Chrysler 300M

blackice300m

Been lurking on site for a wwhile. Great to watch all the mods. Ive been pretty conservative, logos off, mud flaps, truck power outlet. Today I used turtle wax black chrome polish on intake and air box. Looks really good. Hope to join club soon. Keep the mods comming.

beach15

What kind of camera/camcorder did you get? How much did it cost? I keep looking for a new one because my current and very cheap JamCam 3.0 sucks. I got it for $50 and then it had a $30 rebate, though, so it wasn't that bad. Post pics as soon as you can of your new black beauty. Are you gonna start a new site, or just use the current one that shows your white M?

phases78

its an rca camcorder but, im likin it anyway. it was 398.84. 2.5" lcd colorview screen, takes digital pictures and 400x digital zoom. ill get some pics taken today, but i have to wash the car first
im gonna keep the same website, just delete all the current pics on it, and replace them, get rid of one of the pages... couple other things. we'll see! but ill post a pic of the duals up here in a couple minutes......

P.S. IM stands for 'instant messenger'

mikeyjohn

If and when you get to Vegas. There is one of the hotels at or near the MGM Grand, and on that side of the street, which has a fully loaded 300M on display in the front entrance of the hotel. I was there in April on business, I'm not sure what they call the colour but it was the tan not the platinum. I asked one one of the security guards if I could borrow it, he wasn't impressed.

easyrider300m

you guys with your accidents made me feel better about ripping my tire on that curb the other nite--luckily you didnt have too much damage on your crashed M's--I've had my share of mishaps in the past--tore off my right outside mirror--pulled off the front facia on a high parking bumper---luckily the mirror is no big deal--about $200 installed and the front facia was straightened and resecured by my buddy at the local auto body shop for just $35--maybe we have to surround our M's in foam rubber :-)

Blackice: welcome to the group ---you definitely should join the 300M Enthusiasts club for its benefits and camaraderie. Rogor and others are working on getting some nice logoed caps for the club members. The last apparel sale featured club logoed shirts--not sure if any left but I would think eventually they will have another sale on them.

keep up the posting--WE ARE NOW NUMERO UNO--yes we're the most active site on Edmunds---68 posts compared to second place BMW 3 series with only 24 posts--we should get lots of attention now!--post some nice pics of your M's for the curious visitors to see.

Easyrider300M

phases78

lalarry

Was putting the monthly coat of Zaino on my M yesterday, and noticed a few more small chips just above the headlights. I think I'm going to go for the bra, and I like the one you're sporting on BigRed.

Anyhow, my birthday is coming up, so want to add this to my list. Can you tell me where you got it?

Also I see a few posts about folks here using IM. Is there a list of IM users from this board? It would be cool to add you guys to my "buddy list". My IM screen name is "FiveStarrGuy" (the plate should be here any day now).

Also, the Badyear dealer finally cured my 50-70mph shimmy. Don't know what they did, but it's gone. Once again I'm enjoying the "smooth as glass" highway performance I'd come to love about this car.

While Zaino-ing the car yesterday, I noticed that one of the lug nuts seemed to have been replaced by a standard nut, which pi**ed me off that the guys who worked on it didn't tell me that they'd lost the factory one, and replaced it with this ugly old one. Once I was done with the wax job, I made my way to the Goodyear place, showed the manager who said that the chrome tops of the nuts sometimes break off, went in the back and brought out a brand new one, put it on the car, and apologized, saying "with a car as pretty as this, I'd have been angry too!" Little does he know that I have no loyalty to these tires, which are wearing very well with 22k on them!

Anyhow, looking forward to hearing from you sdmike!

lalarry

GORGEOUS!

phases78

resized it, little better pic quality now

phases78

phases78

here's a pic of my emblem behind the back door, labeled 'custom'

phases78

this camera is awesome. only problem? pic quality isnt the best out there, but, ill forgive that being its really a camcorder

scotian

Has anyone heard anything?

I think I'll need a replacement...

300michael

just get a program like Adobe photo shop 1 or 2. It will let you fix your photos.
I like the little "custom" touch. After all we do not have our regular 300M's anymore.

300michael

I know they are coverting over to the Pay format and that might be causing some software difficulties for them.

beach15

For all of you who are currently having trouble with Photopoint, consider the following options I have done:

1. Started using Webshots.com; nice site, similar features, and most of all, still free!

2. Now I use Fotki.com; better than Webshots I feel, easy use, ability to transfer photos from an album already on another site on the net (i.e., Photopoint etc.), and yes, free!

I would suggest trying to get your money back if possible from Photopoint, and using Fotki that appears at least for the time being, to be a great free picture hosting site.

