My 1966 Imperial Crown 4 door hardtop . . .

My 66 Imperial Crown 4 door is one of merely 8,977 Crown 4 door hardtops made that year. It was originally built late November-early December 1965.  I bought this car early summer, 2001, from a man and his wife who live in northern Iowa, almost at the Minnesota border. Since I live in northeast Florida you might guess there is a whole story there and you'd be right! You can read more about that here.

36 years after its birth, the doors close with solid thumps, and meet the jambs perfectly; there is no sign of sagging. The windows, with their elegantly chromed edges, align perfectly with each other and the roofline, giving a crisp, tailored appearance. The interior is original and has held up amazingly well. The seats are big, furniture-sized things done in leather, with inserts of jacquard cloth with embroidered flourishes in what Imperial called "Spanish Scroll" style. (See above picture which shows the cloth/leather seat back) The leather is still vital--testifying to the original quality of hides used--and free of rips and tears. The cloth likewise has held up fantastically; it has no rips or tears either, and looks great. (Click the center picture above to see a larger interior view in a new window.) My Imperial has the split-bench front seats (a seating idea that was originally pioneered on Imperials!) which features 2 separate center armrests -one each for driver and passenger). The armrests can be raised, the 2 seats lined up to make one *wide!* front seat or the seats can be separately power-adjusted for individual comfort. Both left and right front seats are 6-way power adjustable, and the passenger seat-back reclines. Unlike the usual 3 button arrangement for power seats, my Imperial's power seats use a joystick-like knob which can be moved fore-aft-up-down-and twisted in 2 directions to control all the seat motions. It's elegant, intuitive, and one of many distinctive details.

The interior is liberally adorned with genuine, 100 year old (in 1966 Imperial brochures they stated this) Claro Walnut which dresses all 4 doors, the dashboard, and the steering wheel spokes.  Under the glass/plastic of the instrument cluster area, even the area surrounding the gauges used the wood panels in order to extend the sweep of wood across the entire dash. The wood in my car was about the only thing besides the dash pad that didn't hold up well. The varnish had broken down from the sun and probably the extremes of heat-cold-humidity etc, and the wood on the more vulnerable door panels looked badly dried, stained and the dashboard not much better. I wondered if I would end up having to get new wood panels made, but as a sort of early birthday present for the old brute, I recently took off the interior door panels --which meant disconnecting and disassembling a bunch of stuff :) and removed the wood panels--which were bonded to metal backing plates. I sanded them down with progressively finer sandpaper and was amazed to see a vibrant, noticeable grain pattern appear from the midst of ruin. I suspect the original finish for the wood was a 60's style light/medium walnut stain, which I felt would be unattractively "orangey" colored against the very dark navy-midnight blue of the interior. I choose Minwax Stain+Sealer in one step, in "Antique Walnut" - a color which looked a little darker and richer to my eye and which I thought would still be in the same ball-park with the original style but more attractive to me personally. And hey, the thing is mine, so....  Anyway, when I got the first coat of stain/sealer on the first panel, I was stunned at how beautiful the wood looked. The color was rich and radiant, and the grain and texture was wonderful. I did 2 coats with a full drying-day  in between and after. While I had the door panels off the car and in pieces, I did a thorough cleaning of the individual parts, then massaged a good   oil/protectant into the door panels, and stainless or chrome polish on the shiny bits.

When re-assembled, the door panels looked *pristine* and with the rich, mellow glow of fine furniture-quality wood and gleaming chrome and stainless, I saw vividly how glorious the car must have been when it was born!    I took apart the steering wheel trims to refinish the wood and reinstalled it-- also great result. Now I just need to do all the dashboard wood panels and the "Bob Vila" portions of my to-do list will be done.

Want ta see my WOOD ?   ;)    Click here to open a new window with the before and after door panels/wood stuff.

Aside from a heavy-duty cleaning and detailing, the interior needs are fairly minor: a new dashboard upper pad (it is warped out of shape and the covering is curling up) is really the only thing. The carpet needs shampooing but actually looks real good--no rips, stains or worn spots, though I'll probably replace it when I repaint the car, hopefully next summer, just because when everything else is fresh, the carpet will probably look bad in comparison.

This car has power L/R seats, power door locks, 6 power windows (even the vent windows are powered!), air conditioning, factory tinted windows, automatic search-tune (am!) radio with a floor-mounted search button, power antenna, power trunk release, left and right outside mirrors, and of course, power steering, brakes and automatic transmission. Tilt/telescoping steering wheel was an option this year, as was cruise control (auto-pilot, they called it then), but sadly my Imperial was not so ordered. (I'm thinking about retro-fitting Auto-pilot in future, using original auto-pilot hardware from a "donor" Imperial.)

