An
Automotive Dream Come True For Me,
My
1963 Chrysler 300 J
by
Scott Bell
I
have only recently gotten my 300 J back in January this year (2016),
so this story is really just beginning. My father was a very hard
working guy, and was a printer by trade, and eventually was able to
open his own print shop in Carson City, Nevada. I grew up being able
to watch him at times, working on different printing jobs, and
watching him trouble shoot the different printing presses when
something went wrong. He had many different pieces of printing
related equipment, including an old Linotype machine, and had presses
ranging from a Heidelberg (his personal favorite) to an AB Dick 360
offset press, which I still have in storage ( my Dad, Gene, passed
away in 2012). Being around my Dad while he was operating these
extremely complex machines, and knowing that he was able to diagnose
and repair a problem, as well as watching him meticulously maintain
these electro-mechanical wonders, gave me a very early and deep
appreciation for precise mechanical and electrical engineering. My
Dad also loved naval and aviation history, which I also picked up
from him. He did like cars also, like so many American guys, although
he did not have much patience for them when something went wrong, and
was also not much for regular maintenance either, which was very much
different than how he treated his printing presses and equipment.
I
guess I grew a kind of sympathy for cars at an early age, and wanted
to maintain and protect them from neglect and abuse. I have owned
over fifty cars since I was a teenager in the mid seventies, and
started out with a love for Pontiacs of the sixties/ early seventies,
and also really appreciated the Lincoln Continentals of the sixties (
the dark blue sedan that gets crushed in Goldfinger may have also
helped my fascination with them, and wanting to protect them, I was
only about five or six when I first saw that movie with my parents
and sister at the drive in movie theatre).
My
first Mopar was a 1965 Chrysler 300 L that I bought from Jeff. It did
not run, and was in need of a total restoration, which I could not
afford at all, but I was sure happy to have a Chrysler 300 letter
car! I was not making much progress with it, and I could tell that
Jeff really wanted to do the restoration on it and get it running, so
we made a deal where he took the L back, and I got a 1967 Chrysler
300 two door hardtop from him instead.
The 67 was a really nice
original car, and the 440 ran really strong. I had my first running
driving Mopar, and I loved it so much, I still think about it. I have
since owned many Mopars, including a 1970 Charger SE with a factory
383 Magnum, a 1968 Charger R/T, and many C bodies including a 1970
Plymouth Sport Fury GT and a 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst. I am very
fortunate to have found/rescued a very rare full size Mopar back in
2009, that I still own today. It is a 1970 dealer demo coded Dodge
Monaco 500, with the factory optional 440 with dual exhaust and dual
snorkel air cleaner, optional disc brakes, sure grip, FK5 code burnt
orange exterior and burnt orange buckets and console shift interior
and Gator Grain vinyl top. It was built on the first day of
production for the 1970 model year (at the relatively new Belvidere
Illinois Plymouth/Dodge C body assembly plant) on August 4th 1969,
just a couple of weeks after we landed on the moon!
Out of all the 300 letter cars
that I had seen in that article in 1982, the one that really stood
out to me was the 1963 Chrysler 300 J. I knew that it was also the
rarest of the letter car hardtops, and in those pre internet days, I
thought that I would probably never be able to find one, so I tried
not to get my hopes up very much. The combination of the last
vestiges of the forward look Mopars combined with the new sixties
rectilinear contemporary look really fascinated me. What was also
very appealing to me was the fact that starting in 62, the 300's were
built on the shorter Windsor/Newport chassis, with it's 122 inch
wheelbase and a couple hundred pounds less weight. Add on top of that
the highest standard horsepower rating of all the 300 letter cars,
and what is also considered the highest developed version of the ram
inducted engines, with almost the same factory horsepower rating as
the GT Special engines of 1960/61/62, but with a higher torque rating
than those engines. The fact that the 63 Chrysler's styling was the
product of a combination of the last styling efforts of Virgil Exner
and his styling team, including Cliff Voss, (the proposed 62
Chrysler and Imperial "S" cars, along with the innovative
1961 Dodge Flitewing experimental car seemed the largest influences)
and the newly hired Elwood Engel, who is thought to have had minimal
influence on the design as it was too far advanced in form by the
time he was hired, is fascinating. It has been written that a worried
Chrysler management had asked Elwood Engel what he thought about the
final form of the 63 Chryslers, and he is said to have replied that
he thought they were "beautiful" and that they had nothing
to worry about. As it turned out, he was right, 1963 Chrysler
production increased a little over 1962 totals, despite all of the
problems at Chrysler Corp. during that time period, most of which
were caused by poor management decisions.
