Orphan of the Day, 02-25, 1960 Imperial LeBaron

[8E45E]

A rare 'survivor car'.





LeBarons had a smaller, more 'formal' rear window than the Crowns. Evidence shows how that was achieved with a leaded-in metal filler piece:



Craig

[silverhawk]

Too cool Craig! Thanks for sharing with us

[Skinnys Garage]

They are quite the car up close. This is another survivor I got to check out last summer while picking up a Stude. The rear window leading is in about the same shape as the brown car. Interesting how the "spare tire" isn't found on all LeBarons. I'd have thought a car like this would come fully loaded with no options to check off other than color.

[8E45E]

That one is very similar, except less the 'toilet seat' on the trunk. Most interesting in that its also a 4 door sedan. Its hardtops you see most often in that era. LeBarons had brushed stainless steel in the area on the roof above the doors. Crowns had them painted a contrasting color.

Craig

[FlatheadGeo]

"Imperial Cruiser" Was this the model for Star Wars? This 1960 makes my '81 Imperial look like a pedal car!!!

[showbizkid]

I cannot even conceive of what it must have been like to walk onto your Chrysler-Imperial dealer's lot and take delivery of one of these, new. I imagine the sales guys all had a shot or two in the manager's office when someone signed the papers for one of these.

[studegary]

They are quite the car up close. This is another survivor I got to check out last summer while picking up a Stude. The rear window leading is in about the same shape as the brown car. Interesting how the "spare tire" isn't found on all LeBarons. I'd have thought a car like this would come fully loaded with no options to check off other than color.

That looks like a 1966 Monaco or Monaco 500 on the right. Also an interesting car.

[Skinnys Garage]

That looks like a 1966 Monaco or Monaco 500 on the right. Also an interesting car.

He offered to back the cars out for better pictures, but I didn't want to bother him with that, so this is the best picture I have of it. Yes, it's a '66 Monaco 500 with the buckets and in beautiful shape. I've had a '64 Polara 500 and a pretty wicked '66 Coronet, so this car really got my attention.

In front of the '66 is a restored '57 or so, big back window Dodge pickup and an original, but parade drivable '26 Olds in front of the Imperial. He has about a half dozen other cars and trucks in other buildings along with some really cool vintage bikes. He's a Mopar guy, but their sweet '55 President gets the best spot in the attached garage on the house (I had him back that one out).

[Bill Pressler]

As a kid in the '60's, I always heard about Imperial LeBarons, but I never saw a single one of any vintage (at least, the years where you could get a Crown or a LeBaron). I always saw Crowns so assume they outsold LeBarons handily.

[56H-Y6]

Hi

Imperial LeBarons were indeed scarce in small towns and rural areas. But, then again, the market for a $6,318 luxury car pretty well restricted their sales to affluent areas.

Of the 1961 production numbers: the $5,647 Crown four door hardtop was the most popular at 4,510 sold. Both LeBarons were the same price, the sedan: 692 units, the hardtop: 999 units. The rare $5,774 Crown convertible sold 618 units. As a kid, I only ever saw one in our area, metallic gray, dark red interior and black top....very elegant! Those Flitesweep deck lids were optional on all Imperials, even the LeBaron. Oddly enough, for the base Imperial Customs, even power windows were still optional.

Given the low volume of the '57 through '68 Imperial convertibles, I've always thought they were built so the Chrysler executive's wives could have a luxury convertible to sport around in. Driving up to the Detriot Atheletic Club in a hardtop when every other auto industry executive had a luxury convertible, just wouldn't do.

Addendum: Inserting that rear window fillet panel, smoothly leaded in to create an upmarket model was a clever idea. The drawback is they do have the bubbling rust problem as you can see in the photo as they age in higher moisture regions. I think Studebaker should have done something similar for the C-pillar/rear window to differentiate their Land Cruisers/Presidents from the regular sedans.

Steve

[Lark8girl]

A good and truthful friend of mine worked in Chrysler Styling in this era. One of the engineers requested a part at a time for engineering studies, and built an Imperial a part at a time in his home garage. My friend brought the chrome moulding out in his pants legs as he was taller. And my friend did see the completed car. Are there any Studebaker stories like this.

Husband of Lark ViII girl

[Sam Ensley]

Reminds me of J0hnny Cash's song: "One Piece Ar A Time."

[studegary]

I owned a 1967 Imperial Crown Coupe for nine years. There were only 3K of those made (the exact number escapes me). Of course, these were second to the convertible in rarity. There were only 577 convertibles out of total 1967 Imperial production of 14,620. Only six of those were the LeBaron limousine with Stageway body.

[JBOYLE]

The condition of the Crown shown at the top of this thread reinforced my somewhat jaundiced view of pristine "survivors"
Imperials of this period were basically hand-built cars...especially Crowns. I'm guessing that the time it took to lead up the rear window seams exceeded the time it took to produce most cars, in their entirety, during that timeframe.
And 50 years later we see how time has affected it. It would be interesting to know how it was stored.

So when I hear of a mint condition car with a story to good to be true (original paint, tires, ect)...I'm a bit skeptical.