Topics

1

Frazer Forum / 49-50 Frazer in a new McDonald's ad?

« on: February 20, 2012, 06:55:32 AM »

There is a new 'retro' ad that McDonald's is airing that I have seen about 5 times here in Canada--not sure if it is showing in the US (yet?) as I haven't yet seen it on any of the US stations on my satellite dish service, only on Canadian stations so far it seems.

Shows an early McDonalds restaurant at night, with a rear view of two cars parked out front, the one on the left some late 50s finned thing--I am actually embarassed that I haven't really twigged to what it is yet--Chev? Pontiac? Desoto?--because I first saw and keep looking at the car on the right, which is a 49-50 Frazer I think. The ad is short, and the view of the cars is just a second or so.

Anyone know anything about this ad/car?

2

Cars For Sale & Wanted / ALLSTATE for sale $500

« on: January 08, 2012, 08:11:46 PM »

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?58011-50-0r-52-Studebaker-for-sale

Its not a Studebaker or a Henry J, its an Allstate and its in the Fresno area

3

Kaiser Forum / Kaiser pickup-- of the era

« on: January 06, 2012, 12:15:55 PM »

Near the bottom of the page. Very nicely done--except for the terribly fugly bumpers!

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/category/locations/dealerships/

4

General Discussion / Carabela transmission.

« on: December 27, 2011, 10:30:34 AM »

I am certainly the Elephant Boy this week.

It has been several decades since I saw a pristine Carabela (Argentian Embassy, Ottawa ON) or a Carabela period (Burlington Vermont annual convention--Mike? Knittel's?? Carabela)

I know that they all came with straight shift, no overdrive (and no automatic), but wasn't it a floor shift? The one I saw in Vermont had one, but that might have been an after the fact fix. What model and make of 3 speed was it? B/W T86 or another model? If they came with a floor shift instead of a column shift, how was this attained? Again, I am thinking possible Studebaker interconnectivity  with Kaiser & Jeep

5

General Discussion / Interesting engine swap for a Kaiser Manhattan (???)

« on: December 23, 2011, 05:52:09 PM »

Okay, maybe this is apocryphal, but I just saw this over on the Studebaker Forum. The topic was Studebaker engines in other cars, and there was such joy at the remembering/reporting the Corvette with a Champion flathead six installed , but also that many Studebaker V8 engines ended up in Willys--both cars as well as the Jeep wagons/pickups for a very good reason--durability. Here are some of the comments:

"Not directly relevant to your question, but I have seen Studebaker engines in other applications. Many years ago I was poking around in a small salvage yard looking for parts for my '54 Willys. I found a Willys with a Stude V-8 in it (don't remember which size). At the same time someone in the base auto hobby shop was putting a Studebaker V-8 in another make, but I don't remember what. Later, in Hawaii, my neighbor was putting a '59 Lark V-8 in his Willys Jeep pickup. I asked him why and his answer was the Studebaker V-8 was the toughest, longest lasting engine he could get."

"The Stude V8 swap into a Willys was a fairly common upgrade. I remember my next door neighbor had a nice Willys wagon (the two tone gray) with one back in the early 60's. I think it was something about the BW trans used in the Willys that made it a fairly easy swap."

"One of the guys here in the North Carolina chapter told me his father had a Studebaker V-8 installed in his 1954 Kaiser Manhattan back in the '60s, which some may recall came with a McCullough supercharged Continental 226 flat-head six. It took only two days, practically a drop-in (he said) and was a huge improvement in all respects."

Perhaps an inquisitive Kaiser type person with some knowledge of Studebakers would actually know from eyeballing and using a measuring tape whether this is a do-able thing, putting a Studebaker V8 (with an overdrive BW T86 transmission being an obvious type of choice) into a 51-55 Kaiser. The Studebaker V8--232/224/259/289/304 blocks are all more or less the same, especially the stock 259 which can be either 6 (1955) or 12 volt (56 and after), and hanging power steering/AC and other things would be easy, as in swapping a generator for an alternator etc.

HJ East Texas?? Anyone else any comments?

6

General Discussion / New way to make anything, like a 51 Frazer, or 54 lower taillight lens?

« on: December 19, 2011, 06:39:40 PM »

This is simply amazing!  Now, done in a clear resin with a red tint, it could make an identical copy of an original to within microns (much less than the thickness of a human hair)

With an almost exact replica, then a mold could be created, that would be identical to making the original parts, couldn't it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ-aWFYT_SU

7

General Discussion / Is this a HJ plug for backup light? Horn button? or something else?

« on: November 25, 2011, 06:27:28 PM »

I was reading about the person who has (perhaps) the LAST NOS 1958 Packard station wagon licence plate light. It seems he had the second last and sold that some years ago. It came up that this company makes one-off recreated emblems--and they have it waiting to redo when they get orders.
They have the Kaiser Darrin horn button for $225 --its a terrible picture, BTW
http://emblemagic.com/myimages/emblempics/onesys/Kaiser.jpg

Here is the one I'm wondering about.
http://emblemagic.com/myimages/emblempics/unclassified/KaiserSW.jpg
They are classifying it as "1949-50 Kaiser steering wheel hub" (ie, horn button) which it isn't I don't think, unless its for a HJ. "3 7/16" dia. polished stainless with "K" includes backing assy. with spring clips to snap on. NOS pc." $150.00

Good or bad price for this part?

