John and All: The various plants could vary in their details of production. Certainly painting the car with door latches and strikers assembled before or after is one of those areas. However, all cars of a similar body type, as the Jefferson Assy. Plant cars were in 1960 and 61 would have been done the same in the same TIME FRAME. In other words, the assy line-up could change, but it would change for all cars at that plant. Since, as John has stated, ALL 300 letter cars were built at Jefferson, they would all be the same if built at similar times. I remember when working at Lynch Rd Plant (B Bodies) in the early '70s having similar line-up changes. Sometimes we used "slave locks" to secure the doors and sometimes the actual latches were installed prior to paint. Whatever component that went thru the prime oven did have to withstand a section that was about 420 degrees, as I recall. Latches could also have come into the plant in assembly with the doors. Seems like I remember that senario too, but which plant I do not remember. One could certainly argue it would be simpler (and cheaper?) to install at the facility that welded up the doors. John also points out the value of original, unrestored cars. It seems, from the evidence so far, that very early 300Gs may have been been assembled with the door latches installed after paint. Perhaps disadvantages were found with this method and assembly sequence was returned to that of 1960. Randy Huntzberry mentioned his dad's car did have painted door latches. That car is a late October schedule, so it appears locks were in the doors for paint by then. Obviously, a little more input from any early ORIGINAL cars would be helpful. 300ly, Gil In a message dated 5/8/2007 11:06:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time, crossram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: Rich, You car, a "beater"? We should all be so lucky as to have beaters like it. Perhaps our chief judge, Mr. Cunningham, will weigh in on this issue. It is my understanding that all 300F and 300G's were manufactured in the same plant. It would make sense to me that all were assembled / painted in the same manner. It is possible that other Chrysler cars (Saratoga's, NewYorker's) made in other plants may have unpainted or cad plated latches and/or strikers... But, as far as 300F and 300G models, I think that all should have painted latches and strikers. However I cannot prove this. All I can say is that Steve Albu's original 300F has painted latches and strikers; so does the 71 mile 300G. So does my original 50K mile 300F convertible. See ya all soon in Ohio where we can discuss Matters of Importance such as these in the parking lot over many beers. John Hertog Sag Harbor NY ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] To send a message to this group, send an email to: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm For archives go to http://www.forwardlook.net/300-archive/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:Chrysler300-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mailto:Chrysler300-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/