The owner of the 1-of-3 1956 Imperial convertible covered in Old Cars Weekly in 2005 finally removed his car from its 30-year resting place. He intends to restore the car after he tracks down a couple parts cars. (He expects to start the restoration in a year.) In the meantime, it will be stored inside, thankfully slowing the decay process started in the late 1970s.

A couple weekends ago, coworker Matt Gergeni and I helped remove the car from its resting place in the side of a hill in Amherst, Wis., and from what we could see, the rear frame rail on the buried driver's side was pretty far gone. The bottom half of the quarters are rusty, as are the rockers, and the front clip needs to be replaced. Because of the surrounding trees, a come-along had to be used to move the car back and forth to get it out of the woods. With the first yank, the cowl or rear half of the body shifted enough to make it impossible to open the driver's door. However, the car remained intact enough to keep the passenger side door capable of opening through the whole ordeal, and the car didn't suffer any more damage. It's going to be a big job, but the car is certainly restorable. Happily, the owner seems excited to dig into the project. You can bet I'll be staying on top of him to finish the car. The owner will also be getting motivation from Adam Harder, a restorer who plans on tearing into the car. Harder is heaving into Kaisers (especially Darrins), and he supplied the Kaiser wheels pictured on the front of the car.

In order to unearth the Imperial, it had to be brought down the hill, around some treess, and the towed back to its top near the road.

While talking to the owner in person for the first time, I learned a bit more about the car. It seems the Imperial convertible was used in several Milwaukee-area parades to carry dignitaries, so there's a chance a reader may be sitting on a photo of it. Also, the owner said the car originally had wire wheels. Following the accident that damaged the front end in the early 1970s, the current owner's father-in-law planned to junk the car, and removed the wire wheels at that time. Unfortunately, the wheels are gone, but it will look sharp to see it restored to its original black color with whitewalls and wires again. As the car's restoration begins, we'll keep you posted with the car's progress. In the meantime, enjoy these photos of the car's retrieval.

(FYI, the images are in order of the car's retrieval. The gentleman in the top photo is the car's owner, Bob. The restorer, Adam Harder, is pictured at the far right of the third photo from the top, and Matt Gergeni is in the middle of this photo. I couldn't resist getting a picture of my family's '55 Cadillac next to the rare car, so you'll spot "Ol Yeller" in the fifth photo, as the Imperial was pulled to the top of the hill. The last photo shows the back side of Roger Dudley who, along with his wife Merna, stored the car on their Amherst, Wis., property since 1977. Merna is a longtime F+W Publications employee -- she was once responsible for helping enter the pricing information in Old Cars Price Guide. Her daughter, Merry, is the editor of Toy Cars & Models magazine. And don't bother calling about the cars in the background of these photos - they are not for sale!)

Sure, car shows are great venues for meeting with friends and taking in some nice rides, but there’s more to a car show than what is behind the ropes. There’s also the parking lot!

Simple parking lots can be a field of treasure. Not everyone can stay for a whole day at a car show, but they want to be sure to take in an event’s sights while they have time. And if it’s a nice day, you can bet they drove their old car to the event, even if they didn’t plan on entering their car in the show.

On April 14, my brother and I headed to the Gopher State Timing Association’s Rod & Custom Spectacular inside the coliseum on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The cars in the show were great, but since space is limited in the building, not every old car owner can display a car, but they’ll drive their cars to the event. Given the event’s early-April timing, the show tends to land on one of the first nice days of the year. This fact doesn’t get by car owners itching to dust off their cars -- and the GSTA Rod & Custom Spectacular is a fine reason to get the car out.

The area around the fairgrounds was particularly interesting this year. We spotted a 1946-’48 Lincoln Continental Cabriolet, 1969 Dodge Coronet four-door sedan with a Super Bee stripe on its haunches, chopped early-1950s Chevy two-door sedan with flames and some of the other treats pictured here. Unfortunately, I missed catching the Continental on film before it left, but there certainly was a nice selection of cars left to snap. I’m not sure who the owners of all of these cars are, but I know the wicked “rat rod” ’34 Ford truck is owned by Jeff Bloedorn, who built the truck four years ago. Jeff is the boyfriend of Jennie Melgard, a childhood friend of mine. (We car people stick together!) Hope you enjoy the pics!


 

Not everyone can afford to sustain a collector-car-a-week habit, but luckily, retired Old Cars Price Guide editor Ken Buttolph (yes, the famous Kenny Buttolph), has more than enough cars in his collection to trade cars on a regular basis. (For those counting, he’s up to 110 cars. This week.)
Whenever Kenny scoops up a new collector car (or even a new $700 Chrysler Fifth Avenue winter beater), he swings it by the Old Cars Weekly office so we can all take a spin or get behind the wheel.

Last week, the “car of the week” was a 1966 Chevrolet Caprice with 19,000 miles on the odometer. Kenny acquired the car from Bob Lichty, another former Old Cars staff member, who now runs Motorcar Portfolio out of Canton, Ohio. To complete the trade, Bob traded Kenny for his gorgeous lipstick red-and-white 1956 Oldsmobile 98 Holiday coupe. Now, I’m a Caprice lover (heck, I’ve got three and almost enough parts to complete a fourth), but I was appalled to see Kenny let the Olds go for some cash and the Caprice.

Regardless of my feelings, I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to drive a 40-year-old car with 19,000-miles. To its credit, the car handled really well, but its strong point was the power out of its 300-hp 327-cid V-8. After some encouragement, Kenny had me shove the power pedal to the floor to get the ol’ Caprice scream like a clown with its tail on fire. And oh, did it holler! For such a large car, the Caprice could hold its own, and probably beat my 325-hp ’62 Coupe deVille!

On the inside, the Caprice caught me a bit off guard with its buckets seats, console and gauge cluster, which included all the required info for a car with 300 solid horses: oil pressure, temperature, etc.
Before he trades this car away, I figured I’d shoot a few pics of Kenny with his car. I still think the Olds was a bit cooler car, but the Caprice is no slouch. What do you think?