Category Archives: Restoration

Re-Trimming the Car

Posted on May 2, 2023 by RussD

With the paint finally finished the next step was to reinstall all of the trim on the car – all 873 pieces of it. There are three types of trim pieces on this car – steel (mainly the bumpers), cast … Continue reading →

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Electrical 16: Headlighting

Posted on April 19, 2023 by RussD

Previous electrical: Electrical 15: Factory Wiring Diagrams. With the beautifully chromed headlight buckets ready to install it is time to complete the job of upgrading headlight wiring. You may recall from a previous post that I left the original factory … Continue reading →

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Paint Update Three

Posted on April 2, 2023 by RussD

It turns out that the third time is a charm! I ordered an airbrush kit – specifically the Neoeco Airbrush Kit. Next step was going to YouTube to learn how to use an airbrush. Amusingly I found a review of … Continue reading →

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Paint Update Two

Posted on March 18, 2023 by RussD

Two paint problems on top of the front fenders… First, I managed to drop something and leave a large chip on top of the fender. Applied some touch up paint with a small brush which stuck up. When I tried … Continue reading →

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Paint Update

Posted on March 5, 2023 by RussD

The title of the previous post Light at the End of the Tunnel? was prescient. Yup, the light was an oncoming train. Polishing the paint left a lot of pig tails – small loops gouged in the paint. I kept … Continue reading →

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Electrical 15: Factory Wiring Diagrams

Posted on January 31, 2023 by RussD

Previous Electrical article: Electrical 14: MeterMatch While looking over the electrical posts I realized that I haven’t mentioned one of the most important resources for working on wiring – the wiring diagrams contained in the factory service manual. These are … Continue reading →

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Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Posted on January 16, 2023 by imperialjourney_3lrfwv

After admiring the newly chromed trim in I’ll Be Chrome For Christmas it was time to get back to the paint job mentioned in Back in Black! As the old observation notes, the light at the end of the tunnel … Continue reading →

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I’ll Be Chrome For Christmas

Posted on January 1, 2023 by RussD

To the tune of I’ll be Home for Christmas. Yes, I went there! While I was at the paint shop picking up the Imperial – documented in Back in Black! – I got a call from Librandi’s Plating that the … Continue reading →

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Back in Black!

Posted on December 18, 2022 by imperialjourney_3lrfwv

Major development – the Imperial is back from paint! And it looks great! After all the body work I had done the car was sprayed with a sealer, three coats of black basecoat, and three coats of clear coat. Normally … Continue reading →

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Handle This!

Posted on August 31, 2022 by RussD

With the boat running right after the previous article on Flat Mercury we can move back to getting the Imperial ready for paint. The doorcards – the covering on the doors inside the car – needed to be removed to … Continue reading →

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