Kaiser Frazer Owners Club Forum
General Category => Kaiser Forum => Topic started by: Hallenti on April 26, 2010, 05:28:24 PM
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I am a docent at LeMay - America's Car Museum in Spanaway, WA, and I have always been intrigued with the 1949 Kaiser Deluxe convertible we have. the information I have available is that there were less than 50 of these cars made, and only in 1949 and 1950. It is painted in Indian Ceramic, and I am told there were 37 different paint colors offered for these cars, along with over 60 interior options (color, fabric, cloth/leather, etc.). I am looking for factual and interesting information on these cars to give to people who come for tours. Might you have any suggestions on where I might start? We do have a write-up on the car, but I was looking for some additional information. Thank you, Tim
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If Jack does't post here, you can contact him at kaiserfrazerlibrary@yahoo.com He is the club historian and can tell you all about that specific car and any common or obscure facts about 49s in general.
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Excellent information. I will wait and see if he replies, but if not, I'll contact him and mention you suggested it. I appreciate the help! Tim
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Here I am!
There were actually 42 1949-50 Kaiser Convertibles produced. There were actually 37 different exterior paint colors for 1949 and 62 interior fabrics offered in 1949, which includes different colors of the same cloth, leather or vinyl material. The number of cars built comes from the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation Operating Report dated 3/31/50 and a publication designed for sales people called FACTS, FACTS, FACTS. The company had planned to offer a broader range of colors for cars, but sales were rather dismal and a lot of cuts in the offering list were made...some were noted in Ordering Information but never actually went on vehicles.
What I would suggest is that you post or email me the numbers off the door post serial number tag and the body tag found on the firewall of the engine compartment. I can identify any factory installed equipment, original paint & upholstery, etc.
You may not be aware, but one of the convertibles built was exported to the then relatively new nation of Pakistian. It, along with 2 Frazer Manhattan convertibles were used as official state vehicles for parades, VIP transport, etc.
The 1949-50 designation reflects the fact that any new, undriven, untitled cars in factory, distributor or dealer inventories on November 4, 1949 were re-tagged (DOOR POST) as 1950 model year products. The "1950 model year" lasted until March 15, 1950, when the 1951 model year began.
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Jack,
I sure appreciate this information! It confirms some of what I knew, and adds some new information. This Sunday I will jot down the numbers from the door and engine compartment plates and post them or e-mail them to you. I'd appreciate any information your records have about this specific car. Thanks a lot, Tim
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Tim, I might suggest you capture the Body Plate and Serial Plate information on the Darrin, the 53 Dragon, and the Frazer Vagabond as well they are all great examples of K-F in your museum. You might want to describe the LeMay Auto Collection for this group as many on this forum are probably unaware of it. Jim http://www.lemaymuseum.org/ (http://www.lemaymuseum.org/)
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Jim,
All excellent ideas for sure. I have easy access to the Vagabond and the Dragon, and the Darrin is located at Mrs. LeMay's residence, but I expect I can make arrangements to visit the Darrin there to get the plate information. I'll see what I can do for this, and take some photos of the various examples and post them if you think that would be of interest. Tim
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I am not sure whether I should describe the LeMay Museum within this post, or if there is somewhere else that would be preferred. I am new to your forum and know that some forums have specific rules for what goes where. So, if someone can steer me in the right direction, I'll be happy to describe it to you. Tim
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I have the door plate numbers from the Darrin (161-001196) and the Kaiser Deluxe convertible (K492032553) which I got from someone in the know at the LeMay Museum, but we'll verify these. He did not have the engine compartment numbers handy. Also, I'll get the Vagabond and Dragon numbers as well when I verify the other two. I'd be very interested in knowing more about any/all that you have detailed information on. Tim
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I don't know about anyone else, but I for one enjoy all these little tibits of historical trivia.
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Please recheck the door post number and verify that the last two digits are 53...the club registry has the car with last 2 digits of serial number 33.
Thanks
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My next trip out to the Museum will be this Sunday the 2nd and I will be sure to recheck it then.
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My contact was able to verify the following for the 1949 Deluxe, the Vagabond, and part of the Darrin's numbers (which he'll check for me when he can):
"The 1949 Kaiser Deluxe Indian Ceramic has K492-032553 on its tag. The 1951 Kaiser Vagabond's tag had been removed for some reason and had a Washington State replacement tag added in its place. However, I did find an old registration tag in the glove box and it had "F1006726" written on it - does that number make any sense?
As for the Darrin, the "196" portion of the VIN tells me, I think, that it was the 196th car made, which makes sense. The car was originally painted whatever they called their red, although it is now yellow."
I hope the above information makes sense and will provide some clues to the various cars that the Museum has. Thank you, Tim
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The "F...." number is the engine number, and is totally worthless for gathering the information you asked about.
The firewall body tags can be helpful as I have the full detail as to how many of what model was made in the 1949-50 model run so I can identify as being the 'xxxx out of YYYY produced", and other info on how the car left the factory.
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I have some photos available to upload to this post, but the size had to be very reduced to keep within the size/number of uploads per post limitation. Also, when I attempt to upload, I receive a dialog box telling me the "upload directory not found". I am wondering if I am not authorized to upload, being a new member? Tim,
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This site only allows you to show images hosted on other sites.
