My 300 K Story, Full Circle:
My first car was a 1964 Chrysler
Windsor, two door coupe that I bought in 1970. I chose that car
because it belonged to an older couple and I thought that it was a
classy car that had never been abused. I was thinking of the hoops I
had put my Father’s poor little Plymouth through as a young
teenager and learning to drive. More importantly, I liked the
styling. When I got my first job, the muscle car era was still in
full swing, so the Chrysler was sold in favor of a 69 Mach 1 and
after that I went through a succession of cars besides my daily
drivers that included a couple of TR6s and a couple of Plymouth
Cudas. Of course you never forget your first love or your first
car. I was actually at the local hot rod shop one day and I came
across a book entitled “Letters from Chrysler”. This was
my introduction to the famed 300 Letter Cars. I was overjoyed to
find out that the series extended into 1964. I was amazed to read
about the rich history of the mighty 300s. I considered myself to be
a Mopar expert and I had never even heard about these cars nor had I
ever seen one.
In short order, I had convinced
myself that I needed a 300 K in honor of my first car. I bought a
copy of Hemmings Motor News and that is when I discovered the
Chrysler 300 Club International. At that time the club’s home
address was Ann Arbor, Michigan, just a stone throw across the
border from my home in Windsor, Ontario. I made an application for
membership and shortly after that, I had a nice phone conversation
with George and Eleanor Riehl. George was the club President and
Eleanor was the club Secretary and they had a 300 K convertible for
sale.
I bought the car and had a full body and paint treatment done
to it at RM in Chatham, Ontario. While they had the car for a year,
I had the motor rebuilt and had detailed all of the under hood
components. So I had a beautiful Sable Tan 300 K to take to the 300
Club Meets. With experience comes knowledge. Even though I loved
the K it was a single four barrel 360 HP engine and I became drawn to
a 1957, Black, 300C Coupe. The 300K made its debut at the 1989
Spring Meet in Des Moines, Iowa. Don Rook, a club member from
Pennsylvania was in the midst of moving his extensive car collection
from Pleasant Valley to Mena Arkansas. He was driving the C to
Arkansas and stopping at Des Moines along the way. He asked me to
chauffer him and a few other friends around the meet. I was in love.
At that time the car had been in storage for 20 years or so and was
still wearing its original paint, the seats were torn and the dash
pad was sagging so badly, the glove box could not be opened. But,
wow the howl of that hemi and the torque were music and adrenaline.
So after that adventure Don and I entered into, on again and off
again negotiations over a couple of years. Finally a deal was struck
and I sold the K and flew to Arkansas; with a return trip home
scheduled to coincide with the 1994 Spring Meet in St. Louis
Missouri.
I got it home on a wing and a prayer, second gear had
failed on the transmission and there was a slow coolant leak out of
one of the frost plugs. The summer passed by with a new dash pad,
original style seat covers from Legendary, new carpet and a trunk
detailing kit from Gary Goers. The car had been painted in a black
epoxy and it sanded and polished up to a nice finish. I spent more
than one day under the car, descaling and painting the under
carriage. Finally there was just one universe to conquer. The
engine and trans. came out. The engine bay was stripped and painted,
transmission rebuilt, cylinder heads overhauled with new valve guides
and I changed the timing gears and chain. With everything detailed,
it all went back together and my wife and I took it to many meets.
The 25th Anniversary club meet was in Tallahassee Florida.
I remember getting in the car in the parking lot at 5 AM and being
home and in bed at 10:30 PM. The big hemi just ate up the miles;
not even breaking a sweat to cruise all day at 70/75 MPH. Then I had
a brain fade. Everyone has an Achilles’ heel. I live in the
pleasure boat capital of the world. There are more boats per capita
in the Detroit area than anywhere else in the world. I sold the C
to a club member, Bob Merritt and I used the money to buy a boat.
After that we attended a few more meets just to see our many friends
and then finally I allowed my club membership to lapse.
We went through a series of boats.
