Messages

1

Kaiser Forum / Re: Trunk lock drives me crazy

« on: March 02, 2020, 07:04:56 PM »

While we're on the subject of trunk locks....

The latch on my trunk keeps unlatching while driving. I make sure to apply pressure to the trunk when I close the latch...and it give it a test lift and everything is always secure. However, by the time we get to our destination, the trunk latch has managed to lift itself up and the trunk isn't latched anymore.

Has anyone had this issue/have a solution for it?

2

Henry J & Allstate Forum / Re: battery and trickle charge

« on: November 04, 2019, 05:39:19 PM »

This is what I use: https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-G3500-UltraSafe-Battery-Charger/dp/B004LWVEKS/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=noco+genius+3500&qid=1572907118&sr=8-1

Works for 6V, 12V and lithium ion batteries

3

General Discussion / Re: What ever happened to willow cottage?

« on: October 18, 2019, 04:53:19 PM »

After doing some research and making a phone call, I've come to find that the Harris road address is...or should I say...was correct. The house was torn down in 2010. The last owner/occupant of the home passed away in 1999 and the house was sold not long after that. The church next door used it as rental space until it was demolished. Today, all that's left is the acre of land Willow Cottage once sat on.

That's a shame 

Saved only to be torn down later. I'd still be curious to see if there are existing original blueprints in existence for the building. Though being a mess hall originally would make it a government property so I wonder if that would add any additional level of complexity in trying to find the original blueprints.

4

General Discussion / What ever happened to willow cottage?

« on: October 16, 2019, 04:04:54 PM »

The whole idea of willow cottage has always fascinated me and it's disappointing that there don't seem to be more photos and video out there of the building (both inside and out) than there is.

I can't remember where I found the original address of the cottage (for the life of me I can't find it now) but of course that spot is just an empty lot so I figured the building was long gone....until recently. I stumbled across a photo posted by the Ypsilanti Historical Society and in their caption they mention that "The building currently sits where it was later relocated, at 116 Harris Road." I've tried looking up that address but again come up with nothing. There is both a north and south Harris rd in Ypsilanti (which is where I assume the building would be) but north has all commercial buildings and the south is large grassy lots with a couple buildings but nothing that look like they could have been the cottage.

Has anyone from the club researched this building further? Does it still exist or did it meet its demise only after being moved? Do we know of any more modern photos of it since?

Lastly...I think it would be awesome if the original blueprints for the building exist and could be digitized for the club archives. Quite honestly depending on the layout it would be neat to see the building re-created if even as a member's personal residence. Has anyone looked into trying to find the original blueprints for the property? I would assume that the original address would be needed and most likely an in person visit made to the local Ypsilanti municipality as the documents would be public record but most likely stowed away in a box somewhere.

Are there any members up in that area that would be up to the task if it hasn't been done already?

5

Judging & Factory Correct Discussions / Re: Rough day at the AACA fall meet

« on: October 14, 2019, 01:07:23 PM »

Thankfully I'm one of those people that when I'm told it isn't good enough it makes me double down to make it better.

I've started the list, there's rust on the manifold and on the distributor, there's rust and corrosion on contact points, clips, the starter, the battery holder, the wing nuts for the battery, the wire ends. The wires are dirty and starting to have their covers fray, the battery cables are starting to crack, there are 7 wrong hose clamps.

There's absolutely work to do. Thankfully now that it's arriving with us in florida this week, I'll be able to start doing the work that it needs.....speaking of which, when it comes to the wiring, would the better course of action be replacing the wiring in the engine bay or trying to re-wrap the wires?

6

Judging & Factory Correct Discussions / Rough day at the AACA fall meet

« on: October 14, 2019, 10:10:34 AM »

Sadly this year did not go as planned. My wife and I entered our '51 dragon for the fun of it last year -2018 (with no intention of winning) just to get the judge's feedback on what needed to be improved on the car. To our shock, we won our first Junior! There were a couple items pointed out to me by the judge (a junction box and a couple hose clamps that needed to be replaced but that was about it).

