thecountrydriver  

AMERICAN car enthusiast David Anderson had been a hot rod fan for most of his life.

 

Then he bought a 1934 Graham, got hooked on the brand – and fell in love.

 

“Grahams are so rare, you wouldn’t dare hot rod them,” he said.

 

“That’s how I became an ‘original car’ guy.”

 

The Graham company offered a six-cylinder Blue Streak, the eight-cylinder Model 64 on a 119-inch wheelbase and the eight-cylinder Model 57A on a 123-inch wheelbase.

 

David’s is the Model 64 on the mid-length wheelbase.

 

“They sold both non-supercharged and supercharged eights, and that is what started this whole crazy thing.”

 

That ‘crazy thing’ is his collection of 1932 to 1935 Graham Blue Streak models.

 

It started with the supercharged sedan that he quickly fell in love with, and as a second-generation hot rodder, he soon found himself in search of a Blue Streak coupe.

 

With the Graham Blue Streak’s overall low and sleek looks, especially as a three-window coupe, it looked custom from the factory - something rodder and restorer alike can appreciate.

 

“From my hot rod days, the coupe was the hot car, so I have always loved coupes, and I had been chasing Graham coupes for 15 years,” he said.

 

“Grahams are so few and far between and they don’t come for sale that often, so when this thing came for sale, I bounced on it so quickly.”

 

One of the very few differences between a 1932 and 1933 Graham Blue Streak is the swish angled two-piece bumper added for 1933; the 1932 bumper was a straight-across bar.

 

The 1933 Blue Streak coupe came up for sale in 2017 a few years after its longtime owner and fellow Graham Owners Club International (GOCI) member David Corbin had passed away.

 

“I bought the car from David’s son-in-law,’ David said.

 

“He contacted the club, and I was immediately on the phone making the deal. There was no hesitation whatsoever.”

 

He had known about the 1933 Blue Streak coupe for years as it had been on the GOCI’s roster of cars since the club’s founding in 1971.

 

Early club members Andrew Whittenborn and Bill McCall shared an interest in Blue Streak models and maintained a registry of known 1932-1935 Blue Streaks since the club’s first years.

 

Their records showed that the original owner of David’s coupe drove it to the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, then died shortly thereafter.

 

His widow parked the car until it was spotted by James Rohen of Evart, Michigan, who drove a school bus in addition to operating his service station.

 

He spotted the coupe on his bus route and in 1959 inquired about the car.

 

The widow sought $25 for it but James doubled that to $50.

 

During Rohen’s ownership, the car had 11,000 miles on its odometer and required minor engine work.

 

He also added some non-Graham parts before selling it to an unknown owner in 1974.

 

That person had it for about six years before selling it to club member Harry Sjaarda in the early 1980s.

 

During next owner Joe Harvath’s time with the car, McCall noted the coupe had mileage in the 13,000 range.

 

It registered the same mileage when David Corbin acquired it from Harvath at an unknown time. Although the mileage remained extremely low, Corbin found it needed to be painted and re-upholstered, and some wood in the body structure needed replacement.

 

Aside from a few minor improvements undertaken by David, the car currently appears much as it did when Corbin owned it: a fine example of an innovative but rarely seen marque in an extremely uncommon body type.

 

“There are three of the Model 64 eight-cylinder coupes on the registry that had a serial number and a name,” David says of his car’s rarity.

 

“There were two on the registry that just have the state and a question mark.

 

“There are probably parts cars and others out there, but there are three documented, known ones, so if I had to guess, there’s probably five out there.”

 

The totally restyled and re-engineered 1932 Grahams blazed onto the scene to combat tanking sales caused by the Great Depression.

 

According to Graham historian Michael Keller, Graham Brothers Joseph B, Robert C and Ray A knew by 1930 that to keep their Detroit-based car business afloat, they would have to fight hard for any slice they could get of the quickly shrunken new-car market.

 

That meant designing and engineering an innovative, all-new car that represented value. 

 

For the new 1932 model, Graham chief engineer Louis Thoms developed a new ‘Deep Banjo Frame’ that gave Grahams a lower centre of gravity by running the rear axle through a flat-topped frame with just a minor kick-up over the openings for the rear axle.

 

Being flatter, the frame was also stronger and combined with the rear axle being located within the frame rails, it allowed the Graham body to be mounted lower.

 

Additionally, the chassis springs were placed outboard of the chassis for a wider wheel tread, further improving its roadholding qualities.

 

Graham adverts read: This car is wider than it is high.

