Re: [Chrysler300] Value of correct date block

Shannon;

You mentioned that you want it to be an excellent restoration, but not a pure Concours car.

With that in mind, the block in hand is pretty close, like Edward said, it would be way too much trouble, if doable at all to get a more correct block.

The end result is lost on almost anyone admiring your car. and No one will know if the casting date is correct at a show.

In any event, by all means try to enter it in a Concours Judging, if only to get some reference point to keep improving the car with.

This is a good thing for anybody to do, even at the start of the project, loads of info can be gleaned from the judging sheets.

A long time member Dudley Finneyfrock explained his way of dealing with Concours Judging.
This is the best way to do it.

After it was judged, he would thank the judges for their time, receive his award at the Banquet, take the car home at the end of the Meet and leave the judging sheet in the car.

He would wait a week, then start looking at each item which lost points and examine that item. If he agreed it was fair, he would improve or replace that item and move on to the next thing to lose a point or 2. and repeat.

Over the years, his car constantly improved and now his 1970 Hurst is in the Chrysler Museum.

Have fun and Good Luck, Ray

On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 2:44 PM, Edward Mills Antique Tractors <millserat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Personally I would prefer to have a correct block, but correct would mean a reasonably correct casting date - one that is sufficiently earlier than car's build date. And having gone thru that on another project, it may take quite an effort to find such a block. Having a P41 block with an incorrect date code would probably not be worth my effort compared to just rebuilding what you have.

On 1/10/2014 2:25 PM, LabLoverDC@xxxxxxx wrote:

Hello All--Thanks to the excellent information offered here, I've determined the block in our 300 F appears to be from 1964 (V41 HP). As nearly as we can tell, at some point prior to our owning the car, a short block was put in. It appears that everything else (ram induction, carbs, heads, etc.) are proper and presumably original to the car.

The engine is out of the car, and we are undertaking a complete re-build of it. My question is, does anyone have an opinion as to whether we should stick with the 1964 block we have, or try to find a 1960 P41 block, which of course would still not be original to the car but would be mostly correct from a date standpoint? Does that add significant value (enough to make it worth it to go through the expense and trouble of finding a '60 block)?

For a point of reference, we are doing a complete, sub-frame off restoration. While we're not necessarily trying for a concours job, especially with detailed correctness in things like wires, labels, batteries, etc., it will be a very high quality restoration, perhaps one step down from concours (at least, that's what we hope to end up with). The car itself is a black/tan convertible with factory air, and all of the options appear to be correct according to the build sheet if that helps.

I would welcome anyone's opinion on this subject.

Shannon

--
Ray Jones. Y'all come on down an see us. Ya hear?