What a wild thread...to think Imperials went Hippie.
Anyway, Plymouth sales catalogs state that the Mod Top
option was indeed available in 2 distinctive colors in
1969 ( It was the Barracuda catalog ) and I remember
one ( again a Barracuda hardtop ) being unloaded from
a car carrier that year at Maloney Plymouth in Canton,
Ohio... Believe me it stood out like a Barbie doll
among all those Roadrunners and GTX's ... so I believe
with these recollections that they were factory...but
seeing as this one's on an Imperial and no mention was
ever made in an Imperial Catalog...probably dealer
installed...would love to see a photo of this "flower
child".
BAS
--- Richard Woodside <rwoodside@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Don Uhl's going to check out the paisley-topped '71
> Imperial this weekend. Please keep us posted, but
> let ME know FIRST if it's a great bargain that
> you're going to pass up, won't you, Don? [As if ...]
>
> I corresponded with the seller last year about this
> car, and while it looked OK in photos, the seller
> could or would not supply any documentation of the
> originality or authenticity of the top. While I'd
> like any 71 Imp, at the right price/condition, the
> CAD$4,500 or so that the seller was asking seemed a
> bit high to me for a car that had been parked for
> quite a while (IIRC) and may or may not have a rare
> top that may or may not need to be replaced.
>
> I wonder whether anyone knows whether the paisley
> tops were installed at the factory or at the
> dealership?
>
> I have a George Barris "Mod Tops" folder of samples
> and templates that were sent to Chev dealers circa
> 1968, for dealer installation on Camaros, but I've
> never seen a Camaro with such a top. (Not nearly as
> tastefully baroque as Mopar's paisley tops).
>
> And we all know that dealers do install tops
> themselves. I sat in a Lincoln showroom in the fall
> of 1992 and watched a "carriage roof" white vinyl
> top being installed on one of those "grass green"
> Jack Nicklaus editions, to try to help move a
> left-over 1992 Town Car. The new top didn't help the
> look of the car nearly as much as a color change
> would have ....
>
> But surely the Mopar paisley tops were never
> installed by dealers to try to boost the sales of
> slow movers, were they? And, even more certainly, no
> dealer could ever have thought that a paisley top
> might help boost the sale of an Imp, since
> prospective Imperial customers were statistically
> more likely to prefer somewhat conservative and
> understated fashion statements, weren't they?
>
> Dick Woodside
> (now where the heck did I put my old bell-bottoms?)
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