Thanks for these, and if you ever get that door opened......
I'm going to update the Registry in a few days with your info and the others that have been provided over the past two months.
The Hurst Registry
- Thread starter Trace 300 Hurst
- Start date
I'm going to update the Registry in a few days with your info and the others that have been provided over the past two months.
We have eight new additions to the Registry, thanks to @70 Sport Suburban, @mrd5_psu, @Hurst Pete, @tallzag, @ayilar, and @Kaim.
Yellow highlight indicates changes from the prior posting of October 11, 2024.
A couple of these new entries have interesting tibbits:
The sighting of 207586 is just the engine and trans, with the rest of the car missing somewhere in Missouri as rumor has it. As I understand it, an F-bod member owns this engine/trans.
We now have some info on 217851 in NZ. We've previously seen a vid of the car at a show, with 70 300 on the plate and now we have a little more info. Maybe we can get a Door Date sometime soon.
230920, now in Switzerland and owned by forum member Hurst Pete, was owned by 300 Club longtime member Al Moon in the Baltimore area. Before that, the original owner lived in Upper Marlboro, MD. I lived in Oxon Hill, MD back then, about 14 miles away. And we had a Hurst in Oxon Hill, owned by the father of a high school classmate of mine, Steve. Small world for Big Cars. At a class reunion in 2023 I talked to Steve about that car. He got to drive it occasionally, was well aware of the big back seat but didn't know anything else and that his father had long passed, so we have zero info other than these two Hursts were neighbors to each other. Now for the REALLY interesting thing. Look at these floormats that Al Moon told Hurst Pete "they're more rare and valuable than the car!"
Does anyone know anything about these as an accessory, or is Mr. Moon fooling us with mats that he had made?
Here's the original owner, who owned a large beer distribution company in Maryland that is still in existence today. Looks like he owned the car for at least 16 years. He passed away in 1986 at 74 years.
Hurst Pete and I will do a little writeup with more pics of 230920 in the future and post it here.
Only 413 cars remain to be Registered, so get busy out there!
Also: I'm going to experiment with posting methods for the spreadsheet to hopefully make it clearer. What you see now is Excel copied and pasted to Paint for a PNG file, with the PNG then posted here just like a regular photo. I know there are other methods like pasting to Adobe Photoshop, pasting to PPoint, etc. so I'll do some experimenting. FYI, the website won't directly accept or display a spreadsheet. Virus issues, ya know.
Yellow highlight indicates changes from the prior posting of October 11, 2024.
A couple of these new entries have interesting tibbits:
The sighting of 207586 is just the engine and trans, with the rest of the car missing somewhere in Missouri as rumor has it. As I understand it, an F-bod member owns this engine/trans.
We now have some info on 217851 in NZ. We've previously seen a vid of the car at a show, with 70 300 on the plate and now we have a little more info. Maybe we can get a Door Date sometime soon.
230920, now in Switzerland and owned by forum member Hurst Pete, was owned by 300 Club longtime member Al Moon in the Baltimore area. Before that, the original owner lived in Upper Marlboro, MD. I lived in Oxon Hill, MD back then, about 14 miles away. And we had a Hurst in Oxon Hill, owned by the father of a high school classmate of mine, Steve. Small world for Big Cars. At a class reunion in 2023 I talked to Steve about that car. He got to drive it occasionally, was well aware of the big back seat but didn't know anything else and that his father had long passed, so we have zero info other than these two Hursts were neighbors to each other. Now for the REALLY interesting thing. Look at these floormats that Al Moon told Hurst Pete "they're more rare and valuable than the car!"
Does anyone know anything about these as an accessory, or is Mr. Moon fooling us with mats that he had made?Here's the original owner, who owned a large beer distribution company in Maryland that is still in existence today. Looks like he owned the car for at least 16 years. He passed away in 1986 at 74 years.
Hurst Pete and I will do a little writeup with more pics of 230920 in the future and post it here.
Only 413 cars remain to be Registered, so get busy out there!
Also: I'm going to experiment with posting methods for the spreadsheet to hopefully make it clearer. What you see now is Excel copied and pasted to Paint for a PNG file, with the PNG then posted here just like a regular photo. I know there are other methods like pasting to Adobe Photoshop, pasting to PPoint, etc. so I'll do some experimenting. FYI, the website won't directly accept or display a spreadsheet. Virus issues, ya know.
