In the late 1940s, Kaiser-Frazer’s chairman Henry J. Kaiser envisioned there was a market for a small car that could be affordable to anyone (sounds like the Ford Model T concept). So, the Henry J was born, but perhaps it was the right car at the wrong time. After World War II, U.S. automobile manufacturers could sell just about anything on four wheels and a new full-size Chevy didn’t cost much more. Located in Yorba Linda, California, this mostly solid project is available here on craigslist for $3,000. Hats off to Barn Finder “numskal” for the tip!
The little Henry J was offered with both four and six-cylinder power and debuted in 1950 as a 1951 model. To get it off the ground, Kaiser-Frazer had to get a loan from the U.S. Government, so some federal parameters were required such as seating and speed capabilities. And, to save money, the Henry J was built using the smallest combination of parts, and the powerplants were contributed by Willys-Overland. To get the widest exposure possible, the cars would also be sold through Sears using the Allstate nameplate.
While sales were promising at first (81,000 units in 1951), demand for the Henry J dropped thereafter. Only 23,000 were ordered in 1952 and just 17,500 for 1953. Only about 2,400 were peddled as leftover 1954 models after which Kaiser-Frazer and old Henry J himself gave up on the idea. We’re told this 1952 edition has been in storage for at least 20 years and was running when it was parked. The seller says the body is mostly solid but admits that the rocker panels and floors will require repairs. And we don’t know if this is an I-4 or I-6 car. Would you restore this Henry J to as-new or go for some sort of Gasser as the seller suggests?
A lot of questions here; Are all the parts there? Does it have a drivetrain? how tough is it to get parts? This would be a good one to restore since there doesn’t appear to be a lot of them around but if it’s really difficult to find all the correct parts then forego the strip car and go with-dare it be said??-yes, a crate motor (new HEMI) and accompanying parts..
Why a HEMI? Because this was an offspring of Kaiser Frazier of Willys Overland (Jeep) who eventually were owned by Dodge..
Yes it’s a reach but that keeps it in the family-and has NOTHING to do with being a MoPar fan…
This is a car to restore, a piece of Americana….not to butcher!
Old timers will remember this car as the one that was sold by Sears & Roebuck stores across the country…it was re-labeled and marketed as an Allstate brand!
Thank you, Jules.
This is not an Allstate. This is a Henry J. Allstates have different grilles, hoods, and the letters “ALLSTATE” on the cylinder head. I have a restored 1952 Allstate for sale, if anyone is interested.
I don’t recall these being sold by Sears, but I do remember seeing a few around the neighborhood in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were not abundant by any means, but you would see one every now and then.
These make great hot rods or drag cars.
I agree Rw. Although I appreciate the sentiment to restore it to original spes, it would almost certainly be more valuable as a ‘Gasser tribute. But give it something different than a bellybutton sbc or hemi. Get creative with a Lincoln 430/462, FE Ford/Mercury or a Buick/Olds/Pontiac. Be original and have something really memorable at your next cruise-in.
never saw a “gasser” in a museum….preserve!
I Would Suggest That A 5.9 Cummins Engine Be Used Instead?
How did it survive in California and not have hit the strip eons ago. Is it me or are quite a few old cars leaving California and Washington State. There seems to be many on various sites.
Out our way The Left Coast politicians are doing all they can to eliminate alI ICE sales and be completely electric (including things like edgers and mowers) by as early as 2025.
As a result of the increasing social pressure, the pressure felt by many to carry the fiscal load plus the overwhelming number of folks moving out of CA to live elsewhere our market for rigs of certain eras is increasing for better or worse..
There have always been a lot of cars leaving California because there was a lot there to begin with and they didn’t all rot out like other places.
I agreed with Jules. Please save this wonderful car. Not another excreable gasser.
Chris…I lived just a stones throw from where the Henry Js were manufactured there were alot of them sold in the Great Lakes area, which unfortunately is where tons and tons of salt were used on the winter roads. Rust, big time!
Chris….because a lot of people need $ in this upside down economy, the cars are solid and are still bringing decent $.Neat car.Love to tinker with it and take it for a ride.
Too bad Kaiser invested in this rather than their full sized cars. Maybe they could have gone on longer. Hudson did the same thing with the Jet and Willys decided to get back in the car game with the Aero. Nash came out with the Rambler but by the mid 50’s it started growing in size. Americans didn’t want small cars at the time. It wasn’t until the late 50’s America was ready for compacts. AMC facelifted the original Rambler and Called it the American and Studebaker shrunk their cars down to make the Lark.
I always liked the looks of the Henry J and this one even has the optional trunk. Like many of us car guys I built Gasser models of these as a kid but I never knew anybody who had one in real life.
