Front plastic emblem for 53 Henry J? also looking for other small parts

[Jim B PEI]

1) Looking for the plastic emblem that fits on the nose of a 1953 Corsair Deluxe HJ for a friend who doesn't do computers. The one with the plastic cover over the stylized K on the painted background. The car is the pale blue--Cerulian Blue? or would it be Powder Blue? The existing emblem underneath the clear plastic cover seems to be okay or could be restored--it is the plastic cover itself which is virtually opaque. Is there any source for the cover/whole emblem? I used to have two NOS ones years ago but gave them to other deserving owners and have none left to help a dear friend out. I was able to supply several NOS HJ grill and trim chrome pieces previously for this car--so all the brightwork is now good to perfect

2) What is the (chrome?) knob beside the overdrive knob, to the right of it? A multi-position switch of some sort? Anyone have the knob itself?

3) Any sources for the various dash knobs choke lights etc? The existing ones are toast and look like they are crumbling/were melted.

The car itself is a quite nice shape HJ 6 working overdrive with NO rust, recently repainted very nicely inside and out after a complete frame-off restoration engine out, rear end and transmission out etc of all the mechanical bits, frame, brakes, wiring etc. Its currently a good 4 with patches of strong 3 and heading upwards. I gave him my latest Bulletin, and he will likely join the Club. Car has an original HJ heater, a very serviceable but non-original interior vinyl interior, needs new window rubber etc, but is the sort of car, as all his vehicles are, that you could jump in and drive 1,000 miles at the drop of a hat completely without a care, they are that good mechanically. It was a car he brought back from fairly modified to quite original condition, without actually knowing the ins and outs of the details of Kaiser-Frazer, workshop manuals or Handbook (wheeew!!) I must give him my Handbook, Last Onslaught on Detroit, and workshop manuals etc so he will have a better idea of what is exactly correct next time he takes it all apart to redo it<g>!!!

This is his first Kaiser--he is a mechanical wizard of the old school and he has, restored (by himself): 55 Stude 2 ton flatbed, 55 Studebaker Commander, 61 Studebaker Hawk, 30 Es***, 75 Bricklin, 65 AMC Marlin, 57 Metropolitan convertible, WWII Studebaker Weasel and a few more...  He is the only person I have ever heard of who has taken apart and rebuilt at least two different version of Packard Ultramatic transmissions without a manual, and got them to work properly again. He even builds his own mufflers etc.

[joefrazer]

The grille insert is available from the club's manufacturing fund. I have about 200 in stock. How many does he want? (grin)

Without a picture, it's difficult to determine what the chrome knob is that you're referring to. It doesn't sound familiar so it's my guess that it's an add on by a previous owner. Maybe an aftermarket heater switch.

I think Rudy has the plastic dash knobs. The originals were soy based and the sun dried the oils out of them and that's the reason why they turn color and fall apart.

Your friend sounds like he knows what he's doing around old cars. Better get him signed up!

[Fid]

Rudy has all of the plastic knobs for the Henry J, except for the radio knobs/buttons. Regarding the chrome knob, there were no factory chrome knobs, save for the OD control which was the same one used on 1949-50 Kaisers and 1949-51 Frazers, used on the Henry J. I agree with joefrazer that it's probably an aftermarket heater blower (heaters were not standard on the HJ) switch, perhaps a foglight switch or something like that that was added on. You see that type of thing with the J a lot because it did lack many of features that were standard on other cars. For this reason, it's hard to find an unmolested HJ because owners often did add things it did not have (I've even seen 1951 HJs with gloveboxes added to them) and often got them from Western Auto or JC Whitney or you name it. Here's a photo of my '52 Henry J Vagabond which has only original issue KF parts on it -

The knob with the 'H' on it is the heater blower switch. The knobs are all Rudy's repros and the OD control was NOS my dad got when he bought out a dealer in Red Oak, Iowa.
See if it looks familiar.
The repro "K" emblems are beatiful, and look perfect. I'd recommend your friend joins the club (if he's not a member) and gets a couple while he can. My '53 J has an NOS one which we got from John Parker in 2001 (the last one he had) and we bought one of the club repros for Edgar Kaiser's Henry J and you cannot tell them apart. The repos are perfect.

[Jim B PEI]

Thanks everyone for your as usual brilliant responses. I will point out this information and Rudy's phone number this next week to him. That picture explains a few details perfectly, and it is a plastic knob "H" not chrome (my mistake) that is missing, and the controls were moved to the wrong spots by some previous owner. Doug is a real deal gem of a person and as an advocate of antique autos in general, and already belongs and participates in many clubs--adding KF is my goal and I think this would be relatively simple, which is why I gave him the Bulletin and pointed out the Manufacturing fund to him yesterday at our Atlantic Canada Club SDC's Prince Edward Island Summer Picnic, International Drive Your Studebaker Day, and BBQ which he hosted.

Since he is a purist in general (but not absolutely in all circumstances) I think this HJ will be brought back to as close to number 2 condition eventually as a car that can be driven confidently. His first order of business when he acquired it was lifting off the body and removing every bit of the yellow paint that could have been an HJ colour, but wasn't in that car's case, and rebuilding everything with the correct parts and restoring the frame, wheels, etc

[Fid]

Jim, just to pass on some more info about those controls.  You mention "the order" in which they are in. I'm not sure there was a set, designated order. The one pictured did not have OD in it originally so the heater switch was right next to the column molding. When I added OD to the car, I moved the switch to the next position and put the OD next to the column as it is on my '53 and all other Js I've seen which have OD. Since these things were add-ons, and there are a number of mounting holes along the bottom of the HJ dash, I don't know for sure if there is a "correct order" or not. I do know that every J I've seen with overdrive originally (has number '4' under the TR code on the data tag), it was mounted in the location in the picture. Same with the heater knob so it is probably logical they'd be this way but I wouldn't say it was absolutely the "correct" way. Actually, I just looked the KF issued "Advanced Service Information" manual for the J and photo on page 56 show them in this order (the order on the posted photo) as does page 207 in the full Factory Shop Manual so I would say it is probably correct.

[Jim B PEI]

Aha! Well, I'll show him this and next time he takes a look at things, he'll correct it. THANKS!