This may be the first Kaiser Henry J that I have stumbled across that hasn’t been hot-rodded, and this 1952 example barely escaped that fate. Always popular on the dragstrip in gasser form, it’s nice to find one as is. This Henry J is located in Manchester Township, New Jersey and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of $2,000 with twenty-one bids tendered so far.
According to the listing, this car has been setback city. The seller has had setbacks with sales, setbacks with a mobile sandblaster, setbacks with his body man, and setbacks with a new engine – that’s a lot of setbacks! But before all of that, there was the Kaiser Henry J, named for Kaiser-Frazer Chairman Henry J. Kaiser. It was offered between the model years 1951 and 1954 as a budget-priced, smallish, two-door sedan. According to Old Car & Truck Pictures, total Henry J sales were around 115K copies and most ’54 models (approx. 7K) were incomplete ’53s. By 1955, Kaiser, having merged with Willys in ’53, vacated the passenger car business in the U.S.
Having been a Pennsylvania barn find, this Henry J is endowed with some rot, mostly in the front fenders as are the rocker panels. But the body’s intact and in mostly fair shape, though things like some of the trim and bumpers have been removed. However, the seller adds, “Finding parts is hard so with those setbacks I set out on hunting down parts I would later need down the road. I have extra grills, marker lights bullets, lenses, windshield weather stripping, badges, a factory 6-volt radio, floor pans, rockers, a NOS radiator, knobs, handles, a solid set of fenders out of Wisconsin (go figure)“.
The seller mentions that he was able to get the original “Supersonic” engine running so that tells us it was either a 68 HP, 134 CI, in-line four or a 161 CI, 80 HP in-line six. That engine had its problems, so a Chevrolet 327 CI V8 was acquired but that engine detonated itself resulting in another of the aforementioned setbacks. The engine room is currently engineless.
The interior is original, untouched, and looks like all of its 70 years. The upholstery is truly deteriorating, the driver’s side footwell is opened up, the headliner has deteriorated and it looks as if the door panels are missing. The simple instrument cluster and switchgear, however, is all in place. The interior will require a redo but it’s not beyond the realm of normalcy for a car of this age.
The seller advises that this Henry J is being listed for”scrap weight” though there is probably $10K worth of value between the original $2,500 purchase price and the value of the parts. Fuzzy math? Maybe so, we’d have to know exactly what’s there to know with certainty. So, next stop? Same deal, an old-school gasser/dragster of some sort but with a new owner is my bet, what’s yours?
Everytime I say, “re-log in”, I don’t have to. It will this time, I guarantee,, the Henry J,,,Jim didn’t go into much detail, I hope he doesn’t mind, but the Henry J, and it’s equivalent, the Sears Allstate, was the 1st no-frills, basic as hell,,,,car. Originally, one could get a Henry J with no sun visors, glove box, arm rests, or a trunk opening. It cost $1,300 bucks in 1951, almost half of what fancier cars were going for, but as mentioned, you didn’t get much. I agree with Jim, like Willys and Fiats, I never remember seeing a Henry J except at the strip. One of my 1st jobs, dump truck driver for an asphalt company, in a shed was a Henry J, it was the bosses 1st car. As cheap as it was, Kaiser didn’t build junk, and the car had “war proven” mechanicals, and was reported, Henry Kaiser treated his employees well, he knew a happy employee is a productive employee, and made good cars. Henry demanded it.
Enter Sears. “Sears had everything” was their motto, and Kaiser approached Sears and offered rebadged leftover Henry J’s, only Allstates were a bit fancier. Was a so-so idea, and apparently, people just didn’t want to buy a car from Sears, and went with dealers. Aside from a gig in 1912, it was the only time Sears offered a car, and the last. I think( hope) with drag racing fizzling with every season, this was a neat car, and the last thing we need is another gasser. Please, someone,,restore this to original,,,no LS motored/clown wheeled/digital dashed monstrosity,,
….but they did make great drag cars.
I had the model back in the day.
Howard, thanks for bring up the Allstates. I remember drooling over those in the Sears Catalog on warm summer nights after checking out the under ware section. I really miss the world that once was. A simpler and better time, at least for most of us.
@Rigor Mortis
I can’t imagine how many times I rushed home after school to “enjoy” the underwear and hosiery sections of the Sears catalog!
Ahoi Howard
Thanks for this information. Kaiser is one of the company why I started to read BarnFinds. I like unusual cars from carmakers which don`t exist anymore. Like Hudson, Nash, DeSoto, Packard and so on and of course Kaiser. I also know that quite a lot Kaiser J. were converted into HotRods. Well, doesn`t matter, but if such a Car is nowerdays extreamly rare, then restore it originaly. Hey, HotRodders, it`s OK, the Barns are full with old cars. But when only quite a few from the original ones are left, please choose another one. And the other ones from you – please write something about the history about such cars…
Best regards,
Till J.
Howard, Your last sentence almost sounded like a challenge…just sayin…
Please let me know how drag racing is Fizzling.
I read drag racing suffered another blow, as Wild Horse Park in AZ. will be closing after next year. Just another in the trend of “interstate expansion” forces closure deals. Look at the stands, they are empty, and with gas prices, will make matters worse. I love drag racing, but I agree with Till, we have enough silly drag cars, and this should be restored, but someone, who has a lot of money and no need to pay attention to what’s happening, will turn this into yet another drag car, because the original has little, if any meaning to anyone.
