Southeastern Washington State has had an unusually severe few weeks as of late with multiple heavy snowstorms. My brother, Terry sent me these three recent photos, taken in the area of Walla Walla by him and his grandson, Dante, with the query, “What is it?”
Definitely a ’51-’54 Kaiser, but hard to tell for sure which variant of their compact Henry J it might be, as Mother Nature has playfully covered indicators like a trunk lid–or lack of it, chrome rear window molding–or lack of it, and whatever badge might reside on its rump.
Look around front, and things start to clear up. The separated badge under the grille peak, if original, identifies this one as an Allstate, sold by Sears Roebuck.
From the front, the grille bars that end at the (missing) edge moldings on the fenders confirm that this Kaiser was probably sold through your local Sears department store. That is, if you lived considerably south of Washington State, as Allstates weren’t sold in northern climes.
For more on the Allstate, see this post by Nigel Tate.
HaHa, what better than an Allstate to drive around causing mayhem. 🙂
I am not sure I have ever seen either an Allstate in the flesh, and am trying to remember if I have ever seen a real live Henry J. K-F products are fascinating to me, but I am not sure that I could work up a lot of love for the HJ. A big Kaiser, on the other hand, . . .
I saw some Henry J cars when I was growing up; I thought they were kind of cute. I think I learned at a fairly early age that they were “orphan” cars. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an Allstate, though.
Okay, so what you’re telling me is that Allstates weren’t sold in All States?
I’ve never seen an Allstate. I’ve always heard that they were sold in southern states. The article for the Allstate on Wikipedia mentions that they were sold in at least 18 cities in at least 10 states including:
Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The article goes on to say that many Sears outlets tried to stock at least one example of the car, but that most were made to order.
Groan…….
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-Nate
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a vague memory of Henry J’s being turned into drag racers. Kind of like what happened to Willys (what’s the doggone plural?).
Not wrong, before there were other small cars (i.e. American compacts from the ’60’s) available used and cheap to convert to drag racers, the Henry J, along with the English Fords (both Prefect sedan and Thames vans) were quite popular in the gasoline classes (aka Gassers).
First of all, a multi-pun title deserves some recognition. 🙂
I have seen a couple of Henry J’s in the last few years, both factory stock & full blown drag cars, but am pretty sure I have never seen an Allstate. Nice find.
As many CCers can claim, there’s a gearhead strain in our family. Until recently, it hadn’t surfaced in the latest generation. Grand nephew, Dante, now in his teens, is the car guy of record born at the turn of the century, and he brings his Grandpop, Terry along on his flights of carspotting. Dante took this pic of the Allstate, snow free.
The Henry J’s looks have always been a guilty pleasure for me; once I realized they were universally maligned for their odd styling, I stopped admitting it, but Now It Can Be Told. I always thought they made great looking gassers, with a big mill sticking out of the front on spoked wheels, but I also like the details, especially around the wheel wells, where they look like they are modelled out of clay or cut from stone.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/henry-j-gasser-pictures.657219/
I think Special Interest Autos might have done a comparo article many years ago between the Henry J and a Maverick.
I’ve only ever seen Henry J’s in real life, maybe one or two as stock. As a kid growing up in the 1970’s, there were dozens of Henry J’s at the drag strips. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an Allstate, other than pictures.
I guess at one time, you really could buy everything you needed for life from the Sears catalog. I’m sure with our draconian dealer laws in place that a situation like this could not take place again. Who knows, maybe it could save Sears.
Sears + Tesla = success?
I somehow doubt it, but stranger things have happened.
I was doing some reading about the Henry J and I’ve found several articles that mention that it was manufactured under license by Mitsubishi in Japan. Apparently it was marketed to U.S. servicemen serving there after WW II.
I also found one that says it was manufactured in Israel in a factory that also manufactured Mack trucks.
Cute little car ~ i didn’t much like their looks when I was a kid .
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I well remember the dragstrips full of these in the early 1960’s .
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It’s good to see a SEARS survivor, SEARS used to sell every dang thing under the sun including kit houses .
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-Nate
A house down the street from where I lived for my later college years was (allegedly) a Sears kit house. Fine looking old home, you’d never know if no one told you. Some of them were apparently quite nice–still a traditional build at the end of the day, it’s just that all your lumber/trim/whathaveyou were pre-cut and arrived together as a single shipment. Rather efficient!