Tag: Kaiser Motors

Charles Hunt’s ’51 Kaiser Deluxe – @GarageHotRods

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I was embarrassed. I was at the Park & Shine Carolina Cruise-In at Carolina Detail Supply in Thomasville, North Carolina. I was looking at this beautiful classic car and I had no idea what it was. When Charles Hunt told me, “It’s a 1951 Kaiser Deluxe,” I felt less embarrassed – and even more interested. I’d never seen a Kaiser before.

Charles acknowledged that even he, as a Kaiser owner, doesn’t see very many of them. “I’m on a Kaiser group on Facebook,” he said. “There’s a few of these up north, but I’ve never seen one anywhere close by. I’d never even heard of a Kaiser until I saw this. That’s kind of why I got it. It’s something different.”

There’s a good reason you don’t see a bunch of Kaisers at your local cruise in. The company wasn’t around very long. Kaiser Motors built cars from 1945 to 1953. Then in 1953, Kaiser merged with Willys. In 1963 they changed their name to Kaiser Jeep Corporation. Eventually, the company sold the automotive part of their business to American Motors. For hot rodders, the Henry J, which became a classic gasser drag racer, is probably their most well known car. It was named after Henry J. Kaiser, the company president.

Charles got the Deluxe about a year ago. A friend of his, who was in the military, had it, and sold it to Charles when he shipped off from Camp Lejeune for his tour of duty in Iraq.

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Kaiser-Frazer and the Making of Automotive History, Part 2 – Richard M Langworth

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Transcript of a speech to the Kaiser-Frazer Owners Club, 30 July 2015. Continued from Part 1.

Delving in

Kaiser-Frazer and the Making of Automotive History

While I received no extra pay for writing the Kaiser-Frazer book, I did have the use of an expense account for travel. That was where Bill Tilden came through again. He helped me track down and interview many of people responsible for the cars Kaiser-Frazer built. Others were located through the deep tentacles of Automobile Quarterly, its many contacts in the industry. We also searched for archives, large and small.

Our greatest archival find was at Kaiser Industries in Oakland, California: the Kaiser-Frazer photo files, placed on loan for AQ’s use. They documented virtually every design drawing, clay model and prototype the company built. Bill and I pored over them for several days, bleary-eyed as the secrets of the company came to life. Fortunately we were able to reproduce many in the book.

There were so many, it was hard to choose. Toward the end of the second day I picked a photo up, saying, “Ever see one like that before?” And Bill said, “I think we’ve seen a dozen like that, but let’s use it. It has a good looking tailpipe.” Later the archive disappeared. I don’t know if it ever resurfaced. I hope it’s in good hands.

“You know,” I said to Bill after Oakland, “this is going to be one helluva book. We’ve found this massive archive, and all these people to interview. All concentrated within ten years. I have a chance to go into far more detail than if I were writing a history of, say, General Motors.” So it proved.

Kaiser-Frazer and the Making of Automotive History

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Related – Moto Exotica – 1953 Kaiser Dragon

Kaiser-Frazer and the Making of Automotive History, Part 1 – Richard M Langworth

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Kaiser-Frazer and the Making of Automotive History

Two Kids Hooked by the ’54 Kaiser

Joe Ligo of AutoMoments, who produces highly professional YouTube videos on vintage cars, has published an excellent video on the 1954 Kaiser Special he’d admired since high school. No sooner did I start watching than I heard Joe say his liking for the ’54 Kaiser was bolstered by my book—as well as the car: “My ninth grade self thought it was beautiful…. In person, I still think the design is drop-dead gorgeous.”

Well, I too was in the ninth grade when a ’54 Kaiser (on the street, in 1957!) swept me off my feet. It lit a fire that I only put out twenty years later with my first, and perhaps my best, car book.

Kaiser-Frazer: Last Onslaught on Detroit (1975, reprinted 1980) was based on dozens of interviews with company engineers, stylists and executives, and packed with rare photos from prototypes to personalities. In 1975 it won both the Antique Automobile Club of America McKean Trophy and the Society of Automotive Historians Cugnot Award. It won, I think, because of the plethora of primary sources. They all were still alive! They had vivid memories, strong opinions, and scores of inside stories.

Kaiser-Frazer and the Making of Automotive History

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Related – Untouched 1953 Henry J

Moto Exotica – 1953 Kaiser Dragon – David Conwill @Hemmings

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THE ENCHANTING TRIM OF THIS 1953 KAISER DRAGON RECALLS THE MYSTERIOUS ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC

Exposure to the exotic vistas of the Pacific stuck with a great number of World War Two veterans when they returned home in the mid-1940s. That affinity led to an explosion of interest in Polynesian culture and aesthetics that would lead to the rise of Tiki bars, Exotica music and the 1949 Broadway hit, South Pacific.

The Bambu-vinyl-and-Laguna-cloth interior is the star player in the Dragon, and it is well supported by lavish chrome trim and accessory lighting inside. That padded dash complements a pop-out windshield to add an extra bit of safety to all 1951-’55 Kaisers.

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Untouched 1953 Henry J

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Untouched 1953 Henry J.

Kaiser Motors introduced the Henry J in 1950 with the goal of building an affordable compact car that nearly every American could afford. The company went to great lengths to make sure the car could be sold cheaply, but the J never caught on and sales were dismal. Amazingly, the Henry J found its place when hot rodders began customizing the cheap little car. The combination of poor sales and customization means it’s difficult to find clean examples. This 1953 Henry J was found in a car port where it had been since 1975. This untouched project can be found here on eBay.

This one still retains its original four cylinder, but it looks to be in rough shape. Most of these cars had their original engines swapped out for V8s. They became very popular for drag racing because of how simple and light weight they are. This one is going to need some metal work before a bigger engine can be dropped into the engine bay.

The body is showing plenty of rust, but looks salvageable and actually has a great look to it. Restoring it could be a massive undertaking and it may prove more cost effective to turn it into a hot rod. It would be nice to see it kept original, but it appears that the underside is going to need work. What would you do with this Henry J?