It’s known as the Bendix Electrojector. It was Chrysler’s late-1950s shot at fuel injection, and one of the biggest flops of the 1950s for the company…not to say anything about quality control and rusting issues. Reportedly twelve Dodge D-500s, five DeSoto Adventurers, sixteen Chrysler 300-Ds and somewhere between two and sixteen Plymouth Fury models were converted to the Bendix system. Why so few? That question might not be known, but the answer as to why Chrysler decided to not pursue any more is well-known: the Electrojector system was prone to near-immediate failure. The fuel injection system runs on transistors, which were dipped with wax paper and weren’t even close to reliable. In many cases, the owners of the cars had their vehicles converted to run on carburetors and had the cost of the fuel-injection system refunded (to the tune of about $640 in 1958 dollars!)

Outside of one known restored DeSoto, a fuel-injected fin-car Mopar is like finding the ultimate holy grail. And even if you did find one, what would you do with an electronic fuel injection kit that is over sixty years old and was problematic when it was brand-new straight from the factory? The smart man’s answer would be to start preparing a dual-quad V8 to fit in the massive engine bay, but one of Jay Leno’s paint guys recently wrapped up this 1958 Chrysler 300-D that is one of the very few that got injection. It’s not completely OEM…the car runs, for starters. But it’s a very clever restomod that you need to see and hear for yourself.