1949 Frazer Manhattan convertible

In the years that followed the Second World War, automotive consumers In the United States were starved for new cars, as the last cars off the assembly lines had been 1942 models. Many drivers held onto their old cars through the war and survived scrap drives and the rationing of gasoline and tires and now that the war was over, they were more than ready for something new. Enter Henry J. Kaiser.

Kaiser had amassed a fortune as a contractor as his firm had built the Hoover, the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams and he had built an empire of construction material companies. With the onset of the war with Japan and Germany, Kaiser with no prior shipbuilding experience established seven shipyards on the West Coast that produced ships faster than previously imagined using faster construction techniques such as welding instead of riveting and the use of sub-assemblies. 

Long-time automobile executive Joseph Frazer, a young college graduate, started his career in the auto industry as a mechanic’s assistant in a Packard dealership before he moved into sales. Frazer then jumped to General Motors (GM) where he helped establish General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) that pioneered automotive financing. 

While at GM he met Walter P Chrysler, and followed Walter to Willys-Overland then to Maxwell, which later became Chrysler Motors. While at Chrysler, Frazer convinced Walter P. to start a lower-priced line of cars called Plymouth.

Frazer eventually got his own chance to turn around a struggling automaker at Graham-Paige Motors, and he planned to change the name to Frazer, but he needed financing. Frazer met Henry J. Kaiser, a larger than life super-successful businessman well known to the public who had an interest in the auto industry as well as a $10 million line of credit from Bank of America.

It seemed to be a marriage made in heaven – Henry Kaiser had ideas on how to streamline automobile manufacturing but needed an industry insider knowledgeable about sales and marketing, and Joseph Frazer needed financing and the notoriety of a respected public figure. The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was born in July 1945, obtained the assets of Graham-Paige in a stock deal and set up shop in the massive Willow Run Michigan B-24 bomber factory, then the largest building in the world. An initial stock offering raised $54 million for the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation.

In early 1946, the company debuted two prototypes at the New York Auto Show, a front-wheel drive Kaiser and the conventional Frazer sedan. The front-wheel drive design never went into production due to engineering hurtles, and the 1947 production Kaiser and Frazer sedans were all but identical. 

The new cars styled by Howard “Dutch” Darrin were conventional with two new concepts – all-welded construction, a wider rear seat that was between the wheels as the result of moving the rear wheels behind the passenger compartment. a large luggage compartment, curved wraparound bumpers, dual horns, twin sun visors, automatic dome lights, and large, hydraulic self-centering brakes.   

Mechanically the new Kaiser and Frazer cars were quite conventional for its time, with a pre-war design L-head 6-cylinder 226-cubic inch Continental ‘Red Seal’ engine which developed just 100 horsepower with a single Carter carburetor, while dual Carter carburetors boosted output to 112 horsepower at 3600 revolutions per minute (RPM).  The slow-turning Continental engine was prone to overheating and failing head gaskets, and coupled to a manual three-speed transmission with overdrive, a Frazer sedan typically accelerated from 0 to 60 miles per hour (MPH) in 19 seconds with a top speed of 85 mph.

Due to production delays, the first production Kaiser and Frazer automobiles did not roll out of the Willow Run factory until May 29, 1946, and were shipped to dealers in mid-June, registered as 1947 models. In a hot market, Kaiser-Frazer ultimately sold 70,474 Kaisers and 68,775 Frazers during the 1947 model year, giving the company the best market share (4%) of any of the American independent manufacturers.

The Frazer line which was billed as “America’s Largest-Selling Fine car” was led by the luxurious Manhattan, in addition to the Standard and Deluxe models. Kaiser-Frazer sales remained strong through in 1948 despite relatively high prices, for example, a Frazer Manhattan had a manufacturer’s list price for $27 higher than a Cadillac Series 62 sedan.

In late 1948 at a Kaiser-Frazer board meeting, Henry Kaiser pushed for an increase in production for 1949, which was opposed by Joseph Frazer. Although sales had increased slightly and the company maintained 4% of the market in 1948, profits had dropped. The board voted with Kaiser and Frazer resigned his presidency, but remained with company for more three years a sales consultant.

