Hi & welcome to the club.
I myself was a newcomer some 40 years ago with little knowledge about the car I had & no real mechanical skills. I learned a lot of things the hard way, and perhaps I may be able to help you avoid the tiger traps particular to K-F cars, having had a number of them (including 2-door Travelers) over the years. Perhaps I am covering ground you have already covered successfully. If so, please bear with me; I want to cover as much as I can for starters. I cover the initial basics based on my experiences; others may change the order a bit based on theirs.
First off, can you please send me the information off the two factory tags (the large & the smaller one) that are/were on the firewall of the car? They contain information specific to your vehicle. Same goes for the serial number tag on the body shell's door post. I need all the numbers including the prefix (K512 in the case of a 1951 Kaiser Deluxe of any body type). Cars are door post serialized by series; the smaller firewall tag identifies the specific body number for a 2-door Traveler. You can also figure out a lot of this by looking at various items within the KFOCI HANDBOOK which you will get as part of your New Member Information. The current release level of the CD is Version 5.0, released in 2013.
Second, before you get too far into things, I STRONGLY recommend two factory issued documents that you will more than likely need for the project:
1. 1951 Kaiser and Frazer Shop Manual issued by Kaiser-Frazer Sales Corporation. This book runs over 330 pages & the "regulation" edition is 8.5" x 11 ". There is a good bit of information on replacement & alignment of the upper & lower sections of the rear deck as part of the BODY & SHEET METAL SECTION (Section 14) along with various types of mechanical diagnostics and how to do it information. It is written with the idea that people working cars like yours have a general working knowledge of auto repair.
2. 1951 Kaiser Combined Chassis and Body Parts List (orange/black cover, dated June 1951). This is the only complete parts list with illustrations and exploded drawings showing the various individual parts (down to hardware items) for such things as the folding rear seat (Figure 30-12) and the rear hatch assemblies (Figure 30-13). This item runs over 180 pages. Being able to find part numbers for what you need is important as many people in the club selling parts tend to go by the numbers on the packaging or the parts themselves. When it comes to mechanical items, most of the parts for your vehicle are the same as 1951 Kaiser Deluxe 2-door sedan or even Kaiser Special 2-door sedan (things like doors, fenders, hood, etc) except for the trim level.
Club Member Jim Betts maintains a website, CIRCLEKF where you can find scanned copies of these two documents.
Now for special stuff that only applies to certain 1951 Kaisers (yours might be one of them; I could know more off the numbers I already asked for).
a. if your Kaiser was factory equipped with Hydra-Matic (automatic transmission) it is the same GM made box used on either 1950 or 1951 model year Pontiacs. You can tell which version can swap by the serial number prefix tag on the transmission casing. if it starts "K50" it is the 1950 model year Pontiac type; "K51" is the same box used in 1951 model year Pontiacs. The guts are different in a number of ways so you need to be aware of this if you have transmission issues.
b. If your car had overdrive, you have the same Borg-Warner transmission & overdrive (3 speed with no syncro in first gear) as used in Studebaker, Mercury and other popular makes of the period.
c. Originally 1951 Kaisers used Delco-Remy electrical components & Auto-Lite A-5 (heat range) spark plugs. By the time production of Traveler models started, cars with overdrive could be equipped with D-R or Auto-Lite electrical items (generator, starter, distributor, etc). Cars with the Hydra-Matic only used D-R parts. The items themselves are not swappable (you cannot replace Delco with Auto-Lite or vise-versa). Many Delco-Remy bits (rotor, points, etc) tend to be same as used on 6-volt 1950-54 Chevrolet truck & Auto-Lite bits quite often are same as used on 6 cylinder 6-volt Chrysler Corporation cars of the same period.
There is an interchange book put out by a member in CA that covers a lot of the various swaps for all kinds of things. He regularly advertises in KFOCI MONTHLY BULLETIN, the club's monthly newsletter.
Again, as I don't know specific needs for your particular vehicle. it is kind of hard to go forward from here. I would suggest giving me a call (716-608-6210) and see what else I can help you with or who I can refer you to.
Jack Mueller
Club Historian, KFOCI
