History Chrysler Airflow: One tough car!

Your right there, She has been showing her skinny bones for a few years now on every car they try to sell . Usually on Ebay Germany. I wonder if they actually sell or not. More often than not the bids don,t meet reserve. She does offer overnight stay and a party for out of country buyers.

 

That's some scary shit!!!

 

wow, 1934, seating for 6, durable, safe [maybe add some seat belts] 19 mpg and can be easily repaired using simple hand tools. what more could we want in 2010

 

At the ranch we picked up another Airflow. It is a '37 sedan.

 

Here she be, This car came from Oregon.

 

Wow very cool.Are you going to restore it or customize it?

 

Nope for sale.

 

Personally, I prefer Airstreams.

 

My Dad was a mechanical engineer for Chrysler. He loved the Airflows. He had a picture of this car from the 30's. It was a sanctioned by Chrysler promotional vehicle. I would love to know where it is. It needs respect.

 

Chrysler was the more popular Airflow. A little bigger, more bling. Straight Eight. It's little brother, the Desoto Airflow was just as good of a car, but a tad smaller, less fancy, and a 6 cyl. motor. Here's photos of my two '35 Desoto SG's, one mostly finished, the other a parts car. It's important to have a parts car if you decide to restore one of these rare birds! The parts car will eventually become a street rod project.

 

I wish I had one. There fantastic!

 

Hey Peaky,i know where that two-headed abomination is.It's in my back yard.Along with the remains of a 34 Desoto 4-door sedan. I don't know how the pics got on here,i didn't post them,not that i mind. Do you have any more info on it? It's real rough,picked it up for parts in Dade City about 4 years ago. Thanks!

 

Chrysler/DeSoto didn't put all the eggs in one Airflow basket. They offered a conventionally styled Airstream model to those who just couldn't do the Airflow. Airflow production ended in 1937. There is a restored 35 Airflow coupe in a little town outside San Antonio owned by a retired school teacher. I'd never seen anything but 4door 'flows when I saw that one. It was a gem.

 

The coupes are very rare and most sought after, especially the '34's. Consider that in 1934, Chrysler made only 649 CU coupes (5 pass.) and 185 CV Imperial coupes compared to 6341 four dr sedans, and 1714 Imperial sedans.
In '34, Desoto made 1584 coupes compared to 11,713 sedans. Over the year I've located some nice coupes for sale, but couldn't afford them! Even if you find one that's in rough shape you'll have a difficult time finding parts. With the help of friends all over the U.S., I've been locating and buying and selling Airflow parts for about 10 years now, and almost all my sources are drying up, because there simply isn't many parts out there any more. I'm lucky to have had a parts car for my '35 SG.
Many considered the Airflow an ugly duckling and a complete commercial flop, but it was an innovative car that set design and engineering features for future manufacturing auto companies to follow.

 

When i moved into my shop a desoto airflow sat alongside and didn't come with the shop. It was nearly complete and very very deco, the door handles alone were incredible. I couldn't talk the owner out of it as he figured i'd whack it up. After a year or two i had to add onto the building so he came and got the airflow - that was 15years ago approx, i looked at it the other day sitting out in the weather, door glass knocked out and has electrical romex tying both front and rear doors together and the whole interior is full of hubcaps - right to the bottom of the windows! I'd post a pic but you guys would go absolutely banannas!

 

My Dad had a shelf of books on Chrysler model history. They were books Chrysler itself published in the 60's and 70's. One of the books had a picture of this car in a light color (it was a black and white photo). The caption talked about how this was a promotions vehicle made by/for Chrysler. The books are gone now. They went when we cleared my parent's estate. This is a suck timing proposition as I just looked at the book 4 years ago. Would love to come see it sometime. Close the loop.

 

One of the ultimate cool cars of all-time !

Can somebody give me an "Amen" ? !


JK

 

Slight correction...there were not only 4 of the '36 Airflow
Tudor (as you call it) built. there were 110 of the C9 and 240 of the C10 Airflow two door or coupe for 1936 built. To me, that's 350 built. I don't know where the guy got the "4" number, but is way off.

 

Huh....my initials are the same as your so, AMEN!!

 

Peaky,that's a shame that the books are gone. I would love to see the pix in them and compare to the remains of the car i have. I pm'd you my phone#,come by anytime! Thanks for responding.

