Lance Lambert, host of The Vintage Vehicle Show, visits Ed Johnson at the Dock Street Garage and takes a close look at his 1955 Kaiser Manhattan 2 Door.
My dad and my "uncle" (dad's best friend) BOTH had Kaisers AND Fraziers. EVERY time they would see one, they would try to buy it. At one time "we" collectively had over TWENTY of them. This all happened between 1959 and 1962. My dad had a Frazier Vagabond, while my uncle had a Kaiser Traveler. Great days - FUN memories. Thank you for sharing...
Not many people know that Kaiser was working on their own 288 cu in V8 but did not have the resources to make it. When Kaiser went under the designer went to work for American Motors who soon came out with a 287 cu in V8 of their own. This motor is very similar to the one Kaiser had on the drawing board.
That's interesting!!!!! I'll bet if they built that engine when Kaiser built that two seater sport model and put that engine in it that car would have sold like crazy
They might have been able to if they had not sunk all that money into that Henry J compact. Sad when you think about what could have been, but it might not have helped much. No hardtop, no convertible, no hatch back by 55.
@@michaelbenardo5695 Building the Henry J was a condition of getting a $5 million government loan. They thought it would be a good idea to give Americans a cheap car, but it was practically impossible to meet the government's price target. That is why the first Henry J was so incredibly chintzy with no glove box door, no trunk lid, 4 cylinder engine etc. Unfortunately this gave them a cheap reputation and killed sales. Compare to the Rambler, a similar size car. Nash brought out the most expensive models first, the convertible, hardtop and station wagon, and all of them dressed up with 2 tone paint, white walls etc. This gave them the reputation of being a fashionable small car not a car for cheapskates. Later they brought out the low priced sedan and they sold like hot cakes. You are right though, the Henry J project dissipated a lot of energy and money with no payoff. But they thought it was the thing to do at the time.
In 1953 the GM Hydromatic plant burned down. Kaiser, having recently purchased Willys, no longer needed the Willow Run plant so they sold it to GM. Wags at Kaiser said that Edgar Kaiser personally lit the match to the GM plant. I once owned a 1954 Kaiser Special which began life as a '53 Manhattan that Kaiser converted to a1954. A lot of changes but it still had the '53 dash and rear window. Many years earlier, a junkyard in Moorpark, California had a good running 1951 Kaiser club coupe. When I got there, they had pulled the engine out of it for a fork lift or something and scrapped the rest. Heard it was a nice looking car. And the club coupe was, in my opinion, the best looking of the 1951-55 Kaisers. PS - The last new car my father bought was a 1953 Olds Super 88 with stick shift. He said there was a shortage of Hydromatic transmissions. Some actually came with the Buick Dynaflo.
There was a guy, probably 40 years ago, on Kimberly road in Davenport Iowa that must have had 10 Kaisers sitting on his property. I once heard a story that his wife had them all towed away, and he had them all towed back. Kaiser was a very unique car!
I had a chance to ride the Kaiser Manhattan of the family's one. So spacious and comfortable it was the top limousine car of Madagascar.It twas so big "a sign of nobility" and class!
Kaiser production in the US ended with a whimper in '55 - 1,231 cars, of which 1,021 were directly exported to Argentina, leaving only 210 cars to be sold in the US. 270 54 Kaisers were also reclassified as '55 models.
I have a stock 1954 Kaiser Manhattan 4-door. They're a much better car than you think they are. I have the stock supercharger and a 3-speed manual transmission with overdrive (stock rear end ratio 4.55:1). It moves pretty darn good. Mechanical parts are easy enough to come by; the engines were used in Jeeps for years afterward (Kaiser owned Willys and Jeep until 1969). Bendix brakes, either Borg-Warner (manual) or Hydra-Matic (auto) tranny, Delco electricals. Pretty common stuff.
In the early 60's, I drove a 53 Kaiser 100 miles a day to a job in San Jose. It was a small plant with about 30 employees. My boss also drove a Kaiser.....a 55 with the rare factory blower. It was really strange to see this small parking lot with 30 cars and two of them being Kaisers.
There are few '55 Kaiser Manhattans in US because they were all sent to Argentina, while Kaiser was moving to Argentina. Later, in 1958 through 1961 it was produced under the name of "Kaiser Carabela", but only in four door sedan style. It was equiped with the same engine (Kaiser 6L 226, 115 HP) with standard 3 speed transmision. Available in several color combinations, black where common with leather upholstery in the interior. Also, it was a cheaper "Taxi" version.
In Richard Langswoth's book on Kaiser Frazer, "The Last Onslaught on Detroit" he said the reason the Olds engine was not used was that GM raised the price of the engine to the point it was not economical. There was a fire at the Hydromatic transmission plant in 1953 which lead to Kaiser selling their Willow Run Plant to GM. By the way, my father bought a new 1953 Olds Super 88. It had the V8 and a stick shift. Some Oldsmobiles may have been build with Buick Dynaflo transmissions till Hydromatic production was back up.
Yes, this owner is mixed-up. It was the HydraMatic transmission plant that burned-down. That's why some other 1953-ish GM cars had to substitute other transmissions.
GM faced a comparable situation in the early seventies. Buick had sold the tooling for their V6 to Kaiser in the late sixties, for use in Jeep and Jeepster products. Kaiser retired the V6 when the AMC inline sixes became available, but never scrapped the tooling. In the early seventies, in response to the oil embargo, GM approached AMC to buy V6 engines for their mid-size, compact, and sub-compact models; AMC set the price so high that "...it would have cost less to put 455 V8s..." in the Skylarks and Centuries and Skyhawks. GM bought the tooling back and reinstalled it on the same footings it had been removed from five years earlier. GM soon modified the crankshafts to allow for an even firing order, and the V6 in various versions became the default powerplant in almost every GM division and model line.
