So, I was wandering around a junk yard the other day and I saw a more or less intact car chassis that I had never heard of before, Frazer. I could not figure out what year it was but it looked like late 40s or early 50s. I looked it up on google, and it says that they were made in Michigan in that time frame. That is what I know, not much. Does anyone know anything about them? Would it be worth it to pick it up as a project car? Is it possible to find parts for a car like that or do you just have to "modernize" everything mechanical? They don't really look like they are particularly valuable but I did like the way it looked. Thanks in advance for any ideas about this.
Think Jeep, Kaiser-Frazer designed the Jeep but didn't have the capacity to build it in the numbers needed so Ford built the bulk of the Jeeps in WW2, I'm not sure but I think Nash bought them out.
Kaiser with a little more chrome & nicer interior. Cost as much as a cheap Cadillac, didn't sell well for many reasons. Kaiser production lasted 'til 1955, combined with American Motors soon after. Body tooling shipped to Argentina, built there until mid-'60s.
Kaiser -Frazier built cars starting on 47 - 51 then bought Willys in 53. Built cars until 1955, then just Jeep until being sold to AMC in 71. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
As cars go,the history is some times greater then some know. In the 1930's,the coolist looking car to me was the "Cord",was later redone but same body, that I thought looked older,insede of newer with new mods to me, then to Hupmoble,an then Garham on to Frazer became Kaiser Frazes an so on,Jeep last I know was Mopar now . Why I know anything at all,is I got a old used Henry J in 1960,that I redid into a full custom. Had a lot of fun with that "J"
No. Bantam built the first prototype Jeep. Willys and Ford then put in prototypes and the Willys design was selected. The army ramped up their order and Ford was brought in to expand production, building the Willys design. Kaiser bought out Frazer and later bought Willys. Neither Kaiser (who didn't have any auto manufacturing facilities before the war) nor Nash had anything to do with the WWII Jeep.
Frazer was the up market companion to the Kaiser, both similar cars except for trim and upholstery. Made from 1946 to 1951, state of the art for the day with modern chassis and body design and a Continental six cylinder engine. There are quite a few still running in the hands of collectors. Most parts are available if you know where to look. They are not popular and don't have a lot of value, so no reason to restore a bad one when you can buy a good one cheap. Would make a cool, and very rare custom. The company was independent and had no connection to any other car company although they did buy the Jeep company in 1954. Joe Frazer was an old time auto executive who had worked for Packard, Chrysler and other well known companies. He partnered with money man Henry Kaiser who made a fortune in construction and ship building. They wanted to give the public a new kind of front wheel drive car but couldn't make the front drive mechanism work so they ended up making a conventional rear drive sedan. The body design was the latest style for 1946 and they specialised in fancy colorful interiors when other cars had drab gray, blue or brown broadcloth or stripes. Later they made the Henry J compact and bought up the Jeep company (Willys). They were a good car for their times but like other independents, could not compete with the majors and went out of the car business in 1955.
If you like it and you've got the skills and ambition to build it, sure it's worth buying. It's not going to be an easy build, and there's not a ton of parts available for it, but you'd be able to do it if you really wanted to. That's more up to you. But seeing some pictures would give a better idea of what would be worth paying for it and if you might be better off with a different one.
The Cord body ended with Huppmobile and Graham. Never had any tie in the Frazier or Kaiser. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
As I remember, the Fords would go faster than the Willys, they had 4.88 gears vs the Willys with 5.38's.
If you want more information on Frazers, check out the Coldwar Motors YouTube channel - he has one he uses as a daily driver, so it's appeared in many of his videos.
Old man Goode - on my paper route - had among other cars on that long driveway - a Kaiser and Frazer sitting side by side....the 1953 Jag he bought new was in the garage that was rarely open - his oldest daughter got it upon his passing and I finally got the 1955 Commander hardtop at the auction.
They also were in a partnership building some real he-man rototillers under the Kaiser-Frazer name. John http://www.zucksrototillers.com/FrazerHistory.html
My dad was a foreman at the Keiser ship yard during WWII. I wonder if that was related to the car manufacture?
Henry Kaiser built hundreds of Liberty ships during WW2. He was the first to make cargo ships on an assembly line, mass production basis. The Cold War Motors 1949 Frazer daily driver project, Part 1
I believe Bantam also built torpedo engines. Maybe mentioned, but Willys was given the blueprints of the Bantam.
Frazier was the President of Graham Motor Car Co., they stopped production of Graham's in 1940 (unsold 1940 's were re serial numbered as 1941's). War came along and they did war related productions. End of the war they partnered with Kaiser and became Kaiser-Frazier. Frazier sold out to Kaiser shortly after.
Kaizer-Frazer also built the compact Henry J of drag racing fame. K-F also partnered with Sears & Roebuck and built the Allstate, which was a re-badged Henry J that was sold by Sears and came new with an Allstate battery and Allstate tires.
A 2019 KAISER photo from a neighborhood car show and home display in So Cal. Hello, In the whole lineup over the years, there were some cool looking models in the Kaiser line. This one is called a Kaiser Dragon. My wife is a convertible nut. She has wanted a convertible since we have been together. But, she likes the sunny So Cal weather and then realizes the impracticality of owning a soft top convertible. No security when parked, locked and going away from the car. Also being inside of the convertible with the top up is noisy and if it is raining…(yes, it rains in So Cal…) then it becomes very loud. When a nice convertible is present, it is like ants on sugar. She flocks to the cool convertible and then goes on a tangent about how cool it would be to drive in a convertible again. Her mom used to own a 1947 Buick convertible. Since the 40’s age level, the sun has become tied to the dreaded skin problems although, she still likes the convertibles. Our family has warded off convertibles since 1966 and there have been over 100s of different models mostly in the European makes. A few from the USA, like the 1940 Ford Convertible. AND FOUR DOORS TO BOOT!!! The hard top models are rather huge and will give a family plenty of space on road trips. Jnaki WE DO LIKE A NICE REAR END…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_W._Frazer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Kaiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser-Frazer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham-Paige
I have related this here in the past, forgive the repeat. Below is a 1947 Kaiser, the big brother to the Frasier, my first venture into the world of the automobile at age 16-1/2. Both were only available in the more door vintage. I traded the neighbor, a Trumpet and a months hard labor for it, bald tires and all. That was in the year 1955 when us guys preferred model A's, and 30's mostly fords if possible. Costing me just a little elbow grease, and having no income, this looked a little on the weird side, but it ran good and got me to school and back. I swear the gage of the sheet metal was 5/16th. It had a unique door handle inside in that it was just a round plastic push button, maybe two inches in diameter with a picture of a buffalo. Sure stymied the ladies I ferried around from school the first time they rode in it, in looking for the known door handles common to the period. Continental flat head six, 3 speed stick, rode good, decent mileage, (Who even cared, gas 21.9 cents a gallon at Shell, with attendant checking the oil, cleaning the windshield, and asking if he could check the tires). Went to the local scrap yard, got used tires, drove it until I left home for the Air Force, 2-1/2 years. I met my first wife while driving it, her dad owned a Texaco station with a bay where I put on a muffler and mounted the tires. Gone from home my Dad sold it for ten bucks to the local junk yard. The end. Edited to remove non-relevant personal and off topic info.
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