The Giant and Luxurious 1957 Imperial - Jay Leno’s Garage

I don't know what moves faster the gas gauge of the clock you can actually get four people in the front of this it's four inches wider than the standard vise well another episode of Jay Leno's Garage is this episode seems a bit different it's cuz we're working under the current circumstances I'm here by myself if it's a camera on a tripod I talked to you run out of the shot and I move the camera to the next shot so I hope you'll bear with us until all this is over the car were featuring today 1957 Imperial this was a breakthrough car for Chrysler this car is interesting it falls into my favorite category of original and unrestored all the chrome the paint all original to the car has not been redone what we did redo on this car was only to make it Road worthy I put a stainless steel exhaust system in it because the original system had rotted out we did wheel cylinders brake hoses brake lining a water pump service the air conditioner and the interior had just cracked well beyond reason that you know the material becomes threadbare and yeah there's only 40,000 miles on this car it's a fascinating story original unrestored old lady had it she drove over just a few years traded it in to dealership the dealer some reason was taken by the car and he just stored it in a warehouse for a number of years and he sold it to a guy who then started for a number years who sold it to my friend Wade Travis who contacted me the reason this car is unique is because these all rusted out there was no galvanized steel on automobiles in the 50s the rain gutters on these things right here well these would get clogged up with dirt or leaves or whatever so kind wouldn't rain would accumulate it would rust through and these cars literally lasted three or four years before they began to rust out Plus this was a brand new body style Chrysler was turning over body styles every two or three years so the build quality was not the best it was good but not the best and so consequently not many of these lasted especially to doors like this that's what makes this car really really interesting it drives like a brand new car and handles like a brand new car the engine is 392 cubic inch Hemi engine putting out about 325 horsepower this is the engine everybody wanted in the 60s and 70s the legendary last year the Hemi 57 and 58 were the last two years of this of this big motor before they switch to the 413 but this is the one hot rodders loved you can barn out and get Oh 2,500 horsepower out of these if you wanted to so it made for a pretty fast automobile this car is an imperial not a Chrysler Imperial and Imperial because the imperial name goes back to about 1926 it was always the Chrysler Imperial but then in 1955 Chrysler decided they wanted to compete more competitively with Lincoln and Cadillac so they decided to make Imperial a separate manufacturing facility a separate name brand and they had to do that at all what was then 48 states and put in as a company Imperial this shares no sheetmetal or anything with the other Chrysler products of the 50s brake drums all of that is different bigger thicker heavier massive chassis as the other Chrysler cars are going to unibody construction this remained a body-on-frame until about I think 1966 had two massive chassis I'm gonna put it up on the lift later and we'll show you the chassis in fact these were so well built now I know I'm contradicting myself when I said build quality but that had more to do with rust proofing and everything like that these were so massively over built so strong that these cars were banned from demolition derbies because they felt it gave the driver an unfair advantage people could crash into it all day and you couldn't move that ex frame you know because it was so strong well put up on the left you'll see the drive shaft runs through the frame in fact the emergency brake does not grab the brake drum the the driveshaft little Chrysler history walter Chrysler was one of those engineering genius kind of guys you know kind of like Steve Jobs and one of those types with the electronic industry and he took over Maxwell and became Chrysler a very innovative cars and in 1934 he came out with a car called the Chrysler airflo now the Imperials were prestige automobiles in the late 20s and 30s that's always been the top-of-the-line Chrysler the Imperial but the airflow was more streamlined it looked like one of those Santa Fe Express and one of those trains you know that you saw back in the day very Art Deco and a huge bomb did not sell at all well Bill car innovative car all steel body I mean they even did a video where one rolled down a hill and then the guy drove away in it because it didn't crush the roof you know most cars at that point had a lot of wood and everything in them but the fact that the styling was too much ahead of its time you can't sell something before people are ready for so they got pretty burned and became extremely conservative after that in the 50s Katie Keller I think his name was he was the president of Chrysler give me an example he didn't want to drive any car that a man couldn't wear his hat in well driving you know that didn't hit the roof so Chrysler's from the late 40s very very high roof and you know that old adage you can sell an old man a young man's car you can't sell a young man an old man's car and crisis looks sort of stodgy and very well engineered very well made but not exciting automobiles then Virgil Exner went to work for Chrysler and this is what forward look this was I remember the big ad campaign I was 7 years old in 1957 was suddenly it's 1960 dented at that and this was considered to be three years ahead of its time the fascinating part about this styling of this particular car was