It's true...Kaiser Industries continued to make the Kaiser Isabela (Manhattan) through 1962. The dies had been shipped to their facilities there. :) Jack
The Kaiser Manhattan (4 doors) was produced in Argentina, like "Carabela" by Industrias Kaiser Argentina, the mos luxurious car of this moment, made in our Country. Jeeps, Gladiators and Estancieras (Station Wagon) completed the the offer.
Three years ago my wife and I spent ten days in Argentins (to witness a total solar eclipse). Everywhere we went, I kept a sharp eye out, hoping to spot a Kaiser.....never saw a one.
Thanks for posting the facts. It is very irritating to me as a Kaiser owner how much mythology and false information is passed along by people as "fact" and also how adamant they can be about it, even in the face of extensive research having proven otherwise. There are several good books on Kaiser-Frazer, most notably "The Last Onslaught on Detroit" by Richard Langworth.
Kaiser's son Edgar said of the demise of Kaiser Motors in the U.S., "Slap a Buick nameplate on them and they'd sell loke hotcakes." Independent car makers were always in a difficult position and it was actually surprising that they lasted as long as they did. The ghosts of Kaiser, Frazier, Hudson, Nash, Packard and Studebaker must haunt Elon Musk who has yet to turn a profit on the Tesla.
@@downtownbobbybrown6237 Tucker was never a contender in the same league as the other independents. Preston Tucker never managed to open a single dealership and only built 48 cars after the prototype. It was an interesting car, and might have survived for a while if Tucker had been able to combine some business sense with his salesmanship..
@@tamer1773 The big three shut him down before he ever had the chance to open dealerships, and be a true contender. Technically he's an independent manufacturer called Tucker Corporation.
My first car was a 51 Kaiser. Then I found a 53 in much better shape, bought it, installed a 55 Chevy V8 and drove it 100 miles a day to work for three years. Then I found a rare 54 two-door (only 150 made) which was parked next to where my in-laws lived...with Utah plates on it. It had been abandonded by someone at the nearby military base when he was shipped overseas. It took me a lot of effort and legwork, but I was able to trace down his former commanding officer....a really kind and understading guy who signed some important papers for me, which if he had not done so, don't know if I could have ever gotten it registered. This one, though a lot more work, I removed the flathead six cylinder Continental fork lift engine and installed a '57' Pontiac motor (347). I drove that car all over the western USA, made several trips to my first wife's native Missouri and really loved driving a 'sleeper'. Then one day a train crossing highway 101 in Oregon had stopped traffic....I stopped, but a car came up behind me, didn't realize the stopped traffic and plowed right into me. By pulling the left rear fender out, I managed to drive it 800 miles back to my home, but it was so badly out of alignement, ground off a new set of tires in the process. It was then I decided if I were going to install Pontiac motors in my vehicles, might as well drive one....and still do...an 88 Fiero V6 5 speed. BHE
@@michaelbenardo5695 I worked on both engines...looked the same to me and I've had other mechanics tell me the same thing.....BOTH Continental flat head engines, with the distributer routed staight up through the 'flat' head. I've been an auto mechanic ever since the late 50's.... So, please explain to me....HOW and in what way were they different?
My uncle Paul left the driveway in a beautiful white over black 53 Cadillac which in my 4 years of life had grown to love, and returned in a 53 Kaiser Manhattan. 4 year olds tend to say what’s on their mind so quickly I asked him, where’s the Cadillac? My Uncle responds this is my car now. My response was, why? Anyway this was in 1957. He sadly passed away in 1964, and when I turned 16 in 1969 my Aunt gave me the Kaiser. I had gotten a job at a gas station a few months earlier to which a hair cut was required. So here I am in 1969 where most of the guys had let their hair grow out a little. The streets are full of Mustangs, Camaros, Mopars and street rods, and I’m driving a 53 Kaiser with my nerdy hair cut. The car was such a fish looking eye sore that two of my friends parents told me not to park in their driveway. Here’s the happy ending. My Brother in Law felt so sorry for me that in 1970 he helped me get a 69 Mustang 428 CJ. It changed my life! Especially since now my passenger seat was filled with a cute blonde tennis playing school girl. 🙏
There was one of these on CL a couple of years back that needed restoration and was missing the supercharger. Would have been a good candidate for a swap of a ‘55 Olds V8 with a J2 setup.
That is true the GM Hydramatic plant burned down in 1953 resulting in many late 1953 Cadillac and Oldsmobile cars being built with Buick Dynaflow transmissions. Nine weeks after the fire GM leased the Willow Run plant from Kaiser and moved the Hydramatic tooling which was salvaged from the destroyed Livonia plant there and restarted production in time for the 1954 model year.
Yes, the McCulloch superchargers are common, the one on this car is badged Kaiser and those are quite rare. I found one at a scrap dealer who thought it was a siren. I knew better and made him some profit. My wife at the time chastised me for not buying it at the ridiculously low price on the tag. I got great deals from this dealer later..great yet fair.
The supercharger was made by McCulloch (later Paxton) and is their VS-57B model. The name "Kaiser" was put on the solenoid cover to disguise that fact. I have seen several with the "McCulloch" medallions. Only the '54's and '55's had stock superchargers. The car you drove was most likely one of those, especially if it had the taillight strip atop the rear fenders The transmission would have been the Dual-Range Hydra-Matic from GM.
For several years I drove a '54' Kaiser 50 miles one way to work. My boss drove a '55 with the supercharger. So, in this small parking lot with about 40 cars, there were two Kaisers.
Wow, can't believe that padded dash for 1955 when most cars used metal that was painted to match in interior or outside car colour. 1958 was the start of the down-turn for Detriot which also killed the Edsel for its weak sales. Today's car are built inside Computors by software and most have that Egg shape for reduced air drag.
