My    

1970 

Chrysler 300 Convertible

I bought this car in Las Vegas,  Nevada on November 9, 1999 from a small used car dealer on Boulder Blvd. My wife and I happen to be in Vegas for the grand opening party of the Race Rock Cafe'. Early Saturday morning we decided to cruise Vegas before returning home.  We passed one Used Car dealership and I had to turn the car around to confirm what I thought I saw.  Once we pulled in the lot, I couldn't believe my eyes.  The car I've been searching for many months was sitting right in front of me,  FOR SALE.  And a convertible no less.  The minute I saw this car I knew I had to have it.    Not acting too enthusiastic, I worked out a reasonable price and deposit with the dealer.  I returned to Tucson and secured the balance due. My son Eric and I booked a flight to Vegas the next weekend and planned on driving her home.   We literally arrived Friday night, went down Saturday morning, paid the dealer, got the keys and title, put the top down and drove all the way back to Tucson, Arizona.  I didn't do much in the way of making any major repairs to it right away as it was pretty dependable and safe driving it just the way it was. I knew the motor was a little tired, but I drove the car a little over 2 years anyway, knowing a rebuild was soon to come. This car was ordered with few options but just enough for my liking.  

The fender tag reads as follows and the car is equipped as a;

The interior view

Prior to all that, this car has a some interesting history behind it.  

The story has it that a gentlemen by the name of Thomas A. Thomas was the original owner.  Mr. Thomas took delivery of this car on April 10, 1970.  It was purchased new from Northland Chrysler-Plymouth in Oak Park, Michigan.  I have documentation to support that.  My understanding is that Mr. Thomas had a brother who worked at the Jefferson St. Chrysler plant when this car was built.  In addition, his brother supposedly walked the car through the assembly line while it was being built monitoring the  workmanship while it was assembled.   This is the the story that the dealer told me when I purchased it.  It is was stated that Mr. Thomas was the only owner of the car and that after the age of 83 or so,  he thought it best he retire from driving all together.  He therefore sold the car to La Joya Muscle Cars & Classics.  Buy the way, in case you're ever in the area, these are some real cool Mopar guys to talk to.  It's a little hole in the wall dealer, but most of their cars were the real deal and in decent condition.  The phone number that I had for Mr. Thomas from his last known address in Las Vegas turned out to be disconnected.  The dealer recalls him mentioning about moving back to the Vancouver, WA. area, a place he once lived.  The documentation and file of receipts that came with the car show maintenance and repairs were done in Vancouver, WA. I have made numerous attempts to locate Mr. Thomas so that I can verify the cars  history, and chat with him a bit, but I have yet to be successful.   When time permits, I plan on doing more research to confirm this story.  If anybody is familiar with this car or former owner,  please don't hesitate to contact me.  Thank you

    lda5878@aol.com    

Chrysler 300 rebuild.....................

In March of 2002 I decided to undertake the project of rebuilding the engine and detailing the engine bay.  About the only decent part of this engine at the time was the fairly new 750cfm. Edelbrock carburetor I installed right before the rebuild.  

 In late March, the 440 was pulled and brought down to "Doc's Engine in Tucson, Arizona for a complete overhaul and modification.

I delivered the 440 to Doc's with it wearing  32 years of filth, crud, dirt, grease and grime.  About as dirty as it could get.  The original engine color was barely noticeable.

Unfortunately the same was true for the inside of the motor.  This motor had 78,000 miles of hard life. This was the oil pan shortly after it was removed from the block.  Let that be a lesson to people that don't change their oil regularly.  The particles you see at the bottom of the pan are from the plastic coating on the Cam gear......don't ask, that's a whole other chapter.

Note the plastic coating on the gear teeth that eventually cracked off and ended up in the oil.

Pieces of plastic in the oil pump filter.  How long before that would have completely blocked the oil flow and possibly ceased the engine?  This rebuild couldn't have been done soon enough.

The Block shortly after being boiled clean.......well sort of clean

This is what happens when you heat a block up to 500+ degrees (a.k.a. Amp Probe).  Any, grease, grime dirt that thought it was going to hang around is eventually turned to ash.  Now that is absolutely clean.

