A Long Ordeal for a Fine Car - Triple Black!

saforwardlook

Old Man with a Hat
FCBO Gold Member
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For some time, I have wanted a triple black 1971 Chrysler 300. It has been a long quest and I had to be patient, but it ended well thanks to Manny (70 Sport Suburban). Without his eagle eye and incredibly willing and capable help, I would have never known about it or owned it. Here are some photos of the car after I got it home, cleaned it up and got it running well – (more to the story below the photos if you have the time or interest in the long version).

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After looking the car over in depth now, I am pretty certain it isn’t a 19K mile car as claimed by the seller, but it was definitely stored inside when it wasn’t driven most of its existence since the vinyl roof is original and much of the paint is too. The really good part is the car runs really well and all I had to do to it was replace the power steering pump shaft seal and the steering box input shaft seal to stop the leaks, and now it is a good driver. Even the fuel tank wasn’t rusty and the gas was pretty fresh. And the rust on the car is pretty minimal (nothing significant around the rear window even!) and will be addressed when the big dent in the rear quarter is fixed by my body/paint guy. That the car isn’t a 19K mile car is no big deal to me since I plan to restore it completely anyway.

It all started with this singular post in another thread regarding salvage yards, wherein Manny mentioned he had seen this triple black 300 in his neighborhood in Racine, WI., looking much neglected.

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It had been listed for sale in the online sales platform “Offer Up” but then the listing ended just before I tried to buy it. I called Manny about this car and asked him if he would be willing to inquire at the residence where the car was sitting to see if they might have any desire to sell it since I would definitely like to buy it. It was the dead of winter back then so he said he would take a look at it and inquire about it once the really cold temperatures and snow had subsided. It was in a somewhat rough area of Racine, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if he declined, but he didn’t! But it was a long winter and he is also very busy due to his job and his family, so it was May before he could make the inquiry. But Manny kept me informed throughout the winter that it was still there. I had also talked with Manny’s friend Wyatt (71Polara383), and he said he would be a backup if Manny couldn’t get over to look at the car due to his busy life, but I didn’t need to call him since Manny was able to follow through, and Wyatt also lives much further away. I really appreciated his willingness to help too, nonetheless. Great guy too!


One day Manny was driving by the residence where the black 71 300 was located and saw a neighbor out in the adjacent yard and inquired about the car. Well, by luck, the guy knew the owner and called him while Manny was right there. So Manny got in contact with him and it turned out that he was indeed willing to consider selling it. The car was apparently given to his wife by her uncle as a gift since he was elderly and in very poor health and needed to clean up his collection of 18 cars, this being one of them. The husband of the owner did the negotiating for his wife on selling the car and after getting some photos of the car for me, Manny conveyed my offer of $7000 to buy the car (he and Manny had a good rapport from the beginning, fortunately). It was claimed that the car was a one owner car from new and that it only had 19K miles on it, but in looking at the photos it was hard to believe that claim, and there was no proof to back it up. However, the wife said she would take no less than $10K for the car. But after Manny and I talked, I decided to make the lower offer as indicated. Initially, her husband said he was able to get her to accept the offer after explaining how much work it needed. But his wife said she would only sell it if for that price if she had the cash in hand on Sunday, and it was already Saturday, after bank closing hours. She must have known that was a tall order, but I was able to call Mark, a very good friend of mine (also on FCBO but doesn't post much due to a demanding job) also in WI about 3 hours north of Manny, and he said he could supply the cash needed since he was going to travel out of the airport in Racine on Sunday anyway to travel to Atlanta for business purposes. So Manny met Mark at the airport at 8AM and got the cash. But when Manny called the husband to let him know he had the cash, there was a long pause since he was obviously shocked that Manny could get the cash on short order. Then his wife, after agreeing to the deal, backed out and said she would not sell for less than $10K again. I was pretty ticked by this time, and almost let the car go since I didn’t want to deal with people that are not good on their word. At that point I decided to call the husband myself rather than ask Manny to further negotiate with him to discuss the car since that would be too much to ask of Manny at this point and I tried to explain why the money his wife wanted wasn’t warranted given the condition of the car despite the claim of very low miles. I also sent him an online value guide showing the value of a car in that condition, and he ended up agreeing with me that my offer wasn’t unreasonable, but his wife was still hard to deal with. But he said he would take $8500 for it if, again, Manny could give the full sum within a few days and deal with his wife later for accepting less than her demand. So Manny got the additional money from me and the deal was closed, but Manny didn’t leave the residence until he had the car transported away at the same time so no further funny stuff could occur. Manny really saved the day in going through all this for me.


