The shape of the trunk on the 1960 Chrysler allows water to collect on the trunk lip under the deck lid. On some cars Chrysler installed tubes to drain the water. The tubes, one on each end of the lip, drain water down into the trunk and out through holes in the trunk floor. In 2021 we did a quick survey of some 300Fs to see if there was any pattern which cars did or did not get drain tubes. Here is the summary table: Build date Drain tubes 12-16-59 No 12-31-59 No 01-01-60 No 01-14-60 Yes 02-11-60 No 02-24-60 Yes 02-27-60 No 03-06-60 Yes 03-07-60 Yes 03-30-60 Yes 04-01-60 Yes 05-04-60 Yes 05-05-60 No 05-06-60 No 05-09-60 No 05-13-60 No 05-21-60 Yes 05-26-60 No 06-07-60 No 06-10-60 No 06-16-60 No

It appears most cars did not get tubes as only 8 of 21 cars have them

We were thinking tubes might have been a mid-year introduction but there is no correlation between tubes and build date.

Also of note is that cars with drain tubes have recesses stamped into the trunk lip. This is so the tubes don’t stand above the water level. Did Chrysler have two trunk lip stampings – one with recesses for drain tubes and one without? Or were the recesses added after stamping? I expect we will never know.

Chrysler didn’t limit the drain tubes to the 300F as we had one reply that a 60 NYr had drain tubes. We got more information on Canada cars as Ian Smale writes: “My 1960 Saratoga, October 1959 L.A. Plant build, doesn't have the tubes. I had a 1960 DeSoto Adventurer, Canadian built, that had the tubes. A friend has a Jefferson plant (July 1960) 60 New Yorker with no tubes. He also has a Canadian built 1961 Saratoga that has the tubes. A friend of mine, who knows the cars well, tells me that none of the US built 61's had the drain tubes.”

That 61s didn’t get tubes is interesting since the trunk design was the same as 60 and collected water on the lip. The 1962 design was different – the trunk lid overhangs the trunk lip in 62 and shields the area from water. We have a video on 60 61 62 trunks at https://youtu.be/3SwIS6_Y38Y

There is agreement that the tubes didn’t work well. They clogged easily from water-borne dirt and the tubes themselves are too small in diameter for flow.

We have a video on two Fs, one with and one without drain tubes. See https://youtu.be/em5FucqZS4o

Additional comments on this subject are welcome. Send to bob@simplexco.com.