Not sure about "frothy"....
the '59 Imperial that sold for $135,000 was dolled up at a local body shop in Iola, WI last month. Nice car...non-original paint color.
The '59 DeSoto was restored in the same shop. It took a year from an original, super-low mileage original (3,200 miles, I think) to the record-breaking (for a DeSoto) $285,000 car.
Both cars are (or were) owned by Jesse Ruffalo of Plainfield, WI. The Imperial was nice...but kind of gaudy for me...The DeSoto was fabulous.
I WAS surprised at the #'s the DeSoto brought...Ruffalo had $100K in it...bought it for about $50k and it cost $50k to restore. It was a lower priced model and only had the 361/two barrel engine.
I looked at both cars three weeks ago in the resto shop of Dave and Jerry Kopecky who did the DeSoto resto....
You can never tell...