My new Imperial

[slantflat]

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[slantflat]

I hope the picture shows up. It's jibberish in the preview.

Yesterday my new to me 56 Imperial was delivered to my house. I bought it from a guy in Virginia, he's owned it a couple years; his buddy has owned it for 20 years. It's an excellent or better driver, runs real well, can't wait to take it out for a shakedown.

Hubcaps are in the trunk. There's a couple extra ones, and I have two new mufflers. It has Flowmasters or some such thing on it now. A bit loud for an Imperial. Got the punchcard.

One thing that puzzles me, the guy kept saying how it has a Torqueflight trans, because only the early cars got a Powerflight. The description from Chrysler, and presumably the code to which they are referring, says it's a Powerflight. The car was built on June 18, so not an early car. How can I tell by looking at it?

Anyway, I'm thrilled with the car and look forward to getting all into it.

[ImperialAtom]

That's a good looking Imperial! Would love to see some internal pictures as well.

[slantflat]

Thanks Adam for fixing that. The interior is gorgeous. According to the punch card it is code 99, and it says they don't know what that means. The seller said it matches the Crown Imperial's interior, not other regular Imperials. And it has seat belts. Must have been a special order.

Anyway it's real clean and when I get a chance to give it more than a once-over I'll take more pictures.

[ImperialAtom]

Sounds like a very interesting car. Will look forward to more pictures.

[wypowerwagon]

Congratulations on that beautiful '56 Imperial! Looks to have factory air conditioning. Torqueflight transmission is the 3 speed & a Powerflight is the 2 speed. My car was built February 16 & has the Torqueflight. Not sure the exact date the Torqueflight became available. Leather interior or cloth?

[slantflat]

Thanks. It does indeed have air conditioning. And Torqueflite. It has D 2 1 in the buttons. Curious why the punchcard says Powerflite. Maybe they just didn't change the verbiage when they changed the trans.

Interior is cloth. It isn't the eagle pattern, it's little rectangles lined up like tile. The sides of the seats and the headliner almost look like they are wool. Something I think is weird is the windows work when the car is off, but the horn doesn't. Also, the main window switch on the driver's door is backward. Driver's door window is the one furthest forward.

The weather is going to be nice this afternoon, I hope I can get out and spend some time with it. I need to get it registered; the seller put the day of the sale as when he got the money, and I got the car a week later. So my 30 day grace period is quickly coming to an end.

Here's another question. Does this car have a model name? All I can see as far as a name is Series C70. The car has the familiar crowns on it but nowhere does it have the name Crown or anything else. When the person at the tag office asks what model it is, I'm going to tell her C70. I don't think that's completely correct, but I'd rather the title say Imperial C70 than Chrysler Imperial. Since it isn't a Chrysler, it's an Imperial. And the seller wrote Chrysler Imperial on the BOS and that isn't going to help.

[wypowerwagon]

My punch card has a 5 for the transmission, not sure what that designates.

[wypowerwagon]

Somehow the other one posted before I was done.....technology escapes me sometimes. I'm guessing not many of them had air conditioning so that's really cool you have air conditioning.

The interior sounds cool, I'm not familiar with the cloth pattern. My horn & windows work when the ignition is off so that's interesting your horn doesn't. My drivers door window switch is the furthest one back & the furthest one forward is the right rear window.

When the title for mine was transferred to me I talked them into putting the make as an Imperial instead of Chrysler like it used to say. Wyoming just has make & body style on the title so they put 4 door for the body style. When I put insurance on it the guy at Hagerty said it was a Crown Imperial so that's what the insurance card has for a model designation. The factory service manual I have does list a C70. I'd say if your title can read Imperial C70 you would be closer than the all to common miss-labeled Chrysler Imperial.

[wypowerwagon]

You also have a right side mirror. I think that is the first one I've seen that way.