Ram50V8
New Member
So I knew about this forum from long ago via brothers (and friends) of mine in Vaccaville California. This goes back to when I owned a 1968 Chrysler 300 convertible for almost 22 years. Which is this car - For Sale - 1968 Chrysler 300 convertible (Maine) - $10,900 . It has been 13 years since I last saw it so let me fill you in. In 2004 I decided to give up my life as an auto mechanic and go to work for the military in Iraq. I put all my stuff in storage including my collection of cars (1968 300 convert, 1968 300 coupe, 1968 New Yorker sedan, 1968 Newport coupe w/stylized top - yes I have a thing for 1968 C-Bodies, several RAM50's in various states of conversion to V8's and a 1 of 75 built 1974 GTX along with a huge collection of spare/OE/custom parts. Upon my return in 2008 I was a bit stressed out (un diagnosed PTSD) so I decided to focus on me. Built a nice shop at home, 40X60 with heated floor and then had a falling out with the now ex. I am not going to go into details about the falling out but lets just say I opened my mouth and went where no man should go concerning her weight. About this time I also suffered a severe back injury (rolling over in bed of all places) which left me paralyzed from the waist down for a a few weeks and a long recovery process. Anyway, my now ex along with help from the rest of my family managed to wipe me out financially and since not able to work or fight her in court they were able to liquidate what they could and abandon the remaining (this 300 convertible is one of the abandoned sadly to say) Needless to say, my love of classic cars was ruined and has taken me this long to finally talk about it.
So, what made me finally talk about it? Well a young man came into my shop (Drollinger Auto repair) recently with a huge interest in classics and I proceeded to open up and teach him a few things about my early days. In 1978 I bought my first 68 C body. A Newport sedan, 383 auto light blue metallic to be exact for $100. It barely ran, had no brakes at all and still had the original mile long muffler under it. On the way home with my foot on the floor the muffler blew off (which my buddy following me collected) and it ran better. The next day I took it to the high school auto shop and the instructor taught me how to install points. (mind you I knew nothing about car repair at that time) Short story, I drove that car about 6 months with no brakes (in retrospect I realize the master cylinder was bad) but what impressed me was how durable the transmission was since I would throw it into reverse and nail the gas at the same time to stop. This would lead to some interesting car and tire activity lol. So in the trunk of this Newport was an original dealer brochure and in it was a photo of a gorgeous girl with a deep red metallic 300 convertible (god I loved that picture) From that point on I was on a mission to get a 68 300 convertible. Problem was, not many were built (just a tad over 2100 as I remember) so in my quest to find one I looked at many, but I was either not impressed at the condition for the price or just plain out of my $$$ range.
Fast forward to August 1988, my dad had died and I was approached by a former boss who had moved across the country and happened to be in town (Champaign Illinois) who offered me a house to purchase. So I decided to buy the house and give up on trying to find the "just right" 68 300 convertible. About 8 months later a friend calls me to say a 300 vert in for sale in the Thrifty Nickle. I decided to call and one thing lead to another I ended up buying the car for 2K.
Details about the 68 300 convertible.....