Sadly two weeks later we moved out of state and the car stayed behind so no changes or improvements were made since then. Fast forward to this past saturday. I showed the car (exactly as it had been the year prior) knowing that I was going to lose some points but I kept my fingers crossed that maybe....just maybe we could get our senior as we were the only car in that class going for it.

The judges spent a while going over the car and deliberating until finally the team leader comes over to us to have a talk....and we could tell right away it wasn't good news. He starts off saying he doesn't want things to be taken the wrong way and doesn't want to discourage us but that the car has some "major major deductions going on under the hood" and that he finally had to tell his team to stop adding them all up. During this conversation with him, he mentions 3 times that "I honestly have no idea how this car won it's Junior", "this car never should have won a junior", "where did this car get it's junior? who judged it?".

I realize it wasn't mean spirited but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about that...and it's my understanding that this kind of discussion isn't supposed to happen on the show field. Needless to say my wife was pretty upset with the whole thing because it's one thing to say "hey I'm sorry but some things need to be fixed, better luck next year" and a whole other to say, "this car never should have gotten as far as it has and doesn't deserve the award that it was given."

Even after all of this and constantly saying how happy he was that we brought it and how we just need to fix a few things and we'll have no problem getting a senior....he then throws out that there are some cars in our class that have "do not judge on them because they just want to show their car and that's fine"....which with his previous comments felt a little back handed.

Either way, I still plan to make the corrections and repairs that I had planned to make from the beginning. Like I said from the start, I never expected to get junior and I knew it was a long shot going for senior but the "talk" that the head judge had with us felt very unprofessional and could easily deter others from ever coming back after that.

7

General Discussion / Looking for storage near Orlando & regions question

« on: September 18, 2019, 04:00:31 PM »

So while preparing for the pilgrimage to Hershey for the first time since moving to florida, my wife and I just found out that the property where we are currently storing our car in PA was put on the market today. The house could sell in 1 month or 1 year...who knows. I however would like to get our car out of there ASAP rather than have to drop everything and run up there to remove it once they have a buyer. The problem is that we don't have a house yet so we have no place to keep it and we don't want to stick our car in a storage locker.

It's currently sitting in a climate controlled garage so we'd ideally like to find a somewhat climate/humidity controlled storage situation again in the Orlando area. If anyone here has space or knows someone who has space, I'd love to hear it.

-----------------------------

Secondly...somewhat off topic. I've been a member for nearly 3 years now but I've never asked...what are the regions? I know aaca has regions but I've never seen an actual list of the various KFOCI regions and what their territory covers. Do the various regions act independently of the club like the aaca regions do? ie holding their own get togethers, meetings, etc?

Now that I live in Orlando, where would I fall?


Thanks

8

Parts For Sale & Wanted / Need a couple little items ahead of the hershey fall meet

« on: September 17, 2019, 04:26:47 PM »

So....I wish I had thought of this ahead of time and leave it to me to come up with this last minute....but I'm looking for a couple parts for my car ahead of the AACA fall meet.

My wife and I were fortunate enough to have taken our first Junior last year but I saw the competition lined up for the senior category and only one of those cars won.

A couple items pointed out to me by the judges were my hose clamps (I have a couple that are correct and a couple that are not correct) and what I believe to be the ground ahead of the radiator (they said it was looking a little worse for wear).

The hose clamps I need are for the tubes running to the heater and the main hose running from the radiator to the engine.

As for the other part I need....I'm posting an image (not of my car) with the part circled that I need.

If anyone is able to get those to me (Ideally within a week or two) I would be super grateful. That way I'm not servicing the car on the show field like last year 

9

General Discussion / Re: Is it just me???

« on: September 14, 2019, 09:20:33 AM »

These are all good arguments but why do we really need a second forum when we have a fine one that works and is easy to find.  We would only be competing with ourselves and answering the same questions over and over again.

ooooohh man can I answer that one....because it requires a song and a dance to get into this forum. I bought a kaiser, I bought a club membership, I applied for an account on the forum. Then I waited....

