300-H HURST nerd stuff...

found this under the carpet in a 72 fury3 .
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Why is this unfortunate?

I just personally thought it would of been built sooner is all, it to me kind of seems that the hardtops were thought of before your convertible was. Was your convertible built May 5th, 1970 (505)? It seems like hardtops were built on January 25th 1970 (125), therefore being built before your convertible IF my info is right. PLEASE correct me if I am wrong Trev or Trace, I am NOT an expert by any means on these cars like you guys are. I am still learning about them and would love to as I am very much into them, and I personally think I know more about the SFGT than these cars.
 
I just personally thought it would of been built sooner is all, it to me kind of seems that the hardtops were thought of before your convertible was. Was your convertible built May 5th, 1970 (505)? It seems like hardtops were built on January 25th 1970 (125), therefore being built before your convertible IF my info is right. PLEASE correct me if I am wrong Trev or Trace, I am NOT an expert by any means on these cars like you guys are. I am still learning about them and would love to as I am very much into them, and I personally think I know more about the SFGT than these cars.
Please see Post 5 in this thread. This is my total knowledge of the 125 date for all 300-Hursts. Once I was alerted to this, every Hurst tag I've seen in person, pics I've taken the past few years, and online pics (which is admittedly a rather small sample) is 125. So my official answer is......I dunno!
Happy Birthday to....
 
But, if these cars were produced in Nov/Dec 1969 as Trev mentioned above, do those cars have 125 tags? The mind wobbles!
 
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I just found these pics in my collection....same car, different dates. 125 and...........4/70! So, what is the significance of of 125? There has to be a reason. Again, do cars made in November/December have the 125 on the fender tag?

This car was made 22,602 cars before mine (according to the last six of the VIN, but I assume it's not entirely sequential for the Chrysler line) but that likely means my car is more likely a May or June build. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it was bought in late July of 70. At least it didn't sit around a dealership for a year or two like some of these cars allegedly did.....like those funny looking Superbirds. :D

This is all very interesting to us Hurst Nerds.
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Just an educated guess here from what I’ve heard or read about these cars. Once the concept was approved, Chrysler made and delivered x number of 300 coupes as “bodies in white” to Hurst for modification, probably with the same SPD to make it easy to identify and pull off the line. We already know the SDP has little to do with the actual date, and since the concept was for a spring release, they could have come off the line in the beginning of ‘70 production. Side note, any other non-Hurst 300 coupes documented with a 125 SPD? I remember reading somewhere there were delays due to fiberglass fabrication issues. Basically being hand built it took months to complete them all thus the extended build dates documented on the door jams. Are there “early” and “late” identifiers to the fiberglass parts? Maybe that would be a better method in identifying when they were actually assembled. Again, just a guess.
 
Just an educated guess here from what I’ve heard or read about these cars. Once the concept was approved, Chrysler made and delivered x number of 300 coupes as “bodies in white” to Hurst for modification

The term "body in white" refers to a mere shell of a car that's sent to a race shop by the factory for total modification, like the Cuda shells that were sent to Sox, Landy and the Missile guys. But I know what you meant. The Hurst cars were completely built at the factory in EW1 white, with no normal stripes or side molding. Plain white, kinda like what you meant.

So what follows is from Mopar Collector's Guide circa 2017, in a story about the prototype that George built and pitched to Chrysler brass. That prototype was at Carlisle in 2017 according to the article, in rough shape and gray primer. The current owner is supposed to be restoring it to it's original proto-conditon to be completed by 2019. Where is it? Anyway....I'll paraphrase the story now:

Olds had decided to not do a Hurst car for 1970, so George looked for another luxury/performance car to Hurstize. He got Pontiac to do the SSJ, and in October of 69 he got his hands on a new from the factory 1970 300 that was built September 24th, to prototype the car we now know. The VIN is CM23U0C129521, TNT motor, but was FT6 dark brown and had a sunroof. They added a Dual Gate shifter (of course), and did the 'glass hood and deck and their gold paint/stripe job. Looked awful in the FT6 so they did a quickie white paint job with their gold and stripes, and went to Chrysler. Approval was made (minus the sunroof, the shifter, and some other proto-mods like a notched rear valance for the quad Sport Fury tips), and production began around April of 70. Chrysler built 12 to 15 Spinnaker white hardtops with buff Imperial leather interiors in a batch with consecutive VINs beginning in the 220000 (see the black tag above), and shipped them to Hurst's Lansing shop for the conversion. This batch shipping was done on and off for about 3 months until 485 (or 501?) cars were made and Chrysler pulled the plug on the project. So....April, May, June were when they all were built. But none of this explains the 125, does it? :(