More stories, hey, it helps starve off dementia. Stop me if you heard this one,,,too late, an asphalt company I worked for in the mid 70s, as a truck driver, natch, the boss had taken over the business from his dad, and the yard was strewn with vintage equipment and trucks. Mostly from the 50s, and inoperable. Some neat old trucks, a 30s Ford stake, a B model Mack, etc.,,but in the shed, was a Henry J, my bosses 1st car. geezer spelled it out pretty well, Henry Js were some of the most basic of cars. They were spartan, at best, and originally didn’t have a trunk, glove box, or arm rests, etc. They sold for around $1300, the then least expensive car. While the author briefly mentioned the Allstate, there was much more to that story. I read, it was the 1st and only car sold by Sears, then the largest marketer of goods. “You can get anything at Sears” was the motto. My late ex mil worked at Sears for like 50 years. My grandfather bought EVERYTHING at Sears. It was thought a fancier model of the Henry J would be a hit. Instead, it was a colossal flop, as apparently, a car was one of the few things people still wanted to get from a trusted dealer. Allstates are rare indeed. I too am surprised this wasn’t turned into a gasser, but shows to go, stuff still tucked away in them thar garages.
Oh, the asphalt company with all the neat equipment? I went back several years later,( 80s) and a much bigger asphalt company took it over, and all the stuff, including the Henry J, were gone.
great story…love the part where you went back and the Henry J was gone//as time goes by, that will be the story of all Henry Js….gone !
You had the “normal” postwar cars — and then you had the oddballs such as the 1950-1951 Studebaker, with that nose which tempted folks at the time to add a faux propeller. I know: I added an imitation Buick “gunsight” hood ornament onto my 1946 Ford. We had all sorts of compacts available then — the Austin, for one, and the Crosley. Volkswagen became available as an import in 1949, but would not be a maket force until a few years later. The problem with the Henry J./Allstate and some others, in my view, was their obvious austerity and not-so-humble price. Americans did not want to LOOK “poor” in those expansive economic years. It wasn’t until Nash showed the way, that American manufacturers learned how to exploit the compact/economy market at a truly affordable price, and still present an equipped interior which was relatively comfortable. But a spartan passenger compartment with minimally-appointed dashboard, stiff cramped seating, and still at a price not that far below Chevrolet, just wasn’t going to attract buyers looking to “prosper” in the postwar years — it was better to buy a good used regular car for much less. The smaller independents already were suffering from well-heeled competition and limited funds — and so fronting a project such as this was beyond them. The Korean War, followed by the c 1954 recession, hurt them mortally. As for Hudson, their solid reputation for building a fine quality upper-middle market automoble made the Jet a poor choice: they might better have saved the money they put into developing a car people would not expect from them, and invested it instead into updating their badly dated 1948 full-sized cars with more than an awkward and obviously “Band-Aid” approach. 1942-1947 Hudson cars and trucks still were a common sight in the 1950s, because of long-term reliability. Of course, we all can look back at the demise of so many of these makes, and think of “coulda/shoulda/woulda” solutions, had they only been able to see into their near-future! But they certainly left us with corny memories and neatly weird vehicles to enjoy working on! Incidentally, as to the question of whether this Henry J. has a drivetrain: the remark that it ran when it was parked would indicate that it most probably does.
Is it just me or are the Henry Js cooling off? This is surprisingly cheap. There’s a very nice barn fresh J here in town that has been on the market for a while now too.
The amount of butchered Henry J classics will more than likely drive up the prices of factory stock models .A similar situation exists with early 1950s English Ford Anglias…with most of them in America being relegated to drag strip hot rods. A good stock Anglia is now only found in the UK. The Henry J and the Ford Anglia represented basic transportation in two quite differing markets!
The whole early-postwar generation of cars is due to cool off while 1980s and ’90s cars emerge from their old-beater stage and heat up. They’ll eventually find their floor just as brass-era, 1920s and ’30s/early ’40s ones did. Circle of life.
I recall that these engines are still mfg new and used in forklifts so engine parts are available.
parts aplenty for engines,,,I believe they were built by Continental,
I’ve seen some nice hot rods built out of these . I’m not a fan of gassers if you’re really gonna drive them. I just can’t imagine they handle that well.
Weren’t some of these built without a trunklid?
pretty spartan…the early one had no trunk lid
It looks like it lost the war.
I’de either restore it or make it look mostly stock with a 215 aluminum Buick V8 and a 5 speed and a stronger rear end, lighter weight drive train for the smaller car to handle. New and better interior and big/little tires and rims. Would be so cool
T’would be nice to see one of these meticulously restored absolutely original stock — as though we were in 1952 again — spartan transportation — but what a time-capsule, especially for those of us who saw these, new, in the showrooms and knew people ordering the Allstate version from Seaes and Roebuck (by the way, theirs was a little lower in price and had a much nicer interior).
Total agreement am I with Harrison Reed….our neighbor bought a new one from Sears…he was very wealthy, his other car was a four door Packhard.
