'47 Frazer

[Logan]

Better yet, teach her to drive a stick.  My wife refuses to drive the Dragon, even though it's an automatic, and in fact she rarely rides in the car: no air-con, no seat belts, less comfortable seat, etc.  But, she doesn't complain about having it, however, if I get up to a number 6, I think I would expect to hear some grumbling!

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Barbara will not drive a Kaiser or a Frazer.  She has two concerns, 1)she has not driven a "big" car in quite some time, and 2)I must admit the steering in the 1952 deLuxe was a bit on the loose side and I think that bothered her...there was a bit more wonder on the road than what she was used to.

[custom]

My trip to Wisconsin was delayed Monday. They had 12"-15" of snow Sunday. Picked up the Frazer yesterday. It is rougher than the original pictures show, but I guess I expected that. It is indeed an early Graham Paige Frazer. Here is a link to my FOTKI photo albums.  http://public.fotki.com/48custom
I wll be adding pictures of the Frazer soon.

[Fid]

Now that's cool!  And yes, I shoveled a lot of snow this week.

[KWZ]

That is a really interesting car.  There is something really intriguing about these early Frazers.  I am glad someone in the club nabbed it.  Congratulations! 

[custom]

I posted more pictures of the '47 on FOTKI.    
http://public.fotki.com/48custom/

Now my questions start.

Are the knobs correct on the instrument controls, shifter, and turn signals?
I realize someone has added some switches and gauges. I will be removing them.

Also are the door mounted mirrors, the spotlight, and the foglights correct?

There was a jack in the trunk. Is it original?

There is a tank mounted in the right front fender. Is it a vacuum tank?

I am missing the drivers side hood prop and hardware.
It appears there was a robe rail /cord originally installed on the back of the seat.
Anyone have any for sale or have any suggestions where to find them?

Thanks for the help so far!
I'm sure there will be many more questions.

[Gordie]

Hi!  Nice car.  It appears that the gear shift knob is correct,  The turn signal knob should be a smaller version of it. (round) The rear view mirrors appear to be old generic mirrors which will work fine.  The original had a concentric ring around the outside edge of the mirror head.  They came out with the left side first and later added a right side mirror and later made mirrors that were universal.  This style of mirror was used up until 1950.  Check the spot light and fog lights to see if they have the K-F logo on them to determine if they are original.  There were not many accessories offered for the first K-F cars.  The vacuum tank was used to give a boost to the windshield wipers as the early fuel pumps were not dual action.  I would just leave the car alone after a good clean-up and don't worry about the accessories.  Just keep it like it is.  You can not restore it enough to duplicate that great original patina.  Enjoy!

[Logan]

Well, this is really an awesome find.  I guess I can see Fid's point about keeping it original, however, it's your car, and I think you should do exactly what you want with it, and if that includes a restoration, I can hardly think of a better specimen, considering the rarity of this model.  And it sounds like you are planning on doing a very correct stock restoration, which I applaud.  I, myself, am by now means an expert in GP Frazers, but I'm sure there are many in the club and on this forum who can answer questions as to what components are original and what need to be replaced.  Finding the missing parts, if any, will be the bigger challenge--good luck!

[custom]

Update on the '47  -

Paint buffed out pretty well but some bondo issues on the rear quarters - older repaint appears to be Linden Green - the underside of the hood and trunk are the original Turf Green color -

Motor is stuck - soaking with PB Blaster -

Front floor pans need replacement  - rocker panels are good - some rust in trunk floor - pretty much everything I expected to find.

Nice original dash, gauges, and radio

It has a Fulton visor, Unity spot light, after marker side mirrors, and Carlton fog lights. I decided to leave them on.

There is a complete set of "FRAZER" hubcaps and trim rings.

"FRAZER" door sill plates.

Now some questions.

Where is the best place to buy floor pans? The guy on ebay?

There is original rear carpet. Nothing in the front. Would the front had carpet or rubber mat?

It has stainless steel rocker moulding like my '48 Custom. My parts book shows them, but I have been told the early units may not have had them installed from the factory. Were those original or added later?

It has four bumper guards installed on the front and four on the rear. It is supposed to have two and two. Should I remove the extra's?

Thanks!

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Please go through the Graham-Paige F-47 Frazer item in KFOCI HANDBOOK VERSION 4.0.  It lists various running changes made to detail items during the early part of the 1947 model year;  information in the Kaiser-Frazer F-47 Frazer item will round out the changes made.  You will find a lot of strange stuff compared to a K-F 47 or 48 Frazer, including steering wheel, horn button and many other bits of detail. 

You may find that due to the formulations of todays gasolines (especially their lower evaporation temperature) compared to gas when the car was new, you might have to install an electric fuel pump for a bit (only a couple psi) more pressure and more important, consistency of pressure when the inside of the engine compartment gets hot.  The original engine design had the pump at the rear, where the hot air collected unless the car was moving so the air moved through the engine compartment.

[Gordie]

Somewhere along the line someone added later front bumper guards and license holder combination.  If you remove those the front bumper will look more original.  You will need to fill the bumper holes with stainless bumper bolts and try to find an original license plate bracket for the front.  The extra rear guards have been added too.  I would remove them for authenticity.  The guy on eBay sells the floor parts but I don't know about the quality of his parts.  His illustration of the '51 floor parts do not look anything like the illustrations in the parts book.  The original floor covering in the front should be rubber.  The earliest GP cars did not have rocker moldings but later in production they were added and your car probably had them when new.  They were not an accessory.  Good luck with your renovation!  What ever you do will improve the car.

[custom]

Thanks Gordie for your input. I think I'll remove the extra guards.
Anyone have a picture of the original license plate bracket?

[Fid]

I remember seeing this factory KF ad showing a 1947/48 Frazer with four gaurds on the back bumper.


It is a hand rendered pictured but I thought it looked good that way so perhaps a previous owner of the car saw the same and decided to add the two extra gaurds. It will be an interesting car no matter what.

[KWZ]

I note the Kaisers in that illustration have four front bumper gaurds.  I think it looks great, and your car has probably had this set up since it was new or nearly new.  My '51F convertible had four gaurds front and rear.  The extra four gaurds were dealer installed when the car was new.  I considered leaving them, but the '51F bumper bullets made the car look sort of angry. 

[Gordie]

The original owner of my low milage '51 coupe added extra bumper guards front and rear along with '52 trim including hood V and tail lights.  He worked at the factory.  I had to get different bumpers because of the holes he drilled in the originals to install the extra guards.  It is all back to original except for some red paint on the wheels which is too hard to remove.  Who knows what some of our cars went thru while being customized by early owners.  Fortunately we know what they looked like when new.  That's when our guidelines come in so handy.  All of the original parts were in a box in his garage.