1951 Kaiser 2 door.

[Bad49chevy]

 I finally got the Kaiser home sunday, she is pretty solid . I have a couple questions to start. First I would like to know more about it from the model plate under the hood and in the door frame. Also when I raise the hood it wont stay up on its own, is this normal or is it missing a part on the hinges. I want to do so much to her I am really excited i think it has an awesome body style. Is it Worth rebuilding the original engine? I love the flat head and would rather keep it but have read that they are not very reliable any comments. I kept the original 216 6 in my 49 Chevy I just pulled it and installed all new gaskets freeze plugs and gave her a paint job. The motor has never gave me any trouble. The previous owner said it runs but I need to get a new battery and give it a try. One more thing in this section. Did all Kaisers have the over drive? I did not see any button under the accelerator. Please let me know.
      Thanks to all more questions to come.
                            Terry

[Jim B PEI]

On the driver door pillar between the hinges, will be a plate with the serial#, made up of year 51, then model 1 for Special, or 2 for Deluxe, so for 2 door Specials it would be 511 and Deluxes 512   

Specials didn't come with overdrive even as an option (possibly some exceptions, but as a general rule....). Overdrive was available on Deluxes, and a lot of them had it. If it exists, I'm not getting this bit about the gas pedal (?) What is that about?? There should be a pull out handle with OD on it below the dash, on the left. IN, its IN "overdrive ready" state, pulled OUT, its locked OUT of overdrive (hence, lockout) The working bits are in the engine bay, and there would be an extension to the bellcrank so that when you floor the gas pedal, an outrigger depresses a switch which has some wiring going to various parts (distributor, transmission etc--all these Borg Warner overdrives are essentially the same) and this switch controls the kickdown to direct from overdrive in second and third.
 
Under the hood up on the cowl is a separate larger tag, the body tag. It would start 51NN- either 511N or 512N, and that "N" is a number, and for Special it could be 5110-,  5113- or  5114- (utility, business coupe and sedan), and Deluxes could be 5120-, 5124- or 5127- (utility, sedan, coupe).
but there would be another number that would be the actual body number when it was created and welded up waiting to be used.

Here is the link to the registry:
http://www.eskimo.com/~hhagen/reg/reg.htm
see if your car is there already; if not, send an email and add all the info.

post all the info on the body tag here and we can decode it for you, as the car was built.  ie where assembled, colour, option groups, transmission that came with it, trim etc.  PNT: Paint Code
TRIM: Trim Code
DR: Delivery region (1 for US, 2 for export)
TR: Transmission code
AG: Accessory Group
SCH: SCHED(ule) Number
ITEM: Item Number
ADDL INFO:

[joefrazer]

About the hood...the hinges do tend to sag after a while and it's not uncommon to have a hood that won't stay up. Find a sturdy prop and use it until siome better hinges come along.

Regarding the overdrive, there should be a kickdown switch under the gas pedal. If the rest of the OD equipment is there...the relay, pull handle and transmission, perhaps someone removed it for replacement and never followed thru.

KF 226 engines are a sturdy lot and when treated to regular tuneups, oil changes and valve adjustments, should last well over 100K miles.

[Fid]

Overdrive was definitely an option on the 1951 Special. I've seen a number of 1951 Specials with overdrive. The one Weas now owns, which was in my care for many years, has it and the tag indicates it was OEM. Also have the original bill of sale for the car, dated Aug 1950 and it lists the overdrive on it. That brown '51 Special that was for sale here in MN on Craigslist had overdrive as did the gray Special I saw at Back to the 50s last summer. I also saw a 1951 Special for sale in Audobon, MN last spring. I took pictures and you can clearly see the overdrive control in the interior shots. The club handbook states, "Reported cars are about equally divided between overdrive and standard with one Hydramatic reported."  Hydramatic would be the outlier.

[Jim B PEI]

Okay, but that must have been an availability change from 1st series to 2nd series, as some years ago researched this and several helpful people stated that unless it was installed by a dealer, or you were a personal friend of Henry or Edgar, there were no 49-50 Specials that had OEM overdrive, at least sold in North America.

[Fid]

That is true of '49 and '50 Specials. The '51 Specials are different.

[ben-tex]

My Dad bought a new 1951 Special fitted with OD. It also had radio and heater. This car did NOT have the narrow rub rail trim. I learned to drive in this car along with a 1951 Chevy pickup. I am sure Dad would not have bought the Kaiser without OD as the 48 Frazer Manhattan which had been the family car had OD and he was a big fan of it.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

When the 1951 Kaiser Special came out, it had no rub-rail moulding.  Dealers could order a kit to install the Deluxe wide stainless on Specials as a factory accessory (and it could be installed on Specials delivered retail at Willow Cottage).   On December 10, 1950 the company began installing the narrow moulding as an extra cost accessory that was virtually a manditory option (like overdrive was a manditory option on Deluxe models).  In January 1951, the wide moulding kit was discontinued, replaced by a narrow molding kit for Specials that had no trim.  I have Parts & Accessory bulletins covering availability, pricing, etc, on both types of kit.

[Fid]

Jack, it's been my observation (and only that) that most of the early 1951 Kaisers were specials and there tends to be more Deluxe models later in the year. One thing I've wondered about - is my observation correct and is this because after the Frazer was discontinued the Kaiser Deluxe was promoted more? Or is it because those just happen to be the cars I've seen?

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

All along, more Kaiser Deluxe models were built than Specials (the separation varied during the course of the model year).  However, thinking dealers would have promoted the Special in the first part of the model year (prior to October 1950) as it was priced very competitively with cars line the Pontiac 8 series; price territory a Kaiser was never in before (or after the end of 1950).  If you check overall specifications a good K-F salesperson (and there were some out there) could easily sway a customer.

I am interested in the bit about the Handbook comment on o/d vs. Hydramatic.  I don't remember writing that in VERSION 4.0.  H-D was not available on Specials until June 1951 except by special order; as of the end of October 1950 (latest figures I have on such things) around 30-35% of Deluxe models were equipped with automatics.

[Fid]

I should have been a bit more clear in the comment about the KFOC Handbook. I didn't consult the CD, which I think is great, I just pulled my old Third Edition hard copy out of the drawer and looked. It's Rev 10/12/92 and on page C-28-b, which is the 1951 Kaiser Special 4-door Sedan section, it says "Reported cars are about equally divided between standard transmission and overdrives, with only one Hydramatic reported (and it was a special order)."