So the 300 vert. had some body damage when I bought it. Bambi had committed suicide causing body damage and the original engine had overheated per the person I bought it off of. The right front fender and hood were dark green. The sub frame was bent and it had a 400 2bbl engine in it. The original 440 TNT was supposedly buried in the weeds but was never located and long gone. I had a friend try to color match the paint (close but obvious) and I eventually acquired a 440 out of a mid 70's New Yorker (1977 I believe) The New Yorker was one I had towed in from an accident. The lady who owned it was the former wife of George Chin (goggle that name from Champaign Illinois, quite the character) Anyway, I installed the 440, with an intake from Scott Spies (BPT Racing) and an air cleaner from a 1973 or 74 Road Runner with a repo TNT pie plate. The radiator that came in the 300 vert (when it was 400 powered) was not an original so installing an original fan shroud was not an option. I ended up taking a piece of 1/4" lexan and making a shroud. This car had a nasty habit of closing the headlamp doors at idle so I traced the problem to voltage drop to the headlamp door relay. Now let me tell you, having those doors suddenly close in the dark of night while driving was at best annoying and definitely scary. Not wanting to alter the car any more than necessary, I installed a relay on the center grill support to control the headlamp door motors that had a very low drop out voltage thereby keep those doors open at idle. The original alternator was rated at 36 amps on a good day and the wiring was not going to like a higher rated alternator. So although I really enjoyed driving this car there was a problem with having time to drive it. When I bought it (1989) only had 74K miles on it. So when I was not driving it, it was parked at my sisters farm in the work shop. Around 1990 Her son, my nephew asked one day if he could take it for a drive. I said "OK" but if anything happened he was to make it right. Well, he had a minor mishap, causing a crease in one of the rear quarter panels. Since I was planning at some point repainting the car I opted for him to purchase a new top from Warshawsky and Company (J.C. Whitney) black since the original white top was crap and I did not like that color anyway. Moving ahead to the year 2000, my mom had passed away that spring, I discovered the Canadian version of the Mopar Nationals in Kitchner, Ontario Canada so I made a plan to get the 300 ready for a road trip. I had managed to track down several rebuild kits for the Bud 4 piston calipers and a set of Raybestos pads (let me tell you, at the time finding these parts was not easy) So I set out to fix her up and correct a few problems. Reds Muffler shop in Urbana Illinois bent up a new exhaust based on the original patterns and even had the original exhaust hangers in stock (a big plus) I removed the original fuse box (fried, and glass fuses) and installed 2 new BUSS ATC 8 place fuse boxes to divide up the load and eliminate the dreaded burnt fuse problems these were known for. I stripped the carpet and padding, installed 2 layers of padding and a new repo carpet (not the best repo, but all that was available at the time). My GF at the time sewed up a new rear seat and piping for the trim panels. I recovered the doors with new matching carpet lowers and the vinyl covering I found at at old upholstery shop. Then on to finally replacing the top. So I had the factory service manual and found a copy of (How To Install A Chrysler Convertible Top - Or How To Erect A Circus Tent Single-Handedly!!) I also found a 1968 Newport convertible in a salvage yard that was totally trashed and rusted away but had a perfect front top bow (since mine was rusted out) I also installed new P265-60R15 tires on 15JJ wheels and MOON wheel covers (held on with screws on the edge). Rebuilt the front end with new ball joints (try to find original lowers then was a night mare but MOOG came through) and the strut arm bushings, tho NLA were sourced from a dodge van and modified to fit.
The trip to Canada went great, averaged about 19 to 21 MPG (except for play time), I put about 2100 miles on it during that trip and the only problem we had was a slight leaking caliper piston. I would have replaced the caliper pistons before the trip but at the time finding those was not going to happen. As an aside, I still have in my tool box an original set of MOPAR brake pads n the box. There are a bunch more details about this car but it is late, this is something I have not wanted to talk about since the break up and loss and only because of a young man showing an interest in classic Mopars did I decide to write. So in 22+ years of owning it I managed to put about 26K miles on it.
So, what made me finally talk about it? Well a young man came into my shop (Drollinger Auto repair) recently with a huge interest in classics and I proceeded to open up and teach him a few things about my early days. In 1978 I bought my first 68 C body. A Newport sedan, 383 auto light blue metallic to be exact for $100. It barely ran, had no brakes at all and still had the original mile long muffler under it. On the way home with my foot on the floor the muffler blew off (which my buddy following me collected) and it ran better. The next day I took it to the high school auto shop and the instructor taught me how to install points. (mind you I knew nothing about car repair at that time) Short story, I drove that car about 6 months with no brakes (in retrospect I realize the master cylinder was bad) but what impressed me was how durable the transmission was since I would throw it into reverse and nail the gas at the same time to stop. This would lead to some interesting car and tire activity lol. So in the trunk of this Newport was an original dealer brochure and in it was a photo of a gorgeous girl with a deep red metallic 300 convertible (god I loved that picture) From that point on I was on a mission to get a 68 300 convertible. Problem was, not many were built (just a tad over 2100 as I remember) so in my quest to find one I looked at many, but I was either not impressed at the condition for the price or just plain out of my $$$ range.
Fast forward to August 1988, my dad had died and I was approached by a former boss who had moved across the country and happened to be in town (Champaign Illinois) who offered me a house to purchase. So I decided to buy the house and give up on trying to find the "just right" 68 300 convertible. About 8 months later a friend calls me to say a 300 vert in for sale in the Thrifty Nickle. I decided to call and one thing lead to another I ended up buying the car for 2K.
