I went to look at a car for sale today. The car had sat for 10 years inside a shed. The guy drained the radiator when he stored it but not the block. The motor has 55000 miles on it a 392 hemi. I can get it for 2000.00 dollars he said the fuel pump went out and that's why he stored it. My concern is a cracked block or heads. I thought about filling it with water and pressure testing the cooling system to see if there are any leaks. I was wondering if there is any other way to tell without running it or possibly running it without a fuel pump. Any ideas would be helpful. I would only buy it for the motor so if it's cracked I wouldn't want it. I would part out the rest of the car if anyone would want it. The floor is rusted out and the body is full of mud but the car is com
Externally look for cracks around the freeze plugs. If you snag the 392 try advertising the rest on www.forwardlook.net
Why not get it running then you will have a REAL car. By the pics it doesn't warrant pulling the motor unless you don't like driving a REAL car.
Looks like a plain low-end Imperial. The taillights are worth some bucks, the headlight pods, grille, entire dash can be removed as a unit, a lot of the chrome particularly the cast stuff can be sold. Imperial guys are fussy, if it's much less than perfrect it doesn't have a lot of value. You might be able to run a demo derby or two with the body shell though. Save the rearend out of it, they have some market value too.
I didn't know there were low end Imperials. Cool car. Might be some pieces for customs amongst the rust. Please don't demo derby it. To me, that's the stupidest thing to do to a car like that.
The car has a lot of REAL mud and a lot of REAL chrome missing and it has a REAL big hole in the floor so because I don't live in a REAL world I don't think I could REALLY drive it
You can run the engine with a gravity feed tank. Hang a lawn mower tank from the hood and that will feed fuel to the carb. Be a miracle if it fires off though. Would you park a car cuz a 30 min and 30 dollar fuel pump went out? Pretty easy to pressurize a cooling system, the problem is that the biggest leak will show up first ,,,
As George said, see if you can get a decent view of the core plugs on the sides of the block. If there is a break then you will likely see some rust. If the breaks are bad then you might see holes... Yes, you could fill it with water and put 10lb of air on top.
Thanks you and George have always been a big help with any of my hemi questions. I think it's worth the time to find out if it's good or not.
When people see a car, IMPERIAL that they never seen before they won't know its missing some chrome or it has a hole in the floor pan. I drive a '61 Plymouth weekly that has more than one hole in the pan and its missing chrome. Drive and let other people enjoy it before you destroy it. I wasn't trying to offend you but these cars are rarely seen on the road. Then when they ask ,Has that thang got a HEMI well here is your time to show them a real Hemi.
the block is obviously cracked, you better just leave it for someone who has a better appreciation for old cars.
It never crossed my mind that taking the engine out of a 4 door rusted out car would offend someone on the HAMB I'm sorry for that. I never thought about destroying it or demoing it all I wanted was a hemi that runs for my model A. I was hoping someone here would want the car. My other thought was to give the car to a friend of mine that is tight on money but wants an old car and he would put it back on the road minus the hemi. If someone out there has a good running 392 I would trade them for the whole car and a case of beer. This all pends on the motor being okay and me buying it. As far as appreciation of old cars I like them all restored,streetrodded,hotrodded or original but not ratrodded. just because it has an engine I want doesn't mean it needs to stay in that car. With thinking like that all those old gasser Willies would have 4 cylinder engines and 49ratfink would be a 6 and we would all be racing 4 doors with big blocks or hemi's.
pull the hemi bro!! sell the car as no motor or trans. good score Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Brother it's your money your spending, the car is for sale if someone wants it to restore then they can buy it and do that, if you want it for the engine then buy it it's your money and many a 4 door Chrysler gave up it's Hemi for a Hotrod, this site is about traditional hotrodding and customs, nothing more traditional than snagging the desired engine out of an ol derelict neglected 4 door for your Hotrod. You don't have to justify shit to the squares, they are on the wrong site anyway if they think thats what the HAMB is about. If the 392 Hemi checks good, that is a hell of good score, your doing good.
get the hemi running in the car to check it out, pull it. Pull the useable trim off the car and sell it, pass the rest to your buddy for a sbc swap.
In that behemouth! Ha! BB Chrysler! A good core 392 goes typically for 2K-2,500. Grab it &, like I said earlier, see if you can sell the rest @ Forwardlook.
Low end. It's a four door post sedan, and it doesn't even have the toilet seat (fake spare tire) on the deck lid. I'd bet it won't have swivel seats or power windows/seat either. I parted one out a few years ago when the market was better and it was a tough sell for the most part. It was rougher than this one and I ended up scrapping the body. The reason I suggested demo derby is there's some demand for these in that crowd, it may actually be worth more to them. I'm also presuming it's a typical northern rust belt car and these things rot like you would not believe. Buddy had one that sat and you open the trunk and there was nothing left under it except the springs. No trunk floor, no frame rails, nothing. A '60. Even mine, an old wreck that sat in a sandy area, was bad in a lot of spots. Entirely possible the entire bottom half of the sides of the car has been redone if you say it's full of mud (bondo). And it would cost more to build it than it's worth.
Thanks for the imput I'll get with the owner and see if we can do a little work on it and bring it home.
George, I see you're A fan of old mopars, there won't be too many takers to restore this car, maybe Hallrods buddy can make it into a cruiser, he's trying to get into the hobby. I'm afraid to say it but if the remains of this car stay on the road it'll make a good r*t r*d.
This thread brings back some memories....I bought what looks like the identical car years ago, cracked block and all. I pulled the engine/transmission & sold the 'good parts' & advertised the car in a local paper and within days it too was sold. In the grande scheme of things I made a few hundred $$$ on it but would have still liked to have had the 392 without a window in the block. They are huge cars and need a hemi in them to get 'em down the road...
I just bought 6 Imperials from 1 person. He had dreams to put them back on the road. That never happened. 1 of these(1958) Imperials had the Hemi and I sold the motor and tranny. You can't save them all but they can be parted out to save others . Good luck with your new HEMI!!!
My "vote" would be to keep the 392 ... and part out the rest of the car. The Imperial restoration guys don't have much interest in the base model 4-door sedans (especially if they are rusted out) ... but there's quite a few parts that can be used on other Imperial models.
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