Kaiser Grille Designs

America's Kaiser brand lasted less than ten model years (though production continued in South American a while longer).  During that time only two basic body designs were used, the original one plus a complete redesign launched for the 1951 model year.  To freshen the designs, grilles were restyled on occasion, the subject of this post.  I wrote about 1954 Kaiser styling here.

Unless noted, images below are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

1947 Kaiser
Here is an early Kaiser.  The grille opening is the rectangular element immediately above the bumper.  The raised ornamentation between it and the Kaiser name simply covers some hood sheet metal.

1949 Kaiser, RM Sotheby's auction photo
The original grille was carried through the 1949 model year.  The 1950 redesign shown here is much more bold, featuring the kind of large, fat chrome bars that were fashionable on postwar American cars.  This design is much cleaner and more attractive than the rather fussy earlier one.

1950 Kaiser Virginian, Mecum auction photo
The grille seems unchanged (those fog lights are add-ons).  Frontal design finally received a hood ornament -- something found on other American brands for years, but not on Kaisers until now.

1951 Kaiser
The redesigned '51 Kaiser was an attractive car.  Its grille design is a slimmed, simplified variation on the 1949 theme.

1952 Kaiser
Apparently is was decided that the 1951 grille was too delicate, so a bolder version was introduced for the '52 facelift.  Note how the upper bar follows the sheet metal sculpting of the '51 design.  The previous interior horizontal bar is replaced by a bold bumper guard link theme.  That "V" on the front of the hood suggest the presence of a V-8 motor, yet all Kaisers were powered by inline six cylinder engines.

1953 Kaiser
I am not sure of the photo source here.  Perhaps the main change in frontal styling is the addition of the tiny "wings" on each side of the headlight bezels.  What appears to be an air scoop atop the hood is the redesigned hood ornament casing a shadow.

1954 Kaiser
I discussed the design of the facelift 1954 Kaiser in the post linked above.  Basically the frontal design was copied from the 1951 Buick XP-300 dream car.  This was the final American Kaiser design.