Also produced in Argentina, sold as Kaiser Carabela, mostly to afluent people and, believe it or not for funeral homes, a must for them back in the earlys 60's, sadly it was not a good seller,
My girlfriend's father sold Kaisers when they were new! I did hear a story that Kaiser had a factory in Argentina that continued making them for many years later, but i never looked into that,somehow I doubt it. Interesting car, in the end henry kaiser left the business angry that he lost so much money.
not sure kaiser owned the factory in Argentina but i guarantee you the rest of inventory was shipped there i have picture history of it, along with the henry js, easy to find just look up history of kaiser fraiser cars, looks like thousands at shipyard being readied for loading. i think the story was all the equipment, dies etc, to build the cars were sold either to the government or whoever there, and they sure made some butt ugly ones too, same car but some extended and more crap hung on than you thought possible. i love these cars and the hudsons, i believe they had continental aircraift engines.
Yes, and Willy’s , both utility wagons and “Aero’s”(car) were produced as well. (Also in Brazil) all facelifts, and the Argentine built Kaisers were given a different name ( don’t remember what,though). The faceliftings made them look rather gaudy,I thought. They were made up into the early 1970’s. (as with many socialistic dictatorships,......). Cool ‘55‼️👍
@@jimmieroan9881 My father owned on of the many '55 Kaiser Manhattan shipped to Argentina. Gorgeous car. And its true that Kaiser moved his production to Argentina. They were made until '62.
Jeff King kaiser made kaiser carabela since 1958 to 1962 and was built more than 10.000. all 4 doors 6L and 226 c.i.flat head nowed in argentina like "contineltal" more information serch in google.
kaiser manhattan paso a llamarse kaiser caravela en argentina cuando la kaiser emigra de eeuu a argentina.! kaiser manhattan was renamed kaiser caravela in argentina when the kaiser emigrated from the usa to argentina.!
It was no longer economically feasible. Kaiser test drivers used to go roaring past GM guys while driving Olds powered Kaisers on the Willow Run Expressway. GM may not have liked that and jacked up the price. From "Last Onslaught on Detroit." Great book.
Most people have no idea about Kaiser, Nash, Hudson, Studebaker etc. I believe if George Mason had not died we would have a different Detroit today. Also I've long heard 30,000 units was the break even point, of course a redesigned would be more. Little wonder about their demise.
The plan had been that Hudson would merge with Nash-Kelvinator and Studebaker would merge with Packard, then the two companies would merge to form a single company with market coverage from the low-price field to the premium high-performance luxury. Studebaker and Packard each had their own V8 engines, as well as Studebaker's Automatic Drive three-speed and Packard's two-speed Ultramatic. Packard engineers had developed the best-riding suspension ever installed in production cars before or since, with outstanding handling as well. Nash had overhead-valve sixes, thoroughly up-to-date lightweight unitary construction, a handsome, popular, and practical compact model (the Rambler) and the option of a fully integrated air conditioning system available in every model. Hudson's "Step-Down" design which had been the wave of the future in '48 was, by 1954, horrifically out of date, but that Horner Twin-H-Power six and low center of gravity were a brutal force on the Nascar tracks.. Problem is, Studebaker was in very precarious condition, Packard failed to study the books closely enough to see the real situation, and George Mason's replacement scuttled the final deal.
¡ cuánto nos maravillaban en aquellis lejanos años a mi y a compañeros del colegio cuando sentíamos rugir a esta máquina y corriamos al alambrado que daba a la calle para ver pasar a la bestia frente nuestro echando una infernal polvareda de tierra!
This was one of the biggest losses to the U.S. auto industry. Kaiser came out after WW2 and produced cars that were way ahead of their time. Unfortunately, the Big Three squeezed out most of the independents (Nash, Hudson, Packard, Studebaker, Willys and Kaiser), many of which built compact cars, so that when the imports started coming in in the late '50s and early '60s, Detroit had nothing to match them.
I was told by a Kaiser owner, that Kaiser developed the engine that became the 283 cu. in. Chevy small block. Either that, or it was the 215 cu. in. aluminum V8 that was used in the F-85 Olds compact and with less headbolts in the small Buicks. Anyone confirm this?
BTW, Kaiser and Frazer and later Willys used the 226 cu.in. Continental L-head 6 cyl. engine shown here. That engine was used in marine application and industrial applications maybe with the name Gray Marine?
No. I worked for a time with a gentleman who had been one of the junior engineers at Kaiser back in the day. He told me the Kaiser V8 was to have a 288 cubic inch displacement. It is common knowledge that in later years Kaiser bought the tooling for the Buick 225 cubic inch V6 (to power Jeeps and the famous Jeepster Commando) which was based on the architecture of the Buick aluminum V8 (which had also powered the Pontiac Tempest and Olds F-85). The Buick 300 V8 was also based on the 225 V6. Buick bought the tooling back from Kaiser/Jeep/AMC when they needed the V6 in response to the oil embargo in the early seventies. Henry J. Kaiser squandered the funds that could have gone into further development of the 288 engine in tooling for the Henry J compact. The supercharged Continental 226 six matched the horsepower of the normally aspirated 224 V8 available in the '55 Studebaker Commander.
@@johnstauffer164 The Continental 226 was a lower-cost larger bore version of the old Graham engine, which also is a Continental engine, to Graham's design specs. The industrial version used a different porting arrangement and had less peak horsepower.
There was a version of the 226 used in boats and forklifts, but the version used in Kaisers, Jeeps, and Checkers was a slightly larger version of the Graham and engine.
+Trump Hi11ary The host here said, "viewers know how much I like orphan cars and what a supreme example, a '55 Kaiser." A car no longer manufactured is considered an "orphan car." So, Chevy Corvairs, Ford Falcons, all Hudsons, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and even Kaisers fall into this category.
@@WAL_DC-6B Hudsons, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, AMCs, Packards, Studes, and Kaisers are orphans, but the Corvair and the Falcon aren't, as Chevrolet and Ford are still here.
