Kaiser Frazer Owners Club Forum
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Orphanauto on January 04, 2012, 04:29:43 PM
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I was wondering, what car did you guys learn to drive in, as well as what was your first car? It may be interesting to see the cool cars we learned to drive in. I learn to drive in a 1963 Studebaker Lark, it was a 4 door 6 cyl. 3 speed with overdrive. My grandfather taught me how to drive, then a few years later, I bought it from him. Making this also my 1st car. So, did anyone learn to drive in a Kaiser / Frazer or Willy's?
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I learned to drive in my dad's 54 Manhattan. I figured if I could plow that around the streets, I could drive anything! Eventually, that gave way to a 68 Dodge Dart that my father felt was a better handling car...ok so it had power steering so I suppose he was right.
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My Dad taught me to drive in a company owned 63 Ford pick-up by driving in circles in a large field . He found a 51 Henry J parked at a local salvage yard for me to drive to school . I consider the HJ to be my first car and still have it . It is apart for rebuild .
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From my Dad in our 1951 Henry J that I'm working on. Somehow that very car stayed around in the family all these years. Now I'm trying to put it road worthy condition, and hope to drive it around to the store and stuff.
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Mine was a 1960 Vauxhall Victor Super, mom's car. Still, I lusted after the cars of the friend from the other side of town, that visited my next door neighbour. 51 Frazer, 53 Manhattan, 54 Manhattan...I was only fascinated by them. Those, and the new Studebaker Avanti, and the Citroen on our street. I'm an orphan car guy at heart.
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Mine was the family 1950 Ford sedan-black and stripped with a clutch (gak.) Had an enormous steering wheel and the general aspect of a tank. Will admit it was dependable and I liked the green dash lights, but when I got my '53 Manhattan (with hydro) for $295 after graduating HS it was a sea change indeed. Am in latter stages of restoring the latter, after 220,000 miles (through '84) and taking me through college, to first job, first date with wife, wedding, and retrieval of two kids from the hospital etc it deserves some upgrades. Brother is about to start restoring the Ford.
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MY first car at age 16 was a black '51 kaiser four door sedan that was a six stick with overdrive. I
paid $50. for it even though I had never driven a manual shift. My Dad drove it home on a Sunday
and I drove his '53 Manhattan four door sedan that was a auto. He was going to teach me how to drive a stick when he got home from work, (it was Summer) but I couldn't wait. By the time he got
home I had put 50 city miles on it and knew how the clutch/shift relationship worked! I recently
bought a '51 Kaiser four door sedan with six stick OD and will be painting it black. I guess almost
all history repeats itself. How I convinced my Dad to let me buy a car at age 16 is another story
in itself.
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When I turned 16 I bought and fixed up a 57 Chevy 2-Dr Post. $200 cash 283 3 on the Tree.
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My first behind the wheel experience was in a 1969 Oldsmobile when I took Driver Ed in High School. That was back in the days when dealers supplied cars to schools at little or no charge. The practice ended in Wisconsin when a private driver education firm took my school system to court claiming the school undercut the price of his services to put him out of business (he won and schools had to re-do how they did their programs).
Cars at home at the time were a 1951 Pontiac Chieftan 6 5 passenger coupe and a 1963 Pontiac station wagon. Not long after that, dad brought home a 1962 Corvair Monza coupe with 4-speed on the floor to teach me how to drive a stick (and that was soon followed by a 1962 Tempest convertible with 3-speed column shift).
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First on the road drive was from my dad's Sunoco garage to home, about 4 blocks in his 59 Pontiac Stratochief wagon, 6 cyl, 3 sp on the floor(my older brother bought the shifter for it) when I was 14. The wagon was my first car at 16, drove the crap out of it, poor rear tires. Henry.
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My dad worked for Chrysler, so he brought home an assortment of company cars. When I turned 16, I was able to get behind the wheel of '69 GTXs, Roadrunners, Chargers as well as big ol' Chryslers. My first car was a lease from Chrysler, a '70 Simca 1204. The first car I owned was a '73 Duster. I hadn't even heard of K-F until about 1976. We were a Mopar family.
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The first car I ever drove was my 1953 Henry J. It was not planned that way, that I would eventually own it, it just worked out that way. My dad had 5 KF Products he had restored and when he was transfered from Omaha to Minneapolis, we could not bring all the cars to our new home at once. We would travel back to Omaha and bring one home every couple of months. In March of '76 I got my learner's permit the day before we took a bus ride to Omaha to pick up the '53. On the way back my dad told me I was going to drive! I remember pulling into a parking lot in Mankato, MN and he showed me how to go through the gears and shift etc. I had no problems at first and when we got on the hiway he showed me how to use the overdrive which I thought was really cool. Then... we came to the first town where I had to stop at a traffic light and there were now cars all around and I let the clutch out too fast and killed the engine numerous times. All the honking and one finger salutes really intimidated me and I never wanted to drive again! I remember driving the family car a few weeks later - wow, power steering and automatic transmission, what an improvement! I never liked driving that Henry J again after that. My first car was a 1964 Ford Galaxy with a 260 V8 and automatic transmission. It was years later when my dad started selling off his KF cars and told me he had a buyer for that '53 J. I asked why he never offered it to me and he said he didn't think I was interested in it but something inside me wanted to get in that car again and prove I could drive it. So he sold it to me, much to the chagrin of the other prospective buyer. It didn't occur to me till several years after I got it that it was actually the first car I ever drove. I still own it.
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My Dad taught me to drive in his '51 Kaiser when I was 12, I then practiced when ever he would take me out in the '51 and then in his '53, and sometimes my cousin and I would practice in my Aunt's '39 Ford, in the parking lot, when no one was around. When I got my license, in my Dad's '54 Kaiser I bought a '51 Henry J and drove it all through high school. I then bought a Willys and drove it off to college and sold it and bought a '53 Kaiser.
At the Chicago Auto Show in '54 my favorites were the Darrin and the 120 Jaguars. after college while in the service I went the import route, I went through a couple of Jags and an Alfa some Fiats and came home in a '66 Sprite.
With all of that out of my system and many years later I ended up with another '51 J had it a couple of years and sold it.
Now at 72 I have my last Henry J, a 6 cylinder 1951 and it's done just like I wanted to do my first one when I was 16 years old but couldn't afford it and didn't know how to do it myself.
It is dropped 2" in front 3" in rear has flat black paint with a little red and white pinstripping, bigger tires and a new interior,it will soon have dual exhaust and that's it.
A 1951 Henry J started me on this car journey and a 1951 Henry J will take me to the end.
I'd call that full circle, wouldn't you?
Don Holt#1913
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Don, what do you have powering your J? A V8, or a split exhaust manifold six? (I love the sound of a split manifold twin exhaust flathead six)
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Jim,
We're splitting the manifold, it is the original 6 cylinder and as near as we can tell it has less than 40,000 miles on it. You're right, nothing sounds sweeter than a flat head 6 cylinder split manifold with straight pipes, they'll really talk to you.
Don
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Don, you are my hero for today :D
I hope that once you have that done, you will post a video (and audiio!!) on YouTube or something like that so that we can all (vicariously) enjoy the sweet sound!