A mythical Toyota AA or "just" Chrysler Airflow?

bert · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:24 am

banpei- In the picture of the car sitting on the truck, you can sort of see that the boot area might have had some kind of body work and welding. It looks like a shoddy job, but the metal’s color doesn’t quite mach around the bottom rear of the car, and it is not smooth like the rest of the lines on the car. But, if they are sure that it’s original, could it be an AC?

toyotageek · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2010 8:45 am

I didn't have a rear shot of the Toyota Museum's AC, but I was able to find one...

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/toyotageek/4793091223/" title="1943 Toyota Model AC by toyotageek, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/4793091223_77f7de586e.jpg" width="500" height="297" alt="1943 Toyota Model AC"></a>

Appears like there is no boot here either.
Also note what appears to be turning semaphores (or trafficators) located at the front doors upper hinges, on the museum's AC.
So where does that leave us? I venture to guess the boot is an add on... :roll:

SharmCos · **Posted:** Wed Jul 14, 2010 4:08 pm

Other differences I notice:

1. Split rear screen
2. Position (and number of) wiper blades

poindextrose15 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 17, 2010 10:40 pm

I dont think its an AC because if you look above the windshield youll see a crease in the middle unlike the AA and the Netherlands car. This has been a fun few months.

sleeektoy · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:55 pm

A lot of manufacturers in the 30's - 40's had one model number and a set of subsequent body styles under that.
My father has a 1934 oldsmobile (model L34) and under the L34 they had 4dr sedan, 2dr sedan, 2dr coupe, 2dr roadster + more.
Unlike nowadays where most manufacturers have one model code per body style. It's possible Toyota did the same for the AA, AB, & AC, especially with the lower volumes of cars and high amount of hand built parts made for them.
Also, other manufacturers of that era had side mount spare tyre + boot/trunk or rear mount spare tyre and no boot/trunk.

Toyota's museum has "replica's" of the AA, AB, and AC too, so i wouldnt count on the ones there being the exactly correct as they pieced what they had together from drawings, pictures, and info from various sources, it's a well known fact they didnt have a complete set of design drawings to make them from.

Gottlieb · **Posted:** Sat Aug 07, 2010 6:25 am

Additional photos .

DomKDR · **Posted:** Thu Aug 12, 2010 2:10 pm

Reading through this thread was fun. If the body could at least be that of an AC; there has to be some worth to it.

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:52 am

to resurect this thread...

could the 'AA' that was found be one of the 50 made from parts for the military in 1947?

it is said he had it since WWII....correct? meaning the end? during? before?

or even the ones made for government use in 1/1944?
called the ' 大型Ｂ'

toyotageek · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:06 am

JohnnyC wrote:

to resurect this thread...

could the 'AA' that was found be one of the 50 made from parts for the military in 1947?

it is said he had it since WWII....correct? meaning the end? during? before?

or even the ones made for government use in 1/1944?
called the ' 大型Ｂ'

Hey Johnny, welcome to JNC! I saw this car popped-up on the MUDD forum too.

Personally I think this car could be a lot of things (and I hope it is a Toyota), but without the proper documentation or an official word from Toyota Japan, we'll never really know for sure.

I've come to the conclusion that anything we come up with is pure conjecture without being to go over the car ourselves with a fine-toothed comb.

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:38 am

there are alot of simularities to the AA.

do you have any information about the 50 cars made in 1947? or the 'large B'

also i see engine pics ...but...cant find where i had seen them before online...is that an A engine or a B engine?

also they call it a 1936...but...how would they know if its not a 37, 38, 39, etc?

toyotageek · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 8:56 am

JohnnyC wrote:

there are alot of simularities to the AA.

do you have any information about the 50 cars made in 1947? or the 'large B'

also i see engine pics ...but...cant find where i had seen them before online...is that an A engine or a B engine?

Much of what I have has already been posted here, or probably the same material at your disposal. I'm sure I have some books and magazines in Japanese - if I can sort through and find them, I'll scan and post them here.

