This page contains material from the March 2000 newsletter.

MEETING TIME: First Wednesday of each month at 7:30 PM LOCATION: Galles Chevrolet, 1601 Lomas Boulevard NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110 PRESIDENT: Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 hurley.wilvert @ fmglobal.com VICE-PRES: Robert Gold 268-6878 beisbol30 @ hotmail.com SECRETARY: Charles Vertrees 299-0744 vertrees @ swcp.com TREASURER: Wendell Walker 892-8471 defarge505 @ aol.com MEMBERSHIP: Sylvan Zuercher 299-7577 zuerchero @ hubwest.com NEWSLETTER: Jim Pittman 275-2195 casa unm edu DUES: CNM: 12 months $15.00 or 26 months $ 30.00 CORSA: 12 months $35.00 or 26 months $ 70.00 BOTH: 12 months $50.00 or 26 months $100.00 ===== EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday March 1st, 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet 1601 Lomas NE CONTENTS: THIS MONTH: Dues Due Sylvan Zuercher February Meeting Chuck Vertrees Board Meeting Chuck Vertrees From the Driver's Seat Hurley Wilvert Cars and Parts For Sale Everybody Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman Coming Events Everybody Garage Tour Reminder LeRoy Rogers CNM Ladies Reminder Anne Mae Gold Definitive Dummy of the Month Sylvan Zuercher Progressive Dinner Debbie Pleau COVER: How Your Newsletter is Produced ===== "A politician is one who gets money from the rich and votes from the poor by promising to protect each from the other." -- anon. Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: Ray Burns 02/2000 Carl Johnson 02/2000 Clayborne Souza 02/2000 Bob Carlson 03/2000 Tarmo Sutt 03/2000 Joel Craig 04/2000 Mark Domzalski 04/2000 Bill McClellan 04/2000 Stephen Parker 04/2000 David Patten 04/2000 Joe Ashton 05/2000 Bodean Belt 05/2000 Steve Gongora 05/2000 Terry Price 05/2000 If your membership is due or has expired, please send your dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Note: the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, but only if you send us the renewal form from CORSA Communique! While surfing the web, check out the CORSA Home Page: http://www.corvair.org A new site is CNM's home page, thanks to Dennis Pleau: http://corsa.skiblack.com/chapters/chapter871 ===== NEW MEMBERS Sylvan Zuercher Deborah and John Dinsdale of Aurora, Colorado have joined our Club. Presumably they want to get the Newsletter and may not be attending meetings regularly, but we hope to see them at future events such as the Tri-State Meets. A hearty Welcome to Deborah and John! A hearty Welcome to Fran Lesher and husband Steve. Fran recently bought a 1966 yellow Monza Coupe, 110 HP, 4 speed. Steve has restored numerous cars over the years and is getting the Monza ready for dependable daily driving. Fran is eagerly waiting for her first drive. We hope to see you both at our March meeting! -- Sylvan ===== FEBRUARY MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees President Hurley Wilvert called the meeting to order at Galles Chevrolet at 7:30 PM. All officers were present. Sylvan Zuercher announced that there were no new members, but that one possible prospect might come to the meeting later if he was able. It was moved that Steven and Michael Pleau be made official members. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported than CNM has $219.97 in the checking account and $5,985.54 in the Money Market account for a total worth of $6,205.51. Car Council Report: Steve Gongora reported that the January 26th meeting was at the Old Car Garage, and it started with a treasurer's report. The Car Council had $7,305.60 in checking and three CD's worth $2,000, $6,000, and $1,5000. Ron Greenwell with Southwest Motorsports Racetrack talked about events, tracks, and membership. He said that about 600 people showed up for the opening on January 22nd and all seemed to be impressed. There is a 1.6 mile road course as well as a quarter mile and a half mile oval track. They are putting on two workshops on February 26th and 27th concerning crash management rescue, etc. He needs about 100 people for working corners and other positions. By volunteering for the workshops you will receive free membership, otherwise it will cost $25.00 per year. Their web page is Sandiamotorport.com. The Eighth Annual Supernationals will be at the State Fair grounds on February 4th, 5th and 6th. The Car Council will have a booth if enough people can be found to man it. A tour to Bob Pearson's garage is set for Sunday, March 19th from 2:00 to 4:30 PM. Those going from CNM and wanting to convoy should meet at the Bernalillo exit from I-40 at 1:00 PM. On April 8th, Bob Agnew will open his Old Car Garage and Worldwide Motors for any Club member who would like to get his car up on a rack. Mechanical expertise will be on hand and all you have to do is bring your parts. Call and reserve your time. On Sunday May 14th the Historical RV Tour will be coming through Albuquerque. Vintage RV's will motorcade through the city. More details are available from the Car Council. Mike Gonzales reported that the City of Albuquerque (Baca strikes again) was withdrawing their support