Links:

Webshots (try it out if you like)

Fotki (free and you can transfer your exisitng photos from another site)

beach15

Now I know I have talked again, and again, and again on this issue, but it continues to get worse. I washed the car yesterday and it was looking all nice and shiny again. Today, we went down to the flower nursery to get a few plants for the yard, and their smooth, gravel covered driveway brought out the bad side in our M. Right when the tires touched the gravel, bangs, buzzes, and rattles made themselves very audible. One of the biggest seems to be the door panels. I discovered that the trailing edge of both of the rear door panels were slightly loose back in January and had the dealer look at it when the car was there. His conclusion, of course was there's nothing wrong with them. But when the road is anything but glassy smooth, what do you hear?, they buzz like a vibrator against the door and it can only be silenced by holding your arm firmly in a certain place to keep them quiet. Today, not only were these doors making noise, but the front ones were creaking, the dash was making it's normal banging melody, and other (I couldn't tell where they were coming from exactly) did their own rattle ruckus. I've also noticed over bumpy roads, the windows shudder and vibrate a little when their about 1/3 or 1/2 open.

Very pretty car with a well laid-out and high-quality interior that just likes to be noisy I guess.

Over the last few months, I have read certain suggestions or fixes to help out with the rattles and I'm just about to the point of taking the car apart and stuffing it with foam or something. Any comments?

Funny thing is, after researching the 300M, I have found that owners of the 99's were impressed on how drum-tight their cars are but tend to have many other first-year bugs, 00's are slightly quieter with some of the bugs worked out but they tend to rattle a lot or have other problems, and 01's that are greatly improved with high ratings in almost every area but still have the rattle issues. I wonder what the 2002's will be like?

Hey otto, I realize that not everybody is gonna do the same quality of work in a large factory, but can't they just be a little more thoughtful when it comes to putting these over $30,000 cars together?

Well hey, at least it's still very beautiful to look at and a cool car to have.

phases78

i love what you've done with the 300m logo on the hood! i may have to steal your idea!

mikeyjohn

I just went out for gas and when I got home I noticed that I had a crack on the trim piece that fits on the mirror control. I have not had to adjust my mirrors as I am the only one that drives this car, and except for putting it on I have not had to touch it. The crack was on the thinnest side of the piece. I am not very happy, and after having to pay extra for the piece that was cracked on the radio face, I have no intention of paying for another piece. Keep this in mind folks if you plan on ordering this kit. It is not cheap so check out each piece with a magnifying glass.

phases78

man im sorry to hear that. i can report that after two months with the wook kit from customautotrim.com in the other M, never had a problem. the only prob i had with them was that they told me on the phone that they had it in stock, yet a couple days after it was supposed to be here i called them and they sayd "oh we were outa stock so it's being made. it'll be a couple weeks before you get it"

this car has the joshua tree kit. so far so good but its only been 4 days.

he is right though people, if your gonna order a wood kit do it with care. i failed to check this kit out with a magnifing glass (which may i add, im not being sarcastic, i REALLY should have) but now that its in, its non returnable. But ill tell ya right now, if i do have a problem with it, they WILL replace whatever part goes wrong free of charge, or i wont stop bugging them till they do.

p.s. should have website up and running before too long. its so much easier with a digcam..

guesswho1

slash cut looks good, that's what i have, the more chrome the better!

guesswho1

for those of you who haven't tried the Z-16 perfect tire gloss, getcha some, this stuff is the best i have ever seen, you can go one coat for that satin look or multiple coats for the high gloss look, and it works great on the 99-00 side view mirrors and the black plastic at the bottom of the windshield.

beach15

I'm not sure what idea your talking about but I think what you saw was the embroidered logo on the Mopar hood bra. Because of the pic quality, I can see how you might have taken that for being an emblem I put on the hood. I can't even imagine what the wife would do to me if I did do that though!

phases78

LOL!! im a fool, well, nontheless, i may have to do that!

sdmike2

I got my hood cover at the local 5* for $49 I think. Here is another good source:

http://www.chrysler-parts.com/PP.asp?PID=44

sdmike2

Nice!

-M

sdmike2

I sent an email to them yesterday and still haven't gotten a response. My gut feeling is that they're either under a severe DOS attack or the company has gone nuts up.

sdmike2

I've decided to create and maintain my own picture page as part of my family web site. There are only a few there now (no mod pics yet), but I'll get around to putting up all my pictures from before.

http://www.ritchiefamily.com/car.htm

-M

sdmike2

Where did you get this?!?! I would LOVE to have that on Big Red!

-M

phases78

its so easy and almost sounds cheezy till you see it done! just go to autozone and get them. they come in a pack of the whole alphabet, 2 of each letter, called "3-D letterz" made by chroma international. only a couple bucks a pop!

phases78

web page is done. all im missing is the basslink (should be in tue) and the tint (hopefully, tue too). for those of you that dont have it, my site is http://phases78.homestead.com/300m.html let me know what you think!

sdmike2

On the way to my office this afternoon a beautiful white 300M (99 or 00) zoomed past on the highway. I caught up to him and we took the same exit. At a light we rolled down our windows and gave a good old "NICE CAR" and "DON'T YOU LOVE IT?" to each other. Just before green he said "SEE YOU AT THE NEXT LIGHT". We both jumped on it and ran about 1/8 mile down to the next light. I was about 2 car lengths ahead when we had to brake. Surprised, he asked what I had done. I told him about the K&N, duals, and the Bosch plugs and he gave me the look of "ahhHHHhhh" as we sped up to the next light, where we parted ways. Boy that car is pretty in white.

