Last year, Howard Kroplick, a vintage car collector from Long Island, New York, acquired a significant piece of Chrysler history. Purchased from the Vanderbilt Museum, the 1937 Chrysler Imperial Town Car was originally ordered (to custom specifications) by none other than Walter P. Chrysler.

As Wheels explains, the car was donated to the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum in 1959, a gift from car collector Harry Gilbert. Displayed sporadically until 1986 (the last time the car’s straight-eight engine was started), the car never received the kind of care necessary for preservation

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Calling it “rich with patina” would be a gross understatement. Covered with a thick layer of dust, the car even had petrifying cigarette butts in the ashtray, perhaps left over from Walter Chrysler or his wife, Della.

Kroplick is now wrestling with the choice to restore the car or preserve it in “as is” condition. Wiped down with a chamois cloth, the car will be displayed, at public urging, in “as is” condition at this weekend’s Greenwich (Connecticut) Concours d’Elegance.

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john112deere said:

You can always restore it later, but it's only original once.

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