it was the only car where an average sized guy like myself could see the roof because most cars were up here at this point so this is low-slung had fourteen inch tires that are 15 so it's lower it looked like a spaceship and this was the most successful year for Imperial they sold 36,000 they didn't catch up the Cadillac we sold 120,000 but they just beat Lincoln by a handful of cars which was a huge huge get for them so that was considered just unbelievable so the styling remained pretty close to this for the next couple of years changed the grille and a few things but this was considered one of the most beautiful cars in the period just a lot of styling touches in it this Landau bar here this piece of chrome that goes over the top you know when I was a teenager I was infatuated with a road and track and Car and Driver magazine so consequently these big old land barges didn't interest me at all I just thought they were the ugliest cars ever but as I get older and I don't know it's just something about them now I really like it it brings me back to my childhood when I was a kid my uncle belonged to a country club and nourish al-manar called the green tree Country Club and he would always take me there and I would stand in the parking lot and these would come in you know guys who come in with the Marlboros in the sleeve and the cigarettes and the whole deal and you know and they were these kind of greens and blues and aquamarines and all those colors from the 50s and these cars just seemed so enormous because well they were enormous I mean I was seven and they seemed enormous now I'm 70 and they still seem enormous so it's pretty amazing but this is a very well engineered very well designed automobile as I say does not share anything with the standard Chrysler line brake drums everything is massively overbuilt huge frame as a stated before that Hemi engine with a four-barrel carburetor this got thirteen and a half miles per gallon which considered pretty good back in the day actually one of these won one of the mobile economy runs back in the 60s because it hit 21 a twenty point one miles per gallon which was just unbelievable I mean the guy investment driving barefoot with his big toe but somehow they managed to do that all kinds of little touches on this car I mean just look how massive this thing is and as big as it is is still shorter than the previous model in 56 but it is four inches wider that's the thing it's wider and it's lower and that's I always say on this show longer leaner lower well it's not leaner but it's not any longer and it's certainly lower let's let's open the hood and show you the Hemi engine again this is a totally unrestored car so under the hood is gonna look like well a sixty or a lotta 'mobile we rebuilt the carburetor as you can see looks awful clean there everything is else is exactly as it would be weary service the air-conditioner discharged and it's fine I'll you know we changed the oil in it and all but it's fine but look how big that Hemi action is the 413 that replaced it was a little more powerful and was 101 pounds lighter than this but this was one of the great motors that was an expensive motor for the company to manufacture but pretty bulletproof and so under stress in this application you can get all kinds of horsepower out of it this of course would be the grandfather to the legendary 426 Hemi of the 60s it's a little tight under here you got your big air cleaner here you know the oil baths are clean it was gone by this point what's almost impossible to do is to check your brake fluid look at where the master cylinder is underneath there the booster yeah that's that was not a good engineering idea but other than that everything is pretty straightforward it's got a modern battery in it obviously because I like to drive my cars I like to use them this still had the original tires on it when I got it the old 3 stripe white walls but they were too drained dangerous to drive on the street I mean it would roll and hold air but you couldn't drive it so I was leave but modern radial tires on it you have to and we put seatbelts in the car as well but that's an unmolested Hemi right there we haven't had the heads off or anything of that nature the engines only got 41,000 miles on it we we changed y'all pretty right you know I when I got it we changed all then I drove it a couple hundred miles we changed it again no we changed it again so now the oil is pretty good it's not a lot of sludge or anything in there but everything works air-conditioner heater defroster six way power seats the office this is what you call a loaded car electric windows this was the top of the line for Imperial there was only one of there was this is the Southampton model and then you had the crown and then you had the LeBaron which was the really top of the line I was about a thousand bucks more but that's a fairly rare one I'm not sure if that even came in a two-door but just listen to this massive hood when you share it well i've magically appeared as the rear vehicle ah i know this doesn't seem as smooth is what we normally do but i want to make sure you guys get fresh content every week we don't want to miss any week so i just want to have something new for you so try to bear with us as we shoot these this way now here we are as I said at the rear of the vehicle this was a hugely popular item I call it the toilet seat they called the spare tire carrier it doesn't actually carry a spare tire it's only for looks this is a $38 option you can get the regular trunk if you wanted or without it or you but most people Optive to this that was one of those huge deals and you had what's it called the swallow strainer taillights they're meant to look like a jet engine and would have you just have a thing to keep birds