HENRY J. ORIGINAL PROTOTYPE
American Metal Products Car Project
Progress Report - 2000 - Prepared February 12, 2001
To: National Auto & Truck Museum of the United States
From: Thomas J. Wilson, Director, AMP Car* Project, 4073 Ruby, Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197-9317, telephone (734) 434-5581, E-mail: kfnut@umich.edu.
*(American Metal Products-built1948 prototype used as pilot car for "Henry J." Kaiser model, produced by Kaiser-Frazer, 1951-54. The car is currently being restored to a "functional restoration" condition, by written agreement, within five years, beginning at possession date of February, 1999, in exchange for shared ownership, as defined in the contract, for the remainder of T. Wilson's life. )
What follows is an adaptation of an AMP car report submitted to the Kaiser-Frazer Quarterly, 2001 Issue #1, for publication for Kaiser-Frazer Owner's Club members. Many details have been added and refined, in order that officials of the NATMUS organization may be fully apprized of the current status of this project.
AMERICAN METAL PRODUCTS CAR REPORT
THE BAD NEWS (first)
(Some of you have inquired about progress on the American Metal Products (AMP) car, the car built by American Metal Products of Detroit, and offered as a project idea car to Kaiser-Frazer. It resulted in the construction of the prototype "Red Car," which was in turn named and produced as the Henry J. We have an agreement with the owner of the car, the National Auto and Truck Museum of the United States, of Auburn, Indiana for a "functional restoration" of the car, to be completed within five years - period starting February, 1999, in exchange for shared lifetime ownership of the finished car with yours truly (Thomas J. Wilson, KFOCI LM #6)
Year 2000 was not a good one for progress on the AMP car, but every story has its good and bad sides.
On the bad side, commitments to other car projects, (see our other article this issue) some serious work commitments on a small-scale water disaster in an Ann Arbor rental, and the financial setbacks therefrom, and on a necessary new roof on another property really eclipsed the poor AMP car. Work hours available were minimal, starting well after an overseas trip early in the year, and ceasing in the fall as a phalanx of snow removal, holidays and birthdays ate the calendar right up.
Another problem was the seriousness of the work and its best sequence. Since there are no replacement body parts for the car, we deemed it unwise to remove any body panels for underneath work without first bringing every outer-skin panel into correct alignment, in order to facilitate ease of reassembly. This is proving to be a considerable task, considering that the car has been completely burned in a fire, had its left side panels damaged, and had a building roof fall on it, cupping down the car's top.
We considered correctly re-contouring the top the most difficult, and one of the first tasks needing to be done, followed by the alignment and reshaping of the doors, hood, and fenders. This is where most of the time has been invested during 2000.
The top, its paint entirely burned off, had been allowed to rust in a damp basement storage area, and the rust had advanced to the point of pitting clear through the skin in dozens of small spots. After some time had been invested in hammering the top to its original contours as best we could, the thinness, irregular strength and unpredictable "diaphragming" of the metal proved to be formidable obstacles, and that it would be necessary to coat the entire roof in multiple layers of fiberglass fabric and clear resin. This was done in the late summer and early autumn. While the lengthy hardening processes took place, we proceeded with welding patches over small holes through the hood and hammering out the badly warped front left fender and left door, which as of this writing are still pretty screwed up..
More equipment was removed from the car this year - principally the windows and the window- regulator mechanisms, another nasty job when you are working on a car that has been entirely roasted in a fire.
THE GOOD NEWS!
But on the brighter side, some very good things happened on the AMP car front during 2000.
We decided to go ahead and submit the bumpers and grille to our favorite chrome-plating shop, Hajjar Plating on Ecorse Rd. in Wayne, Michigan. Since the car was a slow-go anyway, it was no problem with the three months the parts spent in the shop, and...it was worth the wait! The bumpers now look absolutely brand new! The grille, of a much thinner sheet metal, did not fare as well, though. Unfortunately, Hajjar's tried to remove some of the rust by sandblasting, and the abrasion started going through the thin, rusted skin, precluding any chance of doing a plating job, which we pretty well considered hopeless anyway. The part was returned at no charge, and is now in "abrasive gray," ready for priming. We are holding off on this, pending consideration of a deep-dip clear-resin coating and possible plastichrome finishing. We await further research, or any outside suggestions and tips on this front.
Another breakthrough event on the AMP project was a photo lead that was precipitated by the piece on this project that was included in the "Lost and Found" section of SPECIAL INTEREST AUTOS,, #177, May/June, 2000, on page 10.
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Shortly after this item was published, a phone call came from Colorado, from a gentleman named Gary Guerriero who had, while attending the University of Michigan, been a friend of a coed named Mathhaei, the daughter of the Fred Matthaei that owned American Metal Products. While in school, she was living at the Matthai Farm, Northwest of Ann Arbor, later donated to the University of Michigan and becoming the Matthai Botanical Garden. The daughter had been using the car for everyday commuting to campus, and had even knicknamed it the "Doodlebug." Guerriero noticed that the car was unique, and asked to take pictures of it. He informed us that he still had negatives of the pictures. Now, recently we are finally in posession of a full set of prints made from these negatives, so we have full exterior and interior pictures of what the AMP car looked like before it was in the fire!
We should add that we are currently contacting the Matthaie family in an attempt to contact the daughter so that, perhaps, she can fill us in on her experiences and perhaps her driving impressions of the car.
Another positive development is that, through the courtesy and assistance of Mr. Art Griffin, of Melbourne, Florida, Manufacturing Fund director for the Kaiser-Frazer Owner's Club, arrangements are being made for the acquisition of twelve yards of tan "Volta cloth" which is a virtually perfect match for the woebegone fabrics of the AMP Car's interior amenities. As of this writing, the agreed-upon price of $300.00 has been forwarded to Griffin, and shipping is to take place from its storage location in the eastern U.S. We plan on having a newly-discovered upholstery shop in Ypsilanti that has done one very nice job for us rehabilitate the AMPs sorry seats.
Currently our garage shelves have accumulated the following for the AMP car...
1. Like-new correct steering wheel.
2. Two temperature gauges
3. One aged but serviceable instrument cluster
4. One correct Henry J. license lamp (probably the only part on the car that will actually be a genuine KF-part!)
As we prepare the final portions of the report, work is moving along much better on the car. Today (Sunday, Feb 11, 2001) was devoted to beginning applying body filler to correct remaining faults in the contours of the roof, and during the sessions of the body filler hardening, we finally managed to get the left front fender back to a fairly correct alignment. The year 2001 promises to be a good one for the American Metal Products car!
Thomas J. Wilson, AMP Car Project Director.
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