Incidentally, the prototype went back to Hurst, and was bought by a Hurst exec named Michael Chrysler......no relation. He put the Kelsey-Hayes wheels on it (painted Hurst gold) and bombed around Detroit for 3 years putting about 60K miles on it. At that point he wanted something newer and traded it to a Dodge dealership in Cold Water, MI, who stripped the failing quickie-prototype paint job, shot it in primer...and promptly went out of business during the 73-75 recession (which we've all probably forgotten about). A Letter car collector bought it and stored it away for 40 years, never doing his planned restoration. Advance to 2014 and a 300 Hurst owner started asking around about the car that he heard might still exist, some 300 Club members knew who the 40 year collector was, and a deal was struck for the car and lots of NOS parts. Let's hope he finishes the resto soon so we can see it next summer at Carlisle!

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Yeah, wasn’t sure about the body in white phrase, but I remember my ‘02 conversion van was referred to that way, basically an unfinished van in white.

I remember seeing pics of the promo car, but somehow missed that in person in 2017 at Carlisle.

April, May, June assembly dates would explain why Trev’s car has a May SPD and not part of the regular run. I still want to see a non Hurst 300 with a 125 date code, I don’t think we will find one.
 
Yeah, wasn’t sure about the body in white phrase, but I remember my ‘02 conversion van was referred to that way, basically an unfinished van in white.

I remember seeing pics of the promo car, but somehow missed that in person in 2017 at Carlisle.

April, May, June assembly dates would explain why Trev’s car has a May SPD and not part of the regular run. I still want to see a non Hurst 300 with a 125 date code, I don’t think we will find one.

Trev's car was not part of the 300-H hardtop run at all. The famous "Linda" car was a Hurst-bought and owned promo vehicle. But I should let Trev tell his own story, and I'm sure many of us have seen this great vid.

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The term "body in white" refers to a mere shell of a car that's sent to a race shop by the factory for total modification, like the Cuda shells that were sent to Sox, Landy and the Missile guys. But I know what you meant. The Hurst cars were completely built at the factory in EW1 white, with no normal stripes or side molding. Plain white, kinda like what you meant.

So what follows is from Mopar Collector's Guide circa 2017, in a story about the prototype that George built and pitched to Chrysler brass. That prototype was at Carlisle in 2017 according to the article, in rough shape and gray primer. The current owner is supposed to be restoring it to it's original proto-conditon to be completed by 2019. Where is it? Anyway....I'll paraphrase the story now:

Olds had decided to not do a Hurst car for 1970, so George looked for another luxury/performance car to Hurstize. He got Pontiac to do the SSJ, and in October of 69 he got his hands on a new from the factory 1970 300 that was built September 24th, to prototype the car we now know. The VIN is CM23U0C129521, TNT motor, but was FT6 dark brown and had a sunroof. They added a Dual Gate shifter (of course), and did the 'glass hood and deck and their gold paint/stripe job. Looked awful in the FT6 so they did a quickie white paint job with their gold and stripes, and went to Chrysler. Approval was made (minus the sunroof, the shifter, and some other proto-mods like a notched rear valance for the quad Sport Fury tips), and production began around April of 70. Chrysler built 12 to 15 Spinnaker white hardtops with buff Imperial leather interiors in a batch with consecutive VINs beginning in the 220000 (see the black tag above), and shipped them to Hurst's Lansing shop for the conversion. This batch shipping was done on and off for about 3 months until 485 (or 501?) cars were made and Chrysler pulled the plug on the project. So....April, May, June were when they all were built. But none of this explains the 125, does it? :(

Incidentally, the prototype went back to Hurst, and was bought by a Hurst exec named Michael Chrysler......no relation. He put the Kelsey-Hayes wheels on it (painted Hurst gold) and bombed around Detroit for 3 years putting about 60K miles on it. At that point he wanted something newer and traded it to a Dodge dealership in Cold Water, MI, who stripped the failing quickie-prototype paint job, shot it in primer...and promptly went out of business during the 73-75 recession (which we've all probably forgotten about). A Letter car collector bought it and stored it away for 40 years, never doing his planned restoration. Advance to 2014 and a 300 Hurst owner started asking around about the car that he heard might still exist, some 300 Club members knew who the 40 year collector was, and a deal was struck for the car and lots of NOS parts. Let's hope he finishes the resto soon so we can see it next summer at Carlisle!

