First things first: a bath. After using the Cadillac to drag the Imperial away from the front of the shop and onto the killing slap, I opened the car up, let it air out some (it probably hadn’t been opened up since last September) and crawled around to see what all needed to be taken care of before I would allow the Mopar into a closed workspace.

This is not part of the “piranha-eaten” wiring that Finnegan alluded to during this car’s fifteen seconds of fame on Roadkill. What you’re seeing is one of several factory “splices” at the juncture of the large black and two red wires. That’s a factory setup…and it’s basically sandwiched wires coated in a heavy amount of solder. This bundle is part of the starting circuit, so that will be re-done to a better standard than…well, THAT.

That happy blue box is the Air Switching Timer. It was part of the fuel injection setup and, because I was in a hurry and excited to have the Imperial running and driving back in 2012, I had never so much as unplugged it. That proved to be a stupid decision…it’s gotten hot enough that the insulation on the back of the box melted into a honey-like consistency and dripped down. Part of my underhood cleaning is going to be using a heat gun to get rid of this crap.

It’s like the wasps were trying to tell me something.

For the last three years, mud daubers and red wasp have called the Imperial home and at least twice a year I’ve gone on the offensive to clean Satan’s houseflies out of the car. Apparently I was a bit lax recently, because if this cathedral of mud dauber tubes is anything to go by, they’ve been here for a few generations. There was a matching one on the other disc brake shield, as well as a spot in the K-frame, under both wheelwells, on the brake booster, and near the fuel lines in the front subframe rail.

The interior of the Imperial has not aged too well. Everything that I had re-wrapped in 2013 has held up beautifully. The carpet is long gone…I sold the better half of it a couple of years ago and set the rest of it into a dumpster. The steering wheel either needs to be re-wrapped or just replaced, and the top plate of the dashboard finally turned to dust. I was looking at using a bucket seat interior I scored cheaply enough, but I think I’ll worry about re-skinning the factory bench instead. And I’ll get new carpeting after I do some cleanup work.

There hasn’t been any more flooding since spring of 2015, so it’s safe to assume that a blocked drain port was my problem. But I need to address this as well…a wire wheeling and coating will be necessary before Dynamat goes down.

Oh, COME ON! This nest went all the way around the back of the 8.25 rear axle.

If you followed the misadventures I had with the SuperBeater Mirada, you’d know that Chrysler Corporation dash lighting and me have a very strained relationship. Oddly enough, the Imperial has been a trooper…all of the lighting works and works well. The only two hitches here involve the fuel gauge: the car no longer can tell you current MPG (I broke the OEM fuel flow meter…whoops.) and the fuel gauge has the functionality of an on-off switch. If it reads “FULL”, you have fuel. If it reads “14”, find a gas station NOW, it’s the low fuel light. I was never left stranded, but I’d like at least a little more warning than that. I’m making that a priority fix. And in case you’re wondering, yes the dash is reading Metric in this photo. It’s one of the many tricks built into the readout. 

While I was at it, I started to look at the engine parts I’ve been hoarding to make sure they were ready for installation. I’ve been on top of keeping a layer of engine oil on the critical areas of everything in the shop, but that still didn’t stop the tiniest bit of surface rust from appearing on two of the camshaft journals. This is a never-used camshaft, an Edelbrock #2177, and I’m not rolling in enough money to buy a new one. So I broke out some fine sandpaper (800 and 1,200 grit) and wet-sanded the journals using 10W40 oil as my in-between with a feather touch. I can’t feel any ridges with a fingernail when I test, but I’ll take the stick with me to the shop when I pick up the block and see if the machinist has an opinion on the situation. Worst case scenario, I can get another bumpstick, but I’ll be pissed-off about having to do that knowing that this one was never, ever used.

Now, for the real basketcase of the car, the under-hood wiring situation. Here’s the deal: this is a never-converted EFI car. Most Imperials wound up going back to the dealership to be converted from EFI back to a two-barrel carburetor setup because the EFI was problematic. The only reason this car doesn’t have EFI is because the Imperial-only fuel tank had a large rust hole that could not be repaired…that, and because it was only a matter of time before the system DID fail after sitting for so long. With the old 323ci engine, I did enough so the car ran and drove, but I didn’t go through every last wire, and I’ve hated looking at the mess since. So I’ve decided that the spaghetti mess of wiring needs to be pared down…there are a lot of terminal blocks that go to nowhere…relays and switches that were ditched long ago during the first build. You can see where I’ve gone through and started identifying what is what for future work. More than likely, a Mopar Performance electronic ignition conversion kit will take the place of most of this garbage, but in the meantime I’m paring down what is truly useless using a factory service manual as a guide.

Here’s another one of those “splices”. Five separate wires, one soldered mess. If this ever appeared on a helicopter I worked on in a past life, I would’ve grounded the bird immediately and would’ve called for the last tech’s head on a platter with garnish. How did this pass quality control?!

I’m still able to put electrical power onto the car by using a jumpbox on the battery terminals. That’s how I determined that the gauges hadn’t suffered, and how I’m able to roll the windows up and down. For whatever reason, I tried the HVAC fan…and got rewarded with a noise that sounded like a Salad Shooter munching through shredded wheat. Five screws later and my suspicions were confirmed: furry little bastards had built a nest composed primarily of cut grass in the squirrel cage. Spent a few minutes with a Shop Vac cleaning the hanta virus out…

So, between the return of the 360 to the shop, the thinning of the wiring (and a lot of cleanup work on what is left) and plenty more, the Imperial will be keeping me busy for a while. But things are happening…finally. I suspect the next thing will be to drop the fuel tank out of the straps to test the fuel gauge out and to get a better reading. Part of the issue is underhood wiring involved…I removed one terminal for a pump relay and magically, the number 13 appeared on the fuel gauge. It’s never appeared before. There is hope, I feel it…