In 1949, Kaiser introduced the “Virginian,” a faux convertible built on the 123-inch wheelbase sedan chassis which featured a nylon top over a steel roof.  Frazer on the other hand that year introduced a hand-built convertible based on the Manhattan sedan body, but not without some problems. Edgar Kaiser, son of the founder, who took over the Frazer presidency after Frazer’s resignation ordered engineers to not add reinforcement after they cut the roof off the sedan. Edgar eventually had to admit his error, and the production car’s boxed frame was reinforced with a giant X-brace. 

The additional bracing took the car’s curb weight up to over 3700 pounds, and the anemic Continental engine was no match for the car’s bulk.  To add more rigidity, the Manhattan’s window frames and the “B” pillar between the front and rear doors remained fix in place and were not retractable, so this car cannot be considered a true “convertible.” Experts differ on production numbers, as some of the unsold Manhattan convertibles were re-badged as 1950 models, but this car’s owner states that only 62 1949 Manhattan convertibles were sold.  

Joseph Frazer’s instincts were proved correct, as the “Big Three” brought their new models to market which fed the public’s appetite for new cars. Kaiser-Frazer’s original body style looked dated, and the lack of performance and durability of the Continental engine did not help. Kaiser-Frazer sales dropped to just over 100,000 units (2% market share) and at the end of the 1949 model year, there were 20,000 leftover cars which the company was forced to re-brand as 1950 models. For 1949 the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation posted a loss of nearly $30 million dollars. 

After Joseph Frazer’s departure, the Frazer nameplate was soon dropped, and the 10,000 1951 Frazers sold that were leftover actually 1950 models that used up the company’s remaining stock of bodies and high-end upholstery materials. In 1952, the company changed its name to the Kaiser Corporation and began selling Manhattans as a luxurious  member of the Kaiser line. 

In 1953 Kaiser bought Willys-Overland and its Jeep brand. Although Kaiser stopped building its eponymous nameplate in the United States in 1955 after total 1954 sales of only 7,000 units, it continued to build Jeeps until it sold the brand to the American Motors Corporation in 1970. 

The 1949 Frazer Manhattan as displayed at the Automotive Driving Museum in El Segundo California is one of the few examples remaining and is resplendent finished in Indian Ceramic with a black top and interior set off by the gleaming chrome trim.

    

All photographs by the author

The forgotten marque- the 1928 Whippet

 

In 1908 Elmira New York Overland automobile dealer John North Willys (pronounced Will-is) bought the struggling Indianapolis, Indiana Overland factory and quickly turned the company’s fortunes around around. The following year Willys purchased the Marion Motor Car Company from Marion Ohio and the bankrupt Pope-Toledo Motor Car Co. in Toledo, Ohio and consolidated the base of operations for his Willys-Overland Motor Company in Toledo.

In 1913, Willys acquired the license to build Charles Knight's sleeve-valve engine which was used in cars that bore the Willys-Knight nameplate. With his diverse line of automobiles in the period from 1912 to 1918, Willys-Overland became the second-largest producer of automobiles in the United States after Ford Motor Company. In 1925, John Willys bought out the Stearns Company of Cleveland and added the Stearns-Knight luxury car to his array of offerings.

 

 

 

In 1926 John N. Willys discontinued sales of cars with the Overland nameplate, and introduced a new economical type of car which he called the Whippet, after a mid-sized breed of racing dog smaller than a greyhound often called "the poor man's racehorse."  The 1927 Overland-Whippet was introduced to the American public on June 26 1926, and later in Britain, Canada and Australia. The Whippet was powered by a four-cylinder side-valve engine that displaced 134 cubic inches and produced 31 horsepower, which was plenty of power as the largest Whippet, the 12-foot long sedan, weighed little more than a ton.

 

 

The new Whippet featured 4-wheel brakes, a rear fuel tank, ‘Chadwick type” replaceable main engine bearings, Tryon spring shackles, water pump cooling and pressurized oil lubrication - all features not included on the Ford Model T. Whippet advertising touted the car’s European styling of a compact (100-inch wheelbase) yet roomy body, to combine good looks with good performance, handling, and economy. Early Whippet magazine advertisements quoted John Willys “Never before such beauty and quality for so little money.”  

 

 

The 1928 Whippet Model 96 such as the one on display at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (WAAAM) in Hood River Oregon was offered in one of six body styles.  The low-price leader was the “touring car” a phaeton style body with a canvas top but no side windows which sold from the factory for $455.