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I’m not so sure MCG always has the correct story.

1970 300-H production started in late November/December of 1969 and continued until July 1970. Not all “built in April May” as stated earlier.

What I know is that Michael Burke’s former car was the likely prototype or test mule. It was not equipped with “dual gate” Hurst shifter. And that shifter was never considered by Hurst or Chrysler. The Hurst Auto-Stick shifter was a candidate though.

My research has concluded that the “prototype type”, or better called a “design study”, was a standard column shifted 727. There was no sunroof initially, it was likely added/modified later by Hurst at some point. In addition the Hurst Auto-Stick and console were added later, maybe by Hurst or not. These after production modifications may have been asked for by Richard Chrysler (not Michael as stated) in late 1970-1971.

So far there have been no period photographs of the car to help verify the details.
 
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I just found these pics in my collection....same car, different dates. 125 and...........4/70! So, what is the significance of of 125? There has to be a reason. Again, do cars made in November/December have the 125 on the fender tag?

This car was made 22,602 cars before mine (according to the last six of the VIN, but I assume it's not entirely sequential for the Chrysler line) but that likely means my car is more likely a May or June build. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it was bought in late July of 70. At least it didn't sit around a dealership for a year or two like some of these cars allegedly did.....like those funny looking Superbirds. :D

It is common for 'package' cars to have the same SPDs regardless of actual production date. The '69 A12 6bbl cars have two dates, the Superbirds have one, as shown Hurst 300s have one. IIRC the 69 440 Darts and Barracudas have two, yet Charger 500s and Daytonas, AARs and T/A challengers don't have specific SPDs but are built in a range of dates. So 'it depends'.

The door sticker reflects the actual month of build.
 
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The car is a 1970 300-H.

Yes we all call them “Hursts”, my self included.

But the car is a 70 300-H.

As stated so in ALL the Official Chrysler Press releases The Hurst/Chrysler owners manual, the factory 1970-71 parts manual. The Factory parts build list. The Engineering drawings, and Hurst documents.

I don’t have time at the moment to post all that stuff...but let’s start with the Press Release.



.
 
I’m not so sure MCG always has the correct story.

1970 300-H production started in late November/December of 1969 and continued until July 1970. Not all “built in April May” as stated earlier.

MCG has added a lot to the hobby. Failure to understand, fact check or verify what they print means one of the the things they add is confusion, instead of clarity, to an otherwise muddled area.

The lowest VIN I have seen for a Hurst is 192933. This VIN would coincide with a late January/Early February build. (Car 188168 has an SPD of 126. Car 189025 has an SPD of 129. This would not be out of the ordinary for a package car with a 125 SPD.

What is the lowest known VIN for a Hurst 300? That would help narrow down the time frame of actual build. Late November/Early December cars would be in the 175XXX-177XXX range.

Can anyone document a Hurst 300 door sticker with a November or December build? If the cars exist, this should not be difficult to do. Yet, it's hard to image a press release in February for a car that they started building in November.
 
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I still want to see a non Hurst 300 with a 125 date code, I don’t think we will find one.

This should not be a difficult theory to prove IF people will take the time to save and share documentation such as fender tags, broadcast sheets and window stickers. Is there proof that SPD 125 was used for any cars other than the Hursts? Let's start there. Its possible no cars or no non Hurst 300s were assigned that day.

Much guessing, speculating, and 'mis-remembering' can be clarified with actual documentation.
 
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Continued from: 300 Hurst broadcast sheet - velour interior?...Help please

jrdudeman said: To my knowledge, there was a few more than one 300 Hurst with manual windows. My dad owned one of the manual window Hurst's sometime in the 1980's or 1990's. Trevor may have seen this car at my dads place way back then.

Is it possible that your father actually owned the magazine car? Do you recall any of the other options on the car?

The magazine test car was light on options:

No A/C

AM radio

Rim Blow wheel

3 speed wipers (majority of Hursts have 2 speed)

Power seat (possibly seats)

Jeff
 
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