Luis Salvaretti's Kaiser Darrin Jr.

[pjkaiser]

These two pictures came out of the 1972 Kaiser Frazer Quarterly highlighting the Nationals at Disneyland, CA, June 22nd - Jkune 30th.  For the last year and a half, I have been trying to track down the specifications for that Vinyl and Wood Kaiser Darrin Jr. that I have in the third picture.   These cars came with a decal on the back which read:  Kaiser Darrin Jr.   Mine has the vinyl raised on the truck from the glue of the decal.

I tracked down Geon Rigid Vinyl to do research at the U of Akron prior to attending this years National.  I found some ads, the fourth picture and that sparked Jim Lape to suggest MFG (Molded Fiber Glass), a company formed in 1953 and still in business today.   After tracking down the Company, Kurt Fink, Director of Media, wrote back that there is no evidence that they had anything to do with the molding of this car.

So now I ask the membership, I am trying to track down Luis Salvaretti's family to see if his car is still in existence.    I am also looking for the specifications on this vehicle as well.

[Aeroman]

Don't know anything about the mini-Darrins, but it was nice to see a pic of the late Don Noska. He was a character from Southern California and usually kept us giggling through the 1980's. He had the KF fender covers made. I still have one.

[pjkaiser]

I finally was able to contact and visit with Luis Salvaretti, who lives in Las Vegas and see his original Darrin Jr. Pictured from his son Mario who helped me with his dad.   Luis told me he received the car from Dutch Darrin himself.   It was in the kind of shape that one would throw away as Luis put it but with all the parts you see, were there.   He had the body repaired and painted to what it looks like in these pictures and in the 1973 Quarterly on the Disneyland Nationals.  He has a folder with more pictures but did not know were it was, he said he would send them to me if he found them.

The second picture is of the inside, it is a coaster car with a brake pedal, although I couldn't find where it went without moving a lot of furniture surrounding the car.

The other pictures are self explanatory.

We had a great talk about all things Kaiser, wonderful!!! 

My fiberglass Darrin Jr will be done before summer, I will not do anything to my original vinyl Darrin Jr.