeat.
That Imperial looks great in the deep red. Too bad about the mismatched fender, non-functioning headlight doors, and the hokey corner-exiting exhaust with chrome trumpets, but it could certainly be worse.
Forget about it BOC ~ it’s ‘ Chi – Town ‘ .
=8-) .
-Nate
If those chrome trumpets were right behind the rear tires and the pipes better tucked up into the body I honestly think it would be perfect. But them I’m the guy who thinks that every V style engine ought to come with twin exhaust exits even if it is just a “mirage” of say a single inlet/dual outlet muffler to achieve the effect.
Well yeah, of course every V8 should have duals, but these ones need to come straight out the back, not angled out to the corners. And I’m sure that 440 doesn’t need fart-can tips to be heard. 🙂
Those aren’t fart can tips. (Pretty sure anyway.)
Local custom muffler shop offers a variety of stainless steel tips with different shapes and cuts (which is what those look like.) Pretty heavy gauge and pretty durable judging by the ones they installed on my Mustang.
One sees so many C bodies with the wrong and many times ugly tips. Those, on this Imperial, do not belong there. Now when you say straight out the back I hope you mean straight out the back the way Mopar did it.
” If those chrome trumpets were right behind the rear tires and the pipes better tucked up into the body I honestly think it would be perfect. But them I’m the guy who thinks that every V style engine ought to come with twin exhaust exits even if it is just a “mirage” of say a single inlet/dual outlet muffler to achieve the effect.”
Oh yes ~ V-8’s must have twice pipes , I prefer them with a crossover as close to the engine as I can get it to improve mid range RPM power .
I’m also fond of open mufflers ~ the right mufflers will make a pleasant sound , not get you tickets in spite of increased volume .
I was filling up my Metro early this morning when an old Man rolled up in his ’74 Chevy Square Body Pickup , healthy if stock sounding twice pipes with crossover and no mufflers I could discern , sweet music and i don’t even like V engines very much .
-Nate
Those look like AAR Cuda or Challenger T/A exhaust outlets
A nice old Imp. ~ MoPar Folks tend to be as Die Hard as I am about my 6 cylinder GM (only !) light duty trucks….
As long as I didn’t have to fix , fuel nor drive this Road Whale , I’d love to ride in it anywhere .
-Nate
The “body shop” responsible for that front fender needs…..I don’t know, to join the rest of us in this century? (Though in fairness, sometimes red is hard to match.)
When these first hit the roads I remember seeing a triple black example parked at a curb and thinking “damn, Chrysler FINALLY out did Cadillac.” Aside from being quite massive, these cars have a presence that can only be duplicated by a stretched limousine nowadays.
I have never been inside one, much less driven one, but suspect they “retain” the trademark Chrysler over-boosted/very light power steering and brakes.
BTW, that is NOT a landau top. Landau tops come in a couple of varieties but what distinguishes them is that some portion of the top is NOT covered by vinyl. Imperials in the 50s sometimes had partial vinyl roofs, and I would guess models in the 60’s and 70’s had it as an option but I don’t remember seeing them. I believe it MAY have been “reserved” for lesser Mopar products.
Thanks for the pointer, Howard. In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever considered the difference between a landau top and a full vinyl roof. I learned something today.
True. The term ‘landau’ goes back to the horse drawn carriage days and was used to refer to a number of styles of open carriages with a partial soft top that could be folded down or enclosed carriages with one or two partial soft section which could be opened. In the automotive world it typically refers to a top covered only at the rear to loosely resemble the above usually used on upscale models. There is also the ‘half’ vinyl top which was covered only on the front, usually on sportier models which would slightly resemble a targa.
