"Big K"

[boatingbill]

Out for a cruise 18 months after pulling it out of a shed in northern Michigan.

[boatingbill]

Here is the rescue picture of the '51.

[boatingbill]

Here is a '53 Carolina I restored as a Manhattan in 62 at age 18.

[Barnum]

Nice to see another Kaiser in Michigan ! Let me know if you ever cruise to the UP

[JFerriss]

wow nice 51 deluxe. I bet you wish you had also that 2 door 53 Manhattan today as well.

[boatingbill]

Barnum, I do wish I had a two door because I love the body line of the two door. If you click
on the old picture and then click on the blow up feature on the bottom of the screen the car
looks pretty good. The picture was taken in '63, bu the car was was rusted very badly and was
basically fiberglass from the rocker panels up 18 inches all around. I drove the car three years
and sold it as a Winter driver to John Haller, a well known KFOCI member in Minneapolis. I would
like to tell the story of the restoration process of this car in the Quarterly from the prospective
of a 18 year old (me) at the time.

[Barnum]

Fiberglass and all...looked pretty good for a teen age project! I think we all have at least one car we wish we still had

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

I have two cars I wish could have been kept.  The first was a 1958 Ford Custom 300 2-door sedan that my father had set up for one of my Grandfathers who was a solid Ford Man.   The car was equipped with the big V-8 Ford engine of the model year, but was coupled to an overdrive transmission.  The only other option in the car was heater/defroster.  I had the car to drive when I was in school during the early 1970's and loved the way it handled.  Drive train problems led to its removal.  The other car was a 1990 Sunbird SE coupe that some in the club may remember.  This car's engine was built with no thermostat (we found that out because the heater did not work well at low temperatures) and experimental design AC Plugs (we found that out at 100,000 miles when plugs were changed).  This car also handed well until the onboard systems began a cascade malfunction a few years after we moved to Kentucky.  It was also one of the first Sunbirds to be equipped with the 3.0L V-6 that literally filled the entire transverse engine compartment!

Oh, did I mention the 1951 Pontiac Chieftan 6 coupe, the turquoise 1952 Kaiser deLuxe 4-door and the Aloha Green 4 cyl 1951 HJ?

[JFerriss]

well, i downloaded that pic of the 53 and zoomed in on it and it looks like a very good job of body work to me! If there is one KF that I sold that I wish I would have kept I couldn't choose just one. But there are many times when I wish had back my 1953 Kaiser Manhattan 4 door in Sabre Jet Blue over Australian Beige and my 1951 Frazer Manhattan 4 door hardtop in Garden Green with white padded top.

[boatingbill]

JFerris, This 2 door was actually a little old ladies car that spent its entire life outside in the
Minneapolis Winters as she lived in an apartment and had no garage. It was parked on a busy street and had snow and salt sprayed on it all Winter. I bought it because it showed 62K miles and she
was asking $75 and I got it for $60. The rear wheels wells were gone as was the floor both
in front and rear. I found out the 2 doors leaked badly into the quarter panels. I made the rear
wheel openings out of the steel banding that went around the cardboard packing on new
refrigerators. The car still looked good years later and John wanted it so it went and I went
looking for another KF car.