Automotive History: One-Year Colors – Kaiser-Frazer Edition

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– Posted on February 10, 2025

I have long been fascinated by automotive paint colors.  In this era when automotive colors are so limited, it is fun to look back at the rainbow of choices that was once considered normal.  And one phenomenon I have noticed from the time I first started paying attention was how auto manufacturers would change colors.  Quite often, a popular color would stick around for multiple years.  But sometimes a color would be once-and-done.

Why is this?  Sometimes it was a bold choice that just wasn’t that popular.  Sometimes it was a subtle change to a popular shade from the years prior.  Or a color coming right on the eve of different shades becoming popular.  In any case, these one-year colors have always fascinated me and I thought it might be fun to have a look at some of them through the decades.

So why would we start what I hope will become an occasional series with little, barely remembered Kaiser-Frazer?  Because that postwar start-up that briefly flowered in the early 1950’s was the first company that really started taking chances with paint color in an era when colors were typically within a fairly conservative range.  Before we start, a couple of notes are in order.

First, it is hard to get an accurate reflection of paint colors from photos online.  Old paint fades.  New paints can stray pretty far from the original shade because of changes in paint formulations.  Some cameras replicate color better than others, and sunlight (or the lack of it) can affect what we see as well.  An additional problem with cars that are not widely collected is that it can be difficult to confirm a paint color because so few people sweat the details of a 100 point restoration, and will describe the color of a car only as “blue” or “green”.  Finally, this is not meant as a treatise, so there may be a few one-year colors that we skip over, either because they are not that interesting or to keep your author from going too far down this rabbit hole.  So with those caveats, let’s have a look at a few of the more interesting selections from K-F.

With the one exception noted below, there was not much interesting about K-F paint colors from the company’s inception in 1946 through about 1950.  Before 1949, the only single-year color I can find (from the excellent source paintref.com) is an unremarkable 1947-only shade called Saddle Bronze, which (I believe) is shown on the roof of this example.

But things started hopping soon thereafter, like with this paint color called Indian Ceramic.  This one rates an asterisk as a one-year color, because it was actually offered for three years.  It was initially a choice for 1949 and 1950 solely on the extremely low production convertible-sedan and Virginian 4-door hardtop models.

But it was made available in 1951 across the company’s entire model lineup, and this paint color is so in-your-face for the era that we cannot ignore it.  Like on this 1951 Frazer Vagabond sedan, which was (with the Kaiser Traveler) the original American hatchback.  If you wanted your neighbors to notice your new car in 1951, this paint color would almost certainly do the trick.

Another 1951-only shade was Aloha Lime, as shown on this 1951 Kaiser Henry J.  There was a more subdued mint-like green that appeared for a year or two on either side of 1951, but the more intense Aloha Lime went away after just this one year.  Aloha, indeed.

1952 saw mostly carry-over colors.  Two (or maybe three) one-year colors appeared, but I cannot find pictures that I can identify with any reasonable certainty as either Parakeet Green or Turquoise Blue.  Though if I had to guess, the car above is the non-metallic Turquoise Blue.

A metallic color identified as Blue Satin is a bit of a mystery too – this 1952-only shade is a different code from a 1951-52 non-metallic color with the reversed name of Satin Blue (which is much more subdued).  This vivid electric blue is one that would be right at home on a new 2025 small crossover.  And unlike most of the popular two-tone treatments, this solid color really minimizes this car’s primary design sin – the roof that is much too tall in proportion to the body.

1953 was another matter, with the cars entering their third year in showrooms (and a continuing terminal sales slide).  Some new colors were surely just the thing – like a rich-looking shade called Maroon Velvet on this top-of-the-line Kaiser Dragon.  This was a different color from the Buckeye/Cardinal Maroon that was more common and was spread across several years of K-F production.

Another Dragon appears in this 1953-only Jade Green.  Kaiser offered several other darker, jade-like greens that carried over into multiple years, but this was not one of them.  This is a great example of a popular color across the industry that inexplicably saw several one-year variants.

Then there was 1953’s Peacock Blue.  This is a color not far off from one that adorned Richard Petty’s No. 43 Plymouths and Dodges through the 1960’s.  It is also not that far from several other non-metallic blues/aquas that were fairly common on these cars in the early 1950’s, though none was quite as vivid as this color.

Not all of the 1953-only colors were so vibrant.  On the conservative side is this two-tone of 1953-only offerings:  Sabre Jet Blue over Australian Beige.  The photo source specifies that the roof is original Saber Jet blue paint.  But for that it would have been hard to distinguish it from a couple of other light blues Kaiser offered over multiple years.

One example of a one-year color that was swimming against the current in an era when bright colors were becoming more common is this 1953 Anchor Gray.  This is another shade that would be right at home on any modern SUV.  But at Kaiser, it disappeared after 1953.

As Kaiser circled the drain in 1954 and 55, they were not afraid to make a stab with new paint colors to try to gin up some sales – along with the new front end styling almost certainly inspired by the Buick XP-300 show car of 1951.  This 1954 color called Blue Comet looks an awful lot like the family of metallic navy blues that predominated in the 1970’s and 80’s.  But with Kaiser it was here for 1954 and gone for 1955.  Kind of like the rest of the company, at least as far as U.S. sales were concerned.  Interestingly, very few Kaiser colors were shared with corporate partner Willys in 1954.  Though I could not find a photo of one, you actually could order a 1954 Willys Aero or Jeep in this color.

There was at least one new color for 1955 – maybe – a metallic called Julep Green.  Yes, it looks a lot like the Jade Green Kaiser Dragon from 1953, but it is a little off from that one.  Unless it was painted with a 1954 Kaiser/Willys color called Signal Green.  See what I mean about rabbit holes?  It appears that most of Kaiser’s 1955 production was packed off to Argentina, with only a handful of cars going out to dealers in the U.S.  I am pretty sure Kaiser did not much care about paint colors by then so there would be none of the pinks, lavenders and other bold choices being tossed out elsewhere in the industry.

I had to include this last one if only because this car is almost certainly the same ’55 Kaiser Manhattan I captured on film on a gray day in Auburn, Indiana in probably 1974.  It was the first time I attended the Kruse classic car auction there, and I knew even then that this was a rare one.  It may be the only 1955 Kaiser I have actually seen up close and in person, and I have never forgotten that lovely metallic green paint – whatever it might have been called.

I have been noodling around with this topic for awhile and have been assembling a sampling of one-year colors from other companies.  As time permits I hope to follow up with other more popular companies and into more modern periods of time.  Until then, stay colorful!