To answer some of the questions.... It is in the knoxville area. No it is not supercharged. There is nothing in the old garage behind it car wise, I checked!
hey man you talkin knoxville tn if so you dont want it me or my buddy would proubly want it were in kingsport and will be at the drags this sunday let me know
You will never find anything that cool for that price again. Go for it. In the 50's when I was a kid, they were considered by all rod and custom freaks as ugly and uncool. But we were totally wrong (as are many opinionated young people in all eras!) because, in retrospect, I now view them as of the very best-styled early 50's cars to begin with. I saw a really rare deluxe model once that was conceived using some kind of a tropical theme and it had actual bamboo inserts in the door panels and trim inside...from the factory, no less! They were way ahead of the time and on the cutting edge of styling during that generally boring time when Ford and Chevrolet styling was very generic.
Buy it, if it doesn't fit your taste sell it later for a profit. The purple ride looks awesome looks like a lot can be done with it. Go for it $500. is small change for a solid '50's car................................... CRUISER
OK, you guys talked me into it. I just spent the last hour pouring over "Dragon's " build pix. WOW is all I can say. I'll pick it up, drag it out and clean it up and stare at it for a while and see what happens.
I agree. Great choice! I have been a fan of that mint green Kaiser for quite a while! That car was the inspiration for the paint on my Merc. Very cool, and very different.
Believe it or not the bamboo was not all that rare. The really rare ones had polar bear fur, I'm not kidding!
I don't understand why people avoid the unusual. I mean, if it were a Merc or Ford of the same year, people would be falling all over themselves to get at that for $500, but after you built that Merc, it would be just another Merc (ok that's pretty cool), but why do people always want to take the well worn route that everyone else takes rather than have something more unique? - Especially when someone like NTAPHSE has proven how great one of these can look I mean Unusual and Ugly would be one thing, but Unusual and Beautiful - now you got something.
Here's a couple shots of my '52 Kaiser Manhatten that I bought from Hopkin's Yard in Caldwell, Idaho back in 1994. It was a 4 door flathead six with a Hydro ******. I cut the top off in 1996. I drove it from Reno, NV. to Paso for the 1997 West Coast Kustom's show. Going over Donner P*** it was raining cats and dogs (I have video of me driving it in the rain). After I flat blacked it I sold it to a young guy at the Paso run in 1999 or 2000, can't remember (He was from the Bay Area I think?). The red Kaiser is what that car might have turned out to look like, I'm not sure. By the way that car had some kind of reptile skin on the dash and doors.
First car I remember growing up..Dad's Kaiser like the yellow one. He drove it until I almost fell through the rusted floor.! (Hey..I can see the ground..!!) Wish both were still around..
Nope I shaved all those holes. Just running the stainless along the bottom edge of the windows. You should run the bottom stainless so we don't match.
Well, I dragged my feet about going over and picking up the Kaiser from this thread. Talked to the guy today and he said he really wanted it out of their so he let me have it for $350 instead of the $500 he was asking WITH the Dietrich Visor! Here is a better pic of the car.
I just ***umed it was rare because it was so....weird!!. By the way, NTAPHSE, your Kaiser is the best-proportioned custom Kaiser that I have seen...very tasteful.
350...you are killin' me...those definitely can be killer customs...there is a build thread on here that shows a bad*** one in progress...I love those old Kaisers...there is a 54 manhattan here that I am going to go and check out...dare to be different...err odd
Buy it and build it!!! There weren't that many of them to start with, so it will probably be the only one at the local cruise-in. Some minor custom stuff like shaving the hood and deck lid goes a long way on one of these cars. Kaiser built some of the safest and best-engineered cars of the early '50s. The old Continental six is rock-solid reliable, but it shouldn't be that difficult to swap in later drivetrain.
When I was in High School one of the girls I knew had a boyfriend a couple years older. He had a Kize with a big nailhead in it. Three speed floor shift. What a sleeper. I hated those older guys.
Kaiser Manhattan, and Dragon (the ones with the Bamboo) were supposed to appeal to the folks who bought Cadillacs. They even bought Hrdamatics from GM to have a "real" automatic. Unfortunately with the 6 cylinder, even with the paxton supercharger it didn't stack up well with its 6 and quirky styling. Next door neighboor had one in his garage for years when I was a kid. Had electric windows and locks, big *** AC deal in the trunk, the bamboo trim, and the H matic. They never did get it to run. Was a tan over burgandy deal with leather seats.
I drove a '51 4 door back from Michigan to Philly a few year ago- Kaisers have a nice, comfy ride. Unfortunately, I got off the turnpike a little west of Gettysburg to get away from driving a striaght road. I forgot how twisty 30 is in that area! Those bias ply's got a great workout- it's been a long time since I heard that squeal going around a corner. Oh, it's for sale if anyboy's interested...
thats a cool ride and the price was right , if the seller got any more desperate he would be paying you to take it lmao good luck with your build
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