 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 1965 Imperial LeBaron |
| In the fall of 1991, I saw a for sale ad in the Imperial Times for a 1965 LeBaron. I called but the owner had gone to Florida for the winter and would not return until the spring. In the spring of 1992 I called again. The owner, Carl, had returned from Florida but decided to keep the car. In the fall of 1992, the ad appeared again in the Imperial Times. I called. Carl was once again in Florida for the winter. In the spring of 1993 I called. Again, Carl decided to keep the car. In the fall of 1993, you guessed it; the car was for sale in the Imperial Times. I called and.......Carl had gone to Florida for the winter. |
|
| In the spring of 1994 I phoned and Carl decided he would sell it. As I made plans to travel to his location in the town of Hurd's Corner, just outside of Pawling, New York, I noticed that Hurd's Corner was near Quaker Hill, a town where my ancestors lived in the 1700's. I remembered that when my grandfather was writing the family genealogy, he had visited Quaker Hill. He located the house built by his great-grandfather and had a large photo made of it. I brought that photograph on the trip thinking perhaps I might find the house. Click here for more on the house. |
| While I had Carl on the phone, I mentioned my ancestral interest in his area and asked if knew where the house was. He didn't and we went back to talking about cars. | |
|
One cheerful sunny Saturday morning found me in Hurd's Corner with Carl and the LeBaron. He was a pleasant man and the LeBaron was every bit the solid low-mileage beauty he had described. We went for a test drive along the narrow and twisting roads of Hurd's Corner, Carl giving directions as I drove. At one point he asked me to pull over saying he wanted to check the tire pressures. We stopped, but instead of getting out, Carl pointed to a house on the right and said: "Here is your ancestors' house." |
| This took me by surprise; I had assumed we were out for a test drive, not hunting for ancestral houses. Moreover, the house looked nothing like the one in my grandfather's photo. I reached into my pocket and took out the photo and said, "No, this is a picture of the house I'm looking for." Carl then pointed across the street and said, "You mean that one?" and there it was. | |
| The week before I arrived, Carl had gone to the library and found a book called the "Town of Pawling, 1788-1988". He brought the book along during our test drive and showed me an old map and a picture of Daniel Merritt's house -- the first house Carl pointed to. When we looked closer at the map, there was also a little note indicating David Merritt's house and it was David's house in my photo. A little more research showed Daniel and David as father and son, and they lived across the street from each other. It was a delightful surprise to find the houses and nice of Carl to take an interest. |
|
| I thought I should get a copy of the "Town of Pawling, 1788-1988" book. Carl had anticipated this and had already found the book was out of print. Although Carl said he would grab one for me if he ever found one, time passed and I forgot about it. | |
|
Years later, I received a large brown package in the mail with a return address from someone in Pawling NY. Enclosed was a large book, and a letter introducing the sender as a writer with the Pawling Historical Society. Her letter said she had been to a yard sale and in the garage she saw a large portrait of a 'historic' automobile. The yard sale was Carl's and the portrait was of the 65 LeBaron. She got talking with Carl about the portrait and heard the story of how I bought the car, got my address and sent me her copy of the "Town of Pawling, 1788-1988" book. |
| It turns out she was particularly interested in my family since she had recently completed a book on the local Quaker Cemetery. She has one picture of cemetery headstones and the text: "Before people could get the good medicines that we have today, they sadly often died at a fairly young age. The long row of stones in this picture has twenty three people from one family named Merritt. The members of the family died at ages ranging from one to eighty-five. Four of these were children who all died in the year 1816." Well, it is nice to be famous for something.... | |
| Back to the LeBaron. Carl had an interesting story to tell about how he found this car: He had spent years searching without success for a 65 Imperial LeBaron; he made trips to Ohio, the Carolinas, and Canada but never found what he wanted. One day he happened to have his collection of 1965 Imperial sales brochures on the kitchen table. It was the same day his cleaning lady was there. As she worked in the kitchen, she glanced at the car photos and casually remarked: "Looks just like mine." | |
| After years of searching and miles of travel, his cleaning lady had the car of his search. She had received the car as a gift from a relative. She found it was too big for her to drive, so she rented a garage and left it parked for several years. She was only too glad to find a new home for it and Carl was equally delighted to have found his prize. Carl took great care of this car. He kept it clean, serviced, garaged, and he even had a large portrait made of it. The picture was so large the only place in the house where it would fit was the garage......where one day it would be seen at a yard sale by a writer with the Pawling Historical Society....
May 2024. I'm in the office when a fellow stops in. "Hello, my name is Peter. You bought a car from my father. It was a 1965 Imperial from Pawling." What a surprise. I showed Peter the Imperial in the garage and he told me stories when his Dad had the car. |
|
| 1965 production of LeBarons was 2,164. This car has a scheduled build date of 02/24/65. Before I put it on the road, I had to replace the wheel cylinders and the master cylinder. I upgraded to DOT 5 Silicone brake fluid. The shocks were awfully soft so I installed new KYBs, KG4507 front and KG5511 rear. With new radials, this car steers straight and true at highway speeds, and the brakes are strong and smooth. New heater hoses, radiator hoses, thermostat, and a radiator flush were required so now the engine runs cool even on the hottest day. | |
|
The engine runs very quiet -- so quiet that I could hear the turn signal clicker wasn't clicking. I found the signal can had come off of the dash mount under the glove box, so there was nothing to amplify the clicking. That was a much easier repair than replacing the LeBaron script on the C pillar. The inside sail panel had to come off in order to get to the nuts, which required removal of some of the inside chrome trim. While that trim was off, it might as well be waxed. But no sense waxing just some of the trim, might as well do it all. So a simple job of replacing the script turned into a full weekend of removing, waxing, and reinstalling chrome. |
| The power antenna wasn't operating. I could hear the motor spinning and a snap-snap-snap noise, but no motion from the mast. One nice thing about working on rust free cars, fender panel nuts and bolts come apart without breaking. I removed the fender panel, removed the antenna, disassembled and found the Nylon cord was so brittle that it cracked and broke at the slightest touch. | |
| The cord diameter is .125" and I found cord from a weed whacker that fit. The Nylon cord is 50" long. I installed the cord as per the manual -- fed the cord through the eyelet and hit the motor with 12 Volts and it drew it right in. Noted the end of the cord had a bevel edge to assist the installation. Added lube before installation, tested and works fine, installed in car and tested and all works fine. Re-installed fender access panel. Made a mental note: it may be smart to store these cars with the power antenna extended -- that will place the minimum amount of curl on the Nylon cord. | 
|
|
|
To page 2
Back