 

 

Next up the Whippet price ladder came the roadster with rumble seat for $525, then the enclosed coupe and coach body styles which each sold for $535. The stylish Whippet Cabriolet Coupe (convertible) sold for $545 and the Model 96 passenger car line was topped by the four-door sedan as shown at WAAAM which sold for $585.   

 

 

Whippets were advertised as fast, durable, and economical and the factory proved that to the car-buying public with a number of performance tests. Best known is the effort of famed long-distance driver Erwin George “Cannon Ball” Baker who drove a Whippet touring car from Los Angeles to New York in late 1926. Baker who drove in the 1922 Indianapolis ‘500,’ covered the distance of 3,539.8 miles in 14 ½ days under the close observation of AAA (American Automobile Association) officials.

The test began with Carl Laemmle Junior, assistant manager of the Universal Picture Corporation witnessing the start at midnight on November 26 1926. A motorcycle escort led Baker and his official AAA ride-along observer, pioneering early race car driver Joe Nikrent (veteran of the 1913 Indianapolis 500), out of Los Angeles.  Baker and Nikrent followed the Southern transcontinental highway route as they passed through Arizona, New Mexico through El Paso and Dallas. Texas, then headed north to Memphis and Indianapolis and finally east in snowy weather through Philadelphia to the finish in New York City.

George Lewis, the Universal Pictures western silent film star and John N. Willys welcomed the pair at the end of the grueling economy test at noon on December 10 1926.  The Whippet touring car used 82 ¼ gallons of gasoline for the trip with an average fuel consumption of 43.28 miles to the gallon (MPG) which exceeded the advertised fuel economy of the Whippet by 13.28 MPG. At one point during the trip on December 1st between Sweetwater and Dallas Texas the Whippet’s fuel mileage peaked at the remarkable rate of 53.6 MPG.

110,344 Whippets were sold during the 1927 model year, and for the 1928 model year sales nearly doubled despite the introduction in late 1927 of the all-new Ford Model A. During 1928 Whippet added a 40 horsepower 178-cubic inch six-cylinder powered model, known as the Model 98, which sold alongside the four-cylinder model.  Sales continued to be strong and Willys-Overland ended 1929 in third place in US car sales behind Ford and Chevrolet.

As the Great Depression deepened, Willys-Overland discontinued the Whippet nameplate in the United States at the end of the 1930 model year after just four model years in favor of the Willys Six and Willy Eight.  The company staved off its creditors until World War II during which it built 363,000 “Jeeps” and returned to profitability. For the first few years after the war, Willys-Overland chose to concentrate on Jeeps and Jeep-based vehicles instead of passenger cars.  

In 1953, a subsidiary of the upstart car manufacturer Kaiser Manufacturing Corporation purchased the assets of Willys-Overland and changed its name to Willys Motors Incorporated.  U.S. production of Kaiser and Willys passenger cars ceased during 1955, but he company continued Jeep production and changed its name to Kaiser-Jeep in 1963.  Kaiser-Jeep was sold to American Motors Corporation (AMC) in 1970 as Kaiser Industries finally left the automobile business.  Chrysler Corporation purchased AMC and the Jeep nameplate in 1987; now a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Jeep vehicles continues to be built in Toledo.

A short history of vinyl automotive tops

Why do hearses have padded vinyl tops and landau bars?



Over the weekend, the author caught a few seconds of the video of the hearse that carried the remains of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as it left a resort in rural Texas enroute to the funeral home. The silver hearse appeared to be a recent vintage Cadillac complete with a matching padded vinyl top and landau bars, which brought a question to mind – why do hearses typically have padded vinyl tops and fake landau bars? This question led the author to research the history of vinyl tops on automobiles.

 

Drawing of a landau carriage

 

Stylistically early automobiles were little more than self-propelled versions of horse-drawn carriages, and two styles of carriages featured retractable canvas (or leather) tops- the landau which usually had front and rear facing seats with a fully retractable top, and landaulet, which the canvas top covered only the rear passenger section. Both types of carriage shared one immediately visible feature, the large s-shaped scroll hinge, or landau bar, to support the folding top.

Rear-facing front seats do not work for a passenger car for obvious reasons, so landau style automobiles typically featured two rows of forward facing seats. As a less costly version of the landau, the phaeton body style offered a canvas top with no side curtains or windows.   As automotive production increased, steel replaced wood in the manufacturer of bodies, and fully retractable top automobiles became known as a convertible or landau. The landaulet top style faded from popular use during the 1920’s, although it is still in occasional use on custom-built official state cars used by dignitaries.   

