A national meet I would haved loved to have been at

[51Deluxe]

Just joined the club a couple of weeks ago and have been looking over some of the the very earliest quarterlies from the beginning of the organization. This particular one is interesting as it has photos of the national convention in Fall 1962. In attendance at the meet were six Darrins, four 1955 Kaisers, a "custom" 2 door Dragon, a Chevy powered Kaiser and the "only" 1951 convertible!

http://www.circlekf.com/kflit/QM/kcqm011/kcqm011_part1.pdf

Part 2:
http://www.circlekf.com/kflit/QM/kcqm011/kcqm011_part2.pdf

It appears that many of the members at the time owned 1954 models. Imagine belonging to a classic car club where most of the cars are only 8 years old. An ad in the back listed a 2 door , 1955 Manhattan in mint condition for $350 !

The club accumulated a warehouse full of parts in the early years that were made available to members. Wonder what happened to them all?

[joefrazer]

The parts warehouse was, at one time, located in Earlville, IL and was a collection of parts purchased from old dealerships as well as from Industrias Kaiser Argentina (IKA). The building belonged to George Buchinger and he made parts available to members. Many early members kicked in a few dollars to help fund the warehouse. To make a long story short, there were problems with who actually owned many of the parts so the idea of a community pool quickly dissolved.

George sold parts for years and after his passing, his family continued to as well. I have quite a few IKA branded parts purchased from the Buchinger family. Only recently was the last of the parts pile sold to another KFOCI vendor.

By the way, the custom 2 door Dragon (member built) and the 51K convertible still exist. The convertible was one of possibly two built by Derham for KF. It's too bad they never went to production. It appears at club meets from time to time and I was fortunate enough to drive the car at a convention many moons ago.

[51Deluxe]

Well, it's understandable that the community parts pool idea wouldn't work too well with anything other than inexpensive parts. After all, if there's an engine block or other large part, who gets it? Good to hear that the parts ended up being used instead of scrapped.

The convertible and custom Dragon sound interesting, hopefully one day I'll se them at a meet. I'm looking forward to my own Ebay purchased 51 arriving late Tuesday, finally got the garage cleaned out. Thought it would be a really tight fit in my 20's garage, but parked my 16' daily driver and I can now see it will fit just fine. This will be the first time I've even touched a Kaiser- just seen them occasionally  in shows and admired from a distance.

Still looking over the old quarterlies and discovered Joe Frazer was born in Nashville, just south of Springfield TN where I live, and his grandmother, a direct descendant of George Washington, was born in this county (Robertson)  and lived on a plantation (Wessington) I am very familiar with the history of.

[joefrazer]

Looking back thru the posted Quarterly, there are many names shown of folks no longer with us, but who helped build the club to what it is today. People like George Domer, member #1, Terry Zeug, who recently passed away, was for many years one of our biggest parts vendors, and Howard Edmunds from Michigan who must hold the records for the number of KF vehicles on one piece of property. I counted nearly 100 during a visit to his place about 20 years ago. The cars are long gone but fortunately, a few were rescued. The OD unit in my 50 Traveler came from a 49 Frazer Traveler (Howard liked to cobble together cars) that I parted out.

I'm glad to hear your 51 arrives soon. Please feel free to post questions and observations about your car here. We've alot of armchair (and real) mechanics who frequent the site and all are willing to lend an opinion!

[Roadmaster49]

51Deluxe

Thank you for posting. Unfortunately, I could not open the links.    But the comments from those early club magazines is always interesting. 

Early fifties cars, unless they are Cadillacs, some Buicks and Chryslers - have reasonable wheelbases and the KF's have bodies that are fairly tight to the frame, thanks to Darrin's adept styling habits.  I had an unrestorable 49 Virginian in my 3 car garage and a 73 Buick next to it and the Virginian was much smaller and not nearly as wide. 

[Fid]

The '51 Kaiser convertible was at the National in Sweetwater, TN in 2012.
Here are some pictures

[Aeroman]

When we were in Nashville for the Convention in 1994, Paul Least and I took an afternoon and drove off looking for Joe Frazer's family home. We found them northeast of Nashville (if I remember the directions correctly). We stopped and took pictures and spoke with the owners. If I can find the pics, I will scan them and share. There were two houses, the first was the one Joe was born in. Only thing remaining is the foundation that another house is now built on. The other is only a mile or so away and is a grand estate. It was originally built by the Washington family (1st president George's brother or cousin, I don't remember now). Joe was a descendent. I was going to send the pics and facts to Allen Hogle to write up in the Quarterly (when Ben Walker was still editor) but I never got to it. Allen and Ben are both gone now, so I guess it's up to me.

[51Deluxe]

I'm probably a bit biased, but I think it's time for another Nashville national convention! Or, right here in Robertson County (Springfield TN) , birthplace of Joe. His home is just up the road from my own. Our small fairgrounds would be a very economical place to host the event.

[Aeroman]

Did you want to volunteer 51Deluxe? 2018 is the next available Eastern Division's turn to sponsor. There are a few of us here in the south that will help if you want to take on the chairmanship...

[51Deluxe]

I'll think it over- I'm not much of an organizer, my wife is very talented in that area and can do an event to perfection, but has little interest in Kaisers (or cars in general)  so far. Maybe a ride or two will change that, my 51 should arrive tonight!