from the Museum show and that one of the Secretaries told him the city was spending $3000 on trophies. According to Mike, the figure has never gone over $1200 for trophies. After a short discussion it was voted that the car show would go on as planned, and that possible alternate methods of funding would be sought. This will be taken up at the next meeting when detailed reports are available. Jerry Goffe said that one of the suggestions was to charge people with no club affiliation if they wanted to display. (CNM will probably see to trophies for the Corvairs.) Other coming events were mentioned. On Saturday, June 10th there will be an all Mopar show at Auge's in Belen. In mid-July there will be a "Flicks 66" Film Festival; Jerry Goffe said the film organization will be putting on 10-minute films using Route 66 from Acoma to Tijeras Canyon. Club members could be called about possible use of their vehicles. Also in August the Car Council Annual Picnic and the Make A Wish Car Show will be held; no dates have been set as yet. The Classic Chevy Show will be August 25-27, with Galles Chevrolet being a major sponsor. OLD BUSINESS Debbie Plea reminded everyone about the progressive dinner on Saturday. About 25 to 30 have indicated they will be coming. The upcoming Tri-State was discussed. The logo was passed around. About eleven rooms at the hotel have been reserved so far. They will call Debbie every two weeks and let her know the current status. It would help if we had a pre-registration so we would know about how many were coming. Debbie will make up a pre-registration form. It was brought up as to whether we would want to have the Bar-B-Q at Mark and Elizabeth's because of the distance that people would have to go with their cars already cleaned up to show. This decision was delayed until the board meeting. Del Patten has the insurance form from CORSA. Bill Reider discussed trophies. We need items for door prizes, goodie bags and items to put in them. The Museum will have dash plaques for those showing. Jerry Goffe will check on the T-shirts. Debbie Deck said she would see about setting up a camping trip in August. Sylvan Zuercher is working on a possible overnight trip in April. We would go to Las Cruces on Saturday, tour the museum on Sunday morning and then return. Possibly we could check other museums in El Paso for Saturday afternoon. NEW BUSINESS Joe Trujillo announced that because of a change in security we would have to come in to Galles on the West Side of the Saturn dealership (turn right or North on Legion) and go past the guard shack, then wander through. (A word from those of us who went out that way at the last meeting, WATCH THE SPEED BUMPS, unless you want to see how high your Corvair will bounce!) Our president will be out of town during the next meeting, so our illustrious Vice-President, Robert Gold, will run the meeting. Joel Nash announced that the Hot Rod Tour will be in town on June 3rd. They will stay overnight in Albuquerque, and will be parked downtown. Sylvan Zuercher announced that Ray Burns, our member in Taos, wants to sell his Corsa Coupe and get a convertible. We will set a time for the library van fix-up for later when we are sure of reasonably nice weather. Everyone can get together and get it done pretty fast. A decision on the request for raffle ticket purchases from the upcoming CORSA International Convention in Florida was postponed until the board meeting. In April we will have Randy Weist with Haggerty Insurance Agency talk about special insurance for collector cars, and in May a speaker from the MVD will talk about license plates. The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 after which Joe Trujillo raffled off a real nice bag and Mark Domzalski displayed his broken crankshaft. ===== FEBRUARY BOARD MEETING Chuck Vertrees The meeting was held at House of Covers on Thursday February 17th at 7:30 PM. Present were Hurley Wilvert, Robert Gold, Wendell Walker, Jim Pittman, "Lube" Lubert, Mark Domzalski, Ilva Walker, Steve Gongora, Sylvan Zuercher, Ron and Debbie Deck, and Chuck Vertrees. Hurley said he would be gone during the next meeting and that since he forgot during the last meeting, we would need to get the last two months minutes approved. Ollie Scheflow asked the board to set up and approve the dates during 2000 for the Route 66 cleanup. The suggested March 4th cleanup was moved to March 11th, because of the garage tour on the 4th, which starts at noon. The other suggested date that was moved was the October date, the 7th to the 14th, because of possible conflict with the Aspencade. The three dates finally approved for the 66 cleanup are 3/11/2000, 7/8/2000 and 10/14/2000. Remember that this is a Club project, and that the regulars who always show up could use a little help. We were reminded of the tour to Bob Pearson's garage at La Cienega on Sunday March 19th. He has a good collection of mostly Ford and Lincoln products with a few others thrown in. If you haven't been before, it is well worth the trip. CNM members going can meet at the Bernalillo exit on I-40 at 1:00 PM. The