The Paxton supercharger is the old McCulloch supercharger. McCulloch set up a separate division renamed Paxton to build the superchargers, and then sold it in 1958. The founder of the company was William Paxton McCulloch.
An uncle of mine had a late 40s Kaiser. Too bad they didn't make it. Underfunded and poor management decisions. Another victim of the Big Three along with Studebaker, Packard, Hudson and Nash. All great marques. As a kid I rode in all of them except Nash.
Old cars that sit on velvet cushions like that remind me of beautiful girls with flawless skin and freshly combed hair. They'd be a lot sexier if they had a few wrinkles in their dress, and a little dirt under their finger nails.
That might be your opinion, but I disagree and always preferred a two door. By the way, in 1962 I owned a 54 two door Kaiser just like this one, first installed a 55 265 Chevy and later a 59 389 Pontiac. I drove that 'sleeper' all over the western USA for several years. Then, while I was stopped in central Oregon on US 101 waiting at a train crossing when an old fart (probably younger than I am now) came up behind me, didn't realize traffic had stopped and slammed into me at high speed. I managed to drive it over 800 miles back home, but the frame was buckled, it dog tracked badly and that was the end of that car.
ps....Even now, more then 50 years later, when I close my eyes, I can still see that Ford, wheels locked up with smoke coming from the locked up tires and beginning to turn sideways, then slamming into us. I shouted a warning to my family just prior to the impact and then we were slammed forward. The odd thing is, the train had passed and traffic had started to move and I never actually struck anyone in front of me. Seat belts were non existent then and luckily, none of the four of us were injured, with the car becoming the only casualty.
@@michaelbenardo5695 The only thing which gave it away was the 2" dual exhaust which exited in front of the rear tires, and which had a definite rumble. Many times, as I pulled into service stations, the attendents would ask me what I had in it and, of course, wanted a look-see. As far as cars go in the big picture, probably wasn't that exceptional as far as cars go....except it was a real 'sleeper' and most likely one of the fastest Kaisers ever regularly driven on 5,000+ mile trips. Back in those days many were installing Chevy V-8s, and with their 60 degree engine were easy to install. However, Pontiac, with their 90 degree engine, was a lot more work....and I had to relocate the steering box...instead of bolting to the frame, I cut into the frame and instead of a 'box' frame, I opened it up, creating a beefy U-frame in that area. Not sure of how many miles I drove that car (well of 50K) but how many smiles I got was way up there! One of my more unsettling experiences....I took my first long trip from CA, going first to visit the Space Needle in Seattle. I didn't make it for its opening in 1962, but this was the following year in 1963. It was my first major trip and I kept my speed down until I knew what the local highway patrol cars looked like. I had just crossed into Montana and not too long, came up behind about 8 or 10 cars all going slowly, with noone attempting to pass, even in relatively long straight stretches. I saw my chance and went for it....was doing at east 15mph above the speed limit, when I suddenly realized the lead car (as I was beside it) was a Montana State Highway Patrol car. I passed, but slowed down to a little below the speed limit, but although he followed me for about ten miles, he never pulled me over. To this day, I have no idea as to why.....but can posit half a dozen reasons as to why not.....perhaps he figured I'd learned my lesson, but more likely he was already late for a doughnut break. BHE
My dad and my "uncle" (dad's best friend) BOTH had Kaisers AND Fraziers. EVERY time they would see one, they would try to buy it. At one time "we" collectively had over TWENTY of them. This all happened between 1959 and 1962. My dad had a Frazier Vagabond, while my uncle had a Kaiser Traveler. Great days - FUN memories.
Thank you for sharing...
Beautiful car with lots of very beautiful ornamentation, classy!
Not many people know that Kaiser was working on their own 288 cu in V8 but did not have the resources to make it. When Kaiser went under the designer went to work for American Motors who soon came out with a 287 cu in V8 of their own. This motor is very similar to the one Kaiser had on the drawing board.
That's interesting!!!!! I'll bet if they built that engine when Kaiser built that two seater sport model and put that engine in it that car would have sold like crazy
They might have been able to if they had not sunk all that money into that Henry J compact. Sad when you think about what could have been, but it might not have helped much. No hardtop, no convertible, no hatch back by 55.
@@michaelbenardo5695 Building the Henry J was a condition of getting a $5 million government loan. They thought it would be a good idea to give Americans a cheap car, but it was practically impossible to meet the government's price target. That is why the first Henry J was so incredibly chintzy with no glove box door, no trunk lid, 4 cylinder engine etc. Unfortunately this gave them a cheap reputation and killed sales. Compare to the Rambler, a similar size car. Nash brought out the most expensive models first, the convertible, hardtop and station wagon, and all of them dressed up with 2 tone paint, white walls etc. This gave them the reputation of being a fashionable small car not a car for cheapskates. Later they brought out the low priced sedan and they sold like hot cakes.
You are right though, the Henry J project dissipated a lot of energy and money with no payoff. But they thought it was the thing to do at the time.
@@mrdanforth3744 "Like hot cakes?" "Kinda Syrupy?"
In 1953 the GM Hydromatic plant burned down. Kaiser, having recently purchased Willys, no longer needed the Willow Run plant so they sold it to GM. Wags at Kaiser said that Edgar Kaiser personally lit the match to the GM plant. I once owned a 1954 Kaiser Special which began life as a '53 Manhattan that Kaiser converted to a1954. A lot of changes but it still had the '53 dash and rear window.
Many years earlier, a junkyard in Moorpark, California had a good running 1951 Kaiser club coupe. When I got there, they had pulled the engine out of it for a fork lift or something and scrapped the rest. Heard it was a nice looking car. And the club coupe was, in my opinion, the best looking of the 1951-55 Kaisers.
