The seller of this 1963 Chrysler 300J tells us that it “needs to be finished” but actually it looks more like it needs to be started. But, it’s a project and it is a heck of a start – this 300J is one of only 400 assembled in ’63. The engine has a validation tag which lends credibility to this car’s originality so let’s take a close look and see what’s really here. This full-size Mopar Muscle Machine is located in Prescott, Arizona and is available, here on craigslist for $12,500. T.J. gets kudos for this great find!
So, Chrysler offered both a 300 (two and four-door hardtop, and a convertible) as well as the 300J which was a two-door hardtop only. The big difference was the engine room occupant, the 300J employed a 390 gross HP, 413 CI V8 engine fed by a pair of four-barrel carburetors, sitting perched on a pair of outrageous, long tube, intake runners – and that’s what we have here. Standard 300s made do with a more pedestrian, single-carburetor version of the 413 wedge engine. The really surprising thing in this case, however, is that this big V8 makes the rear wheel hook up via a three-speed manual transmission as opposed to the more commonly found TorqueFlite three-speed automatic gearbox. The seller claims, “runs excellent“. It would be nice to know if the unique air cleaners are still available.
This Chrysler definitely has that “burned” southwest look about it. The finish is flat, chalky, and has undergone a lot of surface rust bleed-through but the body shows as being sound. Most of the trim is still attached but things like the wiper arms are missing. The lower passenger side quarter panel, behind the door, may have some perforation occurring but it doesn’t appear to be significant at this point.
The interior is not in the best shape. The driver’s bucket seat is in place but the passenger seat, as well as the rear bench, are both missing. The lack of carpet reveals floors that seem to be solid but things like the dash pad, upholstery panels, and door cards will need work. The interior should probably be gutted so a fresh start can be made. The elephant in the room is the missing center console – one for a manual shift is likely a very rare piece.
This is a rare and collectible car so it’s surprising to me that the listing is so nonchalant. The fact that it possesses a manual transmission and still has the entire fuel induction system is pretty remarkable. Sure, it’s going to need a lot of work, but still, it seems like a great restoration foundation. And this leads me to the question of price, seems to me that $12,500 is reasonable considering this car’s current state and province. What’s your thought on that matter?
IMHO, Too good to part out, too expensive to restore. But MOPAR fan probably sees it differently.
Looks like the console is in the back seat?
I hear letter fans crying right now. That engine view just screams Shell Oil, eh? Images show a VERY fancy interior, with buckets, beautiful console. I read, Chrysler did offer a 3 speed floor shift, but not many in any pics I found, it just wasn’t that kind of car. While this letter isn’t the most desirable, it’s still a letter car, and I’d like to puke at what they did to it. I guess we’ll never know why someone does what they do, goes along with good old American freedom, I suppose, but sometimes, it’s a little unsettling to see this. These are what I’d call “teetering on the border” cars. A fortune to restore, a single digit mileage motor, a clunky 3 speed, I just don’t see a future for these. Shame, my brother had a ’63 Newport, 361, 4 door, and THAT car rolled like thunder, I can only imagine, this was the highest class Chrysler one could buy. It wasn’t a scorcher off the line, It would do 0-60 in 6.3, the 1/4 mile in just around 16.0/ 92mph, but that was just barely hitting 3rd gear, and no problem burying the 120 mph speedo. At 5.6 mpg, or less, depending on foot placement, the fun didn’t last too long. I see people making fireplace surrounds out of these ( and others) front ends, the motor will surely be stuffed into some street rod pickup, just because of it’s outrageous appearance, but sadly, I doubt much hope here. They were just the best Chryslers, from experience.
I hope this gets restored, its to damn cool to kill.
You’d probably have to go to Mopar Nationals to find another car like this. A bit of an oddity, but super cool, and could be a real terror in the stop light drags.
Keep it as is..sleeper red light machine
Agreed. If it pulled up next to me, I would barely look twice (laugh icon).
I’d ask the owner if he has all the parts for it such as the air cleaners and back seat I bet he does but who knows it wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me. The other bucket and console are there.Seems like a good deal to me but I’d really go over it first before committing to it. You’d be the only kid on the block that has one for sure. Rare cool car .
As with any Mopar I bet there is 1000 yds. of wiring in the dash and under hood. Restoring is a life consuming hobby, I burned 3 summers restoring a 68 F250, I will pass on another opportunity to do that.
As with any Mopar ?? A bit of a generalization ! You think this car has more wiring than a same year Buick or Caddy ? or maybe a Lincoln ragtop ? my ’64 Valiant was a Mopar, but had hardly any wiring .,maybe even less than your 68 F250
Exactly. Of all the brands back then Chrysler wiring was the neatest. Even today look under the hood of any ford and it’s a wiring nightmare.