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polara71
Old Man with a Hat
Incredible!
The problem with the photo quality is the down-sampling of photos when they are uploaded in a FCBO thread. I think that I understand why @Joeychgo does it (photos take a huge amont of storage space), but the downside is lower-quality pics.
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I agree. Time to get back to emailing the files so that we can complete the 1970 Polara 'vert registry
Yes, that seems to be the case. All of the PNG files of the Registry that I have saved are crystal clear on my screen, and only become hazy when I post them to the thread. My "fix" is to expand the image size quite a bit (since that first posting back in July 2024) so the fuzziness is a little easier to read.
A 4 M photo uploads very clear, but a tiny 260 KB PNG file is fuzzy. If both files are "down-sampled" by the same percentage (say 50%
), the tiny file gets even tinier and has less info to make the image. But I'm merely a retired mechanical engineer...and FAR from being IT knowledgeable, so what do I know. Regardless, I'll experiment and maybe ask advice from @Joeychgo. But of great importance is to keep it simple for ME...no convoluted "hosting" and links, etc, etc, etc, etc. 
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This is from the vin ending in 207586.
Nice patina!
Thanks for posting, Matt. I didn't want to "reveal" you without permission.
The prototype was CM23U0C129521 right? Do you have more info that you could post about it?
I have a few bits and pieces.
As the story goes, George lost the Olds Cutlass work when the manufacturer decided to bring the 442 hot-rodded/upgraded option back in-house for 1970. So George went looking for a new project and proposed the Hurstification of a 300 to the Chrysler brass and this prototype was produced/built in the early autumn of 1969 (924 Fender Tag). Management and Marketing hemmed and hawed and pondered the final configuration, eventually excluding the Sport Fury GT exhaust tips, the Hurst Co. ratchet-style floor shifter, the sunroof and the Kelsey wheels due to cost and possible production delays caused by these outside vendors. The prototype had Imperial seats but Chrysler headrests with a metal "wraparound" circling the cushion. That too was changed to Imperial units for production Hursts. I'll put that pic in a post below, because I'm at the 10 pic limit here.
As it was, J99XXX productition for 1970 was late getting started, with the factory-to-dealer announcement about the car's existence coming out on February 17 and the press release to trade publications and magazines the following day. Of course, the finalized Hurst never made the 1970 brochure ("Detroit" traditionally printed these in late summer for the upcoming model year change in autumn). These poorly-marketed specialty cars were left sitting on dealer lots because the general public didn't know about them....and if you went inside to have a look you found that they were really expensive, too. As I understand it the plan was for about 2000 Hursts but the slow sales capped production of J99XXX cars in June at 485, this according to a letter Chrysler sent to a curious owner in 1973. That document is....."documented".
Note that the VON for the prototype started with Q, not the J of the Hurst package car production run. Point is, although it's an amazingly important 1 of 1 historical artifact it's not really a "Hurst". It's darn close, but ultimately a regular CM23 that was modified by Hurst to become the prototype. I hope it gets restored to its deserved glory someday.
Here's a poor quality vid of the car at MCACN:
And some pics I found somewhere on the web:
Top
As the story goes, George lost the Olds Cutlass work when the manufacturer decided to bring the 442 hot-rodded/upgraded option back in-house for 1970. So George went looking for a new project and proposed the Hurstification of a 300 to the Chrysler brass and this prototype was produced/built in the early autumn of 1969 (924 Fender Tag). Management and Marketing hemmed and hawed and pondered the final configuration, eventually excluding the Sport Fury GT exhaust tips, the Hurst Co. ratchet-style floor shifter, the sunroof and the Kelsey wheels due to cost and possible production delays caused by these outside vendors. The prototype had Imperial seats but Chrysler headrests with a metal "wraparound" circling the cushion. That too was changed to Imperial units for production Hursts. I'll put that pic in a post below, because I'm at the 10 pic limit here.
As it was, J99XXX productition for 1970 was late getting started, with the factory-to-dealer announcement about the car's existence coming out on February 17 and the press release to trade publications and magazines the following day. Of course, the finalized Hurst never made the 1970 brochure ("Detroit" traditionally printed these in late summer for the upcoming model year change in autumn). These poorly-marketed specialty cars were left sitting on dealer lots because the general public didn't know about them....and if you went inside to have a look you found that they were really expensive, too. As I understand it the plan was for about 2000 Hursts but the slow sales capped production of J99XXX cars in June at 485, this according to a letter Chrysler sent to a curious owner in 1973. That document is....."documented".