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/drag-strip-owners-fight-with-city-has-him-wondering-if-risk-is-worth-the-reward
My Dream Car, To Dam Bad, I don’t have many dreams left
Total sales were around 7k copies? They sold a lot more of them than that according to the production numbers I’m finding — nearly 82k in 1951 and 30k in 1952. Maybe the BF writer can clarify.
That was for the final abbreviated year, my mistake. The total volume was about 115K.
Thx,
JO
Dad bought one without the trunk lid, and my sister and I hated sitting in the back. The ride was not very smooth, but it had fins, and they were just being introduced on mainstream cars.
They just fit through the double doors of Sears stores, so if they were going to sell cars in the store, they didn’t have many to choose from. I also hated riding in the back of my aunt’s Crosley station wagon, but it was kind of cool.
I was 5 years old in 1952 and knew practically nothing about cars but when my Aunt Susan and Uncle Tom bought a new Henry J and were proud of it I guess that’s when I first started to take notice of cars in general. Theirs was a light blue and had no trunk opening. It was very small compared to my dad’s behemoth 39 Dodge 7 passenger sedan. As the whole two families gathered around the car to see what this new fangled machine was all about I first noticed it had no running boards to step up on and the tires were really small, I could smell the new car odor coming from the interior. When my Uncle opened the hood I asked one of my older brothers to lift me up so I could see what every one was talking about. To me it was just a motor, but to the adults it was a marvel of the 50’s, the car apparently got very good gas mileage and was fairly peppy for the times. That was my first experience with a Henry J and the memory has stuck with me for all these years.
God Bless America
I’m old enough to recall encountering Fraziers, Crosleys, Willys, and–yes–Kaisers on the road. I even remember, from my childhood, the distinctly unusual name, for a car, “Henry J.” Yet I didn’t realize that these cars lent themselves so well, apparently, to modification as hot rods. Why is that? Could someone enlighten me, please?
It was lightweight. A big V8 and stripped out, the Henry J was very competitive. Anyone that had one usually did well.
@Howard A
The main advantage of the Henry J, the Anglia and other smallish cars for the time was that the short wheelbase provided for excellent weight transfer upon launch in a time when the drag slicks weren’t what they are now.
It wasn’t just the weight factor.
Thanks, Howard.
Call me crazy. but I’ve always thought the Ford Maverick reminded me of the Henry J.
Special Interest Autos did a comparison of the Henry J and Maverick back in the ’70s.
Yup. If you look at the profiles, I see it. Maverick – Henry J.
Your crazy Steve.
I see what Steve is saying. The Maverick was a small car, but not Pinto small, and was specifically marketed in 1970 as a stripped down, “$1995” car with no options. So in that way it is like the Henry J.
Studebaker did the same thing with the “Scotsman”, a term that would never fly today. Gremlins could be ordered pretty basic too. I also remember some pretty basic VW bugs.
My first car was a ’51 Henry J. 6 banger, no trunk, bought it for $30 in ’61, running good. I was 15, could only drive it in the vacant lots that surrounded our place. There were 6 other kids that had them at my high school, one of the owners had 4 of them, ’51 to ’54s. Sure wish I still had it. Loved those Cadillac fins!
My first sight of a Henry J – I asked my brother Is that a Ford?
Because we would spot cars when we were out with my Dad, and he said no It’s a Henry J.
I later thought it was a cool car, and remember everybody chopped them up to be drag race cars.
I think original would be cool.
Your crazy Fred.
Hey, you don’t have to be crazy to be here,,,but it helps!
My best friends mom was a Sears underwear model and she drove me and her son Ricky to school in her shiny Allstate that Ricky turned into drag car after high school
@Haynes
Was she really??
Oh yeah? Well we’ll just see about that,,,,finding old catalog under that short leg of the old couch in the basement,,,blowing dust off,,,let’s see,,ladies underwear, ladies underwear, ah, here it is, page 1,117,,,son of a gun, dang, that page is missing,,
How much I wanted a Henry J while in high school in the mid 60’s so I could set it up for strip racing. Never did get one.
A steal at $2000! LOL An interesting car for sure but this one looks like it has passed its best before date.A lot of weekends of hard work needed to get this back to showroom condition!
Jim
Traded my ’51 deluxe for a ’53 Ranch Wagon (both resto projects, mostly parts issue) last month . Used to show one corner of ‘henry’ to car guys and bet them a dollar they couldn’t tell me the make on first try. I won 9 out of ten times . Loved that car but he went to a really good home .
I have a friend in NY who has had one for many years and restored to original not making into dragger cool little buggy My grandfather was a kiaser fraisier dealer way back when like 40;s 50’s when he died my mom ended up with what I think was a fraisure I was only 4 so not sure seems to me for some reason I can remember the back seat came down to make straight shot from the trunk anyone verify to help memory car was huge I know that another friend had a Darrin so many good cars bit the dust kiaser fraisure Studebaker Packard all far ahead of their time
Frazer Vagabond , perhaps ?
Always loved the Henry J. for its unique looks. Guess I just prefer the great designs of the non- big 3; Studebaker, Kaiser-Frazer, Packard, etc. Guess I got that from my Dad, who drove a 50 DeSoto, traded it in for a new 63 Studebaker Lark, which was later traded in for a Saab, which gave way to an AMC Ambassador… just very glad my Dad didn’t play the Stock Market! lol