That era of Chrysler was nicely done in my opinion. In 1971 I was working as a reference librarian at a college in Pittsburgh. The library director’s husband was a law book salesman who also loved cars. He bought and sold cars regularly. He owned both a 1970 Imperial similar to the 72 shown and a beautiful 1970 New Yorker 4 dr hardtop in cream with black vinyl top and a cream leather interior that his wife drove. One day he came into the library (when his wife was out of town at a library convention) and said to me “Dennis, how would you like to buy Celine’s New Yorker?” I of course said I would love to but I was newly married and needed to convince my wife. At the time I had a 1968 Pontiac 2 door hardtop and my wife had a 1967 Volkswagon. No problem, I quickly called a buddy who bought the Pontiac for $800 and I bought the New Yorker for just $2700. The New Yorker was show room new condition and had just 27,000 miles on the clock. When my boss got home from PLA she had a new 72 Thunderbird and I was driving the New Yorker. That New Yorker is still one of my all time favorite rides and I regret letting it go 4 years later for a Volkswagon Dasher! During the late eighties I also owned a 1977 New Yorker that was also a favorite. By the way, many cars later my bride and I are still married (44 years) and I am still friends with the former library director whose husband sold me the New Yorker.
An elegant barge. Just look at the length of those fenders! One of the better looking efforts from Chrysler for the time. They made some changes to the body for 1972 to differentiate it more from lesser Chryslers, and it seemed to work, at little bit anyways, as sales increased to almost 16k from just under 12k the previous year.
Presence indeed, of a kind that cannot be matched by almost anything else since. Definitely a throwback, and while a perfect example might be even more impressive, the imperfections tell a story of their own.
Rittenhouse in that Manhattan, barkeep!
I agree with you, Chris – imperfections can very much add to specific car’s intrigue, which I feel is very much in the spirit of what Curbside Classic is about.
Beautiful! I wish the body on frame had been utilized on the other full size Mopars. These Imperials are smooth, rich and timeless. Personally, I would equate it more to a good bottle of Cognac. . .
The last body-on-frame Imperials were the 1966 models. After that Imperials were based on a modified C-body chassis, which is unibody.
My bad – I wanted to believe the Imperial was that much different from the other C-Body cars. Oh well – still love that styling.
You are dogging me! Up ’til 1995 it might have been my 1963 Dart Convertible, ’65 Valiant, ’64 Studebaker Commander or ’50 Stude Truck driving south on Honore and turning onto Milwaukee. I lived a just a few blocks north of this corner back then… How that ‘hood has changed, and how even this corner has changed since you took these photos!
(How’d I have that many vehicles?!? )
I love historical perspective, Ed! I moved to Chicago in 2003 and never got to experience the Wicker Park / Bucktown area until around 2005, when its gentrification was well under way. It’s still a cool area, but I wish I had been able to experience it when it was still kind of underground. Double Door looks the same as it probably has since 1995. I was in this neighborhood only three weeks ago, and even in the two years since I was there last, more places have opened/closed.
I’ve always loved these things, even though I was more partial to 71-75 Lincoln products as a kid.
On a recent rerun episode of “Life After People”, they showed a black 71 Imperial sitting abandoned in a blacktopped parking lot at the edge of a forest in upstate New York. It was slightly rusty but still complete. I wonder if it’s still there.
My grandfather had a ’73 LeBaron 4-door hardtop in gunmetal grey. He always bought used and drove the wheels off ’em. As an impressionable 7 year old at the time, I was extremely impressed. That front end was awesome.
So luv the Fuselage styling of 69 thru 72.
When I was a kid, the mom of my best friend bought a 69 Newport Custom just like below. We could stuff 6 kids in the back seat with room to spare.
Thanks for the memories!!
I adore these cars. Only the ’70-’74 Lincoln Continental can approach the presence these cars command. The DeVilles don’t even come close. The ’72 redesign produced the best looking bumper/grille of Imperial’s fuselage period. The combination of the reduction in height of the grille and its revised grille texture was much more modern. Better yet, the giant bumper guards were still a year away. The only downfall is the slightly cartoonish signal pods. The elegant teardrop tail lamps provided some needed differentiation, but I much prefer ’72 New Yorker’s tail treatment. It would have been interesting to see what Chrysler designers could have done with that theme on the Imperial, especially with sequentials.
