Re: {Chrysler 300} 300F top booth color.

[Noel Hastalis <cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi J-Y,

A few follow-up comments -

• Looking back at my photos of Gil's Polar Blue F convertible that he brought to our St Charles, IL and Chattanooga TN Meets, it was fitted with a white convertible top. All my photos at these Meets of Gil's F with its top down, show it without a boot installed, so I can't say what's the color of this F's boot.
• Looking through my books -
  • Ackerson's 'Chrysler 300' makes no reference to boot colors.
  • Gunnell's 'Chrysler 300 1955-1961'
    • Does indeed comment that "Standard boot colors were black and red, but at least one car with specially ordered Polar Blue paint had a matching blue boot." This comment credited by Gunnell to Bruce Hoover, co-owner with George Cone of the Alaskan White P-a-M 4-speed F convertible.
      • My added thought on this is that the 'red' cited by Bruce Hoover could in fact be Chrysler's Terra Cotta color that i offered on F convertible tops, like the one formerly owned by our late 300 Club member, Tom Garrard. As see in the Mecum photos of this car, that top's color appears very vivid.
        • My side comment - since George Cone and Bruce Hoover lived less than an hour from me here in Illinois, I really regret not having been married to our 300 Club back then and knowing these folks. In visiting with Joe Jordan, he speaks of spending many hours thrashing this white F convertible and says he likely spent more hours behind its wheel than did its owners.
        • There was a fellow located not far from me in near west suburban Chicago - Andy Mikonis will recall his name - who had a white F coupe with 888 red interior, among a handful of Letter Cars he owned. Saw it about 15 years ago when I first got my F.
      • Disappointing to see that Gunnell misspelled the name of our legendary late Chrysler engineer, Burt Bouwkamp. Gunnell misspelled it as Bert Beauchamp.
      • I also question Gunnell's bizarre comment "Styling for 1960 was not dramatically changed although the product looked fresh from every angle. ..." 
  • Mike Mueller's 'Chrysler Muscle Cars, The Ultimate Guide', on Page 30 shows 3 photos of Tom Garrard's Terra Cotta F with its convertible top raised. It does show a rear seat shot that catches what looks like the boot tucked into the rear well, showing it to be black. Mueller again mentions the 3 convertible top colors, without mention of the boot color(s).
  • Consumer Guide's 'Chrysler Chronicle,' in its 2-page pictorial spread of 1960 Chryslers, makes no mention of boot colors. That said, it includes a photo of a '60 NYer convertible that looks to be a '61-color Dubonnet metallic color with white interior and a white convertible boot. This same NYer was the cover car of the 'Collectible Automobile' December 1994 issue. My cousin and I bid on this NYer at RM's Phoenix AZ Biltmore Auction back then, but it bid higher than our limit. That's for the better as the car, as beautiful as it looked, had significant rust bubbling below the stainless sill plates when I crawled under to inspect it. This article also shows a blue '61 NYer convertible with a white boot.
  • Automobile Quarterly Vol. 18 #4 featured the Chrysler 300 Letter Cars. Their article makes no mention of convertible top or boot colors. One glaring error - it cites the normal 300-F as having 275 hp, with optional hotter 400 hp.
  • Krause Publications 'Standard Catalog of Chrysler 1914-2000' lists several specs for each of the Chrysler years, including the 300-F, but doesn't address convertible top and boot colors.
  • A few other Chrysler-related books, but none mentioned convertible top or boot colors.

Noel

On 04/07/2023 10:32 AM Jean-Yves Chouinard <jymopar@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

That does seem odd to offer red as an available boot color...

Thank you for your input Dave.

JY

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From: D.C. Mason <petergriffinforpresident@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: April 7, 2023 3:26 PM
To: Noel Hastalis <cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jean-Yves Chouinard <jymopar@xxxxxxxxxxx>; chrysler-300-club-international@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <chrysler-300-club-international@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: {Chrysler 300} 300F top booth color.

J-Y and Noel,

Not sure if this information is correct, but in this book by John Gunnell, he claims boot covers were either black or red, potentially with Gil Cunnighams cv being the exception if it had a blue boot.  Red doesn’t match the standard paint colors, so that’s odd…

V/r

D&K

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 5, 2023, at 4:30 PM, Noel Hastalis <cpaviper@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi J-Y,

Chrysler offered 3 convertible top colors (colours?) on its 1960 300-Fs - refer to our Club website Tech Section / 1960 Chrysler Order Codes (pdf). On Page 3 of 6, on the right side, you'll see the Factory codes for 300-F basic car colors (BB1, WW1, PP1, ZZ1), interiors (all 353 tan), and tops (331 Black and 332 White - offered with any of the 4 body colors, and 335 Terra Cotta - offered only on ZZ1 Terra Cotta painted cars). Also listed on the 1960 non-pdf file on our site. Neither of these refers specifically to the convertible 'boot' color.

I've attached a couple photos of Terra Cotta convertible top cars -

• Tom Garrard's F that sold thru Mecum Indy 2018 - first 2 photos
  • 1960 Chrysler 300F Convertible | F137 | Indy 2018 (mecum.com)
• My buddies' Petal Pink '60 Windsor on which they installed a Terra Cotta top, seen at Iola 2016

You may also seen videos of Randy Guyer's BB1 and PP1 300-F convertibles, on which he installed non-factory tan-colored Haartz cloth tops -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYKs2QonZlo - video on our Club website for the July 2019 Minneapolis Meet; from about 4:30 to 9:00 of this video, displaying the tan cloth tops.

You can catch a glimpse of part of the boot on the Milt Robson P-a-M 4-speed F convertible - white with white top, and the catalog photo shows a black boot. MR10 Digital Catalogue (rmsothebys.com).  And all the 1960 brochures/ads I see show a black boot. 

It's your call!

Noel

On 04/05/2023 10:26 AM Jean-Yves Chouinard <jymopar@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi group.

Did all 300F convert come with a black top booth? Or tan?

The one on my car needs to be replaced , it is black but I do not know if it's the original one...

Thanks.

Jean-Yves. 

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