1963 Chrysler Imperial Custom

1963 Chrysler Imperial Custom David: 303.947.0444

The Custom was the lowest price point in the Imperial line (Custom, Brown, Le Baron, Limo). This one however has most of the options that the Crown would have come with. And the overall condition is incredible. I purchased this car out of Canon City Colorado. It had been in covered storage its whole life. The miles are actual. So therefore the car was barely used. The paint is 90% original. However it is faded and it’s not going to come back with buffing. But it presents itself very well as an original car.

The original paint appeared much darker than what you see on the car currently. Metallics were fairly new in 1963 and they didn’t hold up nearly as well as solid colors. Look at the pictures inside the trunk and you’ll see it is more of pewter color than the silver you see currently. The interior suffered almost NO affects of time. When you open the door, it is not exaggeration to say, that the door trim panels, the dash, the headliner and other associated parts appear as new. They absolutely pop!

When I got the car, the seat material was only worn because this type of material has a tendency to pull thread out of it as you slide in and out of the car. So I located the last known new seat cloth and carefully reused the original vinyl to recover the front and rear seats. And to protect it, the clear seat covers you see re custom made by an award winning upholsterer and are very expensive. They also add to the space age, retro Forward Look that this car is the perfect example of. The carpeting was also replaced by the same upholsterer and additional mats made out of the same material. I can not stress too much how perfect the interior is and if you chose to paint the car it would be one of the very best in the world as it is already one of the best originals in the world.

I had the hubcaps restored, because when these get pulled off about 90% of the people damage the hubcaps. Rebuilt the air conditioning compressor, converted to R134 (It blows ice cold with very little annual maintenance) replaced the center drag link, tie rod ends, and a couple of front suspension bushings. Flushed all of the fluids including the rear axle, brakes, etc. and then promptly, with my family, loaded it up and drove Las Vegas Nevada at 90+ mile per hour with the air blowing cold, did a retro casino tour and came back to Denver without incident. I got a ticket in Utah for 94 miles per hour and am very proud of it. Also the vehicle has had an auxiliary electric fuel pump applied to it and just this month was re-tuned and aligned. The trunk is a high point of this car. The carpeting has been replaced but the cardboard and jacking instructions are original and incredible.

One of the most exciting features of this vehicle or any 1963 is the instruments/dash/steering wheel. Designed to look space age, with the push button transmission, the pointed nacelles for the turn signal indicator, and the top mounted AC vents. The dash never ceases to draw complements from anybody that sees that car. From the photographs, you can see that this particular car is of exemplary condition in this most important part of the Forward Look genre. Fun fact: the square steering wheel looks futuristic but its actual function was that of an engineer’s solution to a tilt wheel (you could easily slide underneath the steering wheel as you entered the car.)

I own many of these 1963’s, so to dress this one up, I added the wheel opening moldings, rocker moldings (not available on the Custom model) and the look with the restored hubcaps is perfect. Window fit, door fit, weather strips, functioning of the antenna, all these things you expect to be wrong on a car of this vintage are so right on this car. A particular interest is the chrome on the die cast like the headlight pods, the grill and anything inside, it’s a Colorado car, so the chrome is absolutely amazing. The bumpers have no dents, but if you painted the car, you would probably want to re-chrome the front one. But this is a minor expense compared to restoring die cast chrome. And once again, as with all NGDCars, this vehicle is capable of daily use.

Whats wrong with the car: The right front corner of this car in the silver painted area, at some point in its life was damaged and repaired. It’s not horribly obvious, but it is there. Also, when I added the right hand mirror, I did not have a very good one in stock, so this one needs to be either replaced or re-chromed.

As with all NGDCARS offerings and unlike most collector vehicles, this car is completely drivable. Many collector cars are just shiny, pretty things, this one is beautiful and is fully capable of being driven and enjoyed.

David: 303.947.0444