The sad story of this car having been stripped bare and left outside happens more often than you might think. Other strikes against this heavyweight’s comeback include missing drive train, missing glass, and the Western Pennsylvania zip code. Offered here on Facebook marketplace, the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst Edition in New Castle, Pennsylvania was once a gleaming flagship, a full-sized luxury coupe with power and style. Thanks to reader Mijey8 for spotting this never-finished restoration. Under that crap pile should be a Hurst-specific fiberglass hood that the seller claims is “good.” Personally I’d have taken four minutes to uncover the car, but what do you want for $3500? Plus we should give the benefit of the doubt to the seller. It’s easy to make snarky comments then regret them later when you learn the seller is confined to a wheel chair or has a five-pound weight restriction.
Missing glass and other components suggest (as the seller mentions) that a less-valuable donor car be utilized to get this Hurst Edition back in shape. Other coupes in the full-size lineup include the Newport, New Yorker, and of course any non-Hurst 300. On the plus side the specific wheels look right. Chrysler’s torsion bar front suspension and unibody construction gave these fuselage full-size cars excellent ride and handling compared to the typical coil spring suspension and body-on-frame designs offered by most competitors.
Oversized bucket seats and a once-handsome console will be perfect for long trips. Only the frequency and amount of fuel receipts will cause discomfort when driving this battleship cross-country. The missing dashboard and door panels begin to tip the tide toward *this* being the donor car for a restoration rather than the recipient of parts. Check out the complete interior of a similar Hurst Edition here at streetmusclemag.com.
This is the last picture we’ve got, folks. This fiberglass deck lid doesn’t seem quite right, but I’ll let our Chrysler experts comment on that below. With fewer than 500 Hurst Edition 300s built, it’s amazing how often they turn up. The 440 cid V8 made 375 HP and a tectonic 480 lb-ft of torque, good enough to move the two-ton coupe from 0-60 in 7.1 seconds. Thanks to streetmusclemag.com for some details. I like all the hidden-headlight fuselage cars, especially the 1969 Imperial Lebaron sedans, but I’d prefer one of these 300 Hurst Editions or a Plymouth Sport Fury among the coupes. This specimen is best suited for someone with a donor car in hand or nearby, or a highly-skilled Hurst fan willing to separate the wheat from the chaff on this Quonset-hut find. How would you write the next chapter of this rare car’s story?
Despite the rarity and uniqueness of these particular models the level of work needed on this one makes it an automatic parts car by default. Not to mention the low demand in the collector market. Find a driver for $25k if you really have to own a 300 Hurst.
Agreed. And I’m a Chrysler enthusiast, I have a few, but this one should have Final Ceremonies…………
Forget it Gold
Oh my goodness. This won’t do. It won’t do at all.
Lesson: If you strip a car to bare metal, primer it immediately!
Agreed Fred W. Preferably with a good urethane primer sealer. That way if it does turn out to be awhile before it actually gets painted it won’t cover with surface rust. Due to circumstances I found that one out the hard way. Now I’ve got twice as much work ahead of me. Yes, another of life’s lessons learned the hard way.
Sink
Sank
Sunk
Call the Captain
Acid dip. Rinse. Repeat.
What a waste…why do people do these things to cars???
Another fun project is fixing the hood and trunk. Fiberglass bonded onto metal never was ideal.
Run Forest, RUN!!!
Until recently, there was one of these for sale outside a tire shop about 15 miles from my home. That one looked like a decent 3-5 year old car instead of a 50 year old car.
I agree, if I was going to own one of the fuselage coupes it would be a Plymouth…a Sport Fury, Fury GT, or Fury Gran Coupe.
unless you have a parts stash or a good donor car in hand already, you’ll be in over your head with this one. Life long Mopar guy too. I rescued a ’69 road runner that I got for free, and had new 1/4s already on it, but everything else was either MIA or junk. If I hadn’t had a bunch of parts already, I would have finished it off as a parts car. This one is a shame, my late Uncle was from Beaver Falls and always wanted one of these. He easily could have brought this one back with his parts stash.
Lessons learned…..as hard as it is to start the “restore” do NOT take the car apart. Most cars if, complete can be road worthy with minimal work, even if the mechanics need overhaul. If the stainless and chrome pieces are good those will bring some good money. That said this one should be a parts only.
Mikey8
😊
I know of one a lot worse about 50 miles north of this car.
Junk
Again with the positive comments !
not junk, bound to be some good parts, but without being able to see the car without all the JUNK laying on it and in it, I wouldn’t travel any distance to see it. And as it sits, sure not worth the asking. I would at least want to be able to see the Hurst specific parts clearly…and unless I missed it in the listing, no mention of the owner being in a wheelchair so what’s the excuse?
Yes that rear deck lid is correct I have my mom and dad’s 300 Hurst Edition still it’s in worse shape than that if you’re looking for some junk yes I have it also LOL
See I ‘ve told all of you repeatedly.
The car world has spun off it’s axis. Again
At a minimum this seller needs immediate psychiatric care.
Jumpin jeosophat!
To those of you who wish I exercised a less critical more friendly machine gun hand? I can’t
I also love to hoard these cars and have 4 more in various conditions if anybody out there wants to tackle a project. 55k for all 4 and they come with titles. one is in really nice shape and the others need work to finish. located in Minnesota.
@Sherwin – Please send them in so we can feature them on the site: mail@barnfinds.com