Annual picnic sponsored by the Santa Fe Old Car Club and the Albuquerque VMCCA will probably be on June 22nd in the Jemez. Wendell Walker will have more information later. The raffle for the Florida International Convention car was discussed. It was decided that CNM would not order any because of the pre-pay method. Mark will call them about this. In the past CNM has sold between 50 and 100 tickets. We received an announcement about the "West Texas Grand Old Tour" sponsored by the West Texas Antique Car Club of Odessa. This is on September 21-24th. This will be shown at the meeting and if you want further information, see Chuck. (The Confederate Air Force has a big unit in Odessa.) Jim Pittman received a latter from Hal Pickering in Tularosa. He offered for sale a lot of Corvair parts including engines. Information will be in the newsletter and at the meeting. The Museum car show was discussed. There will be a $3.00 entry fee to display your car and the Car Council will have 12 trophies. They are receiving nothing from the city. There will not be a viewer balloting this year. There will be a "selection" committee. We decided that there would be no charge to the Tri-State people, and that we would absorb the cost in the registration. Mark will contact CORSA about their "shippable" display to see if we can get it for the show. All will get dash plaques, etc. as part of their registration. We need a hospitality and reception room at the hotel with goodies. We will check with Debbie Pleau about this and see if it is already set up. It was decided that the Saturday night Bar-B-Q should be some place closer to town than the Domzalski's. Mark is checking on this. The possible use of Elena Gallegos Park in the Sandia foothills was suggested. Mark said that Flagstaff, Arizona is trying to get the International CORSA Convention in 2002. They are a small club and would need the help of the Albuquerque, Phoenix and Tucson clubs. The one problem was trying to find room for the banquet. Mark has contacted the University since he is an alumnus and they said no problem. (I think it would be a great place to have it.) Debbie Pleau is working on door prizes and goodie bags. Ron and Debbie Deck volunteered to help, since they have had experience with this in the past. Debbie Deck has volunteered to arrange a camping trip in August but she needs information. She asked, how far do we want to go? The consensus was, about two hours travel time. Ruth Boydston invited us to come up to her place in the Pecos and she would have enough room because her land and her sister's land are adjacent. Debbie asked what we thought about a pot luck meal, or a group breakfast, but it was getting late in the meeting and I don't think she got an answer. Bring your ideas to the March meeting. Sylvan Zuercher said we have a new member, John Dinsdale from Aurora, Colorado. He is a member of the Denver club but said he had always wanted to be a member of CNM. Russell Trujillo of the Classic Chevy group will be the speaker at the March meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 PM. ===== FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED FOR SALE: This is a partial list of available Corvair parts. (3) engines - some with accessories, distributors (1) engine - 140-HP. From a running car. (2) heads, 90/100-HP, pair (3) engine cases, older model (1) transmission, 4-speed (1) differential, '62, manual, 30-K miles, pristine (12) cylinders with pistons (2) transmissions, automatic (2) differentials, automatic (2) starters (1) crankshaft, older model (1) camshaft, older model Plus many other assorted parts. Most prices for good parts 75% to 50% of Clark's prices; other parts negotiable. WANTED: (4) hubcaps Hal Pickering 505-585-2503 45 Helms Rd Tularosa, NM 88352-9204 WANTED: Early radio antenna. Geoff Johnson 720-1484 WANTED: Tinted glass for 1966 Corvair convertible. Vent, door, quarter, both sides. Prefer NOS or real nice condition. WANTED: 1966 trunk deck. Tarmo Sutt 505-471-1153 tarmo @ juno.com FOR SALE: Early windshield, tinted, New Mexico style, i.e., lightly sand blasted. Cheap! Larry Blair 505-821-1386 CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS ===== SEVEN YEARS AGO IN C.N.M. March 1993 Volume 19 Number 3 The cover showed a 1965 sedan: what's wrong with this picture? Can you tell? President Del ran the meeting. Treasurer Will reported $1370. We planned car shows, garage tours, a 3-R Museum meeting, a dinner meeting, and orders for golf shirts and jackets. Sylvan was reported to be much improved after heart surgery. The latest issue of Road & Track had an article on oxygenated fuels; it did not address water pollution issues. Steve Gongora told us how he got started with Corvairs: his cousin Richie had one. Then his Dad bought a '61 Corvair for Steve and his sister to go to school in. Steve has owned many Corvairs since then, including specially equipped Corvans for use in his business, House of Covers! Tech tips gleaned from other publications told about the various kinds of smoke from an engine and what they meant, that little 1/8th inch