My first Mopar : '68 Chrysler 300...needs a lot of love...

CitronPresse

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Hi! <br><br>First of all, I apologize for my poor english, I'm in Quebec (and born in France, a real frenchie ahahah) and don't often speak english <br><br>My name is Loïc, 23 years old from Quebec-City, I'm a car lover since always, and I've owned a lot of cars in few years, I buy one, I clean or repair it and resell it a few months later, but sometimes I can keep it 1 or 2 years<br>I'm really open-minded for cars so I love any type of modeles and makes, big american V8, little european minis (Renault, Citroën...), japanese sports cars...and I've owned every kinds of cars...Honda Prelude, Mazda3, Renault 5, Chevy Venture, Pontiac Sunfire, Chevy Cavalier with a 3.8 supercharged, Isuzu Stylus, Cadillac...<br>But here we are on a big and old american cars forum so I'm gonna talk of my big and old american cars :)<br>I bought my first old american ride at 17 years old, a '80 Mercury Monarch, not so cool (6 cylinder...) but it was in really good shape (very low original mileage) and I kept it 2 years!<br>The next ones were pretty much interesting, but there is no Chrysler in the list, so I'm gonna just post some pictures to show you:<br><br><br>My first: from 2009 to 2011, '80 Mercury Monarch, chamois (brown) with 23,000km (14,000mi) and a 6cyl. 250ci, 700$<br><br><br>from 2011 to 2012, '72 Cadillac Fleetwood, sable black with 135,000mi and a V8 472ci, 1600$, an enormous gangster ride, I loved it, but the floors were dangerously crunchy<br><br><br>in 2011, '79 Mercury Monarch, jade (green) with 95,000km (60,000mi), 6cyl. 250ci, 600$, another boring 6cyl. Ford, but I don't kept it for a long time<br><br><br>from 2012 to 2013, '77 Ford Thunderbird, jade (green) with 95,000mi, V8 351ci Windsor, 1400$, not my preferred years for a T-Bird but this car was incredibly clean, 1 owner and really well maintained&nbsp;<br><br><br>in 2013, '75 Cadillac SedanDeville, sable black, 70,000mi, V8 500ci, 2000$, another time, boring year but a really large mafia ride, never seen winter and pretty clean<br><br><br>in 2014, '76 Buick Electra Limited ParkAvenue, judicial black, 92,000mi, V8 455ci, 1800$, an awesome luxury car, incredibly clean inside and pretty straight outside<br><br>The Buick was my last old car, as you see, I've only owned GM and Ford, it's not because I don't like Mopar but I don't know, I never had a good deal...<br>But I'm often dreaming to a '69/70 big Newport, or best, NewYorker or Imperial, a 2 door hardtop with the 440, wow, one day I'll own one of these beautiful Fuselage Chrysler!<br><br>Some weeks ago I see a classified for '68 Chrysler 300, I never really liked the strange shape of 65-68 C-Bodies but this one appears to be clean and the guy wanna do a trade, so I propose an '91 Honda Accord<br>

Oh wow I can't insert more than 10 images in one post...ridiculous I've never seen that on a forum...
So I'm gonna try to do that in few posts :BangHead:
 
Edit: I've pasted my text on a Word doc because of this strange rule (10 images max) and when I repast it on the forum my pics are disappeared, nooooooo :BangHead:
And I don't know why there is <br> everywhere...sorry :(

My flashy Samba Green Accord is in a beautiful shape and I love it but the Chrysler is worth at least 4000-5000$ and I've never owned an old car like it (my older one was the '72 Caddy)
The guy accept the deal and bring me the Chrysler on a trailer (he's living in the north of Quebec, at 4 or 5 hours from Quebec-City)

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Bye-bye Accord! :(

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The Chrysler is relatively straight but I had some bad surprises...it was supposed to be 100% original, with its original paint and its original engine...but the car was originally gold (Medium Gold metallic) and the 383 engine is off course not the original one...I'm not a Chrysler expert, I don't knew before that the '68 300 has been sold only with the 440 and not 383!<br>The interior is a lil bit crappy but the seats are not so scrap, and there is no important tear into the upholstery/vinyl <br>The paint is not perfect but it stills good-looking<br>The dash-pad is damaged, the rear windows are difficult to slide down, the AM 8-tracks radio and the concealed headlight panels are not working, I can't open the trunk (the key seems to be damaged), the carpet is ruined...

So I'm a bit disappointed but the car runs really good, all the fluids are new (motor oil, trans oil, coolant...), the 4 brakes and tires are new, the ignition system (spark plugs, wires, distributor) are all new (Mopar original parts), all the signal and lighting equipments are working, there's no missing parts, the 383 seems to be in a good shape and the car drives good!
 









I don't really like the profile (side) view, the cutting of the side rear window is strange and the roof is too high and square at my point of view, but now I get accustomed to, and I really love the bestial front end with its concealed headlights (when they're working...)
 