I am a big fan of both Exner and Engel, and I think that together,
they and their styling teams have been responsible from some of the
most beautiful American cars ever proposed or produced. I think it is
always important to remember that vintage automobiles were styled by
a number of people, and not just a single person, it is usually the
V.P. of the corporations styling department who seems to get all of
the credit.
During
the 80's, 90's and 2000's, I felt that if I ever could find a 300 J
that I could afford that would also be in reasonably good condition,
I wanted it to not have air conditioning, have factory dual outside
rear view mirrors, and have the deluxe signal seeking " seven
button" AM radio with power antenna and rear seat speaker. My
second hobby other than vintage cars is vintage audio/stereo
equipment and it's history. Part of audio history is the history of
automotive radios and other sources that became available as
technology progressed. After the hiway hi-fi record players of the
late fifties, other than the addition of a few monophonic FM/AM
radios becoming available, not much happened with car audio. What
changed things for people who wanted to be able to bring their own
music with them out on the road, away from radio station reception,
in a safe, usable convenient form, was the
continuous loop magnetic tape cartridge. Thanks to Earl "Madman"
Muntz and his engineers, the "Fidelipac" 4 track tape
cartridge player, adapted from the newly developed radio station NAB
Cartridge player and tapes, became available for automotive and home
use. This was before the Bill Lear developed 8 tracks, which were
inferior in sound quality, and did not come out until 65/66. The
connection with a 63 Chrysler 300 J, for me, is the fact that the
very first production run of Muntz's new 4 track players became
available in 1963, under the name of Autostereo. These first run
units were not only engineered by Muntz, they were also built to very
high quality standards in Van Nuys, California. They were quite
expensive, especially the top of the line units, and it is known that
the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc. were some of the first
people in SoCal to take advantage of this new technology for their
cars. I have one of Autostereo's top of the line units, an MC8, and
it will be installed in my 300 J.
My
dream of owning a J finally happened just
earlier this year. I found it for sale right here on the club
website. It is factory equipped just as I hoped I could find one, and
the price and condition were just right for what I could afford. It
came from Hays, Kansas, and I can track it's lineage back to 1999 in
Alliance, Nebraska. Before that, I do not have any info, but it is in
pretty remarkable original condition, with a mixture of original
paint and some repainting done. A small amount of rust repair will be
done to the very bottom tuck under of the rear quarter panels, and a
couple of other really minor rust spots, but other than that, it is
really solid, nice and original. There are some things about this
particular J that are kind of interesting, over and above just being
one of the greatest American high performance luxury cars ever. I was
quite surprised to find the original exhaust head pipes were still
there, along with the factory cast iron headers. Somewhere along this
cars life experiences, but quite some time
ago, someone welded in a pair of exhaust cut outs, complete with
removable block off plates, into the original head pipes, which still
have the factory cross over pipe. I also noticed that someone had
welded in some thick metal gussets to reinforce the front spring eye
mounting perch areas for the rear springs. I think, some time in the
past, probably in the 60's sometime, this car was raced some. It
still has the original engine block and heads, but the engine was
rebuilt some time ago. It runs really well, although I think the
camshaft is a little hotter than stock, and it is a solid lifter cam,
as original.
The original Carter AFB 3505S carburetors were
unfortunately missing. In their place are a pair of 3705SA's, which
are the large 750CFM AFB's that came on the 63/64 426 Max Wedge
engines. I have only been able to find one 3505S so far, but I will
keep looking! The factory air cleaners and breather cap were also
missing, but in their place are some very old, probably 60's vintage,
chrome aftermarket pieces, which are very cool. I will buy a pair of
the repro original air cleaners when I can afford to.
Vintage speed equipment of any kind is getting pretty popular with collectors, and
prices seem to be going up accordingly. I
also installed a 60's vintage 80 PSI Stewart Warner oil pressure
gauge, along with a early 60's vintage engraved chrome bracket. I am
still in the process of going through the brakes and suspension, so I
have not driven it much yet. What really amazes me, is the way it
sounds and drives, you would really think that it has one of those
Max Wedge "orange monsters" under the hood ( and, going by
the stock factory ratings, it is only 25 hp off from the "regular"
max wedge, and actually has 5 ft-lbs. more
torque! ), and you are totally not expecting that, surrounded by all
of that beautiful chrome and leather luxury! When tuning and
balancing the dual quads, and dealing with the awesome dual point,
cable drive tachometer distributor, looking at the factory shop
manual supplement specifications and procedures and following
them, I am reminded of how my dad must have felt, dealing with
complex precisely engineered machinery when working on his Heidelberg
printing press. I do love vintage high performance engineering! It is
a great and rewarding hobby, especially working on and driving a
Chrysler 300 letter car. It just does not get any better, maybe
working on a Pratt & Whitney R2800 Double Wasp in a P47D
Thunderbolt and then being able to fly it, yes, maybe that might just
better it!
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