Quote:

also they call it a 1936...but...how would they know if its not a 37, 38, 39, etc?

In my opinion, it's a marketing thing.

Possibly getting the year 'wrong' is a minor technicality for the museum. I'm sure the Louwman has done their research, and they feel comfortable enough calling it a Toyota - Why say you have a '39 when you can just as well call it a '36. Who is going to disprove it?

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:26 am

more likely and speculation....they were gov or military and not a 1936 AA...japan was in china/russia during the WWII and most likely this/they would have been a command cars...they were in major battles in mogolia...near Vladivostok Russia...probably a latter produced AA or BA.

more likely a latter AA as japan was in russia fighting during 1939 and abandoned there due to the neutrality pact with russia April 1941.

they say at the museum "He had since World War II owned a Siberian farmer and is likely to come to Russia as war booty. "

not a war booty...highly unlikely to have come over as a war trophy...but it was already there and they were left behind.

kinda in line of thinking this due to two AA's in russia?

my thoughts anyway

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 12:17 pm

are there any pictures of the engine on the russian AA?

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 6:41 am

I wonder how many more AA's could be found in and around manchuria China?

here's a picture of an AA I got from online someplace long ago...it was taken in manchuria in 1939 labeled as staff officers car with the driver

also cool its two tone

toyotageek · **Posted:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 7:55 am

There's some engine pictures in the first post on page 11, and if you track back to the Russian forum, I think you may find more.

JohnnyC wrote:

more likely and speculation....they were gov or military and not a 1936 AA...japan was in china/russia during the WWII and most likely this/they would have been a command cars...they were in major battles in mogolia...near Vladivostok Russia...probably a latter produced AA or BA.

more likely a latter AA as japan was in russia fighting during 1939 and abandoned there due to the neutrality pact with russia April 1941.

they say at the museum "He had since World War II owned a Siberian farmer and is likely to come to Russia as war booty. "

not a war booty...highly unlikely to have come over as a war trophy...but it was already there and they were left behind.

kinda in line of thinking this due to two AA's in russia?

my thoughts anyway

I'm not up to par on Japanese, Rissian, Chinese or WWII history, but your suggestion sounds more plausible that some others I've heard (and would answer some questions). Definately something worth researching more. Too bad Toyota didn't keep better track of it's early years. Sure would help out a lot if there were a record of frame/engine numbers and where they went.

Love that last picture you posted - never seen it before. :tu:

Thanks!

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Fri Jan 07, 2011 12:08 pm

a friend posted a german article over at ih8mud
post # 147 http://forum.ih8mud.com/fj25-owners-group/241941-toyota-historical-pictures-8.html#post6232658

It does say that it still has the original engine in it....would love to see a pic of that engine

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Fri Jan 07, 2011 1:05 pm

If we were to have somebody go there...what type of photos would we need to see?

what areas? what information?

1) Engine......I would like to see a picture of the engine to see if its a 4 or a 6
2) Front frame horn......normally has a vin number on it
(Land Cruisers usually started with the year number then model then serial number for the early years...something like this for 1956: 6-FJ25-1415L)
3) what else?

BTW there is also a MUDD member 15 min from the museum...we could have him take pics as well as any JNC members who may be close.

84Cressida · **Posted:** Mon Jan 10, 2011 3:56 am

Is there any word that Toyota has looked at this car to try to verify that it's one of the real AAs? If this is legit, I would want to see Toyota show interest in seeing if it's the real deal.

SharmCos · **Posted:** Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:09 am

The 2nd Russian really does look like an AA except for the rear hump.
I haven't seen an AA with rear hump.

JohnnyC · **Posted:** Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:31 am

A IH8MUD member (Troopie) went to see the AA... turns out that they have the car set-up in such a way as to not be able to take any quality pics...however the pics that he did take are very good....thanks again Troopie !!!

here are some of the pics that he took for us:

A mythical Toyota AA or "just" Chrysler Airflow?

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