On their site, they also do cloisonne. Some other KF parts in #1, #6 and #10 (the tag numbers don't match the # numbers)
http://emblemagic.com/myimages/emblempics/Unrestored/unrestored_001.jpg
http://emblemagic.com/myimages/emblempics/Unrestored/unrestored%20005.jpg
http://emblemagic.com/myimages/emblempics/Unrestored/newbatch%20009.jpg

I see some unrestored "Je Suis Pret" in there! Wouldn't hurt to ask how much to reproduce or restore. Is this the company that did the Frazer emblems last time around?

8

Henry J & Allstate Forum / Front plastic emblem for 53 Henry J? also looking for other small parts

« on: September 11, 2011, 01:23:12 AM »

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.

9

General Discussion / Electronic distributors?

« on: August 29, 2011, 01:56:58 PM »

I ran across this on the Studebaker Forum:
"Note that since DUI now offers an HEI conversion for the rare Jeep Hurricane Six (among many other vehicles); maybe they can be talked into an HEI setup for the 1951-64 Stude V8. "
(this is from the site  http://www.performancedistributors.com/  and the D.U.I stands for Davis Unified Distributors)

Just offhand since I'm always curious, if the Super Hurricane is (I think) the 230 OHC 6 derived from the 226 flathead, is there any possibility that this 'could' interchange with a Kaiser-Frazer 226 engine? If so, I suppose that the whole engine would have to be converted to 12Volt...or would it? I just found out recently that overdrive 6V can be run on 12V without a problem, supposedly.

10

Kaiser Forum / Email from Argentina about 55 Manhattan paint-trim codes

« on: April 18, 2011, 08:25:51 AM »

I received this as an email directly as the fellow isn't online to the Forum yet, although he is reading it. If someone could post the answers here, that would be very nice. Note that it is a 55 Manhattan according to him, which is interesting in itself. I definitely want to see the information from the cowl and door plates, and how this car was outfitted!

Hello Jim:

My name is Rubén Davicino. I am writing from Mendoza city in the west part of Argentina. I took your e-mail address for the KFOC forum. Excuse me for use it.

I have just bought a 1955 Kaiser Manhattan here in Argentina imported for the Toledo factory. I am very happy with the car and my idea is to restore it with original paint and TRIM. I  can see the plate that indicate an original external code paint 480 and the TRIM code 5340.

Do you know anything about those codes ?. or anything that would help me ?. I would like to recovery the original colour during the restoration. By the way I wrote to the KFOC days ago but no answer until now.

I would appreciate any info that you will let me know.

Thank you and Best Regards,

Rubén Davicino

11

Henry J & Allstate Forum / How can spammers like MistyLind post faster than every 30 seconds??

« on: February 20, 2011, 08:46:11 AM »

According to the listed time stamp.

12

Kaiser Forum / 47 Kaiser Custom, one not seen for a while, I'm thinking......

« on: December 30, 2010, 11:07:11 AM »

Haven't even looked at the video yet, but 'interesting'.

http://www.hagerty.com/Hagerty-Online/News/Features/All-articles/2010/12/08/Portuguese-Barn-Find-Photo-Gallery?utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_medium=email&utm_term=December&utm_content=News&utm_name=Hagerty%20Plus%20Member%20News

13

General Discussion / Nice 52 Allstate picture on the Studebaker Drivers Club forum

« on: December 13, 2010, 09:47:13 AM »

It is a 52, and seems pretty basic, but it is a beauty.
If you are conversant with the SDC Forum, the thread is:
 "Stove Huggers" the non-Studebaker Forum   Orphan of the Day, 12-12, 1952 Allstate

Someone noted that the licence light is installed upside down <g>. I would hazard a guess that this beautiful museum car--no backup lights (how rare are THOSE metal blanks???) Plain Jane, trunkless, likely a 4 cyl without overdrive, is best enjoyed stationary in a museum.

14

General Discussion / Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery...(Russian Cars)

« on: October 14, 2010, 04:06:06 PM »

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Russian-Zim-Gaz-12-1951-/120633818214?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item1c1655fc66#v4-37

While the later Chaika (seagull?) limos by ZIL very heavily favour 55-56 Packards in all their plagarisms (remember, no parts interchange, even though they went so far as to copy a pushbutton automatic control), this 51 ZIM favours the 46-50 Packards (of course) but there almost seems to be a bit of KF in there too.

15

General Discussion / One size fits all???

« on: October 04, 2010, 07:06:22 PM »

Look at this Ebay listing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Kaiser-Frazer-Henry-J-Darrin-flathead-6-head-gasket-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem4aa5112f0eQQitemZ320596946702QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

One head gasket fitting the 161 L head, the 161 F head, AND the 226 L head?  Fancy that! The things you learn....     Maybe you could take a pair of scissors and make it fit the 134 L head as well! 

(I have a reason for posting this)