PS - The last new car my father bought was a 1953 Olds Super 88 with stick shift. He said there was a shortage of Hydromatic transmissions. Some actually came with the Buick Dynaflo.
What a rare car...glad to know it'll be preserved!
There was a guy, probably 40 years ago, on Kimberly road in Davenport Iowa that must have had 10 Kaisers sitting on his property. I once heard a story that his wife had them all towed away, and he had them all towed back. Kaiser was a very unique car!
I had a chance to ride the Kaiser Manhattan of the family's one. So spacious and comfortable it was the top limousine car of Madagascar.It twas so big "a sign of nobility" and class!
I just bought 1951 Kaiser everything's original inside 4 door. Very nice these cars are very rare
I keep coming back to admire this car.. just great !!
What a gorgeous car, even now! I wish they had shown more of the interior, though. Still, I want one (gotta win the lottery first)!
looks too good to drive....a treasure...breathtaking!
Kaiser production in the US ended with a whimper in '55 - 1,231 cars, of which 1,021 were directly exported to Argentina, leaving only 210 cars to be sold in the US. 270 54 Kaisers were also reclassified as '55 models.
love the design wow very nice
I have a stock 1954 Kaiser Manhattan 4-door. They're a much better car than you think they are. I have the stock supercharger and a 3-speed manual transmission with overdrive (stock rear end ratio 4.55:1). It moves pretty darn good. Mechanical parts are easy enough to come by; the engines were used in Jeeps for years afterward (Kaiser owned Willys and Jeep until 1969). Bendix brakes, either Borg-Warner (manual) or Hydra-Matic (auto) tranny, Delco electricals. Pretty common stuff.
In the early 60's, I drove a 53 Kaiser 100 miles a day to a job in San Jose. It was a small plant with about 30 employees. My boss also drove a Kaiser.....a 55 with the rare factory blower. It was really strange to see this small parking lot with 30 cars and two of them being Kaisers.
If only it had 8 cylinders, and hardtops and convertibles. People would have loved it. PS: Checkers also used this engine!
wow!! what an absolutely GORGEOUS car!!!
A really beautiful car. Cars of the 1950's and 1960's had style and charm not found on today's cars. Sad to say so.
Hello, great video!!! In Argentina they were produced for many years more. The Kaiser Carabella. Cheers!!!
WOW What a beautiful car !!
Nice looking car. One of 44 made in '55. Can't be many left.
There are few '55 Kaiser Manhattans in US because they were all sent to Argentina, while Kaiser was moving to Argentina.
Later, in 1958 through 1961 it was produced under the name of "Kaiser Carabela", but only in four door sedan style.
It was equiped with the same engine (Kaiser 6L 226, 115 HP) with standard 3 speed transmision.
Available in several color combinations, black where common with leather upholstery in the interior.
Also, it was a cheaper "Taxi" version.
My father's partner had a 56 in the Sixties. I'm from B.A. Thanks You all !
As a former Kaiser fan and owner, I spent ten days in Argentina two years ago. I constantly kept a sharp eye open for a Kaiser....never saw a one.
In Richard Langswoth's book on Kaiser Frazer, "The Last Onslaught on Detroit" he said the reason the Olds engine was not used was that GM raised the price of the engine to the point it was not economical. There was a fire at the Hydromatic transmission plant in 1953 which lead to Kaiser selling their Willow Run Plant to GM.
By the way, my father bought a new 1953 Olds Super 88. It had the V8 and a stick shift. Some Oldsmobiles may have been build with Buick Dynaflo transmissions till Hydromatic production was back up.
+Scooter George Yes, Oldsmobile did produce some Dynaflow equipped cars, and Cadillac did the same. They were terrible!
Thomas Andrews
There was a joke at Kaiser that when the Hydromatic plant burned that Kaiser president Edgar Kaiser personally "lit the match."
Dynaflow was a much less efficient transmission than the original Hydramatic.
Yes, this owner is mixed-up. It
was the HydraMatic transmission
plant that burned-down. That's why
some other 1953-ish GM cars had
to substitute other transmissions.
GM faced a comparable situation in the early seventies. Buick had sold the tooling for their V6 to Kaiser in the late sixties, for use in Jeep and Jeepster products. Kaiser retired the V6 when the AMC inline sixes became available, but never scrapped the tooling. In the early seventies, in response to the oil embargo, GM approached AMC to buy V6 engines for their mid-size, compact, and sub-compact models; AMC set the price so high that "...it would have cost less to put 455 V8s..." in the Skylarks and Centuries and Skyhawks. GM bought the tooling back and reinstalled it on the same footings it had been removed from five years earlier. GM soon modified the crankshafts to allow for an even firing order, and the V6 in various versions became the default powerplant in almost every GM division and model line.
They made this car unchanged until 1962 in Argentina and it was called the Kaiser Carabela and 1962 was the last year for that body style.
It's true...Kaiser Industries continued to make the Kaiser Isabela (Manhattan) through 1962. The dies had been shipped to their facilities there. :) Jack
The Kaiser Manhattan (4 doors) was produced in Argentina, like "Carabela" by Industrias Kaiser Argentina, the mos luxurious car of this moment, made in our Country. Jeeps, Gladiators and Estancieras (Station Wagon) completed the the offer.
Three years ago my wife and I spent ten days in Argentins (to witness a total solar eclipse). Everywhere we went, I kept a sharp eye out, hoping to spot a Kaiser.....never saw a one.
Those were the days when cars had STYLE. Today most of them are how the Model T was described, "cheesebox on a raft."
Thanks for posting the facts. It is very irritating to me as a Kaiser owner how much mythology and false information is passed along by people as "fact" and also how adamant they can be about it, even in the face of extensive research having proven otherwise. There are several good books on Kaiser-Frazer, most notably "The Last Onslaught on Detroit" by Richard Langworth.
