An Imperial is usually referred to as a Chrysler Imperial and there was a time when it actually was but that ended in 1955 when the Imperial became a separate brand. Nevertheless, old habits die hard and thus the use of the “Chrysler Imperial” moniker. Well, we’ll try to toe the line here and go with Imperial LeBaron as a proper description for this 1969 vintage, Muir, Michigan find. This Imperial is available, here on craigslist for $4,950. Thanks to Pat L. for this tip!
Initial confusion abounds as the listing, in its title, refers to this Imperial as a ’68 but then changes gears, referring to it as a ’69 in the listing’s text – it’s a ’69 and that should be a red flag regarding overall listing accuracy. If you can’t get the year right, then what else is listed incorrectly, or not listed that should be? Anyway, Imperial trim levels in ’69 were scaled down from prior years with two trim levels, Crown and LeBaron, with those spread across three body styles, a two-door hardtop (such as our subject car), a four-door hardtop, and a four-door sedan (Crown only). And this car, being a huge two-door hardtop, one would expect a rather commodious interior right? Well maybe upfront, not so much so in the rear, however. It’s rather beguiling for a vehicle that is over nineteen feet in length! Anyway, according to Allpar, the total ’69 Imperial production was about 22K copies.
This example is squeezed into a barn-like structure and the images are not very comprehensive. Any way that you cut it, it’s a big car with a 127″ wheelbase, six and a half feet of width and weighing in at 4,800 lbs., and it’s all wrapped in Mopar’s new for ’69 “Fuselage” body style. The finish of this LeBaron appears to be rough but that may be just because it’s obscured by dust. The seller further states, “DON’T THINK IT HAS ANY RUST (FLORIDA CAR)” and I know from years and years of personal experience, that’s a common misnomer. Cars in Florida rust, not like Ohio or Michigan of course, but depending upon where in the Sunshine State a car is domiciled will determine the corrosion factor. But from what can be seen, this Imperial looks OK, and there is no obvious crash damage visible either. The seller “thinks” the mileage is 88K miles but doesn’t seem to know with certainty. There are no engine images included but there was only one powerplant possibility for ’69, a 350 gross HP, 440 CI V8, connected to a TorqueFlite, three-speed automatic transmission. Assume this car is a non-runner.
The seller states, “IT IS A VERY LARGE CAR, YOU COULD ALMOST PUT FOUR PEOPLE IN FRONT SEAT” Yup, it’s a whammer-jammer, something right out of that B-52’s song. Upholstery fabrics for ’69 Imperials consisted of cloth and leather combination or an optional all leather arrangement. The seats in this LeBaron appear to be the standard leather/cloth offering and they’re not in the best of shape. Besides showing dirt and yellowing, two things that white excels at doing, there are visible split seams. and just general dreck spread about. Now it’s possible that a deep cleaning could work some magic here and the interior may be in better nick than the two images would leave one to believe. A physical observation will be required to know for certain. The dash and instrument panel are not well represented pictorially, so no statement can be made on their account.
The verdict? It’s not a Cadillac or a Lincoln and it is a two-door hardtop, the likes of which we won’t see produced again. It’s unfortunate that the listing isn’t more compelling as this Imperial LeBaron could prove to be a hidden gem, wouldn’t you agree?
Hat tip to the author, and of course a barley pop,for the most excellent write up. Thanks Are in order. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Chrysler use the T.N.T. engine 375 ponies in these extraordinary plush voluptuous cars.
No, i think they used the standard four barrel 440 at 350hp.
However, Mopar should have used only 426 Hemi A 925 engines in the coupe, so they could compete performance vice with import sports cars such as Ferrari and Aston Martin.
That’s an interesting visual! Since this is a luxury car, it would have been a single four barrel, hydraulic lifter Chrysler Fire Power rated at 400 horses.
Only the 350 hp 440 was available in these.
My dad bought a 1969 New Yorker that was a very nice car, it had the 4 bbl. 440″ 350 horsepower in it with single exhaust, in the owners manual I remember seeing that a dual exhaust option bought the output to 375 horsepower, I wonder if the Imperial was the same ?
THIS was my first car. Bought it my sophomore year of high school with money I earned working construction in the summer. Showed up for football practice in August. Took up two spaces next to the coaches. That little stunt got me a coupla extra laps that day. The other guys who had cars tended to have Camaros & Trans-Ams if their parents had money. Or rusted out Plymouth Gold Dusters & Toyota Corollas that they worked on in auto shop class if they didn’t. I’ll tell you this much: Yes I WAS THE MAN wherever I pulled up. The car had plenty of “mafia capo” swagger.(I did in fact buy it from the local numbers runner/ “gaming advisor”) I really wanted his hot wife’s 68 Imperial convertible…but neither was on the menu. ;-) Sold it when I went off to college because…I still don’t know why.