First thing Manny did was to get some keys made because they had been lost by the owners. He pulled off a door panel to remove the lock cylinder and also pulled the rear seats and climb into the trunk to remove the trunk lock cylinder and have duplicate keys made – he was very fast – and he found two excellent build sheets in the process!! Manny also helped the guy set the points in the distributor (the guy replaced the plug wires and other items because the car didn’t run quite right but didn’t know how to set the points) so they could fire it up and show that it runs. They did get it started, and it ran but it wouldn’t keep running and there was no more time to fool with it, so I had it shipped as a non-running car. Manny also bled the brakes so I could be sure that the car rolled, braked and steered for transport purposes. Manny stored the car at his dad’s place until it could be picked up and also helped load the car onto the transport. So I am deeply appreciative of all Manny did to help me in getting the car – except for his efforts, I would not have ever been able to own it. I did my best to compensate him for all his time and efforts and will also be providing some interior parts for one of his wagons that are very nice. I also am doing my best to show appreciation for Wyatt’s willingness to help as a backup if needed as well. Both these guys are young and extremely nice and very competent, so there is much hope for our future with guys like this around. The people on this site that I have worked with are first rate (and I also tried to buy a car out of Canada last month, but decided to pass on it, but the willingness to help I received from a bunch of guys on this site in the Edmonton, Alberta area was unbelievable too). Thanks guys!
 
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A few additional photos - judging by the remaining portion of the emission label on the car, it was originally a California car! So it is back home again :thumbsup:

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Great looking 300! Your ordeal with the sellers sounded like a real pain in the ***. Seriously, what kind of low life puts out a price and then changes it. But yeah I've had the pleasure of hanging out with Manny and Wyatt a couple times while junkyarding...both great guys. In fact Manny shared a picture of your 300.
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Great looking 300! Your ordeal with the sellers sounded like a real pain in the ***. Seriously, what kind of low life puts out a price and then changes it. But yeah I've had the pleasure of hanging out with Manny and Wyatt a couple times while junkyarding...both great guys. In fact Manny shared a picture of your 300.View attachment 195457

I need to head north and hang out with you guys!
 
Great find! I think that maybe some packages from Omaha Steaks or someplace similar should be arriving at some Wisconsin homes in the near future...
 
Man, everyone should have a friend like Manny. He made your triple black dream come true, anyone that would climb through a trunk to get that lock cylinder out, Door panels off to get the door lock and ignition key duplicated. Wow, and everything else to make the deal. The car looks great, I hope you enjoy many miles in it.
 
Amazing story, thanks for sharing. Car is amazing also. Congratulations! You were dealing with people at both ends of the spectrum during this deal. You have way more patience than me for BS. Well done.
 
Lots and lots of garage space. I suppose you love in a tent on the grounds the only way a respectable car hound would do?
 
The 71 is looking good Steve i see you got the trim on luckly it was in the trunk. And the paint cleaned up nicely also i wish that was my car i was sad to see it go. But im happy i was able to help you out with your dream and I'd do it for anyone on the site.
 
I am glad you are happy with the 300. Can't wait to see it soon!!! I'm gonna require a ride in that car :lol:
 
The 71 is looking good Steve i see you got the trim on luckly it was in the trunk. And the paint cleaned up nicely also i wish that was my car i was sad to see it go. But im happy i was able to help you out with your dream and I'd do it for anyone on the site.

If everyone in this world had your values and integrity, most of our problems would go away. You are a shining light out there. Keep up the good work!
 
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