from coming in that's sort of what this looks like the previous year Chrysler had the gunsight tear light it was up here at the top but they integrated it into here it's really a very futuristic looking car it looks like the 50s don't forget this is the arrow of Sputnik in the space race so everything looks on a jet age and as I mentioned before this was Christ was most successful on Chrysler Imperials most successful year ever they kind of dipped a little after this but this was seen as just a breakthrough automobile and let's show you how big the trunk oh I love this Imperial script here let's take a look at this massive trunk in there oh and I got to show you this this is the Imperial brochure America's finest motorcar you see it opens up this way I was like how tiny the people look look at that just just hilariously large look at the guys looking look a little everybody it looks in this thing everything anyone could want in a fine motor Clive if it's not a if you don't want it if it's not on this car and I notice it's not photographs they're all drawings and paintings there used to be a man who did the GM ones art Fitzpatrick you used to do these search for GM you know made the bundles and everything look just tremendously huge all the features the push-button transmission we'll get into that dual headlights I'll talk about that in a minute because dual headlights were illegal in many states this is my friend Wade who I got the car from when he would go to car shows he would put this next to the car and it kind of told the story of the old lady who bought it and those are the original tires they only made those for a few years they made those between 61 and 65 so actually it's the second set of tires on the car but they were these are the ones are on it when I got it that's what it looked like when he picked it up it's always been this color is he says its shell pink I thought it was something they something sand Bay yeah that was coming with these titles shell pink though works for me but this is what he would put next to the car when he showed it at the car show being a two-door it's fairly rare but look how big I mean I could I could sleep in this thing because you always want to have this is a days when you got an actual manual this one is for a 58 but as opposed to what they give you now everything your sets you see your dealer you just get that this actually tells you how to fix stuff and as I said all these pieces are unique to the Imperial nothing else from Chrysler with the exception of maybe a generator a few other things there a few engine parts will fit it and of course you've got a full-size spare and a jack as well this is the original fabric for the trunk I mean these wear and tear from people throwing suitcases and tires and stuff and I mean it looks brand-new it looks brand-new and the chrome look how nice the chrome is I mean this stuff I know I grew up in New England and these cars look beat up after just two years my dad bought a 66 Ford seven liter when I was a kid and after two years there was bubble showing up in the paint and everything here from rust from salt being thrown up from those roads so we replaced the gas tank I'll put this up on the lift later to show you what we did there but come on let's take a look at the interior of the car just the amount of chrome in detail just on this door this is all chrome here you got your electric window this is kind of a cool feature he can store things in here and the it's the kind of things I don't think thieves would know that that was there if they didn't know the car they could hide stuff in there if you wanted to says Imperial on the kick plays he got electric seats six way power seat up down forward backward we found the original material and redid the interior as it would have been it was just all cracked and the foam was dead so we got new foam and this is this is the material that would have been in the car when it was new we even went so far as to stamp the Imperial logo as it was done into the center of the seat there looks like an imperial margarine commercial but I love this steering wheel with you see your thumb goes here you sort of rest in there while you're driving it just it's just Chrome everywhere in this car here's your transmission is neutral and start that's drive reverse second and first here's something which was not particularly successful they so wanted to be the future they still wanted to be different you know most cars you have a stock here left to right pretty simple up for right down for a little this goes that gives you turn signal that way it gives you left this gives you right and then when you want to cancel you press it in the center it was a little too confusing next year they made it a lever go left to right that didn't work and they eventually went back to the stock I love the two big center gauges here you know if you need your glasses to see this phenomena you shouldn't be driving this thing is so massive how big those letters are you got a trip ometer odometer there you got your clock you have all your other gauges here gas oil pressure temperature battery condition charge you've got your headlights here this releases your emergency brake this your electric antenna this is your blower for heating and air conditioning those your wipers your key start here is your you know heat air conditioning defrosting interesting radio the first use of a transistor in a radio in an automobile was Chrysler back in that year that's pretty cool again trying to be different this was not real successful it's just awkward that the mirror is on the dashboard rather than up here the idea you have this unobstructed view but the cool thing is this is the first year of curved glass notice you're not blinded by the a pillar this