WILLOW RUN DEMOLITION

[Terry T]

 

IT HAS STARTED TODAY

[joefrazer]

Well, I'm glad we had the opportunity to wander thru the place last year while attending the Midwest Meet. While the place had changed alot since KF was there, one could still feel the presence of HJK, Edgar, and Joe.

[Terry T]

I am going to drive my HJ to the WILLOW RUN CONFERENCE AND PLANT TOUR this Saturday.

It is going to be more about the bomber activity, but still an opportunity to see the plant.

[joefrazer]

I wonder if there would be any chance of obtaining some of the bricks used to construct the building. I think some of the KF faithful would like to own one.

[Fid]

When we were there for the national in '74, I remember grabbing a bolt that was embedded in the floor there for a souvenir.  I still have it.  I also have 8mm movies of all the KFs pulling into the parking lot. Maybe I should upload it.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

I take it you had it converted to videocassette or DVD.  Would it be possible to get a copy of it?

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Sorry for the short notice, but the section of the main building that the Yankee Air Museum wants to save (about 175,000 square feet from the big doors back into the plant) will be open for a public tour at 3:00 PM today, Eastern time according to the Ann Arbor news.  You have to call the air museum to be registered (so you can get on the grounds) but there is supposed to be no charge for the tour.  Please Yahoo or Google WILLOW RUN DEMOLITION to find the link to the article and the phone number.

I've looked over the chart as an overlay to the plant layout when Kaiser-Frazer built cars and airplanes there.  It appears to show no pattern which may confirm what I heard that the ground settled in various places under the concrete pad that was the "floor" of the building.  If my info is correct, the pad will have to remain and be maintained, lest the toxic stuff get exposed.  The Ann Arbor News article shows a recent chart; there are at least 11 areas considered to have toxic ground under the pad.

[Terry T]

I drove my Henry J to the Yankee Air Museum Conference and Tour on Saturday.
It was raining a bit, but I knew the car would not melt.

The HJ drew a car crowd among the plane buffs.  Two interesting souls emerged.
One was  courier that drove a stripped-down HJ from one end of the plant to the other to take messages to the BOSS, HJ himself.  He said that he would often sit in the office and just talk.  He claims that he knew nothing of the secret stairway that urban legion says HJ used to leave the building unnoticed.
The other was a man whose mother worked in the plant and, of all things, installed the HJ driver's door on the assembly line!!

Another testament to the joys of driving 'em!!!