 

Since its low-slung stance and wider-spaced springs made the Graham an unusually good-handling car for the time, Graham also advertised the safety of the Blue Streak, which now incorporated safety glass as an additional security measure.

 

The company also addressed the power of its cars.

 

Since re-entering the car-building business by buying the failing Paige-Detroit Motor Car Co. in 1927, Graham-Paige Motors Corp. (just ‘Graham’ by 1930) offered six- and eight-cylinder engines.

 

For 1931, Graham had developed a new eight-cylinder engine of 245.4 cubic inches but saw a need to make it more reliable and powerful for 1932.

 

With resources limited, it tweaked this existing powerplant by improving its construction and internal components.

 

 

Most notably and visibly, this eight-cylinder was now topped with an aluminium instead of a cast-iron cylinder head.

 

That allowed higher compression and a bump up to 90 hp. Graham christened its revised eight-cylinder the Blue Streak and adapted the name to the six-cylinder models that followed in mid-1932.

 

Backing all Graham engines was a new Synchro-Silent three-speed transmission, with synchronised second and third gears, and dash-controlled freewheeling, plus Super-Hydraulic Brakes at all four wheels.

 

Topping all these performance and safety improvements were racy new Murray Corp. bodies designed for Graham by a team led by famed automobile stylist Amos E. Northup.

 

The team included equally talented stylist Raymond Dietrich, who worked on details of the new 1932 Graham bodies.

 

Northup’s team designed streamlined bodies that leapt into the immediate future with smoother edges; a raked-back windscreen, a sloped grille, skirted fenders, painted headlamp housings, a hidden radiator and a slim grille.

 

To emphasise its stylishly modern streamlined body, Graham introduced ‘pearl essence’ paint. finishes using fish scales suspended in lacquer for an iridescent effect.

 

Graham was the first mass producer of automobiles to offer this paint type on its automobile bodies.

 

With a swift-looking exterior and a stable chassis packing 90 hp, the Graham Eight looked every letter of its Blue Streak name.

 

It was a good value, too, costing $785 for a six-cylinder coupe and $1225 for the top Deluxe Eight coupe - about the price of an entry-priced Buick coupe.

 

The range of Graham introductory prices was about twice as much as that of a 1932 Ford or Chevy coupe, but one could argue the bigger Graham was also about twice the car.

 

While the 1932 Graham’s styling was thoroughly copied throughout the industry for 1933 and beyond, sales dropped from 1931’s total of 20,428 to 12,967 for 1932 - one of the worst years for the Great Depression.

 

By 1934, the year supercharging became available on the Blue Streak Eight, sales had picked up to 15,745 Grahams of all types.

 

Unlike some automotive streamlining efforts that followed in the mid-1930s (notably the Chrysler Airflow), the sleek Northup styling of the 1932 Graham was praised, so the country’s economic condition, rather than the car’s styling, was likely to blame for its sales dip.

 

Also, many independent makes were slipping into oblivion, so car buyers were often hesitant to take a chance on an independent, because if the car maker were to go out of business, vehicle service and repairs could become a nightmare.

 

Even though David’s 1933 Graham Blue Streak eight is one of the most low-mileage examples known to the Graham Owners Club International, he is keenly aware of how repairs can turn into a nightmare on an orphan.

 

“Grahams are hard to find parts for, so people get creative,” he said. 

 

When he bought his 1933 Blue Streak coupe in 2017, it looked the part of the low-mileage car that it was.

 

However, it was still an 85-year-old car that had received some changes in its eight decades, mostly by James Rohen.

 

Anderson immediately set to work reversing the changes to make it more authentic.

 

Since the Graham had been parked for several years, he also had work ahead of him to make it drivable.

 

Rebuilding the Graham’s engine is arguably a bigger task than on other 1933 cars, because some engine parts haven’t been available since the 1930s.

 

“David Corbin had the engine rebuilt, but there were several things not right and I had to rebuild it again.

 

With the engine freshly rebuilt, the Graham is ready to run again, although David says it doesn’t get out as much as he’d like.

 

“I drive it once a year, maybe 15-20 miles,” he says.

 

“I have too many cars and they don’t get enough attention.”

 

In addition to his 1933 coupe and the supercharged 1934 sedan that started his Graham fandom, Anderson has a 1934 Blue Streak Eight convertible coupe and a supercharged 1935 Blue Streak sedan.

 

David’s 1933 Graham Model 64 Blue Streak is a basic two-passenger model without a rumble seat. Graham dropped prices on its models by $200 each in late 1932, and by 1933, the two-passenger Model 64 coupe had a base factory price of just $875.