gas line from the fuel filter on turbos and how it could be a fire hazard, and how a combination of air bag and seat belt enhances your safety -- when you ride in a modern car. FOURTEEN YEARS AGO The March 1986 cover showed the GM Electrovair, an experimental battery-filled electric car. It never got to market, but maybe it provided some research data. President Clayborne presided and LeRoy counted up to $590 in the bank. Bill Reider wanted to know how many "daily drivers" we had in the Club so he could write an article for CORSA, with photos. Bill still thinks CNM had an unusually high percentage of "daily drivers" in our Club. Bill Hector and LeRoy Rogers were preparing to set up a Club library. As a ploy to get articles for the Newsletter, a questionnaire on "My First Corvair" was prepared by Karen Souza. Our garage tour was a success thanks to LeRoy Rogers, Doug Malecki and Phil Maloof. It was snowy but we got to see a demonstration of painting techniques and a large number of fifties Cadillacs. Kim and Vickie Owen drove up from Alamogordo for the occasion. Mark Morgan continued his report on "Driving in Westpac" by telling us what it was like to drive in Japan and describing the (mostly tiny) cars, vans and trucks we don't see over here. Carl Johnson told us what to do with old head nuts: put 'em on the studs on top of the new head nuts to keep the rust and dirt off! A tech tip on late model rear wheel bearing end play finished up this issue. TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO The March 1979 cover showed a relatively tame Mark Morgan drawing of a Corvan. VP Norm Brand ran the meeting and we had $404 to spend. Bill Reider gave a talk on ignition cables and their importance. We planned a birthday party for May 13. We finally voted on a new name and "Enchanted Corvairs" became the official name of our Club Newsletter. Jim suggested a number of topics for people to write articles for the Newsletter. We had several tech tips: hard starting due to a too-short rotor, looking for vacuum leaks in carburetors, cleaning out fuel lines, making your flashers click louder, and diagnosing a poor tail light ground. Finally, we had a letter from a Spyder owner living in Brazil who enjoyed reading our articles in CORSA Communique. ===== ============================================================================ C O R V A I R S o f N E W M E X I C O C O M I N G E V E N T S ============================================================================ | M a r c h | A p r i l | M a y | | | | | | : : : 1 2 3 4 | : : : : : : 1 | : 1 2 3 4 5 6 | | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | | 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 | | 26 27 28 29 30 31 : | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 | 28 29 30 31 : : : | | : : : : : : : | 30 : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 1st Mar 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 4th Mar 12:00 noon Garage Tour and lunch - LeRoy Rogers Sat 11th Mar 1:00 PM CNM Ladies at Kim Patton's (1:00 to 4:00) Wed 15th Mar 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Sun 19th Mar 2:00 PM Garage Tour, Bob Pearson's, I-25 at La Cienega Exit Fri 24th Mar 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 5th Apr 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 8th Apr 1:00 PM CNM Ladies at Kay Sutt's, Santa Fe (1:00 to 4:00) Wed 19th Apr 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 21st Apr 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 3rd May 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Wed 17th May 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 26th May 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= GARAGE TOUR UPDATE - SATURDAY MARCH 4TH LeRoy Rogers The garage tour will start with lunch at Pat's Place at 12:00 noon. Pat's Place is located at 8216 Montgomery NE. At approximately 1:00 PM we will visit Art Leupold's garage, located at 4500 Piedra Blanca NE - just west of Montgomery and Eubank. (If you don't want lunch, just meet us at Art Leupold's at 1:00.) From there we'll go to LeRoy's place, 11521 Versailles NE - that's north and east of Juan Tabo and Candelaria. The last place is Robert and Anna Mae Gold's garage located at 1301 Valencia NE - west of San Pedro between Constitution and Lomas NE. GARAGE TOUR, SANTA FE CLUB Wendy Walker The Santa Fe club invites us to join them to tour Bob Pearson's automobile collection, Sunday, March 19th at 2:00 PM. Take I-25 to the La Cienega exit, go west, look for the first house on the right. We have been here before, several years ago. It's a fabulous location and a great collection of cars. Want to caravan? Go to the Bernalillo-Placitas exit from I-25 and look for Corvairs at the northbound exit at 1:00 PM. ARTESIA SHOW AND CRUISE 2000 - FRIDAY-SATURDAY MARCH 17-18, 2000 Artesia, New Mexico - Artesia Car Enthusiasts - 3rd Annual Main Event Car Show with 25 classes. For more information contact: Frank or Dorothy Hammond, 505-746-9447 or 748-2221, or Steve or Cindy Anderson, 505-746-9735 or 746-3596. VAIRFEST Y2K - FRI-SAT-SUN, MAY 5-6-7, 