1957 Chrysler 300C questions

[ubermodel]

I'd like to continue with the '57 300C I stuck back on the shelf several years ago and hopefully somebody here can help with a couple of things:

1. At the NNL East in 2002 or so, Norm Veber (or someone else) at the Replicas & Miniatures booth told me he was possibly coming out with a set of resin 392 Hemi valve covers, which would have the correct "Chrysler FirePower" script on them (the AMT kits' covers were missing this script). I can find no reference to it anywhere on the 'net though, does anyone know if he actually produced such a thing, or if they're available from any other aftermarket caster? Or anywhere else for that matter?

2. I recall an SAE article from when the '57 300C was first released, and the builder chose to paint the undercarriage on his replica with red oxide primer, with body overspray misted on the sides. I always assumed Mopar cars were primered in grey, with overspray from the body on either side. Any Chrysler lovers know what is correct for the 300C? Anyone know of a good website with either restoration pics or information? Thanks guys.

[mr moto]

Replicas & Miniatures doesn't have a web presence. You'll have to use snail mail but they're worth the extra effort. Their catalog is extensive and full of really great stuff. I haven't checked in with them lately but if they said they have the correct valve covers then they probably do.

Replicas & Miniatures Co of Maryland

317 Roosevelt Avenue S.W, Glen Burnie, MD 21061

410-768-3648

As far as 300C references, well, I'm no expert but you might want to register with these folks:

http://www.allpar.com/forums/

I did that to get some info when I was building a '64 Belvedere and these guys will know about the 300C and whatever other Mopars you might want to know about.

[MrObsessive]

Click here for a website that has a '57 300C under full restoration.

VERY nice pics and excellent detail showing to do that kit!

[mr moto]

Click here for a website that has a '57 300C under full restoration.

VERY nice pics and excellent detail showing to do that kit!

I had seen that site before and it's very interesting but I'm not sure it answers the primer question. They are using spray-on bed liner material on the undercarriage.

[Art Anderson]

AFAIK Mopar went to a gray primer in either 1966 or 1967. Before that the primer had actually been green! I am pretty sure that for a 57 Mopar, the red oxide primer would be correct because it seems that the green primer came into use around 1959-1960.

As a 50's kid with a morning paper route, I had two competing body shops as customers. From my memories, red oxide primer was, for all intents and purposes, universal in the 50's. It was one of my "scores" as well, to catch a haulaway unloading at one of the car dealerships as well (until 1961, every new car dealership in Lafayette was in the downtown business district, save for the Chrysler-Plymouth store, and a small Studebaker dealership). It was kinda cool back then to look at the new cars coming off the trucks, and I sure don't remember anything on the undersides (regardless of make--if it was sold in Lafayette, I saw them at some time or another).

Of course, the red oxide got buried very quickly in black tar undercoating, given that this is the midwest, and we get snow with sand/salt every winter.

About the only thing that varied marque-to-marque in those years was the shade of red oxide, from very nearly red, to a dark brown. Even autobody shops seldom ever used anything but red oxide, given that apparently virtually all paint mixing formulae were created for use over this color of primer (just like on a model car, the color of the substrate can affect the final color of the paint that goes over it).

With any factory stock build through the 1950's, you won't go wrong with red oxide on the undersides of the body shell, with lower-body overspray along the rocker panels, and across the bottom of the firewall, where the angled toeboard mates to it. Just keep in mind, if it was body-on-frame, the frame didn't get that overspray--bodies were painted prior to being "dropped" onto the chassis on the assembly line. If a unit body (not many of those, beyond Nash or Hudson) until Lincoln & Thunderbird in 1958, and Chrysler Corporation in 1960 though, and all those early unibodies had all subframing welded into the body structure, so they got the red oxide treatment as well.

Art