The exterior trim on the car is from the standard 300, not the 300J. The 300J lacks the chrome trim on the style line from the top of the front fenders and across the doors and rear fenders. The thin chrome trim along the J curves up at the bottom of the rear side windows instead of continuing in a straight line, and the J has a thin chrome strip above the rear bumper, not the wider chrome molding which came on standard 300 models and is seen on this car.
EJ,
I agree based on the trim, it’s a 300, not a J. Plus, if I’m not mistaken, the 300J came standard with power brakes, and this car has manual brakes. I suspect this is a 300 with a J engine, except the VIN indicates it’s a 300J.
The website for Mopar VIN decoding I use is: https://www.tpocr.com/chryvin1.html
That site says the first 2 digits as shown in this car’s VIN of 84, indicate it’s a Chrysler 300J.
Per a story in Hemmings, the power brake booster on the J was moved to the inner fender well because of a clearance issue with the manifold/carburetor/air cleaner. No space for the booster in the engine bay.
As for the trim, I don’t see a difference between this car and photos of Js on the internet. Maybe I need new glasses, though.
tiger66,
Thanks for the clarification on the booster, just when I think I know it all, I learn something new!
I did some more research and found the 300J brake booster isn’t covered in the repair manual, but it’s in a special 300J addendum produced by Chrysler Corp. Here is a photo of the page explaining how to bleed the brakes on a 300J, along with a photo of the unit in the fender.
Basically the 300J used the standard non-power brake master cylinder that is plumbed to a second master cylinder, and the booster is activated from brake fluid pressure from the standard master cylinder, much like a Bendix Hydrovac on many non-air brake trucks and Studebakers with power brakes up to 1958 [and Hawks thru 1964].
So you’re thinking this is non letter car with a J manifold bolted on? Letter cars had solid lifters, right?
I had a 300K I bought from Richard Catpenter. It had the short ram manifold. So fun in a straight line. Frightening in a curve if you didn’t slow down a bit. Built like a tank.
Gary,
If you’ve owned a letter series car, than you probably know that unlike GM or Ford, with Chrysler products it was pretty easy to order options and equipment that were not officially available. I’ve owned some crazy optioned Mopars over the years, I had a 1961 New Yorker T & C Wagon with police 413 and the French Pont-A-Mousson 4-speed gearbox. I bought it from the original owner who ordered it loaded [even dual A/C] but wanted the 4-speed because he planned to tow a very large Sport-Fisherman style boat & trailer. I bought a 1956 Imperial in Germany that had been sold new in Europe, and the 354 Hemi had a total of 6 head gaskets from the factory, in an effort to lower compression to compensate for the poor octane European fuel.
I remember seeing a new 1969 Plymouth Fury 4-door hardtop sitting in the back of a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer. It was painted with a dark green color and a green vinyl roof. The interior, was dark blue, including dash, carpets, headliner, seats & door cards, and the interior was marked as a Dodge Polara! I figured somewhere there was a matching blue Polara with a green Fury interior!
Another example: I bought a new 1973 Dodge B-200 van with 318, stickshift, A/C and cruise control. Officially ordering factory-installed A/C and/or cruise control required the purchase of Torqueflite. When I picked up the van, the fuse for the cruise control was in the glove box, with a hand-written note taped to the dash telling me not to push the clutch in while using the cruise!
As this is an 84333 identifier, and my sources say that means it’s a 300J, then it just might be an early example, especially with the 3-speed instead of the 4-speed. Or perhaps the build card specs were wrong, and the outside trim called for a standard 300 trim set. And if it is indeed a standard 300, I’m certain one could special order the J engine.
This looks like a standard 300 with a 300J motor, as the stamping shows in the CL ad. Perhaps the vins migrated to this body, but as Ed and Bill have pointed out the differences. Not a true J. I have a 300J and the differences are apparent. Cool car, just not 12.5k cool.
Richard Carpenter? You mean Karen’s brother? Lol
I learned to drive a stick on my father’s 1964 Newport wagon, with the 361 2 barrel and 3 speed. Commuting in traffic you would end up with left leg bigger than the right, with the powerful spring on that clutch.
I’d turn it into a stock car clone. No worries about correct parts or interior or nice paint. Just a Saturday Night Special oval car. No need to chop anything up. Save all the oe parts. Car would be resurrected and someone with more dollars than cents could still restore it.
Those 3 speeds weren’t bad. I had a 62 Newport 4 door sedan with that factory 3 speed. The 361 had gone south and been replaced with a 383 Magnum from a wrecked Charger. This was early 70’s. Surprised more than a few people with that boat.
It doesn’t look like a letter car, lack of trim but what potential. 64 was available with a 4 speed. No question about what I’d do. A8333. Who cares if it’s not correct? Kind of stock works for me.
You have a blank slate here– at least
in the interior department. Just find, or make some seat frames for those
missing seats and have them covered locally. In the ’70s, we didn’t
cared so much about the correctness
of the parts so long as they worked.