2000. Location: Cambria Pines Lodge, Cambria, California, 1-800-445-6868. More information: Central Coast CORSA, Bob Galli, 5000 Cascabel Rd. Atascadero, CA 93422 805-466-2737. ===== CNM LADIES Anne Mae Gold Heartfelt greetings after Valentine's Day to you all. I hope all went well and you are all feeling loved! The next meeting for the CNM Ladies will be held March 11 from 1 to 4 pm at Kim Patten's house. Since she lives up in the mountains, Rita has kindly offered to carpool up there. I'd like to join her in offering the use of my van so that we can have two wangonsful to travel up there. Please give me a call at 268-6878 to reserve a seat. How about if we meet at Rita's house at 12:15 to park and ride? If you forgot how to get to Rita's, please refer to the map that Jim printed up last month for the progressive dinner. Last month five of us met at Ruth Boydston's. She was kind enough to pull out many of her quilts, her album of quilts, and even one of her pattern books! Thank You! She was brave enough to let me try my hand at quilting one of her quilts and Opal was right next to me keeping me honest! I had a great time. Keep your spirits up, hope to see you at Kim's and bring your ideas and projects! Ta ta for now, Anne Mae ===== CORVAIR GATHERING March 25, 2000 J.C. Snow Park N. St. George, Utah The Bonneville Corvair Club of Utah is proud to announce their first 'CORVAIR GATHERING' held in beautiful and sunny, St. George, Utah. Join us for a great weekend of fun, events and a beautiful drive. People's Choice Car Show, 10:00 a.m. to noon. Trophy Presentation. Drive into beautiful Snow Canyon, up and over Utah Mountain into Arizona, over to Mesquite, Nevada and return to St. George via the Virgin River Canyon Gorge. Discounted rate at Super 8 Motels is $34.88 a night, up to 4 adults per room. Call 435-628-4251 and mention "Corvair Gathering." The Super 8 Motel is located at 915 South Bluff Street, St. George, Utah. All Corvair Clubs in the surrounding states are invited to participate. Car Show and Registration at 10:00 a.m. at the J.C. Snow Park, 900 South 400 East. Drive to begin at 1:00 p.m. Arrive early or stay a day later and enjoy the beautiful golf courses that St. George, Utah and Mesquite, Nevada have to offer. Mesquite also offers some of the finest casinos in Nevada. Contact/RSVP Wayne Broadhead at 801-943-8598, or e-mail: wayne @ cyber-west.com. ===== FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT Hurley Wilvert The sight of basketballs bouncing off the engine cover of my '68 coupe, rebounding from the net mounted above my garage, reminded me that March is here already and it doesn't seem like winter has come yet. I haven't been able to drive my Corvairs in the snow all winter. But spring is just around the corner and that means the convertible tops can come down soon. We have plenty of fun activities coming up soon that will be great for everyone. We also have a community service activity this month on Saturday the 11th, that of cleaning the litter from the road on old Highway 66 by Carnuel. I hope that many of you can make it. The week before, March 4th, LeRoy has a great garage tour arranged for those of you who like seeing how others manage to work on their cars. The progressive dinner last month was excellent. The Gongoras, the Pleaus, the Reiders and the Scheflows laid out a tasty and plentiful spread of food for us. Thank all of you for the excellent food and your hospitality. I tried to avoid it, but I did eat too much. The Tri-State is coming, where we can compete and socialize with our Corvair friends from neighboring states. The car show will be part of a larger show at the Albuquerque Museum. Corvair is the featured marque for this show. If you want to see some really nice cars, make plans to be there. Saturday night should be a great cook out too. I have been traveling a lot lately with my work and that is going to cause me to be absent from the March meeting. Robert Gold will conduct the meeting in my absence. He also has a good talk lined up for after the meeting. Since I hate to miss a meeting, I am planning to attend the North Texas club meeting instead, as I will be working in Dallas at that time. Remember, we meet at Galles Chevrolet on Lomas. For those of you who may not have been to last month's meeting, to get to our meeting place, drive west on Lomas, past Galles and past the Saturn building. Then turn right on the street just past Saturn and follow it to the parking lot in back. Go into the parking lot (no charge), stay to the right and go to the back of the building where the meeting is. There is plenty of parking back there. Enjoy the meeting and I will see you all again in April. Hurley Wilvert ===== HOW YOUR NEWSLETTER IS PRODUCED Jim Pittman We could discuss our Newsletter in several ways: Chronology and schedules, Content and style; History and changes; Value to the Club; Tools and techniques; How do I keep on doing it; Future possibilities. CHRONOLOGY I do a little of the Newsletter at a time during the month as opportunity presents itself. My editing month usually starts as