Kaiser Motors

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Kaiser Motors traces to the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, announced by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and auto executive Joseph W. Frazer in July 1945 and formally incorporated that August. Their big postwar wager: build fresh American cars before the established Detroit giants got fully back into stride.

The company made its home at the immense former B-24 bomber complex at Willow Run, Michigan. Kaiser and Frazer automobiles began coming off the line in 1946, followed by the compact Henry J in 1950. For a few determined years, this upstart turned a wartime megafactory into a showroom challenge for the Big Three. No pressure.

In 1953, the parent company was renamed Kaiser Motors Corporation. Its Kaiser Manufacturing subsidiary acquired Willys-Overland assets and became Willys Motors, bringing the Jeep business into the fold. Kaiser passenger-car production then shifted from Willow Run to Toledo, Ohio, while the Willow Run complex moved on to General Motors.

By the end of 1955, Kaiser withdrew from U.S. passenger-car production and Kaiser Motors was renamed Kaiser Industries Corporation, a holding company. The Kaiser name lived on through later vehicles and overseas operations, but its original American car-company chapter had reached the off-ramp.

Our Kaiser Motors collection celebrates the audacious Willow Run upstart: postwar chrome, giant-factory optimism, the Henry J, the Darrin, and a corporate road trip that took a hard turn toward Toledo.