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Shown for the first time October, 2012 at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, CA. At a Car show as part of the Annual Employee Day.

Won Best Antique Car 1900-1941

Lower Left; Planetary gear, as found when disassembled. Very Nice inside

Below; Interior of OD gears. No damage at all. Cleaned and reassembled.

03 July

Removed horns, regulators, wiring harnesses, brake & speedometer & ignition switch  cables, inner splash fender (L side), front bumper guards, headlight assemblies, and a number of bolts previously rusted in place.

Continuing to find dozens of walnut half shells, and the occasional complete one.

The dense cluster of cables behind the gauges is odd; several kinds of cables connected to one dash instrument; oil pressure tube, electric cable, heat tube; its a mess to work in.

Glad THATs done.

On its way to XKs Unlimited in San Luis Obispo, CA

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Gas tank has also been removed - it's full of gunk and quite heavy. The gasoline had turned into a solid brick of black goo, and had to be boiled out twice here in Santa Maria. The weight of the mass had broken the internal baffles loose, so they had to be reattached back into place.  The mounting screws were soldered back over, and the entire thing coated and given a lifetime warranty.

Trunk floorpan reproduced and is being installed. Rear body panel below trunk lid also reproduced. Doors and rear fenders are off it now for the first time since March, 1936.

New trunkpan welded in, and new drip rail around inside deck lid opening is completed. Trunklid has been tweaked to fit just right. Moving on to floor board insert rail replacement and windshield area.

Engine bay painted.  The car is going to be painted Silver and interior dark gray. Original stitch patterns will be kept in upholstery, and otherwise interior will be kept original as possible.  Just the engine bay has been done at this point, to reinstall the engine...   

    SUCCESS !    Major  Milestone  Met, as  Straight 8 engine  #2253  was fired up on test stand  for the first time in 56 years.

  It is solid, quiet, and with no vibration.  Looks like all the effort and expense has paid off. Engine has been balanced (with bell housing on) and blueprinted. This is now one NICE piece of machinery, better than when it left the factory.  Original NOS pistons and rings, straight from their 1930's parafin sealed boxes, brought it back to life.

Original starter (rebuilt to 12V),  original fuel pump (rebuilt to E85), original water pump (rebuilt w/modern bearing), original carbeurator (overhauled), original fuel & vacuum metal lines, original manifolds, original cylinder head, original distributer (converted to elec ign), original electric choke, original vacuum advance (rebuilt), original air filter, original heat shields, original harmonic dampener, original camshaft, original crankshaft (balanced), original oil pan and original oil pump.

Vintage NOS oil filter, vintage NOS autolite distributer cap, vintage NOS carb gaskets and vintage NOS thermostat.

The only 'new' things are internal high precision bearings, hard valve seats, valves, timing chain, gaskets & seals, spark plugs & wires, oil lines to/from filter, freeze plugs, water hoses, the fuel-pump-to-gas-line rubber tube, and of course the visible brass fitting on the thermostat housing (which is temporary).

I had made a section of stainless  water pipe for the radiator to replace the original.

After nine months at the body shop in San Luis Obispo, the 9 leaves to come home.  All rust removed and/or replaced, trunk floorpan replaced, roof insert panel repaired (given new mounting surfaces and holes fixed), rocker panels replaced, chassis media blasted and painted chassis black, entire body media blasted and epoxy primered, AND fender skirts.   

The engine has been reinstalled into the car - the front sits a lot lower now.

back at the house again.  Like those fender skirts

Had to buy a pair of larger size fender skirts and have them modified to fit the C9.  Expensive for sure, but the only real chance I had for getting 1936-only C9 skirts.

John Spinks of Australia used my bits and pieces of dash switches and rebuilt a new set for me, in exchange for letting him have extras I'd come up with over the years.  Great trade off and we both got sets of working switches.

I got the floor panels sections cut to fit.  I used 5/8" marine grade plywood, and the panels fit very well.  Its starting to look like an interior again. I have painted the panels black and the bottom (exterior) surfaces coated with polyurethane.  I have also remounted the battery box and its associated hardware, cut out the holes around the pedals. Paul Anway fabricated the pair of long carriage bolts that go the length of the battery box.

The gas tank repair was done here in Santa Maria and is complete, and it's been painted.  I had the sending unit refurb'd and its installed as well. Had to make a new gasket out of cork.