The engine in the early stages of honing and boring the cylinders.

I finally got to paint it with High Temp POR15. I can't say enough about this stuff.  It applies real easy with a simple brush (yes I said brush) and DOES NOT leave any brush strokes. The finish looks like there is several layers of  clear coat.  There is a series of preparation steps you have to follow carefully to get the best results.  The true test will be time.

Only the best, Keith Black pistons.......yeah baby!  A small glimpse of the quality parts that went in this engine rebuild. 

"Da Cam"  Hughes cam (208/214 DEG @ .050", lift.458/.470), valve springs and Hydraulic lifters.  Note; hammer at bottom left of photograph was not used to install it.  

"Doc's Engine" Tucson Arizona, engine builders Paul (left) Owner Bruce (right).   This is not your Daddy's Chrysler 440.  This engine was built with A LOT of goodies and modifications.   E-mail me for more details and specifications at; lda5878@aol.com

It's just a Labor of Love.....

While my 440 was down at Doc's getting the much needed overhaul, I was busy tearing down the rest of the engine bay preparing it for paint, detailing and replacement parts.  All this was done on my driveway while sitting on a tow dolly I borrowed from my buddy Corey.  It turned out to be ideal for getting underneath and moving it around from shop to shop.  

After it was torn apart, she was towed to  "New Image" on the west side of Tucson for a 2-stage paint process of PPG and clear coat.  Picture at right is of Shane,  my paint and body guy who  performed the work of art.  

                                                    Here's the 300 shortly after I picked it up from Shane.  What a major improvement and a nice paint job.  I hope to have the rest of the car painted somewhere down the line. 

These pictures were taken during the re-assembly process.  All parts were either cleaned, painted and refurbished or completely replaced.  

Look Ma, no left over parts!  The engine bay was now completely detailed and looking better than the day it came off the assembly line!  Well you know what I mean.  

           Dave (Master Mopar mechanic) of "One Stop Automotive", in Tucson  supervising and leading the installation of my 440.

                               Think about it reaaaalll hard before you ever decide to put Headers on a C-body.   It was a tight fit to say the least.    Here are a few things to make note of;  The headers come very close to the torsion bars, the transmission lines had to be custom made to fit properly, I installed a high torque mini starter, assuming the room would be limited in that area for a stock starter (I was right), and one pipe was barely touching the steering column.  With the patients of a a brain surgeon, precision maneuvering and minor adjustments, I think we finally have the engine set just right.  However, I'm not 100% sure we're out of the woods yet.

      I had the exhaust system installed by "Eastside Performance Exhaust" in Tucson.   It is of the X-design with18" Magna-flows (straight flow through muffler) and 2.5" pipe from Header all the way out to the rear bumper.  Statistics show that this is the most efficient and maximum performance exhaust design available.  I guess that's why Nascar has used it for years.   

                                                                                                                    Rear tail pipes

The transmission is just another highlight of what I think is going to contribute greatly to the performance of my car.  I had the transmission shipped here from Cope Racing Transmissions (CRT) out of Cedar lake, Indiana (http://coperacingtrans.com) This company has a long history of experience with performance transmissions. They originated from the Southeast side of Chicago, my old stomping grounds( so how could I go wrong). This 727 is modified with a shift kit and coupled with a B&M 2400 stall converter.  I will elaborate more on it's overall performance once I get it roadworthy. 

Engine in!.......................just a few more loose ends to tie up and then it's ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM!

Well, almost 2 months to the day later since dropping the motor back in, the engine Project is finally complete.  The 440 runs very strong as expected, the Magna-flows mufflers and exhaust flow great, sound very quiet with a nice deep tone, and the CRT transmission has the torque I thought it would.    All in all I'm very, very happy with the results.  I'm now in search of a 3.55 sure-grip and this car will be a great cruiser.  

The dash turned out to be gauge installation friendly. I'm glad I didn't have to hack anything up to get them installed and mounted. 

Next will be a 1.25" inch sway bar in front and a .75" inch sway bar for the back.

Stay tuned. To Be continued....................................