Kaiser's son Edgar said of the demise of Kaiser Motors in the U.S., "Slap a Buick nameplate on them and they'd sell loke hotcakes." Independent car makers were always in a difficult position and it was actually surprising that they lasted as long as they did. The ghosts of Kaiser, Frazier, Hudson, Nash, Packard and Studebaker must haunt Elon Musk who has yet to turn a profit on the Tesla.
You forgot Tucker.
@@downtownbobbybrown6237 Tucker was never a contender in the same league as the other independents. Preston Tucker never managed to open a single dealership and only built 48 cars after the prototype. It was an interesting car, and might have survived for a while if Tucker had been able to combine some business sense with his salesmanship..
@@tamer1773 No matter how u cut it he was a independent .
@@tamer1773 The big three shut him down before he ever had the chance to open dealerships, and be a true contender. Technically he's an independent manufacturer called Tucker Corporation.
My first car was a 51 Kaiser. Then I found a 53 in much better shape, bought it, installed a 55 Chevy V8 and drove it 100
miles a day to work for three years. Then I found a rare 54 two-door (only 150 made) which was parked next to where my in-laws lived...with Utah plates on it. It had been abandonded by someone at the nearby military base when he was shipped overseas. It took me a lot of effort and legwork, but I was able to trace down his former commanding officer....a really kind and understading guy who signed some important papers for me, which if he had not done so, don't know if I could have ever gotten it registered.
This one, though a lot more work, I removed the flathead six cylinder Continental fork lift engine and installed a '57' Pontiac motor (347). I drove that car all over the western USA, made several trips to my first wife's native Missouri and really loved driving a 'sleeper'. Then one day a train crossing highway 101 in Oregon had stopped traffic....I stopped, but a car came up behind me, didn't realize the stopped traffic and plowed right into me. By pulling the left rear fender out, I managed to drive it 800 miles back to my home, but it was so badly out of alignement, ground off a new set of tires in the process.
It was then I decided if I were going to install Pontiac motors in my vehicles, might as well drive one....and still do...an 88 Fiero V6 5 speed. BHE
Except that the Kaiser 226 was NOT the same as the forklift 226.
@@michaelbenardo5695 I worked on both engines...looked the same to me and I've had other mechanics tell me the same thing.....BOTH Continental flat head engines, with the distributer routed staight up through the 'flat' head. I've been an auto mechanic ever since the late 50's.... So, please explain to me....HOW and in what way were they different?
Man i love those 50s-60s designs from all over the world. Modern car designs suck balls.
Amazing color on that car. Kind of a metallic grape soda.
My uncle Paul left the driveway in a beautiful white over black 53 Cadillac which in my 4 years of life had grown to love, and returned in a 53 Kaiser Manhattan. 4 year olds tend to say what’s on their mind so quickly I asked him, where’s the Cadillac? My Uncle responds this is my car now. My response was, why? Anyway this was in 1957. He sadly passed away in 1964, and when I turned 16 in 1969 my Aunt gave me the Kaiser. I had gotten a job at a gas station a few months earlier to which a hair cut was required. So here I am in 1969 where most of the guys had let their hair grow out a little. The streets are full of Mustangs, Camaros, Mopars and street rods, and I’m driving a 53 Kaiser with my nerdy hair cut. The car was such a fish looking eye sore that two of my friends parents told me not to park in their driveway. Here’s the happy ending. My Brother in Law felt so sorry for me that in 1970 he helped me get a 69 Mustang 428 CJ. It changed my life! Especially since now my passenger seat was filled with a cute blonde tennis playing school girl. 🙏
There was one of these on CL a couple of years back that needed restoration and was missing the supercharger. Would have been a good candidate for a swap of a ‘55 Olds V8 with a J2 setup.
Oh, I briefly had a '47 Kaiser, in 1956.
The Hydramatic factory burned down in (IIRC) '53, but I've never heard of the Olds V8 factory burning down.
Packard3spdOD Yeah, the guy
got mixed-up. The HydraMatic
transmission plant burned down.
That is true the GM Hydramatic plant burned down in 1953 resulting in many late 1953 Cadillac and Oldsmobile cars being built with Buick Dynaflow transmissions. Nine weeks after the fire GM leased the Willow Run plant from Kaiser and moved the Hydramatic tooling which was salvaged from the destroyed Livonia plant there and restarted production in time for the 1954 model year.
That's what I thought, the Hydramatic plant, not the engine plant, burned down.
Yes, the McCulloch superchargers are common, the one on this car is badged Kaiser and those are quite rare. I found one at a scrap dealer who thought it was a siren. I knew better and made him some profit. My wife at the time chastised me for not buying it at the ridiculously low price on the tag. I got great deals from this dealer later..great yet fair.
The supercharger was made by McCulloch (later Paxton) and is their VS-57B model. The name "Kaiser" was put on the solenoid cover to disguise that fact. I have seen several with the "McCulloch" medallions. Only the '54's and '55's had stock superchargers. The car you drove was most likely one of those, especially if it had the taillight strip atop the rear fenders The transmission would have been the Dual-Range Hydra-Matic from GM.
For several years I drove a '54' Kaiser 50 miles one way to work. My boss drove a '55 with the supercharger. So, in this small parking lot with about 40 cars, there were two Kaisers.
Wow, can't believe that padded dash for 1955 when most cars used metal that was painted to match in interior or outside car colour. 1958 was the start of the down-turn for Detriot which also killed the Edsel for its weak sales. Today's car are built inside Computors by software and most have that Egg shape for reduced air drag.
Also produced in Argentina, sold as Kaiser Carabela, mostly to afluent people and, believe it or not for funeral homes, a must for them back in the earlys 60's, sadly it was not a good seller,
Such a shame that lots of the US brands don't exist anymore.....
I would love to run that that thing at the Hillclimb in Newport Indiana
If I was looking for a new car in 55 I would have bought one. Nice looking car.