But I continue to inspect the car and the bad surprises are continuing, I find a brick on the floor below the carpet...why? Probably there is an infiltration somewhere, I'm not surprised with these old cars and their delicate window seals, my A and C pillars seems to be quite clean but there is a beginning of corrosion, and the upper seal of the windshield is really rough (the chrome molding is missing too), it's pretty sure that the rain is entering



An old factory tag found into the car


The dash pad has been damaged not only by the sun but also I think by the humidity and water infiltration
 


The driver door panel...


A troubling detail, the two C-pillars showing a sort of junction, looks alike a paint drip but this is crusty like a rust blister, is my roof been changed?! <br>It's difficult to see on a picture but in real life with the light reflects it's absolutely freaky lol


Rust at the bottom of the backglass


The door bottoms are clean



The interior brown colour is awful but I love the steering wheel with its ring horn
However, the horn is not working -_-


The AM radio with its 8-tracks cassette player, wow! <br>In extra, I've found 2 old cassettes in the car!<br>But I never succeed at doing work this cassette player lol
 


The 4 original hubcaps are here, and relatively decent





The floors are rust-coloured but seems to be straight<br>You may see the muffler appearence, like on my '72 Cadillac it is completely deformed, probably because of a misfire probably


The rust is dripping outside of the backglass seal...I'm apprehensive of what I'm gonna find when I'll remove the chrome moldings and rubber seals



This cursed 383...
At least it's running good and starts easier than my previous old carb cars


The original ID plate:
CAR: Chrysler 300 4 Door Hardtop
ENGINE: 440cid 4-bbl V8
TRANSMISSION: 3-Speed Automatic
TIRES: Unknown tire code
BUILD DATE: May 10.
AXLE: 2.76 Rear Axle Ratio
INTERIOR:&nbsp; Gold Interior.
PAINT: Monotone Medium Gold Metallic Paint.
OTHER: Black Horizontal Accent Stripe.
MOLDINGS: 14: Sill Mouldings
30: Body Belt Mouldings
78: Wheel Lip Mouldings
ABC OPTIONS:
R0: AM 8-Track Radio
Y6: Black Vinyl Top
abc OPTIONS:
h7: Fender or Hood Mounted Turn Signal Indicators
u1: Sold Car When Built (Somebody Ordered It)
w6: Build to Spec's for Canada
The original AM 8-tracks radio and fender mounted signal indicators stills there, but the vinyl top has been probably removed when a previous owner repainted the car


The original 1968 license plate
 
Welcome.
Would be interesting to hear about all the circumstances on how you acquired the 300.
 
I would prefer have a Fuselage but maybe I'll keep my 68 a few months/years and buy a 69/70 after
If I keep the car I would like to install prettier wheels, larger rims and tires and dog dish caps, I dream about this wheels since a lot of years and can't do it because my previous Caddies were too classy for that but a 300 is sportier and a sort of 4 doors muscle-car, right?
Yes I know mine is a poor 383 but we don't know, maybe one day if I keep the car a few years I'll give it back a 440?
Wheels like this:



Probably some of you find this could be a shame to put these wheels on this car and I understand that because I'm a OEM defender, I love original cars in their original form, but mine is not original all the way (paint, engine, and maybe soon, floors) so why not?
"Sport" steel rims with little dog dish or baby-moon caps, dual exhaust (with maybe a Magnaflow or Flowmaster and an electric cutout), this car could be nice I think
So this is it for my first post, I've started to working on the car few days ago, I've removed all interior (seats, carpets), open the trunk, "repair" concealed headlights system, and I swear at each rain shower because a major water infiltration by the windshield and the backglass, I'm gonna show you all of that in pictures and I hope we'll can give me some advices for resolve this problem
My flooring pans remains straight and solid but there is a couple of little rust holes even so :/

Someone here has a similar infiltration problem on his C-Body?
 
I do not think you did bad at all I will go buy a 95 Honda and trade you? LOL. Hell what year Honda do you want. Just kidding car looks nice enough.
 
i would trade hondas all day long for these, no problem.

ya the rust sucks. drive the hell out of it.

and a K-Tel tape, holy wow thats classic heh
 
Welcome to the site from the Motor City! Love the car, the rust sucks but I'd seal it up somehow and drive the wheels off of it.
 
I usually don't like 4 doors but you car is really nice looking with the black and white interior.
 
The only reason I wouldn't trade a Honda for that car is because I'd never own a Honda.
 
Congratulations and welcome aboard! I think you got a good trade, the car looks pretty nice. It sounds like you did a lot of work to it already. The chrome looks good and I like the hub caps, and the tires look new or newer. I wouldn't invest too much in it and just drive it for now. You're a young guy and it sounds like you don't keep your cars very long so I wouldn't put too much into it, but it sounds like you know what you're doing.
Joe
 
Welcome aboard. Nice car. Looks like you are going to be doing a lot of body work. how do the floor and trunk pan look?
 
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