'54 on Ebay

[carsngolf]

I just found a '54 Manhattan on ebay.  It's in Ohio at a salvage yard.  Item number is 150425301376.
It looks very salvageable and I hope someone saves it.  What really caught my attention though is one of the photos.  It shows the front of the car and the bumper guards are upright!  Every '54 I've ever seen has the guards pointing outwards.  Is this production?
Jerry Weiland

[Logan]

Looks like it's wroth the $700 they are asking.  THat rust in the floorboards might be problematic, but other than that pretty good restorer.

[joefrazer]

The front bumper guards are off of a 51K. On the 51s they were upright, on the 54-5 cars they were canted.

This car is only an hour from me...I think I'll take a drive over tomorrow and have a closer look! This one has stick/OD...not common on the 54s.

[superk226]

The VIN number the seller put on the listing does not match up with a 54 or a 55 Kaiser. It would be interesting if JoeFrazer would verify the correct numbers on the car.

[joefrazer]

The VIN listed in the ebay listing is the motor number. I'll bet that the car has a Michigan title, or did at one time, where they used the motor number for registration. Living here in the frozen north, I've encountered that more than once. My 48K was titled that way and it took some convincing at the title bureau to get the numbers straightened out.

[Weaz]

Apparently those guys have a second one for sale too.

[joefrazer]

OK gang, just got back from checking out the two 54Ks on ebay. Let's just say that the pix are alot better than the cars in person. The blue 54 was hit hard at one time...enough to dent the firewall all the way across and also separate the steering wheel shaft from the coupler. The engine (no supercharger) appears to run as it was hot wired. The floors are good but the doors and trunk lid are delaminated at the bottoms. The windshield is also bad so it'll need replaced. In my opinion, it's a $500 car.

The green one is good only for the frame and parts pictured. You can see thru the body to daylight on the other side. Add up the parts and that's what it's worth.

Pix of the blue 54 on ebay:
http://kaiserfrazercars.com/54ebstrng1.jpg
http://kaiserfrazercars.com/54eblf.jpg
http://kaiserfrazercars.com/54ebfrwl.jpg
http://kaiserfrazercars.com/54eblr.jpg

[mbflemingkf]

Jim, thanks for checking these out and for posting the pics.  The rear bumper loking pretty solid on the blue car!

[joefrazer]

All...

Just back from trying to swing a deal on the green 54 (ebay car). It's actually a 54 Late Special (5451) and at one time had a floor from a blue car grafted into it. The engine does turn and there appears to be most everything needed to put the car back together. Unfortunately, the seller wouldn't budge from his $1800 asking price so I walked away from it. There is a replated frear bumper assembly, replated headlight doors and some other new odds and ends but in my opinion, it was a good $800 car. Obviously we were too far apart to close a deal.
The blue car was hit hard in the front, as I previously mentioned in another post, enough to separate the steering box from the shaft. It's also missing all of the supercharger stuff except for the carb box base and lower pulley. I told the seller that he should consider the ebay high bid of $800 something...and it's not me...and he just laughed and said he'd sell it at a swap meet. I wished him well and drove the hour back home.
I guess you can't win 'em all!

[Logan]

You can't win 'em all, but he might be holding out for more than he's going to get.  Speaking of outrageous asking prices, I was surfing the net and came upon this website http://www.desertclassics.com/frazer2.html.  This guy is asking unbelievably high prices for parts cars.  Check it out.