WOW, your car really has a great stance! Your work and details are impressing that gauge conversion was really clever!!
That thing is AWESOME..Think a real Kaiser guy would get mad if something like that was done to My Dads 2nd owner 13,000 mile car???
What an amazing build,the craftmanship is masterful,the metal work and the vision are awesome,the gauges are so well thought out.What a great thread,fantastic work and one for the best threads i have seen on here.your a master at custom.
Wow, nice car! I'm sure the Kaiser guys would cringe, but none of them would pay what that car is worth either, so nobody would stop you. Honestly though, there are plenty of junk Kaisers out there to build so there is no sense in cutting up a nice low mile car like that. EDIT - Put some air in that tire would ya?
Dude I love this car I remember seeing you in the first time in Hot rod and then again for your second time though when your done I am thinking they wil move you to Rod & Custom! How hard was it to get the caprice frame to slide under the car? did you use the caprice floor and firewall? I have sen another 2 door kaiser made all moderny and that guy painted his blue I think he was a canuck and I cant find any picks of it but I like yours sooo much better! Cant wait to see the next updates!
The Caprice frame wasn't too difficult to fit, but the wheelbase is a few inches shorter so you have two choices; stretch the frame or shorten the body. I chose to move the rear wheelwells forward because it helped the chop flow visually to have the rear wheels in that location. I worked all this out in Photoshop. Of course I had to build body mounts etc to make it work. '51 Kaisers don't bolt onto modern Caprice frames. I did not use the Caprice floor and firewall because the Kaiser floor was so far gone I didn't have anything solid to fit it to, and it would have been a nightmare to get everything square and straight. If I had a more solid car to start with I would used the donor floor and firewall though, it would save some time and work. Plus you can channel the car with zero additional effort since you're welding a new floor in anyways. There was a Chevy wagon in HOT ROD a few years back they called Trusty Rusty that was built this way, on a Caprice 9C1 chassis just like mine. The guy drove it on the Power Tour. The guy with the blue Kaiser is JF Launier. His Kaiser is very street rod but still a respectable build. Of course I'm hyper-critical of it since I'm building one too. In my opinion the lines of the car are ruined by the rake. He is a cool guy, I met him at Goodguys last year and he knew of me and my car, which I thought was cool. Here's an article on that car. http://customrodder.automotive.com/12726/0703ch-1951-kaiser-sedan/index.html
So are you still working on it, or taking a little break? I think your Kaiser will be better than the street rodded one in the link. That one looks like a Hotwheel, like a toy, and it doesn't have enough chrome.
Hey Josh, still working on it. I have been so buried lately that things have really fallen behind. I still have a few pieces to build before I can ship the chrome out. Thanks for the vote of confidence too.
Back to this little guy. I spent a few hours last night making this part out of stainless. Notice the first "prototype" part I made was aluminum. This one had to be perfect, so I made a forming tool and on the fourth try I got a good part. It's funny how a little part like this can be so challenging to make. This is especially tricky because it's stainless, so the part has to be perfect. It's not like bodywork where you get it close enough and then use filler.
The chrome is almost ready to ship out to ChromePlaterJosh. I'm just waiting on a couple of stainless parts to get back from the welder (didn't want to burn them up myself). I am also mocking up the 65 T-bird interior before paint and I put in a call to Gene Winfield, hoping to have the car to his shop in a month for bodywork and paint. Before I do that though, I need to get underneath the body and remove all of the old paint and rust, then apply an undercoat. I've been avoiding it because I'm dreading putting the car up on jackstands and climbing under it only to get covered in junk. That problem led to a little purchase...a 2 post lift. These are huge on garagejournal.com and other forums, but I haven't heard much about them here. It's called the MaxJax and it's perfect for a regular 2 car garage like mine because it only lifts to 48" to keep your car out of the attic. You can't walk around under it, but I bought a rolling stool from Harbor Freight so I can sit under the car and work on it. The MaxJax is also portable so I can roll it out of the way when I don't need it. I NEVER thought I could say I have a lift in my garage, but here we are! Here's where I bought the lift: http://www.maxjaxusa.com/
I love this thread!! You do GREAT WORK!! I love the tool you made, what a neat idea!! The lift rules....I'm gonna look into it!! Ian Just talked to a gabriel at MAXJAX and they go for 1950$ delivered, for those interested!!
Yeah $2k is cheap enough that some of us can now afford to have a lift in our garages. Gabe's a stand-up guy too.
You know, when this thread first started I only cared because I've always liked Kaisers and liked what you are doing with yours. But as it goes on and on I just keep picking up more and more tips on how to do things. Thanks for including the details about how you accomplish stuff. (I particularly like the vice grips/trim form thingy!)
Thanks guys, I'm glad the how-to's are helpful to some people. I don't claim to be an expert, most of this stuff I'm doing for the first time myself. In other news, I just got off the phone with Gene Winfield and he is making a paint list right now so I can submit it to House of Kolor and HOPEFULLY land a sponsorship with them. I can't believe this car might actually have paint on it! And Winfield paint at that.
Yah,, But your giving some of a taste of what can be done.... and how to be resourseful.. use what we may have with in our surroundings.. thanks for sharing.. its a great thread..
Wow, that is an amazing car. I bet the sponsorships really help the budget. How do you go about it? Do they require car shows and stuff to get their products seen?
Yes, you become a marketing tool for them, which means you go to shows, talk about their product, mention them in magazine features and on websites, etc. The Homebuilt Heros and Top 10 articles gave me a big advantage in getting sponsors. It does help the budget big time. I would not be building the car to this level of completion if it weren't for the sponsors.
Hey man I have been meaning to do this for quite some time just been all lame and lazy took these picks at a modesto car show guy said it was owned by Marlan Brando? Any way thing was just beautiful I wish I could have got more pics especially of the inside he had the hatch back up and the rear seats down all kinds of room! Such a cool car I know you started with a more door but thought you would dig seeing these any way!
You are doing a fantastic job, I'm truely blown away. This is very helpful to me especially because I am working on getting a 51 Kaiser also. I would really appreciate a little more detail on your winshield install. I personally have never heard of someone sliding the widshield into the dash. How do you seal it? Where do you run the water to? I would REALLY like to find an alternative to cutting the windshield. Theres not alot of them laying around. Any Info would be helpful.. Thanks.. Archie...
Archie, I can't really get a picture because the dash is welded back in, but basically I cut the lip that the windshield sits on and moved it down against the firewall. I had a glass guy take a look at it, and he thinks we can glue some weatherstripping right to the glass and cowl and pull it off.
Here's what I've been up to, fitting the 65 Thunderbird interior and doing little miscellaneous things to get the car ready for bodywork and paint. Had to build the rear seat mount from scratch, kinda tricky to figure out how it will fit starting from nothing. Changing the straight, square package tray from the Tbird into the round shape it needs to be for the Kaiser window is tricky too. ChromePlaterJosh is working on the chrome right now. I can't wait to see how it turns out. He said he would try to post some pics in this thread for me so stay tuned.
wow!~!! what an outstanding build!! that's gonna be bitchin!!!!!!!!!!! are you going to leave the t-bird vent in the package tray? ed
The Jalopy Journal