What’s better than a Burnished Red Imperial LeBaron hardtop sedan slicing through the city? Maybe a coupe in Formal Black sporting that new roofline with the leather 3-section high back buckets…
The fuselage Imps always worked much better as 4-door hardtops than coupe, I think. The coupe just looked ridiculously huge for a 2-door car, without any particular style differentiation in the roofline. That tiny rear window, reshaped a bit for ’72-’73, and I wonder what was the point? Who bought the 2-door? Seems like if you wanted a giant 2-door luxury car, you went with a Mark or Eldo back then.
So many full size cars work better as a 4 door.There was a big Mercury featured here recently which didn’t quite come off as a 2 door
Agreed, the 4 door is much better proportioned than the coupe. Sure, the coupe’s roofline lacked differentiation from all the other C-bodies, but its upright formality somehow covers for its lack of exclusivity. And it’s far more appealing than the compromised, generic shared roofline on the ’69-’71 coupes.
I think the Marks and ElDorados were a different animal that appealed to a less conservative buyer. Anyone in the market for a full-size non-personal luxury coupe bought a Coupe DeVille, not an Imperial or Continental Coupe. A small group of hardcore Chrysler loyalists are what kept the factory turning these out, and that market dried up just a few years later.
The 72 & 73 Imperial coupe has a completely different (and quite distinctive) roof to distinguish it from the 4dr hardtop. The wheelbase and length of both models is the same. Because of the differences in the roof the small rear window does not interchange.
Aside: Every time I see a new Chrysler 300, I notice that it also has “fender blades”, as 73ImpCapn aptly named them. They are just screaming for some chrome outline moldings.
The pre-2015’s were even better, before they redesigned the taillights, because the “blade” crease used to run right down the middle of the taillight lens, so the chrome molding could’ve continued down the taillight.
drool. great colour, magnificent car.
Great ,Great car. I am still regretting the 73 Imperial I didn’t save from a derby guy.
At least as nice as this one, and the price on it was decent.
The thought of a clean, straight, surviving example of these being subjected to a demo derby nowadays makes me want to vomit.
20 years ago when these were just another unloved old car was one thing. People now should know better. Anyone who would destroy a good example of one of these now has to have either defective chromosomes or an extremely low IQ.
I call you on a “Harold and Maude” ripoff with your “makes me want to vomit” bit! 🙂
LOL.
“Anyone who would destroy a good example of one of these now has to have either defective chromosomes or an extremely low IQ.”
I have always considered it both…
I feel the same way, but sadly, activities such as demo derby/banger racing seem to attract those with the mentality of “it makes me happy to destroy something you consider valuable.”
It’s been my personal experience that folks who have that kind of mentality are usually ne’er-do-wells whose lives never really ever amounted to anything. I’ve seen numerous videos on YouTube and LiveLeak showing retarded-acting hillbillies who seem to take perverse pleasure in destroying perfectly usable vehicles.
Far easier to smash something to bits than take the time,trouble and expense of a restoration.Jim Bob & Bubba would never have the smarts to do a restoration
Gerardo Solis started a thought-provoking thread on demolition derbies on 1/15/15. I always feel they’re such a waste. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/qotd-demolition-derbies/
I was about to recommend this ’72 to you, Imperialman67. It sat in the same spot in Central PA for about five years. But sadly, I just discovered it’s not present in the latest Google streetview. It looked quite restorable…I hope it found a good home.
Thanks mFred.
I wish it were still available.
Nice car although I definitely agree the ’72 Imperial’s rear end would have looked better if it was given the New Yorker taillights, I’ll gladly take this over the Cadillac’s of the same vintage.
A totally unapologetic car built by a country that wasn’t afraid of it’s own shadow.
Period.
Spot on KennyC. Well said.
True Chrysler Royalty indeed.
I wonder if the mismatched front fender has been bolted on straight from a wrecking yard, rather than mismatched paint.
i did that once , it was good enough for an old Valiant. at the time.
You know, if the front clip is a straight-up bolt on (instead of mismatched paint), I honestly don’t think it looks that horrible for what it is!
Hope I didnt imply that it looked bad.
that fender could be green and I wouldnt care.
from other angles you cant even notice it.
No, I was totally agreeing with you – your point was one I hadn’t considered. (My misuse of an exclamation point. 🙂 )
Cool.
