Painting the car was another thing. Well, I was running short on money then and we decided to drive the car to the painter. It would be the cheapest way. I wouldn't do that again. I have couple of pictures somewhere about that. Thank god we didn't run to any police officers on our way to paint shop (app. 10 miles).

Well, it took couple of weeks to get the car back. I drove the car back to our garage. We installed all the necessary things in the paint shop (lights, rear bumper etc etc..). It took about two weeks to install most of the parts back to the car. Oh.. The color, the car was painted with original Charcoal Grey Metallic color. The color was great, but I wasn't 100% happy with the paint shop.

That Crown was like a daily driver rest of the summer. I don't remember exactly, but I think we (me and my brother) drove it almost all the time. Even at nights, just cruised downtown. It was so GREAT car!!

I started my duty on Finnish Defence Forces in January 1999, so I didn't have a change to work on my car then. Well, as we all in Finland know, the state doesn't pay so much for army guys on duty, but I still managed to get enough money to buy front end kit to my car. I installed it during the summer of 1999 and didn't have enough time to drive around with it. I installed new carpet also during that period.

When my duties in Finnish Defence Forces ended on summer 1999, I started thinking about getting another Imperial. This time it would have been great to have a 1957 model. My friend, Hans Granberg, was suggesting that I should buy one from US. He had previous experience and contacts to manage these things. Actually, he was the one who found my 1957 Imperial for sale on the pages of Hemmings Motor News.

Well. It wasn't in a pretty condition. The seller, Dieter Balogh, thought it as a parts car.I have to admit.. He was wrong ;). Hans got few photos of the car from Dieter, showed them to me and I knew I had to get that one.

More information about my 1957 Imperial Crown click HERE.

I'll have to update it in the future. I already have a 392 Hemi which I traded for the engine and transmission that were on the car. This is the thing I never have regret (?) anything more in my life. The guy really cheated on me. Now I have rusted junk worth of $3000... Well, you get wiser when you get older and learn not to trust everybody.