The Journey
Introducing the Imperial Deathstar, a black 1963 Chrysler Imperial. This is one of the largest production sedans ever built, and arguably the best luxury car of its day.
Join me what will probably be a never-ending saga of grease, aching muscles, and an empty wallet as I work to restore this over 50 year old survivor to a reliable cruiser.
Major Articles
Major articles presented in chronological order.
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Recent Posts
- LED There Be Parts November 18, 2024
- Tis the Season November 11, 2024
- Fall Thoughts October 14, 2024
- Yet Another AC Update October 7, 2024
- Radio Plug September 30, 2024
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Category Archives: Tips and Tricks
Tuning the Milling Machine
I recently made a couple of parts on the milling machine. The first was for mounting a Quick Change Tool Post (QCTP) on the lathe. A QCTP makes it quick and easy to change cutting tools on a lathe and … Continue reading
Posted in Tips and Tricks, Workshop
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Electrical 16: Heater Illumination
The Imperial uses electroluminescent lighting for the instrument panel, heater controls and transmission controls. The heater and transmission use plastic pushbuttons with a panel beside them to light the button caps. Unfortunately these panels degrade over time and now barely … Continue reading
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Learning with Cechaflo
Tackling upholstery has been a learning experience in many ways. My usual approach when tackling a new skill is to get some books on the subject, see if any classes are available, start with practice pieces, and then tackle a … Continue reading
Posted in Resources, Restoration, Tips and Tricks
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Re-Trimming the Car
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
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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Electrical 15: Factory Wiring Diagrams
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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I’m a Stripper…
In the last article, Hoodie 2, we finished working on the hood. Which meant it was time to move on to the rest of the car. Paint serves many functions. It is the most visible part of a car, driving … Continue reading
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Hoodie 2
With the bottom of the hood done in Hoodie I flipped the hood over and tackled the top. The top of the hood has bothered me since I got the car – something had been laid on top of the … Continue reading
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Hoodie
After finishing the last door in Door Four Debacle it was time to move on to the next rust damage I had been avoiding – a hole in a rib in the hood inner frame. Wrestling the hood off of … Continue reading
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AfterCoolin’
After fighting rust in the previous article Door Three “Delights” I decided to finish off another workshop project to upgrade my air supply. One of the problems with air compressors is moisture. A basic physics fact is warm air can … Continue reading
Posted in Tips and Tricks, Workshop
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