It’s called “footitis”; where you keep trading up
to get bigger and bigger boats. Finally work demands exceeded the
leisure time and cleaning the bigger boat was a chore. So we
decided to sell the boat, no easy task with the price of fuel. One
day I clicked on the 300 Club website and I was excited to see, a new
to me, feature, E-News. Electronic news letters with pictures of old
friends and video footage of old meets. I was watching myself and
the C at a number of different meets. I showed the films to my wife
and I reapplied for a membership. Here is the great thing about the
300 club. Yes we are all enthusiastic about the cars; but the people
are the real deal. They are steadfast friends, always willing to
support and help. I knew the moment my application was received;
because I started to receive welcome back e-mails from many old
friends. One of the e-mails was from Bob Merritt; who I had sold the
C to and he told me that he was looking to “thin the herd”
if I was looking for a club car. Well I still had the big boat so I
was on hold for buying a 300. I saw that the fall meet was going to
be held in Mystic Connecticut. I convinced my wife that we should at
least go and see old friends. We did that and had a great time as
always.
Meanwhile I was keeping an eye on the classified section of
the club news, with an idea towards hunting down a Ram K. My hunger
for anything 300 had me reading through the tech articles and in the
E-news section there were a number of You Tube tech. videos by my
friend Bob. Then I saw one that really got my attention. Bob was
taking delivery of a beautiful Roman Red 300 Ram K coupe from
Florida. I had two thoughts A: Lucky Dog & B: This is the
opposite of thinning the herd.
I work for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
Transport. FCA is the only auto manufacturer that runs a fleet of
their own transport trucks for delivering parts to the various
assembly plants. Recently we opened up a new division of auto
transports. The car hauler guys sent me a video for a commercial
that Dodge had made, showing the fleet departing Brampton Assembly,
convoy style, all loaded up with new Hellcats. I passed the video on
to all my car buddies.
Bob immediately fired back with a note saying
there was too much snow on the ground to buy a Hellcat; so he had
bought a Ram K. Hold the phone, I replied back, asking him if this
was the Florida K. He assured me that this was another new addition,
a Roman Red 300 K coupe from Buffalo, New York. I had two more
thoughts, A: Double Lucky Dog & B: Maybe he would part with one.
In the spring of 2015 the boat sold and I planned on attending the
300 meet in Macungie PA. I made arrangements to visit Bob enroute to
the meet. I wanted to see if either Ram K could be bought.
Unfortunately Bob became ill so that was a no go. I again hoped to
speak with him at the 2016 Spring Holland Mich. Meet but he could not
attend. After I got home, I called him and enquired about the
possibility of purchasing the Buffalo K and made arrangements for my
wife and I to visit him. So the appointed date arrived. After a
ride and drive and some deliberation, I agreed to buy the Buff K, as
we started calling it. After touring Bob’s home town, we met
another club member, Jamie Hyde for dinner. Remember what I said
about the great people in the club. Jamie volunteered to deliver the
K to me with his own truck and trailer. Once I was back at home, I
sent Bob payment and arranged for a broker to assist with importing
the car into Canada. There were various scheduling conflicts; but we
finally selected a date to get the job done on Friday July 22. Jamie
went to Bob’s the Sunday before and loaded up the car. On the
Thursday, he took his truck, trailer and the K to work. After work
he left for Detroit. He slept in his truck at a service center on
the highway that evening and we met at another travel center near
Monroe Mich., early on Friday morning. I rode with Jamie to the
Ambassador Bridge, got through customs on both sides of the border
and the car was delivered to my house. Jamie would only take money
for fuel and the road tolls, his costs. He gave up a vacation day
and would not hear of me paying for a motel for the Thursday night.
That is a friend indeed.
It turns out that there had been an
improper repair done to the door at the lower hinge area and under
fluorescent lighting the car showed several different shades of Roman
Red, on various panels. In for a dime, in for a dollar as the saying
goes; so all suspect areas were cut out and replaced with new metal
and the entire car was painted. There is a panel that runs from
inner fender to inner fender that supports the top or the big cross
bar grille. That was removed and used to get a color match as it was
unmolested and had been out of exposure from the sun. I am totally
pleased with the paint. The stock pin stripping lines still need to
be done; but after three months I was happy to have the car home.
At the present time I am knee deep in cleaning and detailing the
engine. Most of the components have been removed and cleaned. The
left side motor mount was split, so both mounts have been replaced.
On the ninety degree days last summer, the car showed a tendency to
run too hot. I verified this with an infrared heat gun. So the
radiator has been sent out and boiled, I opted for a Mopar
Performance eight blade water pump and I found an anti-collapse
spring for the lower radiator hose in my stock of old parts in my
garage attic. Hopefully the overheating has been addressed. The
radiator shop claimed there was a 20 percent blockage in the
radiator.
