A Kingsbury 1937 Chrysler Airflow

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

A Kingsbury 1937

Chrysler Airflow

 Introduction  

    The Kingsbury Manufacturing Company was located in Keene, New Hampshire (USA). It was owned by the Wilkins Toy Company that started up by James S. Wilkins in 1890, and was originally called "Kingsbury". They produced mostly toy cars in larger sizes ranging from 7" - 18" (180mm-460mm approximately). The name of the company changed from Kingsbury to the Kingsbury Manufacturing Company in 1919. LAter toys produced in the 1930's had spring-tensioned "motors" and even battery-operated lights (front and rear). Toys stopped being produced during WWII, and the company after the war was sold to the Keystone Company (Boston, Massachusetts,USA). The company is still in existence in Keene,but sadly,they no longer manufacture toys.

     If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I'm new to the antique toy market. When I started out, I decided to limit myself to a few companies in order to learn as much as I could or wanted to. These companies are Hubley, Wyandotte and Tootsietoy. I expanded to Arcade, Metal Masters, Jane Francis,  A.C.Wlliams, Kenton, and Kilgore.

     I only learned of the Kingsbury company about 6 months ago.  I was looking for pressed steel toys on E-Bay, and a nice-looking Kingsbury car showed up.However, it was quite expensive, and at the time beyond my limit for toy purchases.

    I saw today's toy listed as a "Buy-It-Now" with a "Make-an-Offer". I made the offer and the seller accepted it. What I want to do is to  add the missing pieces to it that are available from   www.thomasantiquetoyparts.com and to have a highly respectable and very capable repair "master" by the name of Mr. Ira Gladstone  who owns Mr. Fix-It here  in Montreal. His website address is http://www.themrfixit.com/eng/antiques.htm. He's going to do the electrical wiring for this toy, transfer a wind-up motor from 1 car I have to this one, and make a brake for the wind-up mechanism.

 IThis toy is "massive".It measures 14" (L) x 5 1/8" (W) x 5" (H). 

In metric that's 355mm x 130mm x128mm.

The painting restoration to date is quite nice. However the dents were left as they were found,

 and as you'll see this toy was "well-used".

 IThere's lots of nice detail to this toy.

The hubcaps are authentic, as are the tires.

You can even see the name Kingsbury and Keen on the toire.

 The elevated logo above the   rear tire reminds me of the

Mercury symbol or an old Texaco wing logo.

 The rear bumper is intact, but the rear brake light is missing.

 The front hood ornament, and a lengthwise hood piece of metal decoration is missing.

 That runs from the hood ornament to the windshield.

All of these parts are available form Thomas Antique Toy Parts.

Notice the flat-headed headlights

 Suicide Doors

 Grooved Texture in the Running Boards

 The Underside

The rear wind-up mechanism is missing a brake to retain the tension until release.

This mechanism doesn't work, so I'll "scavenge" the mechanism from the Kingsbury that I wrote about a few weeks ago.

There is a battery cover that goes over that rectangular hole behind the front wheels.

Notice how the front wheels and axle are capable of turning.

I think that I'll repaint the underside as well.

For those who are noew to reading this blog, you may find that from time to time I will write several additions in advance of their actual dates. This partucular instalment was written on Sunday May 27.

So as always, thanks for visiting, and to everyone wherever you my be, have a great morning, afternoon, or evening.