It’s been over a year since we’ve done anything with Project Raven, the 1983 Imperial coupe that I’ve had for five years now. The last update wasn’t good news: after taking a 400ci big block Chrysler up to Knieriem Racing Engines, I learned that outside of the main block itself, that the engine was junk. Pure, f**king junk. It made me so sick that after lightly contemplating things, I made the decision to part with the car. I was done…the Imperial has been nothing but yard art since it’s teardown in November 2014, the carpet was sold, and if it wasn’t for those random days where I hook a battery jump box to the car to roll down the windows, it wasn’t so much as touched. Even the “Roadkill” sticker that has been on the car since the guys helped me out in Oklahoma looks like hell…it’s burnt and unreadable. I offered a deal to a guy I know who is into FJMs as much as I am: everything…every part, every piece, and the car, out the door, for a higher three-digit price.

Yesterday, I found out that due to life events beyond his control, that he had to walk away from the deal. There’s no hard feelings at all about his decision, but now I’m back to square one: I’ve got a dead Mopar in the driveway and I need to do something about it. While I would have no problem letting the car move on to someone I knew would take care of it and restore it (the Imperial would’ve become a father-son project) I won’t scrap it and I’d kick myself in the ass for letting it go, good, bad or otherwise. Yeah, I’m one of those guys…some cars I can sell and be fine about while others will eat at me forever. And the Imperial easily falls into that latter category. Every once in a while I get asked about the Mopar, and all I can say is that it’s still doing a fantastic job as a big silver paperweight.

Here’s where I’m honestly at: I don’t like a car sitting. The Imperial needs to run again, and I’m about 85% lined up to pick up a new powertrain for the car, a 360/727 combination for a reasonable price, something that isn’t normal around BangShift Mid-West. The car isn’t going to be a pretty princess anymore, and on that note, I’m contemplating selling the wheels and tires currently on it and moving back to a cheap mag wheel like the car used to run when I first got it running. I’ll get the car new carpet and I’ll get one of the two interior sets re-skinned on the cheap for the car, but that’s where my plans start to become open to options. The dashboard mounting points are disintegrating, the stock computers and digital dash can go flying out of the window at this point, and the car needs to be sanded down and given a layer of paint…some of the original rub-through spots have gotten bad with sitting out in the rain.

There’s a 400ci block and a big-block 727 that need to be sold. There’s some parts I’m sure I’ll either have to dig up out of nowhere or go yard-hunting for. And if I get a good enough offer before the Imperial comes back to life, it might move on down the road anyways. But the car won’t be sitting still much longer, one way or another. I need the old-school ride again. I need to give Angry Grandpa a rest and some downtime to clean up and detail. And I need to finish a project I started years ago and have never finalized to my contentment. Dammit, the Imperial will live again, one way or another.