Author Topic: K-F Drawings at the W-O Facility  (Read 1797 times)

teaberry35

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 3
    • View Profile
    • Email
K-F Drawings at the W-O Facility
« on: September 21, 2010, 11:33:04 AM »
Yesterday at a cruise-in, I met one of your members who has a beautiful 1954 Manhattan. He didn't have
any answer for my question.
I am a former (1965-76) president of the Willys-Overland-Knight Registry. In 1972, our club rescued
over 1/2 million drawings and blueprints from the W-O factory in Toledo. These were dated from 1907
through 1947, but there were a couple of later ones with Kaiser notations. I sent the 2 or 3 of these to the
then officer at the K-F Club, urging the club to make arrangements to retrieve the others we left there.
I called someone a couple of times to see if they had done so, but never did get an answer. It's been
a long time, but as I remember, the K-F drawings were just of small parts that may have been common
to later W-O vehicles.
If anyone is interested in the story that Ward Canaday told me about how he came to sell W-O to
Henry Kaiser, let me know.   Charlie Weaver, Winston-Salem, NC  (but, someone needs to let me know
because I probably won't be checking this site very often). <patchas@triad.rr.com>

joefrazer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4043
    • View Profile
Re: K-F Drawings at the W-O Facility
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2010, 12:04:57 PM »
Email sent.

mbflemingkf

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 812
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: K-F Drawings at the W-O Facility
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2010, 03:55:21 PM »
Charlie...thanks for the nice compliment on the car and for finding the site.  Very resourceful!  You've definitely found the right guy in our club VP Jim Lape.  He's a long time WO and KF guy...he will have the answers or know where to find them.  Looks like he's already e-mailed you.

Great meeting you last night at the cruise-in as well...fortunate I had just gotten back to the car when you came up.

Regards, Mike

mbfleming@aol.com
« Last Edit: September 21, 2010, 04:00:10 PM by mbflemingkf »
KFOCI #4818, Since 1982

Rear view mirror:
1954 Kaiser Manhattan, 4 Door (Now in FL)
1955 Kaiser Manhattan, 2 Door (Now in TX)
1953 Kaiser Manhattan, 4 Door (Now in Australia)
Thousands of parts & literature (All over the world)

Gordie

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2495
    • MSN Messenger - gordies1@verizon.net
    • AOL Instant Messenger - Gordie
    • View Profile
    • Email
Re: K-F Drawings at the W-O Facility
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2010, 06:15:38 PM »
That should be a great story.  How nice that he found us!
Member #3151 Since June 1974
Vice President K.F.O.C.I. 2013-2017  President 2018-2019
'47 Graham Paige Frazer                                   
'51 Kaiser Deluxe club coupe       
'51 Kaiser customized convertible 
'52 Allstate serial#39
'53 Aero Eagle
'54 Aero Eagle Custom

joefrazer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4043
    • View Profile
Re: K-F Drawings at the W-O Facility
« Reply #4 on: September 21, 2010, 08:22:10 PM »
Charlie called earlier and we had a great chat. He related how Henry and Ward got together to seal the deal for Kaiser to buy Willys. We also talked about Divco milk trucks (we had a dairy...and lots of Divcos...oh to have them back today!) and more. He's promised to write a few lines here about his experience with Willys.