Kaiser For Sale

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The 1951-53 Kaisers were lighter in weight than the older cars yet still had the road handling of heaver vehicles like the DeSoto.  With overdrive the range for MPG seems to be around 20-24 mpg.  Best repeatable MPG for the cars was the 1953 Kaisers with Hydra-Matic (dual range, the early version of overdrive in automatics) and the 3.31:1 rear axle ratio.  MOTOR TREND turned 25.7 mpg officially in their 1953 Kaiser Manhattan test car on an average speed (city country driving) of around 45 mph.  Fuel economy will drop notably after 55-65 mpg but this continues to be normal today. 

[billmod12]

CAR HISTORY  I will try to make this short and sweet: Car bought new by Walter Yopp a prominent local funeral director for his sister to drive their 80 yr old mother around. The car was traded to Joe Craig, who owned the Sinclair station next to the funeral home, for a 48 Buick after the mother left the right rear door open and backed into a fire hydrant.(some say telephone pole) I being the one that fixed the damage say fire hydrant because the damage was confined to the lower hinge area. I feel that if it had been a tele pole the damage would have been up the entire door. However the door was sprung useless so Mr Yopp traded it to Joe for the Buick. The Kaiser had only 37000 on it at that time and was stored till 1967. Paint was good and sound at the time with several small bumps and bruises from the mothers driving(she did not like the daughters driving so she took over).    Joe, My Dad, and I were restoring model As and Ts at the time and decided to fix it up as a nice driver. I did the body work and paint, Dad did a plain simple interior, and Joe went through the brakes and anything mechanical that had to be done and we went to ride.   It came new with no clock, or radio, and had small hubcaps. We sold the car to a club member who in turn sold it to my Dads cousins husband who's Dad use to own a KF associate dealership. About six years ago the husband called me and wanted to sell the Kaiser. It had been stored in a garage since 1990. I bought it and you can see the recovery of it here. What a mess!!  http://oldcarandtruckpictures.com/Kaiser/  ( scroll down a little till you see "Home again II") or see the feature in the KFOC quarterly vol 43 2007.  First thing my Dad and I did was replaced all the tires, brakes with new lines, cylinders, master cylinder, shoes, fuel pump, and repaired the gas tank.  About 3 years ago I lost my mom to the big C, and my wife has lost her Mom and Dad over the last 2 years of long illness and our priority's have changed towards our own health and not so much the Kaiser's. In fact during the last 2 years I have gained so much weight that I can't even enjoy it because every time I turn a corner the horn ring hits my belly and scares the hell of everybody in the intersection.  Got one hell of a horn!!     

[billmod12]

CAR CONDITION  I ain't even gonna try to make this short and sweet!  Since I got the car back I have driven it about 300 miles, never been more than 20 miles round trip mostly to the auto parts store, breakfast house, local pub, hardware store, events etc. During this time We have replaced tires (new but cheap), brake lines, master cylinder, wheel cylinders, shoes, fuel pump, plugs, tank sending unit and repaired gas tank. The engine, drive train and suspension are smooth and quiet. Steering is OK as far as Kaiser steering goes. All lights, horn, and gauges work, temp gauge needs new sending unit, you can ground the wire to the block and gauge works. The new tank sending unit is on the fritz right now I am going to look at it next week, think it is a bad ground. It came new with no clock or radio which it has now. The clock does not work. The radio comes on and did work but the vibrator has gone bad. The heater is by-passed, the blower works but makes a fluttering sound,  Windows work and are good, rear vent window rubbers are questionable, fronts are bad. I have an extra rear windshield that comes with it.  I have the run of the mill extra parts for carb, dist, points & cond etc. I have an extra Studebaker OD trans that goes with it cause a lot of the parts were the same. The seats, headliner, carpets, look good but all material is 40 years old and fragile. You can sit on it fine but it will never withstand the type of punishment it got when I was 20 and no I am not ashamed and if I weighed 75 lbs less I would go for it.  The door panels are water stained not from rust but the brown cardboard underneath. The body and underneath are solid and the underneath is in great shape. The top and hood have light surface rust spattered about nothing deep. The only rust outs are in the bottom left of the deck lid area in the rubber channel about 1/2 inch in diameter and the back edge of the front of the hood along the area of the hood safety catch. I will get pictures of this and entire exterior this week, and get them posted. I also have the 51 shop manual and 52 supplement. I am going to stop now and let you ask the questions! Cheers! Bill

[billmod12]

RUST!  Very small rust out in bottom left corner of deck lid and rubber channel.  Light surface rust on top and hood, Very minor rusty edges under front of hood in latch area. See pics and feel free to ask any questions you will not hurt my feelings.

[billmod12]

Kaiser Goodies!! Gotta have da manuals!!

[billmod12]

AND NOW THE REST OF THE STORY!! As Paul Harvey would say! And, yes that is my lovely wife driving the little car and if you listen carefully you may hear the engine running or her saying "Can I cut this damn thing off now?" She does like the car and is not scared to drive the wheels off it. Oh! and that is her Fairlane fun car and it is for sale also. Model A is not for sale. Cheers Bill