soon as the previous month's pages are printed and delivered to Sylvan. The Newsletter originally exists as a series of computer files. Many are text files that change little and in a consistent way from month to month: visualize the list of officers, the dues due page and the calendar. Some files are graphics that must be prepared anew each month. One is a master page layout file. As soon as one Newsletter is finished, I make a new folder for the next month and copy new files to that folder. The new cover with its dates has to be updated and I have to obtain cover art from somewhere. The dues due paragraph has to have another month added (I list the current month plus two future months) and possibly some overdue members must be dropped. Chuck sends minutes via e-mail and President Hurley's column arrives via e-mail. Dennis often e-mails articles that he finds of interest from Virtual Vairs on the Internet and occasionally I get a photo as a graphic file attachment to e-mail. I have all of our back issues, so I scan the covers of issues that will appear as miniatures on the Seven Years Ago page. Although the date for submitting material is the 15th of the month, in practice it's two Fridays before the next meeting; by then I need to have most if not all material in hand so that on Saturday I can put it all together and print camera-ready copy. Sometimes I can get the Newsletter together and print a final copy by Saturday afternoon, but usually it's not finished until Sunday. Then I take it to Sylvan, heave a great sigh of relief -- and the cycle starts over again. BASIC FEATURES OF OUR NEWSLETTER An illustration on the cover with the title, date and issue number, a table of contents, a "dues due" page, meeting minutes, board meeting minutes, the president's letter, a "for sale" section, a summary of what we published seven, fourteen and twenty-one years ago, a three-month calendar, previews of coming events, and reports on past events. A Billiken cartoon appears as often as Mark Morgan sends them. Tech tips or articles may be written by CNM members, lifted from other CORSA publications or filtered from the Internet. Every December we have an index for the year and every January there's a member list. These features have been present since early in the life of the Newsletter. STYLE I have tried to balance tradition with innovation. I like boxes around pages and the Club's logo at the top of each page. I try to pay attention to fonts and layout to help make the text easier to read and help you find each part. I think style improved a lot during the early years; you may have an opinion as to whether it reached a plateau and when. Now and then we have had particularly interesting features and sometimes they go away. For example, the Burma Shave signs lasted many months but may never return; they are just too time-consuming and I probably burned out on making up rhymes. From time to time we have a monthly column by a member and they'll give out for one reason or another. HISTORY Mark Morgan started the Newsletter in December 1974 with a "January 1975" issue. It featured a sketch of Santa and a reindeer, waving from a Corvair, surrounded with snowflakes. Mark edited over a year's worth of Newsletters, then Glen Thompson took over when Mark left college for the Navy. Glen's issues were less colorful than Mark's but featured some good technical and general interest articles. When Glen's responsibilities took him away from the Newsletter, there was a dry spell, and Steve Gongora and Sylvan Zuercher did quite a lot of unacknowledged work to keep it going. I took over (did someone ask me to do it or did I volunteer? I don't remember) with the January-February 1978 issue and we haven't missed a month since. Of course, I have had to call on Bill Reider more than once to finish up an issue when I had to be out of town at a critical time. Thanks, Bill! NAME At first the Newsletter was labeled just "Corvairs of New Mexico" but several members wanted a distinctive name and a contest was proposed to find a name. "Enchanted Corvairs" won and became official with the March 1979 issue. I must say, this was not my first choice, but I am used to it now and pleased with it. VALUE I think, in addition to publishing dues notices, meeting minutes, news and technical lore, the Newsletter is valuable to the Club as a reminder that "Next Wednesday is CNM night" and thus reinforces our habit of going to meetings. I think a strength of our Club is the fact that we don't change the meeting day and time and we have had few changes in meeting location. TOOLS In the beginning the Newsletter was produced by typewriter and then photocopied. For the finished copy I usually used an IBM Selectric at work which produced excellent quality type, if I could avoid typographical errors. In 1980 I combined my interest in computers with the needs of the Newsletter to justify spending $6000 on an Apple II and NEC Spinwriter. Over the years the Apple II has been supplemented by an Apple IIgs and a Macintosh and the Spinwriter was supplanted by several laser printers. Being a computer fan has certainly been of benefit to our Newsletter because there's no way I would have continued it very many years with typewriter and white-out liquid! It's handy to have a spell checker, but guess what, typos sometimes still sneak through. The final page layout is done these days with Pagemaker 6.5 and photos are processed with Photoshop 5.5 and Graphic Converter 3.7. We bought a Sony digital camera and we have a Hewlett-Packard scanner to make pictures or graphic images suitable for printing. An Apple LaserWriter printer with the ability to enhance photographs provides "camera-ready" copy. I'm still using an Apple IIgs to produce mailing labels. I used to print them on paper and Sylvan would have to photocopy them onto label sheets, but now I print them directly onto Avery stick-on label sheets with an HP LaserJet IIp. So far - knock on wood - I have not had the LaserJet eat a label and gum up the inside of the printer. THE LITTLE GUY I sometimes feel as though the Newsletter is at a point where it mostly does itself. Of course I have to actually put it together, but despite having no idea what will be in next month's issue, something always comes along. As often as not, when I think the next issue will star Slim Pickins' and be five pages long, extra material shows up and I have to ask Sylvan if we can afford thirteen or fourteen pages. (More than six sheets of paper pushed us up to the two-ounce postal rate.) Maybe there really is a little guy in the back of my head who, with only a little help from me, figures out how to get stuff and where everything should go every month. THE FUTURE There are probably few CORSA organizations that have had the same newsletter editor for twenty-six years. Although I'm not ready to give it up yet, I doubt that I can continue for twenty-six more years. If I quit, could we get another editor? What might the future format of our Newsletter be? Color photos? We have had color before, but right now it's too expensive. A newsletter published on the Internet? I can't see it, at least not until access to the Internet is as cheap and easy as making a phone call. Despite its fabulous growth, I don't see the Internet becoming as easy and cheap as the telephone for quite a few years. I think we'll be getting our paper Newsletters in the mail for some time yet. CHANGES The content and style of the Newsletter could change, though, and maybe you could be the one to change it. If you have ideas about improving the Newsletter, send them along to me, or get them to one of the officers, or bring them to a board meeting. Hopefully the little guy in the back of my head will like your ideas and go along. ===== "DUMMY OF THE MONTH" REVISITED Sylvan Zuercher It all started with a stop at Francis Boydston's for parts and a conversation resulting in an August 1981 newsletter item. Jim as Editor typed this for me as I had not yet started with computers. Corvairs of New Mexico "Dummy of the Month" Club This club is open at no cost to any member who feels that confession is good for the soul {and informative to the timid}. Presently qualified for membership is Francis Boydston, who has owned and sold possibly 90 Corvairs since 1964 and has worked on many others, clutch jobs being among the various repairs. Francis recently did a clutch job on his camper pickup, but when finished the clutch wouldn't release. Very unwelcome development! After removing the power train and separating the transaxle. Francis discovered [have you guessed?] that for some unknown reason the clutch disc was put in backwards! For all you readers who haven't worked with clutches, the clutch disc is labled on one face "Flywheel Side" and if that side is installed facing the pressure plate it will not work. Francis said that he obviously needs more experience at dropping engines anyway. We had a good laugh about that. Next month more CNM members will be added to this maybe-not-not-so-exclusive club. Do you Qualify? Let the editor know about your goofs so you too can join. In October 1981 Del became a member as follows. CNM DOM Club Joining charter member Francis Boydston this month is Del Patten. Del seems to have a problem with the blower fan installation. Oil was leaking from the top of the engine so there was only one thing to do. Change the top cover gaskets. This is a long strip-down job and a short time to clean the gasket surfaces. With flying elbows Del really got into the job and since evening was approaching, he pressed on ever faster. Torque bolts on cover, replace top shroud, install carbs and generator, get ready to tighten fan belt and ---whoops--- forgot the #:?