 

i have always like the Airflows.... and was lucky enough this past week to get a call from a friend of mines dad , who offered me a package deal... that included his 1936 chrysler imper. Airflow ...needs to be redone, but the car runs and drives around the yard, is all orig... comes with clear title and a N.O.S. grill. i also am getting a running and driving 1955 olds 98 holiday 2dr hordtop, and a 1953 chrysler 4dr runner/driver. price was right, so i hope to have them all home in a couple of weeks!!! sorry no pics yet, but will post them as soon as i get some!

 

Now I really want to lower mine!!! This looks just right

Did you get ahold of the Imperial Airflow? I would sure like to see some pics and hear what you have planned for it!


Yes, the Airflow are great cars. My grandfather had one in the mid 40s and he was always talking about it and telling me how good it was and was the best car he ever had. The one he had was a 36 Chrysler C10, black and I have found a few pictures of it from when he had it.
I was lucky to find one for sale in SD that was in good original condition. The interior has been reupholstered, but most of the outside is supposed to have most of the original paint. It's got alot of patina to it and I like it that way. Restoring it would take lots of time and LOTS of money, so I don't think I will do it. I've been driveing it alot in the summertime, going to the grocerystore etc. Everyone just loves it! Mine is a 36 C9, black and it's a little longer than the C10 that my grandfather had. Sadly he passed away before I baught it but I'm sure he would have loved driveing around with me.
Now there is 2 36 C9s in Norway and as the Airflowclub knows, there is 27 existing in the world. I did get contacted from a guy here in Norway that had pulled up a C9 from the bottom of a lake here in Norway. The body was all gone but the engine could still be moved. It had been in the lake since the 50s.
Here's a few pics of mine.

A happy new owner of a C9

 

those airflow 2 door coupes were very rare..saw one at a classic car show..beautiful cars and way ahead of their time

 

There were a lot of myths spread about the Airflow by other car companies scared shitless of trying to compete with them (cough*GM*cough)

1) The Airflow was not successful. Untrue

First you need to know that Walter Chrysler asked his engineers to come up with the most sensational, modern car they could to celebrate Chrysler's 10th anniversary as a car maker. It was MEANT to be ultra modern, and to sell at a premium price of 50% more than the conventional Airstream models.

That was a ballsy move in the middle of the worst depression America ever saw. In fact it sold well for such a radical, and expensive car.

For a real failure look at Cadillac's V16. Now there was a flop. When they announced it they said sales the first year would be limited to 5000 units. What a laugh. They made that dog for 10 years and never sold 5000 in the whole time. It started no trends, had no imitators and in the end was quietly dropped.

It is worth remembering too, that in 1934 the Airflow was too avante garde for most people. The "early adopters" loved it, and it created a lot of "buzz" for Chrysler which is what it was meant to do. But after a couple of years it looked conventional and the conventional car of 1934 looked like an antique.

Compare the Airflow to the typical 1932 or 1933 car (before the Airflow) and it looks radical. The car was made for 4 years, 1934 - 1937, with annual style updates. This was a long life for a new design, at that time cars were usually completely new every 2 or 3 years.

Compare it to the typical 1938 car (after the Airflow) and they are practically the same. At least the silhouette is the same except the newer models have fatter fenders. The 1938 Chrysler line was an Airflow in all but name, and so was every other car that came after. So yes it was ahead of its time, but only by a couple of years, since everybody copied it so quickly.

So it was a sales success, a success as a prestige builder and publicity getter, and a technical success, it set speed and economy records at Bonneville and in coast to coast tests, and started a fashion that was copied all around the world.

Cars don't get much more successful than that.

 

Chrysler didn't load all their eggs in one basket though. They offered a full line of "regular" looking cars under another model name in both the Chrysler and DeSoto makes just in case. And they also left their low-priced cars in the old mould as well.

 

I built this car. The Airstream is a 1937 model, the Airflow is a 34 SE coupe. I built it from 1996 to 2001, with a custom made front suspension using Ford LTD spindles, 305 TPI Chevy, 700R4, and a 9" rear. It now has a 5.7 Hemi, 700R4 and an 8.8 Ford rear. About 70 percent of the paint is the original, applied in 1934. There was no rust repair done on this car, there was no rust out.

 

I've got some interesting reading material and photos of the Airflow concept design, the "Trifon Special", which was built in 1932. I'll dig it out and see if I can post some of it.

 

on my last trip to French Lake Auto Parts i found this solid Chrysler Imperial Airflow for sale
there was a NOS grille was inside not everyday you stumble across one

 

Here's some interesting material on the origin of the Airflow: