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Hagen Collection

1970 Chrysler 300 Convertibles.... only 5 of them... for now... lol

General Information

So... A little story...
My dad always had a soft spot for convertibles owning a couple different ones in his younger days. So in 1970, after hearing that Chrysler was no longer going to make them, he decided he better go buy one. He ended up getting a 300. He loved it although it was my mothers daily driver and our family car til 1979. It was then parked for a several years until around 1985 when he started to get it going again. Around the same time, a family friend was on vacation somewhere in Indiana a called to say he found a car that look just like his and it was for sale. Well, Dad took off and came home with another 1970 300 convertible. After that, dad decided he had a problem. He had only two cars but 4 kids. Looking to the future, he decided he didn't want us children to have to argue over the two if something ever happened to him. So, what did he do? Yup.... he bought a few more over the next 10 or so years until he had 5. All 5 are 1970 Chrysler 300 Convertibles. In 1998, dad decided he couldn't keep up on all 5 and seemed to have more problems as he rotated which couple he would get out each year and which ones sat. So being the awesome, wonderful, loving, caring, and giving man he is, he handed each one of his 4 children a title and said enjoy your inheritance. He wanted to see us start enjoying our cars.
Until last summer, we had not had all 5 cars in one place since 1998. Mine was parked for 14 years due to a bad engine and other life events left another one parked for almost as long and another just didn't get out too often. Last year I got mine on the road, helped my sister get hers going again, and managed to surprise my dad with all 5 cars pulling into a car show together last July. He had no clue why i was so busy prior to the show. I had worked on all 5 at some point to get the to the show and surprise him. It was a pretty cool sight to see all 5 drive in together in a row and we had a lot of attention on us entering the show since the people running the club (Chicagoland Mopar Connection-Rock valley chapter) and the DJ (3D sound) announcing the show all knew ahead of time of the surprise we were doing for my dad. It was nice to see Dad get the attention he deserved after putting this collection together over the years, and yes, he was truly surprised and had no clue it was coming.
These are drivers. They are not show cars. 3 of them are overall nice shape. 2 present well but still need work. Dad drives his when ever the weather is nice. Mine I know will be racking up the miles now, I have to make up for the years it was parked. The pics I'm putting up are from our little photo shoot we did a week prior to the car show so we could make up a nice poster for dad to put on his wall, which we gave him at the show. I had to lie to dad so I could borrow his car and keep the secret. He thought I took his car on a charity run that day, bar hoping around the area with a bunch of bikers. He wasn't fond of that idea but he let me borrow it. LOL
Here is a quick run down of the cars.

Light Blue- The first and original. Bought new in 1970 and given to my older brother. Standard 440 with power windows and A/C and not much more for options. Dad wasn't much for options back then.

Blue- The second one bought in the mid 80's and the one Dad call's his. HP 440, console shift, sentinel lights, AM/FM 8-track, power antenna, power windows, power seat, disk brakes, road wheels, auto temp a/c, and pretty much every other option available that year. It doesn't have the extra rubber bumper guards, and besides those I think it has pretty every option on it that i can think of anyways.

Green- My sisters. Bought around 1989. Pretty much a low option car. Standard 440, no a/c, manual windows, but does have disk brakes. My sister had an outdoor wedding back in '90 (i think lol) and Dad used this car "drive her down the aisle", well at least to where the seating started.

White- My oldest sister car. Bought in the early 90's sometime. Originally a light blue, and hopefully will be again someday. Standard 440, disk brakes, console shift, tilt-tele steering, a/c, and manual windows. Solid and drives very nice but does need work on interior and body but it still presents nice.

Red- My ride. Last one added to the collection. Suppose to be a triple black car but a previous owner didn't like black so he painted it red and recovered the seats red. Hopefully it will be back to triple black again in a couple years. Still a nice driver but needs work but presents well. Fairly well optioned. HP 440, console shift, a/c, power brakes, power antenna, power windows, power seat, disk brakes, and it even has the rubber bumper guards. Currently have non HP 440 in the car while I save funds to rebuild the original engine.

Also have one more in storage (not pictured) that is pretty rough but savable if I can ever get that far. If you count the one I had to part out because it was way beyond saving but has helped keep the others alive, I can account for 7 of the 1077 convertible 300s that were built in '70.

Now the only problem I have is that I only have one car and 3 children...... Wonder what I should do.....

Comments

Now this is a cool story, and a great photo shoot.
Guess you better start hunting down some more of these for hand me downs.
 
I thought of doing the same thing once when my kids had me in the grave 10 years ago and were arguing who gets what. I thought it would be cool to give each one of five a Polara. I presumed I was a little goofy. Now, I feel better about it .... You have a good dad .
 
I thought of doing the same thing once when my kids had me in the grave 10 years ago and were arguing who gets what. I thought it would be cool to give each one of five a Polara. I presumed I was a little goofy. Now, I feel better about it .... You have a good dad .
for sure there is nothing goofy about it. i love the cars probably because he has had the one longer than he's had me and I remember the one being our daily car. I hope that day never comes but unfortunately its inevitable, but i will have something i know he enjoyed and that will mean more than just being left a chunk of money.
 
Now that is an awesome story. Be very proud and feel very lucky that you had an old man like that.. hopefully the store will continue times five. Thanks for sharing.
 
That is a great story and those are beautiful cars. I love the fuselage look. I'm sure your dad was very proud.
 
That was a great story, and a definite surprise to dad at the car show. Makes you feel good i'm sure. All great cars too, I especially like the 2 blue ones. Thank you for sharing.:thumbsup::thumbsup:
 

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