Oh yeah, I yelled "www.300mclub.org" to him as we parted.

-M

sdmike2

Bud, where did you get your wood trim kit? How's the match with the luxury group real wood?

mikeyjohn

Mike from Joshua Wood Tree must be doing a booming business as he replied to my e-mail on a Sunday, or else business is bad. He will be sending me a new piece at no charge. I'll see how it goes. sdmike, I hope that you get down to Tijuana about the wood trim and let us know!

mikeyjohn

Where did you get that old ugly black car with the chrome shifter. The new ones come with straight leather!!!! Just kidding of course, you have done quite a bit of work on this car in a short period of time, you must get fantastic wages in the US army, or else your wife is treating you in the manner that you have become accustomed too!!!!!!!! It is going to kill you when you have to go out in the field, but think of the money you will save. lol. Your M looks great!!

silverbullet4

OK, all the visible scuffs and paint rubs from my rhino charge against the Honda polished right off.
Method as follows: Used the clay bar to remove surface and embedded stuff. Polished with Z-5 to fill in surface scratches. Finished with Z-1 and Z-2 where necessary. While I had the Z-5 out, I worked on the key scratch souvenir someone put on my hood, and removed the giant chrome dealer ad from the trunk. It was put on with double sided tape and it was easy to remove with my fingernail and Z-5. I didn't need the Goo Gone stuff. To answer your question: 6 coats. Next Saturday, I might get my Bass Link installed. 102 degrees on my M readout in Dallas today. Not a good day for black cars. Saw 4-5 M cars today-all washed and shined up. We're bad; we're nationwide!
Silver

beach15

Those wheels are magnificent!! Where did you find them and/or who makes them? What is the model name? They'd look great on an M!

jedi_knight

Those are KMC wheels "Tramp" You can buy them at ewheels usa They have some what of a retro look to them and I too think they would look great on my M Or any other M for that matter!

Keith

fuzzywuzzy

Nice to have a washed, Zainoed 300M. Due to South FL's phase 2 water restrictions, I have to get up at 6:30am sunday morning to wash my M! And then it rains in the afternoons, so it makes all my trouble washing the M pointless. I haven't washed it in at least a month!

fuzzywuzzy

Black looks good! I have a question. In your engine pic there is no black plastic trim piece covering the front of the car. Like around the top of the lights, & the hood latch. Does the 01 not have this?

sdmike2

Very nice , but there's an awful lot of space between those spokes. It will be interesting to see what they look like on the car.

sdmike2

I thought the price of the M was one of the things that made it such a great buy. Another thing, lower prices on the 2002 models decreases the value of our cars.

-M

wencao

I think the special will not cost too much. Based on changes, the tire and wheel will cost about $400-$600 more than current PHG package at retail price. HID adds a few hundreds more. Don't know the cost of engine improvements,but should not be a lot. THe whole package should not cost more than $2000.

sdmike2

My wife just went out and did something she never does...spent several hundred $ on clothes and stuff for herself (most of what we spend $ on is the three kids). Since I'm about to lose my job I was going to comment on the need to conserve, but any thoughts of that immediately went away when she smiled and looked over at my M. Ok, I thought, you got me there! lol

-M

mikeyjohn

You mentioned that you worked on the key scratch area, but you did not say how it is going. I have a scratch or mark on my hood about the size of a nickle and I don't want to take it to a auto body shop or use the paint bottle with the dauber that you buy from the dealer, as I'm not an artiste and I would screw it up. Do you feel the Zaino does the trick?

sdmike2

The chance of me making it south of the border are pretty slim, so don't hold your breath on me getting to the factory. However, I have friends that go down there every couple of weeks. Do you have an address for their supplier?

sdmike2

Z5 is good at reducing the visibility of fine scratches, but I don't think it's very effective on bigger ones. I have a couple of small rock marks that the Z5 has no effect on. However, I think turtle wax and others sell colored car wax that is supposed to do a pretty decent job of filling scratches. You might want to try a little of that first, and then Z5 over it.

-M

beach15

fuzzy- Very good question regarding Phase's new black M. I just looked at his picture and something appeared to be missing. I would think the plastic shroud would still be on the 2001's because our 2000 has one.

Phase's- Do you know if this was just something they got rid of, or does your car just not have it? From my recollection, I don't think your white one had it either. Anyone else here with a 2001 that doesn't have a black plastic shroud across the grill/headlight area? Sdmike?

Look at ours:

easyrider300m

how deep were your scratches ---did any of them go through the clear coat and/or color coat-- I have a few that go down to the primer wonder if zaino will help at all on those deep scratches---

mikeyjohn

I checked the package that the trim came in and it only said what I gave you. I was hoping that they might be in the telephone yellow pages, as they must be a fairly large company.I will check with my local auto supply store to see if they have the colour wax anf then I will Zaino over it. My scratches cut the clearcoat. Thanks for the tip.