The car has a 440 cubic inch, overhead valve, 90 degree, V8 engine (the first year for this engine; the previous model-year Imperial still had the 413 V8), with a Carter AFB 4 barrel carburetor, and an aluminum-bodied 727 torqueflite 3 speed automatic tranny. The engine in its standard form --as in my car--was good for a potent 350 horsepower, with 10.1 to 1 compression, and nearly 500 lb-ft of torque at only 2800 rpm. The original adverts for this car bragged about this new motor, and noted that they had introduced the use of some additional metals --like 10% elemental tin-- in the recipe for the (mostly) iron block. I'm guessing the added metals were to aid in strength, durability, machineability, and possibly even help reduce weight.

Not that they worried about weight with this car, apparently, as the base weight was 5,000 pounds or more. (November 1965 Motor Trend magazine "Buyer's Guide" issue lists base Imperial weight as 5,150 pounds, but other sources indicate a bit less)   The convertibles were even heavier still -- a staggering 5,345 pounds approximately; partly due to the additional X frame structure exclusive to the convertibles, partly due to the use of some 50 pound slugs of lead that were bolted to the body/frame  in specific locations for the purpose of "tuning" the car's structure. If you consider that the Imperials were rated to carry 6 passengers and their luggage-- officially listed as up to 1,100 pounds on-board load rating! -- a fully-loaded convertible could easily result in a staggering 6,445 pounds rolling down the road!   Yes, all cars then were much heavier than a comparably sized car made now, but even then, Imperials were heavier than most. For example, per the Motor Trend magazine new car spec chart, a 1966 Cadillac DeVille or Calais 4 door weighed in at only 4,070 pounds!   Even the longer wheelbase Fleetwood 60 Special --the same overall length as the regular Imperial 4 door!-- only weighed in at 4,884 pounds.

My Imperial is 228" long, 80" wide,  on a 129 inch wheelbase.

The (1966) starting price for a 4 door Crown with the standard equipment was approximately $5,938; considering that AC alone was a nearly $500 option, vinyl roof another $91, along with the other options and tacked on costs, my car was quite likely $7 grand when new. Which was pretty stiff money at the time, and this was the "base" model Imperial! (Le Baron base price was almost a grand more.) For comparison, 1966 Corvette prices began around $4,100 and stalled out, fully loaded by $5,500-- 400 dollars less than the cheapest Imperial with no options. Mustangs ran about $2,400 to 3,500 that year. A Corvair could be had for just over $2,000 and even loaded for no more than 2,900.Your basic large Ford or Chevy could be had in the neighborhood of $2,300 at the lowest end.  (Prices per the MT Buyer's Guide issue, Nov 1965.)

Storage bins in the door consoles are hidden beneath spring-loaded hinged armrests. Perfect place for wallet, cell phone, flashlights, tylenol, napkins, other sets of keys, sunglasses, etc. And there is a glove compartment in the dash too, so storage for miscellaneous small items is abundant and convenient.

Speaking of speedometers: it is a nifty detail in itself. The speedometer is a "drum" type which has no needle; in action it suggests a thermometer: a solid orange ribbon "fills" the speedometer's range up to the indicated speed. Fun to watch! And, while mentioning gauges, I might add that the instrument panel is handsomely finished as the rest of the cabin. A full complement of gauges (gas, ammeter, oil pressure and coolant temperature) was standard, as well as a trip odometer and a "Sentry Signal" idiot lamp that lit to tell you to look at the gauges when low fuel or some other condition warranted attention. The switchgear have little "title" windows above them to tell what they are, and of course, are lighted at night. The car is lit glamorously at night: all four doors have "puddle jumper" lamps in the chromed door pulls, plus there is a map light, glove box light, a subtle green-lensed lamp in the ash tray up front, plus additional lights on both roof pillars beside the back seat. A switch in the back lets rear passengers turn on lights themselves.   Opening a door at night makes for a luxurious, beautiful sight now that I have refinished the wood panels, cleaned the leather and fabric and shined up the shiny bits. Wow. I need to take some recent pictures and post them, especially a good open-door night shot or two. All pictures on this page were taken before deep cleaning the door panels, seats, etc, and before refinishing the wood-- I just gave it a quick wipe down and lick & a promise sort of cleaning when I took these.

At risk of tiresome repetition, I add: I really *love* this car!