Its story begins as so many others do in our hobby, with fond childhood memories of a favored family vehicle, and ends with the restored car before you on these pages. Filling in the middle are tenacity, luck, and some clever workarounds. This first-year Kaiser-Frazer Henry J Deluxe is a rare survivor that was brought back to as close-to-stock condition as its dedicated owner could reasonably make it, and it represents a decades-held dream come true.
John Kunkel recalls the Henry J sedans that passed through the hands of his father and older brother, especially the new 1953 Corsair Deluxe that was, in its day, the Kunkel family motor. This gearhead from youth has owned and appreciated many other types of vehicles, but that economy car from the postwar independent automaker has a special place in his heart. “I’ve been going to car shows for years, and you see so many Chevelles, so many Mustangs, so many Camaros, so many Corvettes. After a while, they become so
