Data plates / Hat shelf cover - Kaiser Rotterdam de Luxe 1951

[Nils]

Hi there! My name is Nils Dogger and I am from Holland.  Recently, I bought a Kaiser Rotterdam de Luxe from '51 that was half way it's restoration with the previous owner. We are now working to finish it in a couple of months, hopefully. We worked on a '36  Chevy and a '31 Cadillac earlier and found that often it is difficult to find information about American cars in Holland, so we are very pleased to have found your forum!
I have attached a photo of the data plate from the car along with some more pics that might be helpful. I checked the website http://www.circlekf.com/kfcars/dataplate/index.html but there seem to be more numbers on this particular plate than usual. I was wondering if anybody knows what to make of them? What do these numbers mean? For instance, there seem to be 3 paint codes and  the engine compartment is now painted black, but we wonder if this is correct.
One more question, would anybody know how the hat shelf should be covered? I have included a picture of the current condition, but it is clean metal now.
Any help would be most appreciated!
Thanks,
Nils

[Fid]

Welcome. I can't speak for the numbers at this time, but regarding the "hat shelf", everyone I saw was painted the same color as the exterior of the car.  If anyone else has further info, please provide it.  Best of luck with your restoration!

[Nils]

Thank you very much! Do you know if it was an option or common to have the engine compartment to be painted black, or should it be the same color as the body?
Thanks again!

[Fid]

Every one I've seen, including the one I currently own, the engine compartment was/is the same color as the body.

[joefrazer]

For the engine compartment:
- The firewall should be painted body color
- The inner fenders should be painted black
- The radiator cradle (U - shaped part that holds the radiator in place) should be painted black
- The Upper half of the radiator cradle (part that sits above the radiator), and the small triangle shaped fillers on each side of the cradle should be painted black
- The fender splash panels (the two panels on either side of the radiator that have holes for the vent tubes) should be painted body color

I can provide pictures if that would help.

The "hat shelf" in my 1951 was painted body color but on my 1953 Kaiser its painted the same color as the interior.

[Fid]

The "hat shelf" in my 1951 was painted body color but on my 1953 Kaiser its painted the same color as the interior.

Interesting Joe.  We had a darn near mint '53 Manhattan in the early '70s and I remember that hat shelf was tropical green as the lower portion of the car. Of course the upholstery in it was green vinyl in bamboo so it likely matched. 

[Gordie]

Welcome to our forum and good luck with your restoration.  We are enjoying the pictures that you sent especially of the data plates since they are somewhat different from ours.  You will find much help on the forum from very knowledgeable Kaiser-Frazer owners. K-F did offer accessory vinyl package tray covers in 1951 in Explorer Gray, Caribbean Coral, Blue Satin, Cape Verde Green, Garden Green and Chukker Tan to match interior colors.  They are very hard to find and after 45 years in the club I have never seen one.

[Nils]

Thanks so much for all the information!

Looks like we now know which colors to paint the car. The car will be painted Glass Green from that year of Kaiser production (see attached 1951 Du Pont Kaiser Frazer colors). We will follow the kindly provided recommendations for engine compartment and so on.

We shipped the original, but worn out, fabrics to SMS Autofabrics in Oregon to be replaced. The original interior had brown panels and carpets and grey cloth seat covers. Would this match the glass green or are there better matching alternatives? I am pretty sure we found the original interior although I was not able yet to confirm with the data plate numbers.

We sourced an original brochure in the USA for "the pride of Rotterdam" (see photo) and we were wondering if an original one could be sourced in poster size. Otherwise, we will have it printed on metal ourselves.

Thanks again for all your help! Most appreciated!

 

[Gordie]

Hello, your data plate shows #107 as the original paint color.  According to our club records that is Maroon Velvet metallic and is probably used on cars from Rotterdam but not in  the US.  Grey could be a compatible interior color for that paint color.  Kaiser used two different upholstery styles for cars made in the US in 1951 and SMS could probably tell what style your car has from the samples sent  to them.  The sales folder that you have does not show any interior views and the car illustrated in the folder is a Kaiser Special rather than the Deluxe as it shows the narrow stainless moldings on the lower body rather than the wide moldings found on the Deluxe models.  The illustrations in your folder are all drawings rather than photos and sales material is usually made far in advance of production and could be inaccurate.  The sales folder that you have was printed in English as well as Dutch and a toy company made a heavy image of the top part of the illustration in a 5 3/4 X 8 inch view on heavy board material and they were given to buyers of the toy '51 Kaiser.  They are hard to find.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

You cannot necessarily use "stateside" paint and trim information on an overseas-built car or a car built at Willow Run for export sale.  There are a couple of cars in Canada with "2" in the DR heading that have numbers that have no reference to other KF products built for sale in the USA.  The Style Chart for upholstery on the KFOCI HANDBOOK CD indicate illustrations for export only vehicles but do not give specific colors or details.  Dutch government statistics on automobile production in Holland indicate the "Special Deluxe" model was a 1951 product of the Rotterdam operation and less than 500 of them were produced that model year. 

I have little to no information at present that is factory based (Rotterdam) on the various colors and trims used on their cars other than photos taken of the facility in operation indicate cars may have been painted in lacquer rather than enamel. 

What to do here?  I don't know at present as the ownership of the facility changed hands several times since 1948 when construction began on the place and the factory records  may not exist.  However, I have turned up a potential source of paperwork here in the states (not the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley) and hope to check it out before this year's national convention. 

I can say that the 3 paint numbers marked E, X & W. appear to refer to Exterior paint, Interior paint and Wheel paint colors.

The Kaiser Special Deluxe was offered for sale in the Netherlands.   People there who had the means to purchase an American type car apparenmtly felt the Special by itself was too "drab" and this version dressed it up a bit.

[Nils]

Thanks so much for your help and it is great to hear you are actively gathering historic data on the brand and cars! Let me know if you need any help with translating Dutch or German or with anything else on this side of the pond.

By the way, I work for candy producers and was going through our old moulds in the archive the other day and to my surprise I found some old car themed moulds - see photos. My guess is they were made in the fifties and I know for a fact they were used for the production of jelly and/or liquorice products. Funny to see the popular brands of that age, right?

[kfnut]

You need to talk them into making them again . Would be a hot seller .