If you wish you can email me your images and I will host them for you and send you back the link for your posting.
jimbetts@q.com
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Thanks very much! When I saw "attach" I assumed I could attach up to four files. I will send them to you later tonight for hosting. I appreciate that! Tim
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Please give the following link a try to see five shots of the LeMay Museum 1949 Kaiser Deluxe and the 1951 Frazer Vagabond. I have additional shots if anyone is interested. Tim
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Hallenti&target=ALBUM&id=5467591232154250977&authkey=Gv1sRgCO_XiMe8r8q1Bg&feat=email
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Interesting News on the LeMay Museum in Tacoma Washington
http://www.sportscarmarket.com/articles/archives/2453 (http://www.sportscarmarket.com/articles/archives/2453)
Can hardly wait for it to be completed
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On the original topic I started, I am stilling working with the Curator on the KF numbers from the various plates on the Museum vehicles, so I haven't forgotten about that - just hit a slowdown. What with the new Museum ground breaking just announced yesterday, things have been a bit hectic at best. I'd encourage you to follow this Museum link and check out the current collection and the plans for the new Museum. http://www.lemaymuseum.org
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Does anyone have the numbers from the Kiaser Frazer cars at the Automobile driving museum in El Segund, CA?
I can get them if needed.
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I have the door jam numbers from the 1949 Kaiser Dekuxe convertible in the LeMay collection. Still waiting to get someone to open the hood for those engine plate numbers. The door jam numbers are: K-492-032553. Does this give enough information for me to get details on this car? Thanks in advance, Tim
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I have been able to get the under-hood plate numbers and am posting them below as well as having sent them to Jack for him to look up the various bits of information they provide. Some of the information appears columnar and the representation below (since this is a TrueType font) isn't accurate, but the version sent to Jack is correct.
Door tag:
Serial #: K-942-032553
Under hood tag:
MODEL BODY PAINT TRIM TC
492 2 300 2202 RT
4
BODY#
1017 H4D
1 1 4 91 83
HCDS SPEC. FO. SCHED. ITEM NO
RLRL
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According to K-F confidential bulletins the "4" at the SPEC-FO area is probably supposed to be the AG 4 that would be located right next to the SPEC-FO header. I've asked by separate e-mail for the door post serial number as well. The car as built at the factory appears to have a factory line-installed heater and overdrive.
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I received the following very interesting information from Jack and wanted to post it here for everyone, as it is very interesting and informative:
"Let me start by pulling some numbers from Page 24 of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation Operating Report for the 3 months ending March 31, 1949:
1. As of March 31, 1949, the company built 11 convertibles; 1 was prior to 12/31/49. Two more were built in January 1949, 6 were built in February 1949 and 2 more were built in March.
2. As of December 31, 1948, the company produced 31,179 Kaiser Deluxe automobiles, all models; in January 1949 the company built 4,619 more Deluxe types including convertibles.
3. Page 23 of the same operating report indicates that only 6 of the 11 convertibles built had been cleared as OK by final inspection as of March 31, 1949; the difference in numbers suggests that the 5 not cleared were produced in February 1949. Of the remaining 6, only 1 was cleared in January 1949, but the report shows 2 were OK'd during calendar year 1948. There is no explanation in the report for the discrepancy between counts on this page and page 24. My assumption is that one of the two January convertibles was built and run through Final Inspection at the beginning of the month. This is plausible according to serial numbers (it would have been the 374th car built in January which indicates production during the first week of the month).
Kaiser Deluxe serial numbers started out K492-001001. That makes the convertible the 31,553rd 1949 Kaiser Deluxe built. Based on the factory figures, it would have been built in January 1949 and be one of 2 convertibles built that month. Now for the kicker. The following is a caption for a picture published in the February 11, 1949 issue of KAISER-FRAZER DEALER NEWS:
Thwarting Souvenir Hunters was the job handed Ezra Kennedy, body shop mechanic at Washington Motors [the K-F distributor in Washington DC at that time-JM]. To make sure that no one made off with the special Inaugural license plates used on the K-F convertibles, he welded them to the brackets. The car in this picture is Indian Ceramic with black leather trim. Mechanics worked all night prior to the parade to put cars in top shape.
The caption for another picture indicates that Kaiser-Frazer supplied 1 Red, 1White and 1 Blue convertible for use in the Truman Inaugural. Two of the cars were Kaisers, 1 was a Frazer (actual colors were Indian Ceramic, Polar Gray and Horizon Blue, with the Frazer painted Polar Gray). Based on a date of January 20, 1949 and time required to release the car as OK at the factory, transport to Washington, etc, it seems likely that the convertible you have in the museum could have been the same car used in the parade, as there was only 1 convertible built prior to January 1, 1949 and only 2 cars were built in the entire month of January. Because there is nothing that I have that identifies specific serial numbers I cannot be 100% positive, but it sure looks like it.
You might want to contact Jim Betts to see if he has an ORIGINAL of the DEALER NEWS issue noted above; mine is a place-holder photocopy. You could scan the article and the pictures from the issue and use it for part of the display if you want to.
Jack Mueller"