Although this is an old topic, I am new to the Forum and I just recently discovered it. I thought I would explain the origin of the Kaiser "Sprint". In 1970, I purchased a green 1953 2 door Deluxe w/od from Joe Borroz, of Vancouver Washington. Joe and his brother had 3-4 KF products between them and had been members of the KF club for many years. The car need paint, some body work and an engine rebuild. Since I had received a Fullbright scholarship to study in Yugoslavia for 1970 and 1971, I left the car as-is until I returned to Portland, OR in 1972.
Originally, I planned to use the car as a daily driver, but the car I wanted to drive (55 K 4 door) from Portland, Oregon to the 1974 KF National in Willow Run was not going to be ready for the trip. (That car is now owned by Dr. Don Dettore). We (Club member Evan Heis and I) decided to take the 53 Deluxe instead of the 55. Most of the body work, paint, chrome, basic mechanical and detail work was completed about a week before we were scheduled to leave.
Since we had a couple of extra superchargers and related accessories, we decided at the last minute to put a blower on the 53 and have it judged at the meet in the modified class. Because of the time crunch, we ended up cutting some corners. For example, instead of using steel spacers to move the radiator forward we settled for wood. For the air cleaner, we built a bracket, secured it under a head bolt and fabricated a paper element cleaner from a 62 Plymouth with a two barrel carb.
The most interesting modification involved the piece of sheet metal that covers the front of the radiator. With the radiator moved forward to clear the blower and the crankshaft pulley, the original 53 part no longer fit. In a really neat piece of KF engineering, we discovered that they managed to modify the part used on the 51-53 series to accommodate the 54/55 redesign. We found that by bending the lower secton of the 54 part (Which is bolted to the grill) to match the contour of the 53, the bolt holes lined up and the part fit perfectly, and it provided the necessary clearance for the radiator and blower pulley. Next time you see a 54 and 53 together, take a look at this engineering shortcut.
The night before we were to begin the 3000 mile trip to Detroit, we still did not have the 53 together. The last item to install was the re-chromed Kaiser Deluxe script. We found the Kaiser section but the Deluxe was missing. We had been working on the 53 in the used car reconditioning area of my uncle's Toyota dealership in Portland, Oregon. As we searched unsuccessfully through boxes of Kaiser parts we decided that we would just go with Kaiser on the fender; that is until we saw some discarded script in a trash barrel. The script read "Toyota" "Sprinter". Since we only had a few hours left before departure we hastilly cut the "er" from "Sprinter" and attached it to the 53's fenders.
Because we did not have time to road test the 53 before we left, many, many things went wrong. I installed the electric wipers backwards (With the blower, the original vacuum set had to be replaced). When I turned the wipers on they cut a swath across the newly painted hood instead of the windshield. The rebuilt master cylinder leaked, the generator and starter had to be re- rebuilt on the road, the base broke off the distributor and on and on. The other members of our cross country caravan eventually ran out of patience, since we were stopping every 2-3 hours for repairs. The eventful trip was later chronicled by club member, Gary Gudmunson for the quarterly. The car, however won a third place at the national in the modified class.
The most embarrassing aspect of the Kaiser Sprint story occurred at the Willow Run National. I lost count of the number of Kaiser "experts" that came by to explain how, when and why KF made a 53 "Sprint". There was never any intent to pass the car off as one-off a kind factory special, but even after I attempted to explain the Sprint's history some people could not be convinced. The Langworth book should be required reading for anyone planning to spend $ on a so-called one-off KF car.
I drove the "Sprint" for many years after I moved from Portland to Milwaukee, Wisc and later to the Chicago area. About 1983, I sold the car to club member Evan Heis and eventually lost track of it.
It amazes me that anyone can look at the "hurry-up" modifications we made and think the factory had anything to do with it.
On a side note, I did own a 54 early Special trimmed as a 54 Dragon that had a factory supercharger installed. The car, the leather interior, the engine and the blower were all black. The car was apparently built for the 1954 Chicago auto show. Lowell Johnson kept the car, I retained the blower, which was sold to Dr. Dettore along with my 55K.
That is the long-winded story of the 1953 Kaiser Sprint; not a factory special but more a function of my inability to keep track of parts.
Michael Misetich 1993
972.506.0915
mmisetich@grandecom.net
