Hydramatic Plant Fire Effect on KF automatics

[Roadmaster49]

A poster on the AACA forum asked me this question and I do not know the answer to it--

BJM I have a question for you. What kind of automatic does KF cars use after the Hydra-Matic plant burned down in the fall of 1953?? Late production 1953 Pontiac's had to use Chevy Powerglides and Oldsmobile and Cadillac had to use Buick Dyna-Flow. I know Lincoln was using Hydra-Matic from GM also, but they switch to their own after the fire.

[Jim B PEI]

It was still Hydramatic.

GM changed transmissions in their own vehicles in order to do the minor supply of Hydramatics to the outside Independents. I would suppose the thinking went something like "we can only supply 10,000 Hydramatics, so we can sell them to Nash/Hudson/Kaiser and make some outside money, and change our own production to Powerglides and Dynaflows since we'll need 200,000 of them. Besides, if we do it that way, maybe the anti-trust people will stop threatening us with restraint of trade"

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Actually, it was a bit different....

The swap among the GM lines was to keep production going; by this point the majority of all GM cars built were ordered with H-D by the dealers selling them.  As for the independents, Willys, who just started using H-D in the Ace and Eagle lines had to go without for a number of weeks.  Kaiser had enough Hydra-Matics in stock to cover its needs until production resumed at Willow Run.  Nash, Hudson and others also had to suffer until the end of 1953 when Willow Run-built HD's got into the pipeline in volume

Lincoln used H-D into 1955 models if memory is correct.  It was with the 1956 line up that the in-house automatics at Ford got into the top-line cars. 

I have a newsreel clip showing GM setting up the Hydra-Matic line at Willow Run, including taking large machines in through the big hangar doors, with the Kaiser-Frazer name still showing above them.   I got that back when I was a historical consultant to GM, Ford, the University of Michigan and other parties over the pollution of Willow Creek.  Barbara and I went do to meetings and stuff in Chicago on weekends and we were put up in the Palmer House or the Union League Club.