KF Assembly Line

[joefrazer]

I ran across this photo today and thought I'd share. It shows 1951 Kaiser Specials rolling along final assembly. It looks like most of the car is together with the headlight trim rings yet to be added, once the headlights are aimed.

Looking past the cars, one can see a stack of Traveler rear seats with a sign hanging above telling everyone not to sit on the cushions!

What else do you see?

[Gordie]

They all have whitewall tires which is a little unusual for Kaiser Specials. Hub caps are not yet installed.  The middle car seems to have a dark colored steering wheel.  None seem to have radios which could indicate that this was part of a fleet order as they all seem to be the same color also. I have a similar assembly line photo that shows a table set up and an apparent birthday cake and all seem to be having lunch together and sharing someones birthday.  That would never happen today on an assembly line.

[G.B. (All Vinyl Dragon)]

I Love this History !!!

[Fid]

They all have whitewall tires which is a little unusual for Kaiser Specials

I always thought that too Gordie as I've seen many pictures of '51 Specials with black walls.  Apparently a number of them shipped with white walls. I know I've shared this pic before but according to the documentary I snagged it from, it's JFK during his 1952 senate race.  The car in the background, clearly a '51 Special, has the whitewalls; likely original since the film was shot in 1952 (the car would be around one year old.)  I remember when I saw this, I thought it was notable that a '51 Special, back in the day, had wide whitewalls. My Special needed a set of tires and I was going to go with blackwalls but after seeing this I changed my mind. It helped justify me having them on my '51 Special!  The assembly line photo further supports that they would be authentic on a Special.  Great pic by the way.

[G.B. (All Vinyl Dragon)]

Yes , even Fancy Vehicle’s Today still need Whitewalls . Even if a Strip WW.

[dogwalkfinds]

I'm curious about the floor.  Looks like older bricks with a very straight track which has been filled in with a series of wooden blocks. I know this was originally an airplane factory, but I also remember reading that quite a bit of time and expense went into refitting the place for car making. I wonder whether it is from its airplane years or from the refit. I also wonder what that track was used for and, if it was one of Frazer's ideas, why it was decided not to use it any more.
Really wish I could walk down that assembly line and fill a few shopping carts to use now!

[Gordie]

I'm sure that these cars had whitewalls because some dealer ordered the cars that way.  Whitewalls have always been an extra cost option.  My '51 club coupe came from the factory with whitewalls because the buyer was an employee who walked the car down the assembly line and had a few custom options ordered including not having the Darrin emblem installed.  The car still has the original paint and you can see the indentations where the holes were drilled for  the emblem but when the car was painted it filled the holes and the indentations from that still shows in the paint.  The original owners brother told me about what his brother did when I bought the car in 1984 in Dearborn MI.  I found the new emblem many years later under the back seat.

[joefrazer]

The factory floor was installed by Ford for use when Willow Run was a bomber plant. There were some 16 million creosote soaked blocks used. When KF moved in, they had the monumental task of refitting the space for auto production.

A bit of trivia, over 105,000 fluorescent lamps lit the building. Imagine the electric bill today!

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

White sidewall tires were origfinally optional on some Kaiser Specials and Deluxe models.  The fact that there are Travedler seats are in the photo suggests that the photo was takenb sometimne after Octoberr 1950.  This makes sense in that by mid-Dedcember 1950, whitewalls were available for all Kaiser automobiles as an option.

[Fid]

The fact that there are Traveler seats in the photo suggests that the photo was taken sometime after October 1950.

And the later Specials had the thin chrome strip along the bottom - those in the photo do not.  This info should be helpful in determining the approximate time period the photo was taken.

[joefrazer]

Another assembly line photo for your viewing pleasure. This one shows the early car final assembly line. The lead Frazer has one piece script on the hood so the photo would have been taken some time after July of 1947 when a host of changes were implemented, including the change from single letter script to a one piece unit. Other changes included changing to swivel style trunk handles and the dropping of the name from hubcaps.