Kaiser Frazer Owners Club Forum
General Category => Darrin Forum => Topic started by: 324darrin on January 04, 2023, 03:08:20 PM
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Gentlemen and Women, have to share some exciting news that we received a few weeks ago about the early days of our Darrin. A fellow from the midwest by the name of Bill, who's father was a Kaiser dealer, contacted Phil Jelinek, our Darrin registry manager, to inquire as to the current owner of Darrin #3 if it still exsisted. Phil forwarded the email to us and, to our utter joy, discovered that Bill's father took delivery of the Darrin on December 24th 1953 and kept the car for nearly a year to use in TV and print advertising for the dealership. The dealer was Cliff Nordeen Kaiser, Fraser, Willys of Green Bay , Wisconsin. Bill had some memorabilia from the car that he sent, including a dealer sticker that was standard practice to adhere to the cars they sold, a great photo of the car in front of the dealership's sign and the coolest thing is a plexiglass license plate that is white with large red letters displaying KAISER DARRIN. According to Bill, the plate was provided by Kaiser Corp. to use for display. Have any of you readers ever seen or heard mentioned a plate like this? There can't be too many around. Anyway, I thought some of you might find this interesting. Now all I have to do is find out how and when it made it's way to Southern California before 1963 LOL. It's been in the family since then. Steve and Adella
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It is Part of The Fun , Finding the History of Your Vintage Vehicle.
Plus a Number One Club to Share the Fun.
Congratulations !!!
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Cliff Nardeen was the Kaiser-Willys distributor for Northern Wisconsin, signing on during the summer of 1953. Less than 10 (if that many) of the special plates were made to be used for special events showing at auto shows, etc.
While month-by-month production counts are not known at present, the car may well be the oldest surviving Kaiser-Darrin sports car known to exist. Phil should be able to provide you with more information on this.
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I read an article some time ago that Darrin 1001 was well documented and had been restored. Am I mistaken? I remember that it set a sales record of 200K. Steve
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According to the documentation I have, the whereabouts and owners of cars one and two have been known for some time.
The plexiglass plates are indeed rare and in the 50+ years of playing with Kaisers I've only ever seen one in person.
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324darrin, would love to see the vintage photo of #3 that you received, and a pic of that special license plate!
Great addition to the history of your car, received almost 70 years since the car was originally delivered! Amazing.
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Here are the three items I received from the Nordeen Family. Steve
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Very cool, thank you for posting!
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Here's a photo from 1953 with the plate on one of the early prototype Darrins...
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is that hood longer than those in production?
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I noticed that the prototype photo has rocker moldings. Uncle ray removed rocker molding trim from the car after he bought it for $600 in 1963. He also removed other chrome add-ons that were not stock like fender top spears, fog lights and spotlight. He left the hood scoop but had the top frame cut down which reconfigured the top profile. The photo at the dealership does not have the molding so it was probably added along with the othere goodies when it was customized. Thanks for the 1953 photo. Are there any side pics of the prototype car? My car has the rear fender cutouts tapered at the rear. We figured that this was done during the customization for some reason. Steve
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There are several Photos of Prototype sides on CIRCLEKF.COM
Here is one...
https://circlekf.com/photos/jack_2111d/kffpjm45.jpg (https://circlekf.com/photos/jack_2111d/kffpjm45.jpg)
This link is to a magazine article with loads of prototype pics.
https://circlekf.com/sourceslide.php?pub=PPS&typ=MA&nbr=530501&pag=0 (https://circlekf.com/sourceslide.php?pub=PPS&typ=MA&nbr=530501&pag=0)
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Another photo of the same car. They were taken at the small lake created when Willow Run creek was dammed.