Details about the 68 300 convertible.....
So the 300 vert. had some body damage when I bought it. Bambi had committed suicide causing body damage and the original engine had overheated per the person I bought it off of. The right front fender and hood were dark green. The sub frame was bent and it had a 400 2bbl engine in it. The original 440 TNT was supposedly buried in the weeds but was never located and long gone. I had a friend try to color match the paint (close but obvious) and I eventually acquired a 440 out of a mid 70's New Yorker (1977 I believe) The New Yorker was one I had towed in from an accident. The lady who owned it was the former wife of George Chin (goggle that name from Champaign Illinois, quite the character) Anyway, I installed the 440, with an intake from Scott Spies (BPT Racing) and an air cleaner from a 1973 or 74 Road Runner with a repo TNT pie plate. The radiator that came in the 300 vert (when it was 400 powered) was not an original so installing an original fan shroud was not an option. I ended up taking a piece of 1/4" lexan and making a shroud. This car had a nasty habit of closing the headlamp doors at idle so I traced the problem to voltage drop to the headlamp door relay. Now let me tell you, having those doors suddenly close in the dark of night while driving was at best annoying and definitely scary. Not wanting to alter the car any more than necessary, I installed a relay on the center grill support to control the headlamp door motors that had a very low drop out voltage thereby keep those doors open at idle. The original alternator was rated at 36 amps on a good day and the wiring was not going to like a higher rated alternator. So although I really enjoyed driving this car there was a problem with having time to drive it. When I bought it (1989) only had 74K miles on it. So when I was not driving it, it was parked at my sisters farm in the work shop. Around 1990 Her son, my nephew asked one day if he could take it for a drive. I said "OK" but if anything happened he was to make it right. Well, he had a minor mishap, causing a crease in one of the rear quarter panels. Since I was planning at some point repainting the car I opted for him to purchase a new top from Warshawsky and Company (J.C. Whitney) black since the original white top was crap and I did not like that color anyway. Moving ahead to the year 2000, my mom had passed away that spring, I discovered the Canadian version of the Mopar Nationals in Kitchner, Ontario Canada so I made a plan to get the 300 ready for a road trip. I had managed to track down several rebuild kits for the Bud 4 piston calipers and a set of Raybestos pads (let me tell you, at the time finding these parts was not easy) So I set out to fix her up and correct a few problems. Reds Muffler shop in Urbana Illinois bent up a new exhaust based on the original patterns and even had the original exhaust hangers in stock (a big plus) I removed the original fuse box (fried, and glass fuses) and installed 2 new BUSS ATC 8 place fuse boxes to divide up the load and eliminate the dreaded burnt fuse problems these were known for. I stripped the carpet and padding, installed 2 layers of padding and a new repo carpet (not the best repo, but all that was available at the time). My GF at the time sewed up a new rear seat and piping for the trim panels. I recovered the doors with new matching carpet lowers and the vinyl covering I found at at old upholstery shop. Then on to finally replacing the top. So I had the factory service manual and found a copy of (How To Install A Chrysler Convertible Top - Or How To Erect A Circus Tent Single-Handedly!!) I also found a 1968 Newport convertible in a salvage yard that was totally trashed and rusted away but had a perfect front top bow (since mine was rusted out) I also installed new P265-60R15 tires on 15JJ wheels and MOON wheel covers (held on with screws on the edge). Rebuilt the front end with new ball joints (try to find original lowers then was a night mare but MOOG came through) and the strut arm bushings, tho NLA were sourced from a dodge van and modified to fit.
The trip to Canada went great, averaged about 19 to 21 MPG (except for play time), I put about 2100 miles on it during that trip and the only problem we had was a slight leaking caliper piston. I would have replaced the caliper pistons before the trip but at the time finding those was not going to happen. As an aside, I still have in my tool box an original set of MOPAR brake pads n the box. There are a bunch more details about this car but it is late, this is something I have not wanted to talk about since the break up and loss and only because of a young man showing an interest in classic Mopars did I decide to write. So in 22+ years of owning it I managed to put about 26K miles on it.
was a mistake and wasn’t intended. Sorry about that.
