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The Kaiser - Frazer history
Kaiser-Frazer was an American car-brand that has lived relatively short, that's why it is relatively unknown. It was one of the new brands that attracted attention after the Second World War, and it has had strong ups and downs during its existence. Henry J. Kaiser and Joseph W. Frazer, two enterprisers with a totally different background, founded the company.
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Henry J. Kaiser
Henry J. Kaiser was mostly well known, he had made name with his unusual way of doing business, by which he scored remarkable successes. The Californian divided his time between his many enterprises. During the Second World War, Kaiser began with the building of Liberty and Victory ships. They could be built in a very short time, within a week! The record was four days, fifteen hours and twenty-six minutes. As many as 1490 Liberty ships were built.
Kaiser's ambitions went further, he had the idea to introduce a cheap, popular American car. He had clear ideas about how the car should be. For instance, it should have been front wheel driven. In invoked the help of a specialist on that area, the French engineer J.A. Gregiore. (He worked in the same period for Simca) Gregiore designed a very progressive car, where a lot of aluminium was used, not only for the engine, but also for the coachwork. But the car was perhaps too progressive, besides, there were technical complications.
Joseph W. Frazer
Frazer was grown up in the Detroit Motor industry, he learnt to know Walter P. Chrysler at the beginning of the twenties when they were reorganising Willys Overland. After Chrysler had founded his own company, Joe Frazer was his left hand for many years. (1924-1939) In 1939 he stepped over to Willys that had just started the development of a light military vehicle, the Jeep. After a difference of opinion with the manager of Willys about the model policy, Frazer stepped out.
Joe Frazer bought in 1944 with some companions, a big part of the shares of Graham-Paige, which had stopped car production in 1941. The building of cars hadn't been a commercial success for Graham-Paige, which also made agricultural machinery. Since the start in 1927, they only had three profitable years. The spectacular Sharknose of 1938, that must turn the tide, became a complete flop. Although the design won the Grand price of the beauty contest of Paris, many Americans thought the styling was too extreme. For Frazer the take-over of Graham-Paige meant the chance to begin his own car-factory.
Howard Darrin
Howard Darrin was approached to make the design of the car. This designer had his own studio at Santa Monica, California and had made name with designs for Packard. Darrin, a Frenchman from origin, was raised in Paris. As an example, he had worked there in the studios of Hibbard & Darrin and Fernandez and Darrin, coachbuilders, which made use of chassis of for instance Rolls Royce, Hispano-Suiza and Duesenberg.
The beginning of the co-operation
A mutual friend, one of the managers of the Bank of America, brought Kaiser and Frazer together. At any rate, on paper it was a good match, Frazer sought for more financials to afford the development of its new model and Kaiser could profit from the experience of Frazer. In the first instance, it was the intention to produce the little Kaiser, as well as the large Frazer. The production of the little model was "temporarily" delayed. The large model should be produced under both names, the, by which the Frazer would be the more luxurious variant. The car was built at the Willow Run factory at Detroit, where Ford built the B-24 bombers during the war.
The model had a modern design, although the initial ideas of Darrin even went further. The low waistline of the coachwork wasn't realised, but the car became a smooth line with integrated fenders. Because the company couldn't afford their own engines, they made use of a six-cylinder engine of Continental. That firm mainly built industrial engines and had also delivered to Graham-Paige.
Joe Frazer gathered a large technical staff around him, mainly descended from Willys and Chrysler, his former employers. Because Kaiser had brought in most of the capital, he sent a confidant to Willow Run, his son Edgar Kaiser. He was followed by more and more Californians. Soon a cultural difference arises, between the "orange juicers", with their unconventional methods from the world of constructors, and the traditionally conservative car specialists of Detroit.
The young company did soon meet disappointments, they had trouble with the shortage of materials that was prevalent after the war. Besides they had little experience with negotiating with the unions, so that the cost of wages raised. Another problem they experienced was that the suppliers preferred to deliver to their familiar buyers. They could permit themselves this attitude because of the shortage of materials. This all lead to the rising of the costs, much higher then they had foreseen. In the agreement between Graham-Paige and Kaiser-Frazer from 1945 was defined that Graham-Paige would take charge for 1/3e of the Finances. Graham-Paige couldn't meet their obligations, because the costs raised much higher than they expected. They withdrew again from the car-industry. The company was transformed into an investment-corporation that is engaged in circuses and sporting events...
The first success
When after the war became known that Kaiser was aiming at the production of cars, the initial interest was enormous. Three months after the fist prototypes were shown (January 1946) there were already 266.849 orders on hand. That wasn't without reason, when the model entered the market, it was the first totally new car after the war, it wasn't based on a pre war model. The coachwork was very modern, it was the first model with post-war design, with totally smooth sides. The modern looks of the cars received much appreciation. The Frazer Manhattan did win the Fashion Academy Award for example.
After a year it turned out to be a right estimation. 1947 became the first official year. There was a large demand for cars, they made a profit of $19 million and it became it became the best selling independent brand (after GM, Ford, and Chrysler) In September 1947 the 100.000th car was already delivered. In 1948 an even larger production was accomplished, in October, the 300.000th car came off the assembly line. On other area's there was less optimistic news: the costs weren't under control. The profit decreased to $10 million. There also were complaints about the quality, especially the engine appeared to be rather weak.