I couldn't believe the quality.  The stainless strips are still in place and look practically new.  And they fit perfect. I didn't know what to do about the old ones if I hadn't gotten these. The car really pops now.

A note about the interior. The original fabric was very distinctive, but was completely shot by the time I got the car.  I put a lot of thought into how to do it, but couldn't bring myself to do a plain broadcloth with a lack of pattern so far from the original.  I ended up finding a fabric which contains a wavy,  zig zag pattern reminiscent of the pattern in the original.  

The color and texture are different, but from five feet away, both fabrics show a similar zig zag pattern to the eye.  It doesn't show up well in the photos, but it's there.  I felt it better to get closer to the weave pattern than trying to match original color.  I am putting a lot of effort into recreating the exact stitching patterns on the door panels, and I mean exact, width, length, and height/thickness of the shapes.  The only thing different is the color and the knap of the fabric.

In the meantime, I started on the interior. Work progressed on the seats.  Amos Herrera of Santa Maria disassembled the seats and is doing the interior.  I rebuilt and repainted the wooden frames. We were able to reuse most of the seat springs, but did have to by a number of replacements. Ended up buying a replacement seat spring assembly intended for a 1936 four door Ford sedan and took it apart to get a few correct size coils.  Chrysler had a lot more different sizes of springs in the seat, but the ones that had to be replaced were fortunately the same sizes as those in the Ford seat.  Lucky!   

It took a while to get the front seat adjustment mechanism back into working condition. I had to get new feet scratchbuilt for it to make sure it's strong enough. But's together again now and works fine.

Bought black fender welting. I'm going to leave it black. Bought three point seat belts - but will have to see if they can be installed all around or just in back.

Had the fuel filler neck plated in copper, like the original, and got new steel braid to install as a grounding strap (just like the original).

I got the steering column rechromed, along with various other parts. Having real trouble with chroming the side fender vent covers....

John Spinks of Australia, was kind enough to fabricate a new shifter shaft rivet which keeps the spring assembly in place. I'd tried to have one made locally, but they couldn't seem to make it happen.  Many thanks to John for bailing me out once again!

Car is PAINTED.  2001 Aston Martin Solent silver.   I wondered if I would ever actually see this happen.    There were times I'd look at it and wonder if it would ever be anything but rusty.   It's back home again, this time for good.

Here's a couple of vintage Chrysler factory photos showing 1936 Airflows, and the paint has got to be silver. So, I'm thinking my color is just not that far off.

Once again, John Spinks of Australia came to the rescue by fabricating the spring steel clips that keep the tailight lenses in place.  Mine were useless, and there is no supplier for them. THANKS AGAIN John!

Bought replacement window glass for the rear windows and rear quarter windows. Am able to get 1/4" safety glass just like the original.

Rear Brakes done. Tim Anderson flew out and spent a week working on it.  He took care of the differential work and brakes.   The front brake cylinders were available from NAPA, but not the rear.  Luckily, we were able to reuse them, refurbishing them with kits I got from Argentina of all places.  We'd had trouble before, getting the rear hubs off to get at the brakes; couldn't get it to budge.  I even bought a special made hub puller for Airflows, but turns out it didn't fit, the hole pattern radius was not big enough. It had to be modified by elongating the slots and then it could work.

Shifter reinstalled, along with the Drive shaft.    Engine run in the car for the first time since 1951. Rear shocks removed for refurb.   Door handles sent out for chroming.  

Starting on the door windows. Got the fuel filler neck grounding strap soldered on and the assembly reinstalled.

Starting on the door windows. Took the rear tires off and delivered the wheels to the powdercoating shop, along with the spare.  I'm going to have them dark gray to match the dashboard, with the factory pattern sunburst reapplied. 

The wheels, however, are turning out very well, powdercoated in dark gray. 

I've also gotten new shoes for the thing; new tires for all four wheels, 7x16 bias ply with 4.5" whitewalls. This thing's gonna POP!

Drove the thing to work for the first time.  Got great response from people who'd had to hear about it over the last four years. The car handles just fine in city (ok..town..) traffic.  The thing really POPS in full sun!  Buffed up the wheel covers and, while old, look decent enough.  Laid down a rubber mat in the front floorboard to help dampen noise until the carpet and pad goes in.

Also installed the new panel between the trunk and rear seat back.  Carpeting has been installed in the rear floorboard and under the front seat.  The rebuilt footrest has been recovered and installed.