Took me awhile but I read all of the comments. I agree with Gordie, but reluctantly. I never did see any posting, whether a photo or just a# - of the VIN's of the 2 supposed early cars made into trucks.
There is some reference above, which certainly can NOT be true - that the Posie built hot rod is at the AACA Museum? No way!
I also find it interesting that "Frankies Frazer" was quite active and proclaimed that he had sold a car for $125,000 but did not even attempt a modest correction of the non stock wheel set or anything. The same photos he posts are used by the supposed new owner.
While I get that it was "Frankies" car and he can do whatever he wants, the truck deserves restoration as a curiosity if nothing else.
In my opinion, which as Gordie notes is all we have - this is certainly an early non GP (?) Frazer that was very purposely converted into a truck. IF the Posie car has a close to it VIN, and if the original workmanship is similar, then I think they were done together.
Note I did not say done by Muntz. But together. It is not out of the realm since KF went on to produce the Traveler/Vagabond. Hudson and maybe Studebaker had car based trucks. Chevy and GMC had crossover Suburbans. This was in the zeitgeist of the time.
But it is troubling that so many folks have linked these to Muntz without documentation. The Posie car is gone forever. If it truly was 1 of 3 then the owner did a disservice to the entire collector car hobby by forever converting it to a Hot Rod. There are thousands of slabsider KF's out there still, and we know the owner and Posie spent well north of $200,000 on this creation.
They could have used the Kaiser truck as a template and simply purchased a slab sider for $500 and done the same thing.
One thing that bothers me is I have never seen the original pre hot rodded photo set of the Posie car. Did it have a Pontiac straight 8 and automatic? Or not?
Frankiesfrazer kept those details out, sometimes saying he did not have permission to post. Maybe it is in another post.
In any case, "Frankie" had had enough of the "supercool" Frazer pickup and sold it, at a modest price I guess, and the new owner is flipping it again, but not including any new photos. Or did Frankie not really sell it and the ebay seller is Frankie?
If it is on the west coast again, then I don't have the $2000 to $2500 it would cost to haul it back to the Midwest.
if I could buy it at a "normal" project car price, I would restore the car/truck to it's original grey paint, ditto on the upholstery and everything, except it would be a clearly converted truck. As Jim and others have noted in this thread there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
It was repeated over and over again that this was common. Once a restoration was underway, there might be more clues to the originality of the truck conversion. It is interesting to note the 1st title being 1950-ish but that does not tell me it was created in 1947, early 1948 and used by the dealer.
if it was sold to an individual, then the title would be earlier. Gordie, do you know if they had MSO's back in 1947? I would assume they did and that was the 1st "title" or build document. That would have been turned in when the title was issued in 1950.
That MSO is certainly long gone, archived maybe for a few years by California, but certainly destroyed at some point.
Frankie can claim all he wants that he wanted to keep the car as he found it, it was (and maybe still is) his car. But the bottom line is no one wants to truly restore the car, and spend the serious cash to do so.
As far as the ebay ad placed in the Ford section, ebay has long not provided a good placement option for KF. Many get placed in odd spots.
Who buys this car? That's a good question. Most KFOCI members are choke full of projects and typically don't take on restorations any more. It could go to a Posie - like customer who hot rods it since as with that car, many hot rodders are looking for the odd car to get away from fat fendered Chevys and Fords which are ubiquitous.
And for them, $4000 is chump change.
Is this truck a part of KF history? If it was judicially restored, and we actually had a museum, would it be allowed to placed on display?