In 1949, they came with the face-lifted models, besides, some new models were presented, like the Traveller. This model was an early precursor of the car with a fifth door. It was in fact the same model as the sedan, but the tailgate could be opened in two parts. The upper-part contained the back-window and hinged to above and the backseat could be turned over, so that the luggage compartment could be enlarged. Frazer warned that the changes to the models weren't sufficiently changed and that the demand wouldn't exceed 70.000 cars. He expected that the demand would decrease considerably because many competitors now also came with their new post-war models.
Kaiser didn't favour a decrease of the production and because the majority of the management existed of Californian friends, he could exhort that the production was put on 200.000 cars. This meant the beginning of the end for the co-operation of Kaiser and Frazer. Frazer resigned and withdrew with disappointment. Soon it became clear that Frazer had been right, the production that was planned by Kaiser lead to enormous supplies. The production had to be stopped and the dealers did get 1950 number plates for their 49- models they had in stock. This, of course, was disastrous for the financial results. A new impulse was necessary.
The new model
A new model, again designed by Darrin, would enter the market in 1950. The new design was ahead of its time, was for that time very streamlined, had a low waistline and much glass. This design had the advantage that it was lighter than the proposal of their development department. That was important, because there still wasn't a succeeder of the six-cylinder engine. The model was announced as a "Triumph of Anatomic Design". In February, the new car was introduced to the enthusiastic American dealers and in May they already had to work in overtime. In October they made 1400 Kaisers a day and made a profit again.
The little Kaiser
Because of the too high estimated production and the withdrawal of Frazer, Kaiser had to search for new capital. By way of a new investor, he came into contact with American Metal Products, a company that had developed a new little car, but couldn't produce it. The investor proposed that Kaiser would take over the prototype so that he could present a complete elaborated plan to the banks. It meant that they couldn't realise a proposal from their own development department. Howard Darrin had already presented plans for a shortened version of his design, which had the advantage that they could have standardised more, what could lower the production costs
It appeared not to be possible to produce the little model cheaply, the definitive prize was only 50 dollar below that of a Chevrolet. To reduce the costs, the car was equipped very poor, it didn't have a bootlid, but the backbench had to be laid down, to enter the luggage compartment. The 4 and 6-cylinder engine were obtained from Willys. For the choice of the name of the car a price question was organised, the name Henry J. (From Henry J. Kaiser) won the first price.
The take-over of Willys
Kaiser was very inventive to keep its companies running. During the Korean War they again built bombers in Willow Run, next to the production of cars. In 1953 Kaiser sold the complete factory for $26 Million to General Motors, which would produce hydramatic gearboxes there. The production of the Kaiser models moved to the Willys factory in Toledo, after that brand was taken over by Kaiser for $62 Million. Willys built in that time the model Aero Ace, a more attractive competitor of the Henry J. and - more important- the famous Jeep. The name of the company was changed from Kaiser-Frazer Corporation to Kaiser Motors Corporation. In 1953 a new model did come out; the Darrin, a sportscar. For this model a Henry j chassis was used, and a six-cylinder side valve motor drove it. It was a car with polyester coachwork and a very peculiar design (from the designer with the same name). The model wasn't a success, there were 435 built, from which a hundred turned out to be unsalable...
The problems of the company increased, especially the deficiency of the V8 engine became a huge disadvantage. The competition was already using the V8 engine with overhead-valves, while Kaiser Frazer kept using the 6 cylinder side-valve engine.From 1950 on they experimented with V8 engines, but the high costs made it impossible to take it into production. Kaiser tried to buy the V8 from Reo and Olds, without a result. To meet the demand for more power, they added Mc Cullock compressor to the engine. That wasn't good for the durability of the engine. The car became a new front, with the style of the successful Buick models. Thereby the grille could be increased, which improved the cooling, but the lines of the car became less harmonious. The production descended increasingly, in 1953 only 62.000 Willys and Kaiser persons cars (the Jeep excluded) were built and in 1954 it lowered even further to 16.0000.
The end of the production
The Jeep model appeared to be the by far mostly sold model of Kaiser, also the export of this model was very successful. Because the Jeep had little competitors, they decided to concentrate the production only on this model. In the summer of 1955, the production of the persons-cars of Kaiser and Willys was ceased. In 1960 the name of the corporation was changed to Kaiser Jeep, Wherefore it was taken over by American Motors Corporation. In 1970 Renault became the owner of AMC, but sold it in 1987 to Chrysler, which was finally taken over by Daimler Benz. With this the car-history of Kaiser hasn't ended, the complete inventory of the production of the big Kaiser were sold to Argentina. From 1958 to 1962 the Manhattan was produced again, now as Kaiser Carabela. In the present, Renault Argentina owns this factory.
The Willys Aero installations were sold to Brazil, where the model was again taken into production in 1960. In 1962 the model was drastically changed, wherefore it was built until 1972. Nowadays Ford owns this factory. The cars of Kaiser are not yet forgotten, there is a club, which exists since 1959 and has more than 1800 members.