I waited for a month and my forum account was not approved so I sent an email to request a status and access.....nothing. I then gave up. I figured I got info from my club packet, I have several facebook groups, I have the aaca page, it appears the club forum either isn't being used or doesn't care about approving new accounts.

6. MONTHS. LATER. I figured I'd try again because I'd still like to access the forum and nobody had ever approved my account. I managed to get the contact info of just one of the users here who managed to get in touch with someone to get my account approved. Pray tell....how many people are going to be willing to go through that to get access to a forum when all they have to do is "like" a page that's connected with an account that they're looking at every day?

Not to say that we shouldn't have a forum. It's great to have. The issue is that not only does the forum need to be actively promoted and it's existence made aware to people, but for the love of all things holy how about we grant access to people that actually want to use it?

10

General Discussion / Re: Great News! Car & Driver Cites Kaiser Dragon as 1 of 10 Favorite Cars @ Concours

« on: August 07, 2019, 10:42:10 AM »

My wife and I were invited to show our dragon at Hemming's concours event this coming september in New york. The invite was given during the AACA fall meet last year but we've sadly had to decline the event. We moved to florida a week after the fall meet and the dragon is still in storage in PA. We'll be traveling back to PA to bring it to Hershey again but it's just too much to work out getting the car to new york for a weekend only to come back again a month later to do it again.

11

Parts For Sale & Wanted / Re: KF Literature

« on: August 07, 2019, 09:51:28 AM »

I'd be interested in seeing what was available in the way of the brochures and ads

12

Parts For Sale & Wanted / Re: Old K-F-W magazine ads

« on: August 07, 2019, 09:50:49 AM »

anything left over from the meet that didn't sell for those who weren't able to attend?

13

General Discussion / Re: Had a great time at Hershey

« on: October 16, 2018, 03:52:15 PM »

Congratulations!  Your rare Dragon is a real beauty and deserving of your first place award.  Jay Leno is a real car guy and has quite a collection himself.

Thank you. He was being super accommodating for all of the people asking for a photo with him. I'd love the opportunity to see his garage sometime.

14

General Discussion / Had a great time at Hershey

« on: October 16, 2018, 08:54:13 AM »

It's tough going back to work after 4 days of being surrounded by nothing but old cars but it's back to reality.

My wife and I had a great time at Hershey this year and not only picked some things up but ended up learning a little about the car. It was a great seeing so many fellow members of the group as well.

Along with nearly 30 new Kaiser and Frazer adds for our collection, we picked up 6 new brochures, a salesman '51 kaiser facts book and two screw on / body mount side view mirrors.

This was our 6th time attending hershey and the first time that we have attended the car show on saturday. We took the opportunity to show our car for the first time ever at an AACA meet as well. We entered it to be judged just for the fun of it to get an idea of where we could improve the car with the expectation that if we managed a 3rd or 2nd it would be pretty cool. We were both shocked and stunned yesterday when the AACA published the preliminary results of the show and found out that we got our first junior! Not only that, but the '50 Olds 88 that was with us placed second. During the show, we received two different Concours d’Elegance invites as well; the first being Greenwich in Connecticut as their show next year features orphans and the second show was the one put on by Hemmings motor news in Lake George, NY. Needless to say we are humbled and shocked at the reception that the car received at the show especially considering the "picky and elitist" horror stories I've heard of AACA shows.

Sadly the car will be sitting in storage for the next year as we look for a house in Florida to store it in but what a way to wrap things up until then.

The photo of the car was taken by the Historic Vehicle Association and the second photo is of my wife and I with some guy who said our car "sounds like a Chinese restaurant." 

15

Darrin Forum / Re: Darrin at Hershey last week

« on: October 16, 2018, 08:28:03 AM »

Looks like we have a match with the AZ car. I took a couple photos of it while I was at Hershey.