Asking Price: $5,500.00
Location: Anderson
Mileage: 47,125
Title Status: Clean
VIN: 5072429
Seller’s Description: First year of production of rare milestone design. 99% complete. Hood ornament, ash trays, some interior handles, interior sun visors, both tail lights, bumperettes not shown in picture but are present. Some reproduction and NOS parts and literature included. Have correct radio head and main cowl-mounted radio control box. Also not shown: rare factory locking gas cap for the airflows (not the locking cap shown in the photos that are on the car presently).
Extra set of front fenders , steering column with gear box and extra steering wheel included. Have 3 out of 4 hubcaps with one of those being the factory locking hub cap for the spare tire mounted on the back of the car. Both left and right headlight lenses (left and right are different from each other and marked as such when manufactured) in good condition and packed seperately. One of two reflectors for the headlight assemblies missing. (no sealed beams in 1934!)
Walter P. Chrysler let the engineers design these original Airflows without public input, so a few features are “wonky” and were changed in the 1935 models. For example; there is no trunk lid on the back of the car (as it was reported the idea was to ensure a clean aerodynamic look) so you had to access the trunk through the back seat! The rear cushion was hinged on the top and you swung the back seat cushion up to access the trunk space. Also the first car to have a vinyl (oilcloth) headliner for ease of cleaning. Air passing by the engine flowed out through visible vents on the side of the car below the hood (this feature also went away in the following year). Relocation of engine over front axle was new as was the structural design of the body One promo film shows an Airflow rolled like a ball down a hillside, then the driver getting in the car and driving away!
You can find out about all this and more on the website for the Airflow Club of America.
While the Airflow didn’t last long many of its design features were adopted in time by all the automotive manufacturers and became commonplace in automotive design.
The design was just too far ahead in thinking to be accepted by the general public, so the Airflow did not last very long. Take a look at the Japanese Toyota for 1934……Talk about copying design! But the
Toyota only had a one piece windshield. The Chrysler Corporation DeSoto Airflows had seperate left and right winshields that were independently hinged at the top and could be opened with indiviodual dashboard -mounted cranks!
Another fascinating feature (and I don’t know if the Toyota copied this) was that the front door windwings were opened seperately from the main door window, but if you closed them then they retracted into the door along with the main door window when they were rolled down. Cool!
This car stored in a barn for 40+ years. Now kept covered in secured area.(only uncovered to take attached photos).
Drive train appears complete. No attempt has been made to turn engine over. Crankcase shows clean oil with no water contamination and cooling system was intact. Transmission has factory “free wheeling” option controlled on the dash and marked accordingly.
Car had seat covers installed long ago over original upholstery, so great original patterns present if you want to replicate original design. Overhead wood framing appears to be complete and in good shape.
Minimal rust through seen in small areas of lower section of doors, but not seen anywhere else in the body.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to me with any questions or clarifications.