 

1928 Ford Model A Sport Coupe

In 1928 Ford introduced the Model A which included a top of the line version of the two-door coupe known as the 40- A Sport Coupe which appeared to have a convertible top, but was in fact a fixed coupe with a canvas top and landau bars. Ford also offered its model 60-A, the leatherback Fordor (four-door sedan) beginning in late 1928 which used an artificial leather roof trim that mimicked a landau top but omitted landau bars.

The faux landau tops fell out of favor as cars became more streamlined and flowing in appearance and less like carriages, but meanwhile builders of American automobile hearses began to install non-functional landau bars on the rear of hearses. This is thought to be a nod to early horse-drawn carriages although the author has been unable to find any instances of landaulet tops used on horse-drawn hearses. Over the years the landau bars became as ingrained in the public’s mind as a symbol of a funeral car so most hearse manufacturers still tack on stylized S-shaped scrolls as traditional.

 

1951 Kaiser Virginian

In 1951, the second series of Kaiser-Frazer cars began to offer padded tops on their Manhattan, Dragon, Virginian sedans, but while Kaiser-Frazer sales were low, the “Big Three” took notice.

 

1951 Lincoln Lido

Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury Division offered the Cosmopolitan Capri and Lincoln Lido models in 1951 with optional vinyl tops, but these did not prove popular and were soon dropped. In 1956, the Cadillac Eldorado Seville came with a “Vicodec” top which wasn’t vinyl but a water-resistant nylon fabric similar to convertible top material.

In 1962, Ford Motor Company offered a vinyl roof option on the Thunderbird with landau bars, and the other Detroit automakers took notice, and soon all the automakers in the 1960’s and 1970’s had vinyl roof options on most of their models. Buyers were willing to pay extra for the vinyl top which cost little to install and added profit to the manufacturer’s bottom line.   

Chrysler Mod Top

Mercury Cougar houndstooth

 

During the mid-70’s Chrysler offered “Mod Tops” on Dodges and Plymouth with a paisley or floral design, and in 1970 Mercury offered a houndstooth pattern top option on the Cougar.  In addition to different simulated grain choices, there were many styles of vinyl tops offered by the Detroit automakers often in concert with that other 1970’s fad, opera windows.

 

Camaro halo top

 

The vinyl top style was designed to enhance the car’s lines and included the full top (from drip rail to drip rail), halo (with an inch or so of paint showing above the doors and windshield), canopy (front half), landau (back half) just to name a few.  For 1975, Cadillac introduced the padded vinyl top which further mimicked the look of a convertible top, and all the other car manufacturers quickly added padding to their option list. Somehow the smooth padded vinyl top became de rigueur for hearses.

The big problem was what was going on underneath that vinyl tops – RUST, particularly with cars that sat outside because the vinyl was not waterproof which allowed moisture to become trapped between the vinyl top and the roof of the car to attack the steel.  Oftentimes restorers of cars with vinyl tops find the roof panel of the car severely rusted once the old top is peeled away.  

The paisley pattern for a 1970 Plymouth Gran Coupe

The author’s observation as a young man in the 1970’s was that your father was either a “vinyl top guy” or “non vinyl top guy.” In addition to just looking good, vinyl top advocates claimed that it kept the interior of the car cooler and quieter. The author’s father always owned vinyl topped cars which included a 1970 Plymouth Fury Gran Coupe with a full paisley top (explained as a mistake because the car was bought at night), and a 1974 Ford Pinto with a landau vinyl top. The last vinyl-topped car the author recalls that his family owned was a halo-style 1979 Dodge Magnum.

Vinyl tops became rarer through the 1990’s as passenger cars became more rounded and aerodynamic, and Lincoln is credited with offering the last factory vinyl top in 2002. Although the manufacturers no longer offer vinyl tops, there appears to be a healthy aftermarket for vinyl tops added to contemporary cars, as apparently a vinyl top remains a status symbol for those who can afford a car so equipped.  Many limousines utilize a vinyl roof, probably because the vinyl top covers up less than perfect metalwork beneath; perhaps this is also why most hearses still have vinyl tops.  

Perhaps someday, “retro” vinyl tops will come back into vogue for the mass passenger car audience.