Can’t find the parts you need to finish
your ’48 Belchmonile? There were folks back then that could fab up most anything you need just by looking at a picture. Oh for the days
when getting your project going was
your main concern rather than the
correctness of it. Only thing I’d change on this one would
be the tranny. If you’re gonna row the
gears, 4 beats 3 anytime.
The cross ram intakes are a rare item to find intact.alot of these were removed and replaced with a regular,dual plane, dual quad intakes as the cross ram linkage setup was difficult to adjust. finding original air cleaners?….good luck,happy hunting
“needs to be finished” but actually it looks more like it needs to be started.
Good one Jim.
That ram manifold is nothing more than a conversation piece, and a pain in the neck, and it only added an extra 10hp. I had a 62 300H, with the conventional in-line carburetors, it was rated at 380hp. No doubt, this car is extremely rare, but finding all the correct parts for a proper restoration would be next to impossible. I’m not sure that even a car this rare would be worth the grief and expense. If I had a pile of money laying around, I would by the car just for the motor, and find a nicer period Dodge or Plymouth to install it in. That’s what I would do. What this guy should do, is contact a 300 letter car club, he might make a quick sale.
I contacted the seller, and he indicates he’s got all the seats, as well as both carb air cleaners.
This appears to be an authentic 300J, with the very rare [perhaps a 1 of 1] combination of stick shift and factory air conditioning. I love cars with stick and A/C, as I love shifting gears and I live in a hot & humid area every summer.
Thx Bill!
JO
What a neat car! And at $12,500, I think it’s priced right too.
However, it reminds me of the nice ’57 Buick on BF last week. Great car at a fair price, but there was no apparent interest from buyers. I can understand the disinterest. Young car people would rather have a foreign pickup or a Modo-Thingo, and old car people have aged out of the hobby.
RIP
But how do it run so good without the ignition coil hooked up?
Jerry,
It’s a really, really high output coil that arcs from the high voltage socket to the center of the distributor cap, no coil wire needed! These coils are so rare I’ve never even seen one!
There is another possible reason the high tension wire is not hooked up: A “Missing” coil wire makes it hard to steal.
For many years when I have a car that is sitting unused, especially when the drive train is rare and sought-after, but it’s a good running vehicle, I simply pull the coil wire and set it aside. This may not always thwart a dedicated thief, but it will usually deter a kid looking for a cool ride to have fun in or make some fast cash.
Let’s face it, a genuine 300J engine complete with all manifolds, carbs and air filters is worth at least $5k if it’s a running engine with excellent and even compression.
In February, 1978 I was at the big Atlantic City antique car auction, and I had driven my 1966 Chrysler New Yorker sedan to tow a vehicle back using a tow bar. While I was attending the auction, someone probably knew the Chrysler had the optional high performance police package dual-point 440, and they tried to hotwire the car’s ignition. I got back to find the wiring under the dash had been cut up, but they didn’t get the engine to run, and gave up. I repaired the wiring, installed the “missing” coil wire, and drove away
Many of these younger kids who like to fool around with mechanical stuff have heard that cars in the 1960s and earlier are incredibly easy to steal, especially GM cars that don’t even require a key to start unless the ignition switch has been turned to the LOCK position!
3 speed was base equipment on the 63 Newport (had one, ate throwout bearings but hung tough through 130K miles)–this shifter appears to be in the correct position and the dash has the blackout panel for the push buttons—some people added 300 trim to Newports in the day…
Dave D,
I’m 99% sure this is an actual 300J, not a clone using a Newport hardtop.
Spoiler alert: The deck lid on a 300J has a round medallion with a “J” in the middle, this one simply has three chrome characters in form of “300”. The round medallions on the “C” pillars should also have a “J” in the middle, but they appear to be faded in the photos. The regular 300 came standard with a 3spd manual, so that is meaningless. So there ya go, it’s either a 300J that’s had the deck lid replaced, or it’s a standard 300 that has received a 300J engine and/or 300J components.
The ad is gone now. I hope the new owner shows up on the FB groups or Mopar forums, it would be interesting to see the restoration or resto-mod…I hope for the former and not the latter, especially if it is a true 300J. But as it has been pointed out, Chryslers could be ordered with a variety of options, so maybe the original owner did indeed order the J package on a standard 300, because of his desire for a 3-speed stick (My kind of motorhead!) and someone at the factory decided if it walks and quacks like a 300J, then a 300J it shall be and it was birthed with that vin. Makes sense. Could be confirmed if you ordered the build sheet and other “birth certificates” from the Chrysler archive. Hope that is true, makes for a better story, and with old cars (at least for me), the story makes them that much cooler.
The car is now on Barn Finds Auction.
https://barnfinds.com/bf-auction-1963-chrysler-300j/
The car is now on Barn Finds Auction:
https://barnfinds.com/bf-auction-1963-chrysler-300j/