Jim Smith's 1981 Imperial


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.


This page was last updated 21 February 2006.  Send us your feedback, and come join the Imperial Mailing List - Online Car Club