&#%!! fan - oh nuts. Strip down everything again and install fan. Yes he finished the job with the help of a shop light since it was dark by this time. Del says this was the third [?] time he forgot to install the fan after working on his engine. Del, what's this phobia about not replacing the fan? Rather than leaving the fan off of the engine, simply duck when it hits the fan. In November 1981 I elected myself and having started this club, made all the rules, regulations and requirements. [The 3 R'S]. This one is personal. It probably should have been the first one in the series, but there seemed to be others as worthy of membership. When I rewired [Mag wire of course] a factory air engine sometime ago, it seemed that something went wrong. After new plugs, points, rotor, condenser, cap, timing and dwell adjustment etc. it was time for a test drive. Out of the garage, to the street, check traffic -- go full out -- boy! What a dog!! It ran better before I worked on it. Hmmm. Turn around and nurse it back to the shop. Darn near had to push it back up the street. Recheck everything -- seems okay. Sounds a little rough though. So back over everything. Can't figure what it is. The Lone Ranger finally arrives in the form of Bill Reider who dares to suggest a crossed wire situation. No way, Bill! When I rewire, I do it right! I lay the wires over the top shroud, in order by length, snap the boots over the plugs and string the wires back to the distributor. Since I am in a hurry to deliver the car, a better suggestion would be appreciated. Well fellow Dummys, the Lone Ranger calmly rechecked the wiring anyway, and -- sure enough -- number 2 and number 4 were crossed at the distributor. At least I had the right length wire on #2 and #4 spark plugs. Now if I could only find the guy who switched those wires on me. In January 1994 Del, in response to Jim's request for Care and Feeding Your Corvair booklet info, restated his fan miscue. A long hiatus for membership ensued. There were possibly three reasons: A: nobody made any boo boo's [Not likely]; B: nobody worked on their cars; and C: nobody would admit to any goofs. In November 1999, I nominated Larry for membership for having screwed up on two different procedures. Perhaps Del's short term memory ability is evident in the fact that he claims sole membership in this club when as you can see from the above articles, he is one of four! Since both Del and Larry make the dubious claim to the Presidency of the DOM club, started by me and who wrote 3 R'S, I have come to conclusions to be listed shortly. Since I wanted to be in complete control of my faculties, I abstained from drinking Mountain Dew for THREE WHOLE DAYS and came to the following conclusions. A: The bulge in Del's and Larry's cheeks is not due to Mailpouch or Redmans [Politically incorrect] CHAW of Terbaky. B: There is a need for the SOUTHWEST PEACE TALKS. I am therefore offering to mediate these Southwest Peace Talks by shuttling [actually doing the Tim Conway shuffle ala the Carol Burnet Show] between Paa-Ko and City Hall, avoiding potholes -- OOPs -- pitfalls along the way. If all mediation fails, I propose a duel at the CNM campout this summer. Choice of weapons will be custard or merringe pies at 2 paces. The participants will remain members of the DOM club and the winner and loser get to clean up after the duel. As of this newsletter, I am abdicating my TITLE and will remain in the DOM as the Founder and Author of the 3 R-s. This club is and will be, still open to anyone who feels that confession is good for the soul and informative for the timid. You can nominate yourself or anyone else who has goofed one or more times. Just speak up. By the way Del, your columns as President in years past were titled "Fulla Gas." Your Snappy Repartee was still titled "Fulla Gas." Since this condition has persisted for quite a few years, may I suggest a remedy? Try Gaviscon! Worked for me every time. P.S. Larry. Have you modified you "DOOR" to accept my wooden nickels? I must bring this to a close as I am in desperate need of a Mountain Dew fix. Sylvan ===== PROGRESSIVE DINNER Debbie Pleau Well, the first CNM Progressive Dinner is complete and I think it could be called a success; at least I got good feedback from everyone I talked with. The attendees were the Pleaus, Gongoras, Blairs, Sticklers, Jerry Goffe, the Reiders, Golds, Scheflows, Pattens, Wilverts and Vertrees. Ruth Boydston made it to the first stop but headed home after that. Our first stop was the Gongoras' for appetizers and drinks. The appetizers included shrimp and cocktail sauce, asparagus and ham rolled up in crepes, hot wings, stuffed mushrooms and quite a few other delectable delicacies. And the assortment of beverages was awesome. We then headed on to Glory Hall where there were several salads and delicious Canadian Cheese and Chicken Noodle soups. On to the Pleaus' for the main course and if anyone left hungry it was their own fault as there was plenty of everything including chicken cacciatore, lasagna, tortellini with pesto and Italian beef. We then waddled our way to our cars for a caravan to the Scheflows' (nine cars in all, although only three were Corvairs - the Golds didn't make it to the Scheflows' but they did drive their Corvair-powered VW bus to the first three stops). Here there was a wide array of desserts including a layered cake, apple cake, chocolate pie, cookies and brownies. My heartfelt thanks to all who lent their homes and contributed food to this event. We had a great time and many of us want to do it again! =end=