300F 8403130402
By Gilles GUINEE (FRANCE)
It all started in June1982. I was 22 years old.
One day, one colleague who knew my interest in American cars, came and told me he had seen during a walk in his town around 10 forsaken cars in a barn only 6 miles from where I lived. Among them, he noticed a car that was longer than the other ones, it had fins, tail lights like “fishtails” and a tire cover on the trunk lid. He told me it was a Chrysler. He told me whom they were supposed to belong, I found the phone number of the owner and gave him a call. Yes, it was a Chrysler, it could be for sale but the guy was unable to tell me the year and what kind of Chrysler it was. The car used to be his father’s car, he was deceased and it had been stored since 1976.
The time for me to check in my book, I found a picture of a ’60 convert with long side chrome moldings and a rear end close to the description, the legend said “the famous Chrysler 300F”. Would it be such a car?
A couple days later, I went with my brother to see the car. Among the smaller cars parked next to each others in the barn, you couldn’t miss the Chrysler. It was very bad looking, covered with dust but I was very much impressed. What a shape! I could hardly walk around to inspect the car but I could easily see that it had been victim of vandalism, the rear window was broken to let the access inside. There was almost nothing left on the dashboard, things that remained like the clock, the speedometer and the tachometer were things the vandals were unable to remove, they did break them all. The radio and cigar lighters were stolen. Small pieces of leather on the seats were even cut off. The whole interior was dusty and moist.
The outside showed rust around the trunk lip (the trunk had been forced too), around the rear and front window and at the bottom of front and rear fenders. One thing I didn’t understand was why this car had all these red, white, blue medallions with “300F” letters on both sides and on the wheel covers. The “famous Chrysler 300F” in my book had none (I learned later that the car in my book was in fact a ’60 Windsor convert)!
As I told you above, I was young and not aware of all this, I was however interested by the car. I proposed 2,000 francs, he replied not less than 5,000 francs (around 900 US$ at that time). The following week of reflection was a never-ending week! The car had stayed for years in this barn but I suddenly feared someone else could get the car in these seven days. I finally went to pick it up and I paid his price. He didn’t really know what he was selling and I didn’t really know what I was buying! It was really when I joined the Chrysler 300 Club in 1983 that I realized how rare was a 300F.
Not knowing that much about American cars and for the first opportunity to see a car that could be for sale, I was incredibly lucky to discover this 300F. It could have been a ’58 Chevy 4dr sedan and due to the fact I was a young dreamer, I could have bought it too! I also had the support of my father who let me build the garage in 1983, who never dissuaded me of investing money in such a project but rather encouraged me, his only hope was to have a drive in the car when it would be ready. I must hurry up!
27 years later, I still own the car. It is a long story, a long love story despite we never spent time together on the road.
I was able to learn more about the history of my F.
It was shipped from USA on March 2, 1960 (I was born a couple days later on March 20).
The car was first registered in Paris in the early 60’s. The first owner didn’t keep it more than a month!?! Too fast or too brutal for him?!?
It returned to France Motors, the official importer, for 4 days before it found another owner and left Paris
Late 1963, the car came back to Paris and was successively owned by two garages. I knew at least that one of them was the well-known American cars garage “Jean-Charles Automobiles” because I was lucky to find in a magazine in may 2000 a picture of my F in front of this garage!
The F came around Nantes on the Atlantic coast late 1964 when Jean-Charles sold it to a doctor, M Brachet in a small town, Boussay. One year later, December 6, 1965, as he was about to divorce, it became the property of Mss Brachet who owned a garage in the same town. I got in touch with the son of Dr Brachet a couple years ago, he remembered the car very well, he was a teenager in the ‘60s and his father used to race boats that he trailed to competitions with the F. He knew movies and pictures had been taken by his father but he didn’t find me any! There were probably destroyed after the divorce by his mother.
The car was then sold to a caravans seller in Couëron in September 1966 where I found it in 1982.
-
Date
License
Owner
Location
March 2, 1960
Ship. France
May 4, 1960
1313 JS 75
Ets E. BOUTON
PARIS
06/30/60
1313 JS 75
France Motors
NEUILLY
July 4, 1960
127 EX 27
?
? (Eure)
November 21, 1963
6923 PJ 75
Garage, r-p de Passy
PARIS
December 6, 1963
6923 PJ 75
Garage Jean-Charles Auto.
PARIS
December 10, 1964
217 MW 44
Dr BRACHET
BOUSSAY (Loire-Atl.)
December 6, 1965
217 MW 44
Ms BRACHET
BOUSSAY (Loire-Atl.)
September 23, 1966
217 MW 44
M BRETECHE
COUERON (Loire-Atl.)
June 30, 1982
217 MW 44
Gilles GUINEE
BRAINS (Loire-Atl.)
As for the F restoration, I really started working on it in 1983. It seems so far away now! I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent alone near this impressive car. The garage was a mess!
It seems today the hardest part has been done but there are so many things to do to make it perfect and reliable. Engine was rebuilt in 1987, bodywork and paint in 1992-93 (I shot a 30 min video from the day the F left my garage to the day it came back, repainted. It has to be seen!).
Almost everything was put back together on the car in 1998. In between, the car stayed years without anything done. It has never been a priority for me. I met my wife in September 1987, just after my return from a 6 weeks trip thru the USA. I bought a house in 1988, we got our children in 1989, 1992 and 1999, I couldn’t think about the Chrysler only.
With what had been done in 1998 however, I was able to shoot nice pictures of the car (inside my garage) and express my love for it for an article in a French car magazine about French Chryslers 300 and their owners, that was a kind of satisfaction for me.
The F had been sitting in my parents’ big garage since 1993 when it was repainted. I started work at my home in 2001 to have more rooms and built another big long garage with a place for the F…. one day !!! This took much of my time and money, and there was still nothing left to work on my F and anyway I couldn’t go further by my own.
Late 2007, when I became a member of a very local American car club http://usdreamcars.free.fr/cars.html, I met again one of the two guys who had repainted the F in 1993. He asked for news about my car!!! Seeing my embarrassment, he volunteered to help me in this task.
In March 2009, we finally moved the F out of my parent’s garage, we loaded it on a trailer and drove it to my friend’s garage. He is used to working quickly, things are being done more seriously as he doesn’t intend to keep the car for months.
