Category Archives: Restoration

Well, I got sent to Fort Leavenworth… Any post that starts with a line like that requires explanation! You just know that there is a story behind it. So here is the story: I was perusing Craigslist. That phrase is … Continue reading →

Time to close the hood and take the Imperial out for a test drive. Except the hood won’t close… I’ve been having ongoing trouble with the hood. The rear corner on one side where the hinge is won’t go down … Continue reading →

With the lift installed the only thing to do was put it to use. I’ve been stalling on tackling transmission leaks for three years. Tackling this job with the car on jackstands would be close to impossible. With the lift … Continue reading →

With the new speaker installed in the dash the next job was hooking up all the wiring. RetroSound makes this easier with a two part harness: they have a short harness that plugs into the radio and the main harness … Continue reading →

Once the filler plate was installed on the radio a bit of fiddling was needed to adjust the width and depth of the volume and tuner shafts. The RetroSound adjustable mounting brackets supported these adjustments, producing a good fit. Support … Continue reading →

A box from RetroSound showed up. Schlep it out to the workshop. Remove the old radio. Dig out the RetroSound bezel and carefully unwrap it. Do a trial fit to see if it goes in the dash cutout. It fits! … Continue reading →

There is another alternative for radios: RetroSound makes a line of modular radios designed to go in old cars. They do this by providing a radio body (which they call a motor), a set of bezels that contain the display … Continue reading →

If I want tunes in the Imperial the current radio has to go. There are several ways to do this. The cleanest approach would be to get another 1963 Imperial radio. A working one one be expensive. And this still … Continue reading →

Time to upgrade the Imperial radio. Before talking about the new radio and the overly complex installation process let’s take a minute to look at the “original” radio. Once again I would really like to know more about the history … Continue reading →

With the jack ready to go there was a gas tank that needed to be dropped! It is a lot easier to handle an empty gas tank. And this replacement tank has a drain fitting. The gas gauge is reading … Continue reading →