One week after finding a car in the kitchen of a Vietnam veteran, RJ from WD Detailing goes back to pick up one that has been sitting in a bedroom of the same house. Another one is in the bedroom. The veteran’s daughter, Denise, is giving the team a helping hand. This time, it is a 1935 Chrysler Airstream and it is the oldest that RJ and Mike have ever gotten their hands on.
1935 was actually the year the Airstream entered production. It came as a revised version of the Chrysler Six Series CA and CB. But it sat on the same ten-year-old platform and had pretty much the same components. Chrysler, however, revised the design, slapped a new name onto it – Airstream instead of Airflow – and threw it onto the market.
It seemed like the right car at the right time because the Airstream outsold the Airflow five to one in its first year on the market and nearly nine to one in the following year.
This 1935 Chrysler Airstream was purchased in 2006 from its previous owner, who resided in Massachusetts. The current owner’s daughter believes that the car has been sitting there for at least 15 years. Her father drove it into what was supposed to be the bedroom, parked it there to protect it from wind, rain, and direct sunlight, and that is where it remained.
Luckily, the whitewall tires, which are now anything but white, do hold air, so they can easily push it out of the bedroom and onto the trailer and take it to their detailing garage to remove years of dirt. RJ puts on quite a show. He ditches the T-shirt and shorts and dresses up in an outfit that the first owner of the 1935 Chrysler would wear.
The 90-year-old automobile has pretty much the same components as the cars of today. So, how hard can it be to work on the grand-granddad of the Chryslers that roll down the road today?
They start by degreasing the whitewall tires and wheels, hoping they will look like they did when this car rolled off the production line. Next up is vacuuming the dirt off the body. Detergent and cleansing should also help remove it.
The trunk hosts the spare wheel, but it must have been a palace for rodents, too. Mike closes back down and gets to the opposite end of the vehicle, where the flathead-six sits. For the moment, it doesn’t run, it doesn’t drive, but Denise is hoping to fix that for her father.
For the 1935 and 1936 model years, the only ones Chrysler kept the Airstream in production, the model came with a 242-cubic-inch (4.0-liter) engine, which developed either 93 or 100 horsepower, which was a lot back in the mid-1990s. It is a simple single-barrel carburated unit that Chrysler trusted, with several variations and upgrades, until the 1960s.
Dirt and dust have gathered underneath the car as well. Animals must have brought supplies in there over the years. Foaming comes up next, while RJ uses a brush to clean up the chrome back into its shiny look.
The cabin was an innovative space, way ahead of its time. There is a knob on the dashboard that pops up the windshield to give the driver that open-air driving feeling.
Back to the trunk, the smell is horrifying, Mike and RJ complain. And by the way things look in there, we believe every word. They have to get rid of the odour to be able to continue working on the car.
They remove the front bench seats and find the jack and batteries underneath. But what is on the bottom of the seating surface is gross.
Layer of dirt on top of another layer of dirt has gathered in all those years the car sat parked in the never-completed bedroom. The material covering the seats held up very well. A fabric soap and a brush remove the stain.
However, they can’t use any aggressive cleaning on the door card fabric. Luckily, the mice that invaded the car kept their distance from them, so they don’t need any extractor or scrubbing. Spot cleaning with a cleaning solution and light rubbing will do.
The floor carpet fibers, however, have withstood the test of time, and once they undergo vacuuming, they look as good as new. The wood trim comes off nicely. There is so much wood on board the Airstream that you feel like you have ended up in some forest. It covers the dashboard with the gauges cutouts, and the steering wheel is also made of wood and wrapped in vinyl.
RJ and Mike make efforts to remove the oxidation spots on the paint, using a dual-action polisher. They also had to polish off the stains from the chrome trim, and there was plenty of it.
Once the detailing is completed, they take the car back to Denise. The 1935 Chrysler Airstream looks as if it has just driven through the factory gate. The first thing Denise utters is “Oh, my God!”
But it is not about the car, but about RJ’s 1930s outfit. He dressed for the occasion again. However, she says she feels like she sees the car for the first time. The Chrysler doesn’t run and doesn’t drive. That is a mechanic’s job. But it does look good.
