Kaiser Frazer Owners Club Forum
General Category => Henry J & Allstate Forum => Topic started by: kaiserfrazerlibrary on July 24, 2010, 06:59:29 PM
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You have to see this! Shades of the Prototype Kaiser Sports car that once appeared on ebay with a starting price of 400,000 dollars!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/RARE-52-Henry-J-Kaiser-Frazer-Convertible-1-1-/300449079455?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item45f429209f
Keep in mind that in 1952, the 1955 Chevrolet was not even sketched out let alone prototype chrome produced; the car is not a Kaiser-Frazer factory prototype. Also the serial number is from a 1952 4 cylinder Corsair...experimentally it must have sprouted another 6 cylinders if you read the description.
It is a nice looking car and I have no doubt that a good bit of engineering went into it, but the seller will have to show me the documentation FROM KAISER-FRAZER CORPORATION that this car was built at Willow Run in 1951 or 1952.
I have to wonder if the current owner got skunked by a seller who mis-represented the car and is now trying to do the same to someone else (read the description).
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Well, It sure wasn't built by K-F but some one did a nice job customizing it. Several of these cars have shown up on eBay and there was also a nice one earlier this year. I don't know about the five miles on the odometer but it looks like a nice car for the money and someone will have a lot of fun with it. I hope it shows up at a K-F meet with a really crazy story to go along with it.
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One of the pics shows a dash plaque from the meet held in Ouray CO back in the 80s. I can't remember the car being there but I need to look at the Quarterly article on that meet to see if there is a pic. I am pretty sure I have seen that car somewhere before.
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That Chevy chrome on the side ruins it if you ask me. Of course no one did...
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Hi this is the way they should have built the J,it would have been a complete success with the housewifes, and the kids going to college
then Kaiser would have made more money to develope the big Kaiser with a V8 and they would have became one of the big ones!And when the cat got wings they would have eaten all the sparrows!
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Kenneth,
Let me give you some insignt into Kaiser-Frazer history, and the economics of the 1950's.
Students going off to school in the 1950's normally had to have their parents buy them a car, if they got one at all! They ended up with (hopefully) a reliable used car, or other basic transport. At best, they might end up with a 4 cylinder Henry J sedan.
Had it not been for the Korean War, 1952 Kaiser Manhattans would have offered an optional V-8 engine, produced for K-F by Oldsmobile. This GM division was willing to set aside at least 25,000 blocks a year (for mating to the GM Hydra-Matic already offered on Kaisers and the last Frazer Manhattans built) for this activity. However, the deal hinged on GM expanding production of the Rocket 88. The plan was in place, contracts were being let for construction, then the government began issuing edicts on plant construction/expansion for non-defense production. Olds had to put the expansion on hold until 1953. They offered Kaiser Motors (name change from K-F earlier in 1953) Rocket 88's for the 1954 model year, but by than other events made the offer moot.
As for Kaiser-Frazer's own V-8, I suggest anyone interested read the 1955 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) paper about the American Motors V-8 engine. This was the climax of 3 years research at Kaiser-Frazer and 5 years at Nash Motors & AMC. The two engineers leading the K-F project left for Nash and took their work with them. It was while at Nash that they discovered their original engine design (the one they did for K-F) was not practical and the men had to literally start over from scratch. they lost between 5-6 years of the total 8 figuring out that their idea didn't work!
Would Kaiser-Frazer had survived if they had all this. Studebaker had a V-8, a convertible and seasoned industry veterans backing up a well established veteran dealer network...look what happened to them. DeSoto's best sales year in its history was the 1957 model year and was backed by one of the biggest auto manufacturing organizations in the world. In 1960 Chrysler announced the marquee would no longer be in production. Had you told anyone in 2000 that the biggest of the big-General Motors--would go into bankruptcy a decade later, you would have probably been laughed out of the room. In short, if bigger operations than K-F failed, Kaiser-Frazer followed the best course action, acquiring the Willys-Overland operations in 1953. Jeep and related products (rather than passenger sedans) could have kept a Kaiser vehicle manufacturing operation going to this day because they've done just that!
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KFLibrary: I remember going with my dad to Studebaker dealer in '55 to buy a new car. My dad was afraid the "Big Three" were getting too big and wanted to always buy from the independents. They didn't want his '48 Frazer as a trade-in. (First they said we will give you $300 off list with your trade-in and then they said to keep the Frazer and would still give $300 off list). He liked the Frazer, but it was rusting badly (Minnesota salted the roads heavily) and Frazers were no longer made. He found a mint '53 Kaiser Manhattan for $900. and only two years old, so he bought that and drove it for sixteen years. It was the most trouble free car he ever owned. We drove it everywhere including Canada. They were easy to work on and simple to maintain. I wish they still made them carbs and points and all.
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Kaiser Frazer Library Can you decode the serial number ? K5231202897
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The fact that it begins with K523 means it was originally a 1952 Henry J four cylinder (Corsair).
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Fid is correct that it started out as a 1952 4-cylinder Henry J. The "12" in the position shown indicates that it is a Corsair rather than a Vagabond (Vagabonds used leftover 1951 bodies and exterior parts). The second series 1952 Kaiser and Henry J cars (with the "12" as shown) started at 001--K523-1200001--so this car would have been the 2,897th Corsair to come down the line. If I had SCHED and ITEM dates, I might be able to identify when the body was built.