Note that the VON for the prototype started with Q, not the J of the Hurst package car production run. Point is, although it's an amazingly important 1 of 1 historical artifact it's not really a "Hurst". It's darn close, but ultimately a regular CM23 that was modified by Hurst to become the prototype. I hope it gets restored to its deserved glory someday.
Here's a poor quality vid of the car at MCACN:
And some pics I found somewhere on the web:
Here's the Prototype's headrest:
And the Imperial headrest in the production cars:
And here's a few more Prototype pics:
And the Imperial headrest in the production cars:
And here's a few more Prototype pics:
69CoronetRT
Senior Member
I have a few bits and pieces.
As the story goes, George lost the Olds Cutlass work when the manufacturer decided to bring the 442 hot-rodded/upgraded option back in-house for 1970. So George went looking for a new project and proposed the Hurstification of a 300 to the Chrysler brass and this prototype was produced/built in the early autumn of 1969 (924 Fender Tag). Management and Marketing hemmed and hawed and pondered the final configuration, eventually excluding the Sport Fury GT exhaust tips, the Hurst Co. ratchet-style floor shifter, the sunroof and the Kelsey wheels due to cost and possible production delays caused by these outside vendors. The prototype had Imperial seats but Chrysler headrests with a metal "wraparound" circling the cushion. That too was changed to Imperial units for production Hursts. I'll put that pic in a post below, because I'm at the 10 pic limit here.
As it was, J99XXX productition for 1970 was late getting started, with the factory-to-dealer announcement about the car's existence coming out on February 17 and the press release to trade publications and magazines the following day. Of course, the finalized Hurst never made the 1970 brochure ("Detroit" traditionally printed these in late summer for the upcoming model year change in autumn). These poorly-marketed specialty cars were left sitting on dealer lots because the general public didn't know about them....and if you went inside to have a look you found that they were really expensive, too. As I understand it the plan was for about 2000 Hursts but the slow sales capped production of J99XXX cars in June at 485, this according to a letter Chrysler sent to a curious owner in 1973. That document is....."documented".
View attachment 700248
Note that the VON for the prototype started with Q, not the J of the Hurst package car production run. Point is, although it's an amazingly important 1 of 1 historical artifact it's not really a "Hurst". It's darn close, but ultimately a regular CM23 that was modified by Hurst to become the prototype. I hope it gets restored to its deserved glory someday.
Here's a poor quality vid of the car at MCACN:
And some pics I found somewhere on the web:
View attachment 700213View attachment 700221View attachment 700222View attachment 700225View attachment 700226View attachment 700227View attachment 700230View attachment 700229Top
View attachment 700224
You are doing some really nice work. Please keep it up.
D Cluley
Well-Known Member
I've seen some different (and conflicting) pieces of information. Do we actually know how/where these were built?
I am assuming that they started as regular 300s built or mostly built at Jefferson Ave. Were the Imperial interior parts installed on the line there? I also assume they were shipped somewhere to have the hood/trunk installed and the stripes added. Do we know for sure where that was? Did they have regular hoods/trunks from the factory that got replaced, or did they leave the line without them?
I am assuming that they started as regular 300s built or mostly built at Jefferson Ave. Were the Imperial interior parts installed on the line there? I also assume they were shipped somewhere to have the hood/trunk installed and the stripes added. Do we know for sure where that was? Did they have regular hoods/trunks from the factory that got replaced, or did they leave the line without them?
Kaim
Member
Regards from Finland. Here is a picture of the Automankki's Hurst fender tag. The door sticker was painted over when the car was repainted.
https://www.nettiauto.com/en/chrysler/300/11347081
First: The above discussion was about the Prototype car, and this overall thread is about a Hurst Registry, not the entire history of the 300 Hurst saga. That information is all over FCBO, the Interweb and in books such as shown below. I'm not attempting to be a historian here beyond compiling a Registry of VINs, VONs, and Door Dates, with a few notes to describe the car. So that brings us to.........
