ANTIQUE  Excellent  Wiliker Motors- Kaiser Frazer Dealership Thick steel License Plate Topper- Merriam Kansas  License Plate Topper.  This Company was Apparently in Business between 1939 and 1980.   10 x 4.  As Pictured.  HA 202 042622 41 

From Wiki: The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation (1947–1953 as Kaiser-Frazer) was the result of a partnership between automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer and industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. In 1947, the company acquired the automotive assets of Graham-Paige, of which Frazer had become president near the end of World War II. Kaiser-Frazer was the only new US automaker to achieve success after World War II, if only for a few years. Joseph W. Frazer left the company in 1949, replaced as president by Henry's son Edgar F. Kaiser.

In 1953, Kaiser bought the ailing Willys-Overland company, mainly for its Jeep brand, and merged the Kaiser and Willys operations under the Kaiser-Willys Corporation. The Willys-Overland branch was renamed Willys Motors, until ten years later, in 1963, it was renamed Kaiser Jeep.


 

1953 Kaiser Darrin sports car in 3D Anachrome. Body design by Dutch Darrin and Bill Tritt.
The company was founded on 25 July, 1945, and in 1946 Kaiser-Frazer displayed prototypes of their two new cars at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The Kaiser was of an advanced front-wheel drive design, while the Frazer was an upscale, conventional rear-wheel drive car. However, production costs and development time constraints prevented the front-wheel drive design from entering production, so the new 1947 model year Kaiser and Frazer sedans shared their bodies and power-trains. Being some of the first newly designed cars on the market while the "Big Three" were still marketing their pre-war designs, the Kaisers and Frazers made an exciting entrance. Kaiser and Frazer continued to share bodies and engines through 1950 with different exterior and interior trim.


1953 Kaiser Darrin in Anachrome 3D. Note that the doors slide into the front fender.
Henry Kaiser had no automotive marketing experience; But Joseph Frazer did, having held various positions with Packard, GM, Chrysler, and Willys-Overland. Kaiser believed in pressing forward in the face of adversity, while Frazer was more pragmatic. As the market for Kaiser-Frazer products slowed in 1949 with the introduction of new designs from the Big Three, Kaiser pushed for more production, creating an oversupply of cars that took until mid-1950 to sell. Kaiser and Frazer had repeated disagreements on how aggressive production should be until, finally, Joseph Frazer left the company in 1951 and the Frazer nameplate was dropped after a short 10,000 unit production run in 1951 that used up the remaining inventory of the 1949-50 bodies.

In 1953, the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was renamed Kaiser Motors Corporation and continued building passenger cars through 1955. In 1955 Kaiser Motors Corporation had another name change as it became a holding company for the major assets of the Henry J. Kaiser Company. The business now operated as Kaiser Industries and established a very broad base of business activities including a group of television stations.

In 1953, Kaiser bought the ailing Willys-Overland company for US$63,381,175 and merged the Kaiser and Willys operations under the name Kaiser-Willys Corporation. The decision was then made to exit the passenger car market, which was accomplished at the end of the 1955 model year.

By 1956, Willys Motors built only utility vehicles, many for export, and was turning a healthy profit as a company 100% owned by Kaiser Industries Corporation. This operation (which included stakes in Willys-Overland du Brasil and Industrias Kaiser Argentina) Became Kaiser Jeep Corporation in 1963 and remained 100% owned by Kaiser Industries. During the period 1969-1970 Kaiser-Jeep Corporation was sold to American Motors Corporation through purchase of certain assets and assumption of certain liabilities by AMC. In 1985 American Motors was sold to the Chrysler Corporation in a lock-stock-barrel (acquiring all assets and assuming all liabilitys of American Motors) transaction.

Production
Production of Kaiser-Frazer models was centered at Willow Run, Michigan. Willow Run, the largest building in the world at that time, was built by the U.S. government just prior to World War II for Henry Ford to build B-24 Liberator bombers. Once the war ended, Ford had no interest in the facility, and the War Assets Administration began a search for someone to lease or buy the building. When K-F expressed interest in the facility, the WAA offered them an attractive five-year lease rate. K-F also had manufacturing facilities in Jefferson MI; Long Beach CA; Portland OR; Leaside, Ontario, Canada; Haifa, Israel; Kawasaki, Japan;[1] Mexico City and Rotterdam (known as "Nekaf", for Nederlandse Kaiser-Frazer fabrieken). U.S. production was concentrated at Toledo, Ohio, upon the purchase of Willys-Overland starting in 1953; the Willow Run facility was sold to General Motors after GM suffered a disastrous fire at their Livonia, Michigan, Hydramatic automatic transmission plant and needed a facility quickly to resume production.

Products
Kaiser includes Custom, Deluxe, Virginian, Carolina and Manhattan sedans, as well as the Traveler 4 door hatchback utility sedan. First post-war production car to offer supercharging (the 1954 Kaiser Manhattan).

Henry J, a small economy car including Corsair and Vagabond.

Darrin, the first production fiberglass sports car in the United States, beating Corvette to market by one month.

Frazer includes Standard, Deluxe and Manhattan sedans and the Vagabond hatchback. The 1951 Frazer Manhattan convertible was the last four-door American convertible until the 1961 Lincoln Continental. Early production 1947 Frazers were marketed and identified as a Graham-Paige product.

Willys, including "Aero-Willys" and all sub-trim levels include Aero-Lark, Aero Ace.

Jeep, including pick-ups, CJ Vehicles, all steel wagons, Wagoneer and Jeepster models.

Allstate, designed to sell through Sears-Roebuck department stores in the southern United States, was a slightly restyled Henry J. The cars were equipped with Allstate products (tires, battery, etc.). The modest styling changes distinguishing the Allstate from the Henry J were executed by Alex Tremulis, stylist of the 1948 Tucker Sedan

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