here's your a pillar you know a lot of cars you monetize you this because the a pill is so big because if the car rolls over it'll keep the roof from collapsing so this one the roof will collapse on you at least you'll be able to see it let's see out massive glovebox in this thing let me show you the front of Carl I'll show you what I mean about the quad headlights dual headlights were illegal in many states in 1957 come on I'll show you what I'm talking about they called this the biplane bumper because it does look like a biplane these two things here and the egg-crate grille I have a 58 convertible it's a little bit different I'll show you the front of that that has this normal type bumper and a different grille but basically it's the same car one other thing we did with this car I used a company called perfection Hale dot-com I think that's the name of it my friend Chris out of Lancaster Texas he's one of those guys he comes with these rods that have balls on the end of them and they can take dents out of cars it's amazing no hammers and crack the paint but you know Texan Texas gets a lot of hail so he moved down there he's from here originally and he took all the little dings over the years that this thing accumulated nothing terrible but just stuff you'd notice and without damaging the paint was able to I can't even tell the dents were so here's here's his address if you want to contact him I I I just I thought he did such a good job here in Texas and you got a car with a few dents or some hail damage give him a call but anyway look at this massive front end and these bumpers were very expensive because they were curved and and so they only this is a big big chunk of chrome you could but yeah you could buy this car today for what it costs to chrome these bumpers but this is the original chrome so that's that's that's pretty amazing right now I'm going to fire the car up we'll take it across to the shop I'll put it up on the lift and I'll show you the massive frame on this thing what we do we added a new gas tank the original gas tank you know if they're porous or they're dripping don't bother cleaning it out you know gas tanks are available if so many companies make wonderful duplicates that are stronger and and and the galvanized and they last forever so that's what we did we put a stainless steel exhaust system on it as well come on I'll take you next door and I'll show ya okay I've got the car up on our Stella Coney list which is what we always use here at the shop it seems really fantastic you know it's so eerily quiet because nobody's here all the guys are taking it easy they deserve a break so it's good yeah everybody gets paid everybody gets full insurance everybody gets medical don't worry about that okay okay here's what we did to this car we put a new gas tank in because had porosity problems and boiling it out it was just never gonna be perfectly clean so we start with a clean sheet of paper put air shocks on here to help these leaf springs it's hard to find anybody that can arc Springs anymore so the air shocks really work out well we put a new stainless-steel exhaust system here's that perimeter box frame deal that we talked about earlier look how massive this frame is on this thing it's it's it pretty pretty unbelievable you can see why these were buying bandit demolition derbys this is your emergency brake this grabs the drive shaft rather than the rear brake as on most cars okay you see this piece here gives more rigidity and then the drive shaft goes through it as your Hemi engine there your crank case as you can see it's got 70 years worth of wear but look no dents no smashes nothing the frame has not been hit has not had to been straightened even in here in these rocker panels I mean there's a bit of surface rust but very clean because this car was kept in a garage it was not even under coated so and there's no need to because it's pretty drier in California and I don't let my cars get where I want to take them out in the rain so it's the exception of the gas tank exhaust system and doing the interior it's all pretty much original as you see we cleaned everything up here greased the front end lubed everything that our front end alignment original radiator replaced the water pump she's in good shape I think it's time we put some GoPros on this thing and take it for a ride I always love these old Chrysler's when I was born my dad was driving a 49 Plymouth and I was taking home from the hospital of that thing I remember being you know like five years old and I would sit on my dad's lap and you know get to steer the car which is kind of cool you could do that then now of course you see a kid centered on somebody's lap driving a car the man is immediately put in trial and put in prison as a predator the child was taken away as a whole big deal well back then it was it was fairly common that in 1957 we went to Crabtree motors in nourish L New York my dad bought a 57 Plymouth Belvedere 4-door 318 had the big fins it was black and white I thought that I think was pretty cool but it rusted out within within three years like there's literally a hole in the floor and it's amazing how how good modern cars have become but there's something about the cars from this era you see it's true it's tricky I don't know if it's because it made such an impression on me or the cars were impressive but I guess it's a little bit of both 1957 was really the air everything became thanks thanks you guys how you doing buddy good good 19:57 wanna chip in for gas chrysler was the engineering company and they had some real solid engineering this is has what they call a torsion air suspension it's one of those names they make up like ultramatic cruise-o-matic but but it was there was some solid engineering behind it this was