Pics of My 51 Kaiser Special

[stacks]

Hope these come through

[Weaz]

Beautiful!

Looks like a Deluxe. Were all the 'extras' added by you or a previous owner?

Are those the new tires?

[stacks]

Someone along the way put the Deluxe trim on the car.

The pic of the left side of the car shows the new tires.

I still have miles and miles to go to bring the car up to a nice level.  I plan to start detailing and painting the engine compartment this week.  I understand that the engine itself was green.

Jack

[Fid]

I like the powder blue color. Kaiser actually had a kit for installing the wide rub molding on the Special. I don't know how many people did it back in the day but it really dresses the car up so it was very popular with KF restorers over the  years. An added bonus was you could add it and not lose points at a KFOC Judging event because the kit was a dealer option.  Same with a clock, horn ring, rear cig lighter - all of those were not standard items on a Special. The Special Weas has is cool because it shipped with a factory radio and overdrive - two features a lot of Specials didn't have. But... I've also seen Specials that shipped from the factory with a Hydramatic in them so it all depends on what the dealers felt they could sell. The 1951 Specials are cool cars in any case.  That brown '51 Special on ebay right now would probably be an easy resto, save for the steering wheel.  A decent deluxe steering wheel will cost $600 plus these days.  The Special originally had a white, hard rubber steering wheel, just like a Henry J but restorers often added the pearlite steering wheel to the  Special too.

[stacks]

Very Interesting.  It makes me wonder about my car.  It definitely has the 511 code in the VIN, but has all the things you list as being on the Deluxe.  Did you notice my one-piece windshield?  I don't understand why it has the one-piece, but it was a late production number, so maybe they made an early transition.

I spent the day detailing the engine compartment.  I plan to paint the engine tomorrow and finish up the job.  I had one of these supersonic engines a few years ago that I painted blue and polished out the fins on the head.  It turned out really nice.  Since this engine is not going to be removed from the car I need to work extra hard to do a good paint job.

Jack

[Fid]

Yes, I noticed it had a one piece windsheild. The '52-'55 windshield fits right in on 1951s and again, a lot of restorers liked that better so they installed the one piece as KFOC was reproducing them for a while. I remember one club member did an article in the KFOC quarterly, back in the late 70s, which explained why it was a "safety upgrade" as well as cosmetic so someone upgraded it. I've seen others where that's been done. The late 1951 Kaisers that were left over, were all re-tagged and titled as 1952 Virginians and they had the two piece windsheild yet.  Looks like a nice car in any case and if it drives like other late model Kaisers, I'm sure it's a fun car to own.