This was the second letter car I ever purchased. I had gotten my first ever, a G, from Denver Colorado while on a business trip in the 80's, from Charles Clark (past president of the western club).
This 'year of birth' 300 (for me) was found in a club newsletter and was owned by the widow of a Mr. Dante Brazzi of Franklin, MA. It had been sitting outside on an asphalt driveway for 22 years when I acquired it. It was indeed a 'bare bones' 300 with manual steering and crank windows, no power seat, but it did have power brakes. It took me 4 years and a couple of 55 parts cars to restore it from about 1992 to 1996. It was pretty rusty underneath, but I was young and aggressive, so I removed rusted floor, rocker, quarter panel sections as best I could all the way back to factory spot welds and seams, got some panels from Neil Freeman in Montana, and used other bits like doors and fenders from the parts cars and then got a very nice paint job from a body shop that was located right in my town of North Reading, MA. I installed a Goer's interior (except for seats, which I cheaply recovered in vinyl), and did a couple minor upgrades like a search tune radio and a power seat. I kept the car 6V and the one year only master cylinder. Back in the 90's it was easier to stumble on some NOS parts for the restoration, and I think it came out pretty well for an amatuer backyard/garage resto.
Over the ensuing years, I wound up selling both this 55 and my G coupe in order to get a G convertible (that I still have) and a Hurst (also still have).
I still have pictures of my original restoration if anyone wants to discuss this car's past in more detail. I sold it to a man who was looking for a 'sleeper' C300, unadorned with options, and he lived on/near Cape Cod in MA. I believe he then subsequently sold this car to another person also from MA. I'm not sure how it wound up in NJ, and obviously it's had more work done to it more recently.
The spark plug covers, 6V generator, one-year master cylinder, etc. were all on the car when I bought it, along with the Delta Wing air cleaner. It was a very original car when I first bought it, missing only floors, rockers, and lower quarters. ;-) Pretty sure I did a write up on the car for one of the newsletters. I drove the car a lot and it ran very well considering I never rebuilt the engine. I took it from MA to NJ to a couple car shows, and also to a big show in Dedham MA a few times, and multiple cruise nights. I thought it was cool that I was born the same year as the C300, and the price was right, even though I had to put in a ton of 'sweat equity' to bring it back. Glad to see it's still alive and kicking after all these years. A lot of changes/improvements happened between 55 and 61 as you all know. It's much easier to maintain a 61 or 70 car nowadays in 2023 than it is to do a 55 with kingpins/6V electrics/2 speed Powerflite/coil springs/baby Hemi instead of ball joints/12V/3 speed Torqueflite/torsion bars/leaf springs/413 Wedge, so I moved up a decade or so. Unless you have more money and storage than I do, you can't keep them all.
I think I paid $1100 for the car, sold it for $16K 20 years ago or so, and now look at the asking price. Times and prices sure have changed.
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