My girlfriend's father sold Kaisers when they were new! I did hear a story that Kaiser had a factory in Argentina that continued making them for many years later, but i never looked into that,somehow I doubt it.
Interesting car, in the end henry kaiser left the business angry that he lost so much money.
not sure kaiser owned the factory in Argentina but i guarantee you the rest of inventory was shipped there i have picture history of it, along with the henry js, easy to find just look up history of kaiser fraiser cars, looks like thousands at shipyard being readied for loading. i think the story was all the equipment, dies etc, to build the cars were sold either to the government or whoever there, and they sure made some butt ugly ones too, same car but some extended and more crap hung on than you thought possible. i love these cars and the hudsons, i believe they had continental aircraift engines.
Yes, and Willy’s , both utility wagons and “Aero’s”(car) were produced as well.
(Also in Brazil) all facelifts, and the Argentine built Kaisers were given a different name ( don’t remember what,though).
The faceliftings made them look rather gaudy,I thought.
They were made up into the early 1970’s.
(as with many socialistic dictatorships,......).
Cool ‘55‼️👍
@@jimmieroan9881 My father owned on of the many '55 Kaiser Manhattan shipped to Argentina. Gorgeous car. And its true that Kaiser moved his production to Argentina. They were made until '62.
Jeff King kaiser made kaiser carabela since 1958 to 1962 and was built more than 10.000.
all 4 doors 6L and 226 c.i.flat head nowed in argentina like "contineltal" more information serch in google.
They did use Continental engines, but it was a slightly larger version of the Graham version engine, not an airplane engine
What a beauty,but...just imagine parking it!
@jjjreilly - Ed Johnson is the owner of the car
Beautiful cars, gotta respect the folks maintaining the survivors, but i'm the type to restore a rustbucket with sheet metal and elbow grease!
kaiser manhattan paso a llamarse kaiser caravela en argentina cuando la kaiser emigra de eeuu a argentina.!
kaiser manhattan was renamed kaiser caravela in argentina when the kaiser emigrated from the usa to argentina.!
sweet
Olds raised the price at the last moment and the kaisers balked.
It was no longer economically feasible. Kaiser test drivers used to go roaring past GM guys while driving Olds powered Kaisers on the Willow Run Expressway. GM may not have liked that and jacked up the price. From "Last Onslaught on Detroit." Great book.
Fine car. Kaiser seemed somewhat ahead of its time on style.
They weren't the only ones. Look at the Studebaker.
Most people have no idea about Kaiser, Nash, Hudson, Studebaker etc. I believe if George Mason had not died we would have a different Detroit today. Also I've long heard 30,000 units was the break even point, of course a redesigned would be more. Little wonder about their demise.
The plan had been that Hudson would merge with Nash-Kelvinator and Studebaker would merge with Packard, then the two companies would merge to form a single company with market coverage from the low-price field to the premium high-performance luxury. Studebaker and Packard each had their own V8 engines, as well as Studebaker's Automatic Drive three-speed and Packard's two-speed Ultramatic. Packard engineers had developed the best-riding suspension ever installed in production cars before or since, with outstanding handling as well. Nash had overhead-valve sixes, thoroughly up-to-date lightweight unitary construction, a handsome, popular, and practical compact model (the Rambler) and the option of a fully integrated air conditioning system available in every model. Hudson's "Step-Down" design which had been the wave of the future in '48 was, by 1954, horrifically out of date, but that Horner Twin-H-Power six and low center of gravity were a brutal force on the Nascar tracks.. Problem is, Studebaker was in very precarious condition, Packard failed to study the books closely enough to see the real situation, and George Mason's replacement scuttled the final deal.
I’m drooling! Is that car purple or is it just the light?
Kaiser Carabela!
¡ cuánto nos maravillaban en aquellis lejanos años a mi y a compañeros del colegio cuando sentíamos rugir a esta máquina y corriamos al alambrado que daba a la calle para ver pasar a la bestia frente nuestro echando una infernal polvareda de tierra!
Sweet
If this is a all numbers matching car, with only 44 ever made. This car is worth 250.000 bottom basement price....
This was one of the biggest losses to the U.S. auto industry. Kaiser came out after WW2 and produced cars that were way ahead of their time. Unfortunately, the Big Three squeezed out most of the independents (Nash, Hudson, Packard, Studebaker, Willys and Kaiser), many of which built compact cars, so that when the imports started coming in in the late '50s and early '60s, Detroit had nothing to match them.
Brasil.✌✌✌✌💎
At the start he mentions he's from Poulsbo, WA. I used to live in Kingston, WA - but am originally from London. Anyone know who the old geezer is ?
Ask yo mamma"!
I was told by a Kaiser owner, that Kaiser developed the engine that became the 283 cu. in. Chevy small block. Either that, or it was the 215 cu. in. aluminum V8 that was used in the F-85 Olds compact and with less headbolts in the small Buicks. Anyone confirm this?
BTW, Kaiser and Frazer and later Willys used the 226 cu.in. Continental L-head 6 cyl. engine shown here. That engine was used in marine application and industrial applications maybe with the name Gray Marine?
No. I worked for a time with a gentleman who had been one of the junior engineers at Kaiser back in the day. He told me the Kaiser V8 was to have a 288 cubic inch displacement. It is common knowledge that in later years Kaiser bought the tooling for the Buick 225 cubic inch V6 (to power Jeeps and the famous Jeepster Commando) which was based on the architecture of the Buick aluminum V8 (which had also powered the Pontiac Tempest and Olds F-85). The Buick 300 V8 was also based on the 225 V6. Buick bought the tooling back from Kaiser/Jeep/AMC when they needed the V6 in response to the oil embargo in the early seventies. Henry J. Kaiser squandered the funds that could have gone into further development of the 288 engine in tooling for the Henry J compact. The supercharged Continental 226 six matched the horsepower of the normally aspirated 224 V8 available in the '55 Studebaker Commander.