Usually, even an average body shop will blend the paint into the ajoining panel
.If you just paint one panel, you can often see the difference.
Certainly a car that has all the design hallmarks of Chrysler VP of Design (and former 61 LIncoln designer) Elwood Engel – “fill the box”, fender peaks, etc. I too don’t care for the turn signal pods but everything else gives this car a real presence.
Unfortunate that the build quality didn’t match the superior design.
I’m glad you’re reposting these- I don’t know how I missed some of these articles reading through the archives.
On another note, it’s amazing how much that stretch of Milwaukee has changed since those pictures were taken.
I saw a very similar Imperial, but with nicer paint in brown, on Ravneswood the summer before last. I’ll see if I still have the photos.
In the latest season of Fargo, which is set in 1979, one of the Fargo mob heavies drives a slightly ratty ’73 Coupe.
What I love about this picture is its “IMCdB” quality. It really looks like a period movie still, and I can just imagine the unorthodox hero piloting this barge while chasing the evil heroin dealers…
On the other hand, the only people I knew who actually had one of these were my septuagenarian Great Aunt and Uncle, and he was a dentist. Still, they were pretty spry and far from stodgy – theirs was yellow over white leather with a white vinyl top.
These were not a common sight in R.I. when I was growing up. They really stood out when you saw one. The only one I can recall was a triple black one driven by an older, heavy-set gentleman that always smoked a cigar. I usually saw that car when I was at the supermarket with my Mom. It was always dirty and not very well taken care of. I looked in it once and it seemed as if he lived in that car. The ashtray was overflowing and there were clothes, trash and such strewn all over the interior.
I liked these cars back in the day, and I still do. Have seen precious few over the years. And, even as a young guy I always thought I’d like to own one. Would still like to find one as an occasional driver for good weather, stored away the rest of the time. Would need a much bigger garage or a storage facility.
And, will add that I agree that these large cars had – and still have – a real “presence ” the competition didn’t have. A very impressive ride.
My Burnished Red 73 Imperial LeBaron coupe sat under a carport in Kelso Washington for 25 years before I bought it in 2010. The gentleman who owned it died in 1985 and his wife refused to drive it because it was too big; I bought the car when she died in 2010.
It has only 74,000 miles and runs and drives great, though I did have to replace the brake calipers, M/C, tires, and a stuck intake valve (bent push rod). The black leather bucket seat interior is in excellent condition. I had the car’s body stripped and repainted a couple of years ago; replaced the vinyl top shortly after that.
I have earlier 50’s and 60’s Imperials (1959 coupe, 1962 & 1963 converts, 1965 convert) and I find this 73 every bit as impressive as the legendary Imperials that preceded it.
What an beautiful specimen, Bryan. Thanks for posting / sharing that pic. Looks to be about the same color as the car I wrote about.
My beef with all the fuselage cars is that the greenhouse is too small for the mass of the body, and, as the biggest, the Imperial is the worst of them. The A pillar ends up too short, too vertical, and it’s just inelegant.
Oh my. “I would proudly have rolled down Fremont St. in this vaunted vault and valet-parked it in front of Binion’s for all to see.”
I was introduced to the Horseshoe Club (as Binion’s was named then) by the father of a friend of mine in the early 80s, who was old enough to have been incarcerated in an internment camp during WWII even though he’d been born in Ventura, California.
I miss the days (mostly nights actually) when you could be standing at a craps table drinking free Heineken and fifteen feet away the traffic was whizzing by on Fremont Street. Yes, this car belongs to that era.
Looking at this body—which I like—why is it that I feel that it could be a lot of air, packaged in a thin envelope; a balloon that could pop at any moment ? I mean, despite the size, it doesn’t somehow equate to mass—does it.
Maybe it would help if the track was increased some—but I’m not sure that would make too much difference, in the perceived heft of the beast. Elegant, yes—but not heavy. A good thing, you would think, if not quite on message . . .?
Maybe it’s the delicacy of certain details, like the window trim and the A-pillars, the lack of (much of) a flare at the wheel arches.
It really is clean, anyway, isn’t it. Gotta like that . . .