: Do you know if any of these kits still exist? If not, do you know of any that
: are for sale?
The guy with an unused one in a box has something really rare. The last were made sometime around 1980.
But to bring a used one back from the dead would require a lot of ingenuity.
The "Supers' were the last of the original design from the 1940's. The original company folded sometime in the 1980's, I think, and was ressurected some years later. They produced all new designs and don't seem to sevice any of the old wood-framed hulls.
The main problem to restoring one is that sunlight plays hell with the skins causing them to harden and shrink to the point of distorting the framework. No replacement skins are available to my knowledge. There is also a ton of itsy-bitsy pieces that get lost strayed or stolen and have to be made. They were made to a price and were not designed to compete with a Klepper.
I still have one that was built in the 1950's and had alot of fun with it but it has all the above ailments. My sister bought a rigid Folbot for $40 and I haven't been able to pry it out of her fingers because it is easy to keep and easy to care for.
Charlie