@@johnstauffer164 That Continental flat head six cylinder was the same engine which was employed in many fork lifts.
@@johnstauffer164 The Continental 226 was a lower-cost larger bore version of the old Graham engine, which also is a Continental engine, to Graham's design specs. The industrial version used a different porting arrangement and had less peak horsepower.
There was a version of the 226 used in boats and forklifts, but the version used in Kaisers, Jeeps, and Checkers was a slightly larger version of the Graham and engine.
Beautiful car, but why is that cheep thing wrapped around the wheel.
beautiful car, but did you say it was an orphan car?
+Trump Hi11ary The host here said, "viewers know how much I like orphan cars and what a supreme example, a '55 Kaiser." A car no longer manufactured is considered an "orphan car." So, Chevy Corvairs, Ford Falcons, all Hudsons, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and even Kaisers fall into this category.
Mercury, Saturn & Hummer can be added to the list of orphan cars.
@@WAL_DC-6B Hudsons, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, AMCs, Packards, Studes, and Kaisers are orphans, but the Corvair and the Falcon aren't, as Chevrolet and Ford are still here.
@@michaelbenardo5695 Falcons and Corvairs are accepted at the summer Orphan car show west of Chicago (though I agree with your comment).
Didn't it use a Paxton supercharger?
The Paxton supercharger is the old McCulloch supercharger. McCulloch set up a separate division renamed Paxton to build the superchargers, and then sold it in 1958. The founder of the company was William Paxton McCulloch.
Car looks like a half-breed, the center hood ornament looks like it came off a Desoto, and the headlights from a Buick.
I.K.A. - (Industrias Kaiser Argentina)‼️
Some A.M.C.-Rambler models were also produced in Argentina
It was a joint venture with H.J.Kaiser.
An uncle of mine had a late 40s Kaiser. Too bad they didn't make it. Underfunded and poor management decisions. Another victim of the Big Three along with Studebaker, Packard, Hudson and Nash. All great marques. As a kid I rode in all of them except Nash.
Guy wanted to buy it back, what a regret he must have had
Old cars that sit on velvet cushions like that remind me of beautiful girls with flawless skin and freshly combed hair. They'd be a lot sexier if they had a few wrinkles in their dress, and a little dirt under their finger nails.
farmboycarl maybe for you. Dirt under their fingernails?
They didn’t make a 55. They simply sold the leftover 54s. Maybe the 44 built he references are the number of 55s.
Yes they did, but they also re-serialized a few hundred left-over 54s and replaced the hood ornament with the 55 ornament.
Paxton Supercharger...
Bwaaahaaaahaaaaahaaaaaaa!
Looks like it was cobbled up from a 4 door, but a beauty anyway.
It is a 2 door sedan, not a coupe, that's why it looks the way it does. The Kaiser Coupe had a shorter roofline and longer tail.
This is a 2 door sedan, that's why it looks the way it does. Not all 2 door post cars are coupes.
Tired eyes look , like a Buick at first glance.
tired eyes, looks like a Buick...
4 door cars are much cooler looking.
That might be your opinion, but I disagree and always preferred a two door. By the way, in 1962 I owned a 54 two door Kaiser just like this one, first installed a 55 265 Chevy and later a 59 389 Pontiac. I drove that 'sleeper' all over the western USA for several years. Then, while I was stopped in central Oregon on US 101 waiting at a train crossing when an old fart (probably younger than I am now) came up behind me, didn't realize traffic had stopped and slammed into me at high speed. I managed to drive it over 800 miles back home, but the frame was buckled, it dog tracked badly and that was the end of that car.
ps....Even now, more then 50 years later, when I close my eyes, I can still see that Ford, wheels locked up with smoke coming from the locked up tires and beginning to turn sideways, then slamming into us. I shouted a warning to my family just prior to the impact and then we were slammed forward. The odd thing is, the train had passed and traffic had started to move and I never actually struck anyone in front of me. Seat belts were non existent then and luckily, none of the four of us were injured, with the car becoming the only casualty.
@@blackholeentry3489 Too bad, sounds like you had a pretty cool car.
@@michaelbenardo5695 The only thing which gave it away was the 2" dual exhaust which exited in front of the rear tires, and which had a definite rumble. Many times, as I pulled into service stations, the attendents would ask me what I had in it and, of course, wanted a look-see. As far as cars go in the big picture, probably wasn't that exceptional as far as cars go....except it was a real 'sleeper' and most likely one of the fastest Kaisers ever regularly driven on 5,000+ mile trips.
Back in those days many were installing Chevy V-8s, and with their 60 degree engine were easy to install. However, Pontiac, with their 90 degree engine, was a lot more work....and I had to relocate the steering box...instead of bolting to the frame, I cut into the frame and instead of a 'box' frame, I opened it up, creating a beefy U-frame in that area. Not sure of how many miles I drove that car (well of 50K) but how many smiles I got was way up there!
One of my more unsettling experiences....I took my first long trip from CA, going first to visit the Space Needle in Seattle. I didn't make it for its opening in 1962, but this was the following year in 1963. It was my first major trip and I kept my speed down until I knew what the local highway patrol cars looked like. I had just crossed into Montana and not too long, came up behind about 8 or 10 cars all going slowly, with noone attempting to pass, even in relatively long straight stretches. I saw my chance and went for it....was doing at east 15mph above the speed limit, when I suddenly realized the lead car (as I was beside it) was a Montana State Highway Patrol car. I passed, but slowed down to a little below the speed limit, but although he followed me for about ten miles, he never pulled me over. To this day, I have no idea as to why.....but can posit half a dozen reasons as to why not.....perhaps he figured I'd learned my lesson, but more likely he was already late for a doughnut break. BHE