Thank you for this, Jules! My father drove Packards, from the late 1920s right into the 1950s — his last one being a 1951. Before his first Packard, he drove a Pierce Arrow, then a Peerless (or perhaps it was the other way around — I wasn’t there). But he never got either an Allstate or a Henry J. When Packards became nothing but slightly upgraded Studebakers, he did not switch to Cadillac; but rather, went to Chevrolet, of all makes! The ’51 Packard broke down (first of his Packards ever to do so!), and he rented a 1957 Chevrolet — and complained that it was a “jack-rabbit” of a car, and that its power brakes would “throw you through the windshield!”.By all outward accounts, he HATED the car! Then he went and BOUGHT one! The next year, he added a Chevrolet Impala convertible, and drove Chevys for years thereafter.
Sounds familiar. My grandfather bought a ’61 Chevy Impala after he totaled his ’48 Packard. We knew, it was a compromise and would have bought another Packard if he could have.
When I was a teen in Phoenix, Az. There was one of these that was giving the Phoenix police fits. I got a chance to see it myself. It had a hopped up 331 Hemi engine with a 4 speed.
I would love to get my hands on this one, to bad the seller removed it!!!!
The hotrod I mentioned I saw when I was a kid was in the 1960. That car would really fly on the Black Canyon freeway. It had a hot rod 331 Hemi engine, tri power (Stromberg 2barrels), 4 speed.
Would like to get my hands on one of these cars.
Howard A.: My father traded-in his 1957 Chevy for a 1961: coincidence? I was driving a ’46 Ford, so I was the outlier. But my grandfather bought a 1939 Mercury the first year on those, and drove it for many years.
I think it would be more useful with a more modern engine, like a four-cylinder out of an S-10 with five-speed or an inline six from a Jeep or AMC with 5-speed.. Disk brakes on the front would be an improvement too. I remember seeing a Willys coupe in Rod and Custom one time that had something like that, mostly restored but updated engine etc.
Oh Chris, does this mean that you would really treat this rare antique car as a daily driver with those modern additions?
Once done, it will surely lose much of it’s inherent value as a collectable!
I would hot rod it with a modern turbo 4 or 6.
Lots of people “bench racing” on here, which isn’t a criticism, it’s why I like the comments section here. I’ll add my two cents. I’d put a modern engine and transmission in it, and swap out the agricultural suspension out for a modern set up, making it handle and drive like a modern car. I’d leave it to my kids, who’ll struggle to sell it for a tenth of what I spent to build it.
If I had the means, I would restore it as “original” as possible. I dislike “strret-rods. I have used “vintage” cars originally-appointdd and equipped, as “daily drivers” and found them to be highly serviceable, if I maintain them well according to theirvowner’s manual. I drove a 1946 Ford for years, with no major “issues” other than the ones one would expect — such as the gasket around the rear window leaking, then a leak from one lower corner of the windshield. Columbia Overdrive made modern limited-access highways no problem — though it still seemed to prefer 50-55 m.p.h. two-lanes which ran through hamlets, villages, and small cities, at 30 or 25 m.p.h. speeds. That 8-cylinder flathead was smooth and almost silent — but in summer weather, WATCH that temperature-guage!!! Also, if an accident up ahead turns the Interstate into a parking-lot of harried and impatient drivers unable to go anywhere for awhile; then best to pull over onto the shoulder and shut the car off, even with the hood raised. Flathead Fords are ready boiler-makers, and do not like to run at idle for very long! Also, with tubed tyres, make sure that your spare is fine: unlike modern tubeless ones which can bear a nail-puncture for days before noticeably having lost air; if the road drives a nail into your 1946 rubber, you’ll hear “ssssss-ff-ssssss-ff-ssssss”, and be dead-flat in less than a minute! I never had a problem with the original 6-volt system, either. Good idea to either have the coil re-built, or else carry a spare, along with heavy gloves to avoid getting burnt when you need to change it! Originals run hot, and they will work just fine anyway… until you have to shut the car off and re-start it (such as, at a filling-station) — and find that you have about no spark. Either you replace it with a cool one you carry in the trunk (easy operation), or else WAIT about three hours with the hood open, until the coil cools-off. If you drive an old car, you adjust to the attentions needed when the car was made — you do not expect a “modern” car. That car had king pins and transverse leaf-springs — and the most comfortable ride you could imagine. And you could drive it on sheet-ice with standard tyres, and not skid out of control (all that stabilty on dangerous road conditions ended when Ford got rid of Henry’s Model T suspension in 1949 — from that point-on, if you went into a skid, the car tended, as with most cars, to flip-around, rear-first — old Henry knew what he was doing!). If I had a Model A, I would not take it on the Interstate, but neither would I be afraid to DRIVE it; indeed, Model As persisted as reliable and virtually indestructible daily transportation — even commercial delivery-conveyances — into the early 1980s. Not necessary to butcher an old car to make it “modern” — learn how to drive it the way it was made — or else, drive a modern car!