Second: If you have seen some different (and conflicting) pieces of information, why not share it here so it can be discussed? I don't claim to be an expert, and I have no incentive to answer the questions you asked (which, as I mentioned are extensively discussed elsewhere) and then play whack-a-mole with whatever it is you come back with. Indeed, the history of these cars is a little murky [as @69CoronetRT well knows about package cars], filled with bad information contained in many hack car magazines 54 years ago and hack websites now. But IN GENERAL, Chrysler built U-Code 300s with an assortment of normal 300 options, with Imperial interior, painted EW1 with a deleted stripe. These were shipped off to the Hurst facility in batches, where the glass decklid and fender extensions were added along with the cable release, the hood skin was stripped off the frame and the glass shell was bonded to that frame, and the Hurst paint and 3M stripes were added. Back to Chrysler for inspection and off they went. In a nutshell, that's it and most everyone is in agreement with this logical arrangement.
My only outstanding question to this day is this: Did the Door Sticker go on the car before or after it went to Hurst? And how about the Superbird and A12 cars? This is from an A12 web post: The date on it is the ACUTAL month and year that it rolled off the assembly line or actually left the factory headed to the dealership or lot pickup, and ALL Federally mandated safety items were installed and in place and the entire vehicle was in Federal Safety Standards compliance........"on the date above". So, what if a stickered car built in January sat at Hurst (or Yenko or Motion or Shelby) for a month or three waiting on a glass hood or 3M stripes or whatever? Could that car now be in violation of a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) Year/Month sticker requirement? That was serious business back then just as it is now regarding up-to-the-minute (month, actually) safety and emissions requirements that could change at any time (thus the sticker requirement). From what I've studied about this on 'Bird and A12 forum discussions about FMVSS, my opinion is that the sticker went on when the car came back from Hurst, but what do I know.
But do tell us what you know!
Second: If you have seen some different (and conflicting) pieces of information, why not share it here so it can be discussed? I don't claim to be an expert, and I have no incentive to answer the questions you asked (which, as I mentioned are extensively discussed elsewhere) and then play whack-a-mole with whatever it is you come back with. Indeed, the history of these cars is a little murky [as @69CoronetRT well knows about package cars], filled with bad information contained in many hack car magazines 54 years ago and hack websites now. But IN GENERAL, Chrysler built U-Code 300s with an assortment of normal 300 options, with Imperial interior, painted EW1 with a deleted stripe. These were shipped off to the Hurst facility in batches, where the glass decklid and fender extensions were added along with the cable release, the hood skin was stripped off the frame and the glass shell was bonded to that frame, and the Hurst paint and 3M stripes were added. Back to Chrysler for inspection and off they went. In a nutshell, that's it and most everyone is in agreement with this logical arrangement.
My only outstanding question to this day is this: Did the Door Sticker go on the car before or after it went to Hurst? And how about the Superbird and A12 cars? This is from an A12 web post: The date on it is the ACUTAL month and year that it rolled off the assembly line or actually left the factory headed to the dealership or lot pickup, and ALL Federally mandated safety items were installed and in place and the entire vehicle was in Federal Safety Standards compliance........"on the date above". So, what if a stickered car built in January sat at Hurst (or Yenko or Motion or Shelby) for a month or three waiting on a glass hood or 3M stripes or whatever? Could that car now be in violation of a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) Year/Month sticker requirement? That was serious business back then just as it is now regarding up-to-the-minute (month, actually) safety and emissions requirements that could change at any time (thus the sticker requirement). From what I've studied about this on 'Bird and A12 forum discussions about FMVSS, my opinion is that the sticker went on when the car came back from Hurst, but what do I know.
But do tell us what you know!
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As for my FMVSS/Door Date opinion, I know that @69CoronetRT has extensive knowledge about this subject regarding package cars, and I recall it was discussed a while back on the Nerds or some similar Hurst thread here, but I forget if we had any definitive conclusions then vs. the A12, 'Bird and Daytonas knowledge base.
His opinion will definitely influence my opinion one way or the other!
Anyone care to read more about this?
1970 Door VIN Tag
Production Date Verification Needed in VIN, Fender Tag, Build Sheet & Date Codes
His opinion will definitely influence my opinion one way or the other!
Anyone care to read more about this?
1970 Door VIN Tag
Production Date Verification Needed in VIN, Fender Tag, Build Sheet & Date Codes
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Much thanks for your detective work!
I have already placed that VON information in the Registry and will post this update (along with a few other interesting things I've come across since 12/28) later today or tomorrow.
Shame about the Door Sticker, but this car is very likely a June date as it is in the middle of the June cars that we have now. But.....you never know with these cars.
