Imperial Home Page -> Imperials by Year -> 1981 -> Jim Smith
Jim Smith owns this 1981 Imperial, and relates the following history of the car: I bought this '81 Imperial from a fellow Walter P. Chrysler Club member in the spring of 1991. Even with 127,000 miles on it, it was very sound mechanically and had been converted to a carburetor. The interior was a nice dark blue. Bodywise, things were also good; however, I didn't like the light blue metallic paint called "Daystar Blue," so I did some minor bodywork to it and had MAACO do a $250 paint job on it in the "Glacier Blue" paint that the Frank Sinatra Imperials came with. About ten days after it was painted, I completely wet sanded and buffed the car until it was "glass smooth." I installed a couple of new outside moldings and added new pinstripes and blue bodyside moldings. When I was done with it, the paint job on the car looked like a $4000 job. Needless to say, fellow car club members couldn't believe that a $250 MAACO paint job could come out so nice. I told them that if you prep the car right and give the painter a "tip" before and after he paints it, the car will come out great. I sold the car about a year later with 144,000 miles on it. |
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