probably the best riding of all the luxury cars of the 50s the torsion air suspension had torsion bars in the front leaf springs in the back and the torsion bars sort of twist to adjust the ride it kind of moved the weight further back I guess you'd say and they handle pretty good in fact Thom McHale he was the guy from mechanics Illustrated and he drove on he says this baby handles like a sports car I don't know what sports cars he was driving but it just it made me laugh even back in the day and you can actually get four people in the front of this thing it's four inches wider than the standard Christ the amount of chrome trim on this car is mind-boggling but people seem to go nuts when they see it you know this is sort of the perfect 50s color this shell pink is what my friend Wade calls it as a color I think it's like some kind of sand beige you know they always have these dopey names but I mean it's power steering power brake it's the complete absence of Road feel you just sort of lalala just float along my mom always loved this kind of upholstery oh so luxurious rich brocade you know you stuff like that it's kind of expressions you know you put a set of radial tires on it like I did it actually handles pretty good it's not bad at all and I love this panoramic windshield with the curved glass I mean it really is nice to be able to see right there you know modern cars roll is just you're doing this all the time looking around just trying to get past that a pillar at blind spot put your foot around goes pretty quick it's not as fast as the lincoln the lincoln was the fastest car at this period i don't know why i'm all sudden attracted these big behemoths well because i'm turning into a big behemoth you know you get older you go oh it's a comfortable car I can fit it it makes you know I'm gonna be turning the thermostat down and complaining this is my dad's idea of a car that's it not one of those foreign jobs nothing but problems get you a nice american-made Cadillac Lincoln Imperial and Farrell was only a mark for I think a few years I think they went back to being Chrysler Imperial again soon after that for a short time in the 50s they really worked hard to establish the brand I'm sorry I have no camera car to film us you know we're just sort of out here on our own by myself just stick the can you know it's kind of nice being the garage by myself it's always so crowded as those people they're young film crew and the regular guys and everything else get some solitude not bad you know up close you see oh it's a you know see a few little things in the pain a couple of blemishes not terrible but at night oh man this thing looks it looks like a new car you know it just makes me smile I don't know what it is no it brings back you knows well we have the big Sunday Italian dinner you know the driver would be filled with these giant Lincoln's and Cadillacs and I always tell a story of Mario the carpenter my dad's carpenter friend Mario was the I think I mentioned his once before in a video we did about the oldsmobile 98 mario had a nose real ninety-eight convertible big tank he was always Italian guys you know I did slicked back hair the Marlboros rolled up here you know good-looking handsome guy big muscles yeah and I guess my mother thought Mario was handsome I heard her just say to once in passing who all the women swoon whenever Marriott goes by you know and I'm like six seven years old and we're having Sunday dinner my dad invites Mary on a Sunday dinners whole it's a big Italian family sitting there at Mario sitting there again and his t-shirt with the Marlboro I look at Mario and I look at the women they look at Myers look at the wind my mother goes what are you doing I go am i you said the woman I was sworn in the Mario comes by and it seems morning well my mother sewed bad runs in the bathroom locks with our Mario sitting there like I mean it was a funniest thing I've ever seen that's it yeah I was pretty much stuck at the children's table after that yeah like any car more in a two-door configuration and a four-door I mean the four notes find more practical for something like this but it's more sporty with the two-door you know old cars sometimes get a bad rap because you figure you probably lose 5% every couple of years until eventually it just doesn't Drive like it should anymore like when I got this it looked pretty much like it does now because we cleaned up the paint and everything else but the seats were completely collapsed the foam was just dead there was just no foam left at all in it so it's cry it's kind of hard but you know when we track down this original material we tracked down the original foam we put it back the way it should be and it's it's really comfortable it's not bad at all it's a nice driving car I just have an affection for these big old tanks just something about them makes me smile it's like having a pet elephant it's big it's cumbersome but it's so friendly you just you know you just fall in love with a thing I think it's a pretty good analogy anyway I hope you enjoyed this trip in this 57 Imperial I really enjoy these things you know that's one of those cars you either get it or you don't but I like all kinds of vehicles and with all what's going around the world some big dopey friendly thing like this it's just a lot of footage guys hey listen take care of yourself we'll see you guys next week thanks a lot [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 989,133

Rating: 4.9507966 out of 5

Keywords: Mopar, Imperial, classics, American cars, 50s cars, jet age styling, big cars, rare cars, Hemi, 392, original, unrestored, car porn, motonerd, gearhead, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: 9iaMinFaLQo

Length: 33min 16sec (1996 seconds)

Published: Sun May 24 2020