“…his hot wife’s 68 Imperial convertible”
If it were a year newer I’d think this was innuendo…
A friend’s Dad had one one these new when I was a kid. I remember sinking into the back seat. Smooth, fast, luxurious. One finger steering, I’m sure.
What a beauty. A friend near me has a brown 70 Imperial for sale. He told me Imperial was its own brand in those days, sort of how Lexus and Infiniti today, who obviously copied it. He found his in upstate NY, yeah, I hear all the rust stories. I used to live there, and yes, cars rot up there. However, this one was owned by a fastidious doctor, who never drove it in rain or snow. The car is near perfect, a few scratches, but the car has original drive line, paint and interior. My friend wants $7,000 for it. I just don’t have the room and refuse to let it sit outside. He also drives his 68 Hemi RR daily. I am one who believes you should never say never, but America will never build cars like this again. All idiots want today is an SUV or gas guzzling truck. Half the fat women who drive a truck can’t even get in them. I will continue to drive my 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis in comfort and 25 mpg on the highway.
Any link to an ad? I’d like to see it.
Hello Whatmarc,I don’t know what his plans are for the car except to let it sit in the Southern California sun, he probably would sell it. Don’t know how to contact you and I’m sure this forum has rules about posting phone numbers as they need their cut to stay in business.
Hello George Mattar.Do you have any contact info to your friend,who wanted to sell his ’70 Imperial?
Hi, you should have your friend post the car to Ebay or some other venue where we an find it easy. It appears a lot of us would be interested!
He can post it here, Barn Finds handles sales, check the home page.
Thx,
JO
68 last year for imperial being its own brand 69 and up imperial was a dressed up and made on same assembly line as new yorker
My brother still has his 69 2 door Imperial he bought in high school sometime in the mid 70’s. Parked it about 25 years ago when the brakes went out, this car brings back a lot of memories.
I was middle management for Kelsey Hayes. I would have the ability to purchase company cars. I remember a 1969 Imperial, black 4 door for sale.This was in 1971. My price for the car was $3,100.00. I went and chose the last four door Thunderbird that was built instead. It was a 1971 and had the optional anti-skid option and was used for high speed brake testing. The car had 3,000 miles when I bought it. I kept the car for many years until I bought a 1975 Imperial 2 door with the crown top option. The bird had a 429 engine and this car had lots of “get up and go”. The Imperial had a two page window sticker, I had moved to Texas and now had to go to a dealer like a regular person now for a car. MSRP was over $11,000. It took three weeks to finally made a deal. Got it for $8,000. Kept it for 6 years then sold it to my family doctor. Gold with a gold leather interior. It had a button on the floor for changing the radio station like the old Packards and Cadillacs.
Remove the ‘general dreck’ and there may be a decent car underneath. If there are no rust issues, a good cleaning would work wonders but the interior looks to be too far gone to be salvageable.
If it’s too far gone, sell off the Imperial parts and drop the 440 and 727 Torqeflite in a Duster or Challenger.
1969 was the last good year for Imperial, at least production-wise. It’s easy to see why. The ’68 was pretty ugly and boxy. The ’69 suddenly looked like a modern luxury car. Restoring one of these cars is not easy or cheap. I had a ’72 Imperial coupe in triple black, back in the late 70’s. Even then it was an attention-grabber! It was very fast too. Restoring a 5 yr old Imperial is the only way to go! But a 50+ year old one? No thanks.
It’s only a $1 a pound.
Imperial is supported by a free 100,000 page website that I help run over at http://www.imperialclub.com Allpar is convenient, but a bit of a kiddie pool regarding this topic.
Coupes are triple super scarce today, and have several things going for them, but the biggie to know is that those doors are so long that egress out of the car in a modern parking spot is not practical if there’s a car next to the door. This is beautiful and unique, but if you’re not willing to allow for it…..caveat emptor regarding practicality.
Car has a standard 440 with 3-speed Torqueflight – simply bulletproof at the time – never a recall. NO, not a “FirePower” engine… Can be bulletproof again with work, but this car is a ground-floor item, not a penthouse thing.
Car has 1 year only ignition switch and a few other bits, but parts are “around”. Your biggest challenge is getting a car that’s complete. Trim and interior parts are either one or three year only items.
Car is a unibody. Not known for rust problems in general, but maltreated and poorly maintained/stored cars that are made out of metal will rust if it’s encouraged.
Seller’s price seems high.
If that were my car to sell, I’d put a hook on it, inflate the tires, and pressure wash it. Doing 2-3 hours of cleaning could justify the price, but why do that when you can skip through the barn and take 6 shots of each car and do a data-dump?
Offer $3500 as-is, where is, or go in person and really look. They’re worth $10k-$12k all done up pretty, and there’s $10k of expense to get there sitting here.
You have to want this car. It’s superior to Cad or Lincoln in a number of ways, esp. suspension and uniqueness, but it’s gotta be your thing to begin with.
Smaller rear window says it’s a LeBaron, the up-level car. Production was 4,572 for 1969, with only 244 made of the regular Crown model.