69CoronetRT
Senior Member
As for my FMVSS/Door Date opinion, I know that @69CoronetRT has extensive knowledge about this subject regarding package cars, and I recall it was discussed a while back on the Nerds or some similar Hurst thread here, but I forget if we had any definitive conclusions then vs. the A12, 'Bird and Daytonas knowledge base.
His opinion will definitely influence my opinion one way or the other!
Anyone care to read more about this?
1970 Door VIN Tag
Production Date Verification Needed in VIN, Fender Tag, Build Sheet & Date Codes
The Superbirds are somewhat of the outliers in the package car production conversation as they were the only ones to have a compressed construction time frame due to the front bumper mandates. There was a bit more urgency to get them done as opposed to the others. (I'm not a Superbird historian but there may have been pressure on the construction time frame due to NASCAR homologation requirements that other package cars did not have.)
I think you'll find that most of the other package cars (69 Charger 500s, 69 Daytonas, 69 6bbl cars, 69 M code A bodies, 70 AARs and T/As, 70 Hursts) construction is spread out over several months or even quarters. We know this by populating the VINs among the regular production VINs. As we populate the Hurst production spreadsheet, we can see approximately when year the different batches of cars were assigned.
My guess is still the door stickers were attached right before the cars left Chrysler. The best way to confirm any hypothesis like this is to compile more data and continue research.
Ahhhh....compressed construction schedule due to bumpers. I assume this became an FMVSS issue and the 'Bird noses would become illegal after some future date? So interesting.
Except that the damn "125" SPD makes getting a Door Date mandatory for batch recognition. Regardless, we'll continue to populate!
You mean "right before the cars left Chrysler forever", yes?
I have a few updates to the December 28 Registry, and because it was so recent I've kept the yellow "update" highlights from that date to retain our mental continuity. The January 3rd additions are in lavender. The next update that comes out someday will be back to yellow-only updates/highlights.
Thanks to @Kaim we have the VON for the 228785 Finland car. Too bad we'll never have a Door Date (it's been painted over!) but that car seems to be firmly in the June VIN timeframe.
For quite some time there has been talk that at least three early cars had manual windows, two of which had consecutive VINs. Well, here those two are, 178250 and 51. The Prototype car (directly above in the list) had P31 power windows, as do all other Hursts except these few. Why? It was discovered--after the fact--that when the Imperial seats were all the way forward you couldn't crank the manual windows. How did they not think about this and miss an obvious problem? The MEN missed it! My guess is that a woman, who likely to put the seat all the way forward, was never behind the wheel of a Hurst until she was in her husband's new car in March of 1970. Ooops! After that, all were power.
The Chrysler museum, which has had its ups and downs and is now totally down, had a Hurst back in 2004. It was not there when I visited in 2016. It must be "museum quality" so I wonder who owns it now?
I also fixed a typo from the 28th. I had 228785 (Finland car) in the wrong place. All these NUMBERS!
So now, with a mere 73 cars, we can begin to see how lots of the VONs are out of numerical order in relation to the sequential VINs. Why is that? Do other Mopar cars lines, or other package cars do that to this extent? NUMBERS! Damn NUMBERS!
Thanks to @Kaim we have the VON for the 228785 Finland car. Too bad we'll never have a Door Date (it's been painted over!) but that car seems to be firmly in the June VIN timeframe.
For quite some time there has been talk that at least three early cars had manual windows, two of which had consecutive VINs. Well, here those two are, 178250 and 51. The Prototype car (directly above in the list) had P31 power windows, as do all other Hursts except these few. Why? It was discovered--after the fact--that when the Imperial seats were all the way forward you couldn't crank the manual windows. How did they not think about this and miss an obvious problem? The MEN missed it! My guess is that a woman, who likely to put the seat all the way forward, was never behind the wheel of a Hurst until she was in her husband's new car in March of 1970. Ooops! After that, all were power.
The Chrysler museum, which has had its ups and downs and is now totally down, had a Hurst back in 2004. It was not there when I visited in 2016. It must be "museum quality" so I wonder who owns it now?
I also fixed a typo from the 28th. I had 228785 (Finland car) in the wrong place. All these NUMBERS!
So now, with a mere 73 cars, we can begin to see how lots of the VONs are out of numerical order in relation to the sequential VINs. Why is that? Do other Mopar cars lines, or other package cars do that to this extent? NUMBERS! Damn NUMBERS!
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