Updated 30-Jan-2007 - Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico.
Editor:
Jim Pittman
Next Meeting:
Wednesday September 3rd, 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet, Lomas & University
This Month:
Dues Due Sylvan Zuercher
August Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees
August Board Meeting Jim Pittman
The Driver's (Hot) Seat Robert Gold
For Sale, Trade or Wanted Everybody
Calendar of Coming Events Everybody
State Fair Car Show Robert Gold
Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman
There And Back the Aircooled Way Dave Huntoon
Pikes Peak Club Web Page Dennis Pleau
Resurrecting a '66 Corsa Geoff Johnson
Tri-State 2004 Hotel Information Ken Brown
CORSA Newsletter Award Jim Pittman
Cover: Mary Lou's Convertible at the NMCCC Picnic
===
"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it." -- Mae West
Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due:
Gordon Johnson 2003-Jun
Mark Morgan 2003-Jun
Richard Foster 2003-Jul
Robert Harvey 2003-Aug
Larry Hickerson 2003-Aug
Steve Johnson 2003-Aug
Jacob Schlessinger 2003-Aug
Sylvan Zuercher 2003-Aug
Lee Olsen 2003-Sep
Jon Anderson 2003-Oct
Willard Davis 2003-Oct
John Topp 2003-Oct
Jason Ward 2003-Oct
Del Patten 2003-Nov
Jack Bryan 2003-Nov
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!
===
August Meeting Notes
Chuck Vertrees
The meeting was called to order on 8/6/03 at 18:30 at Galles Chevrolet. There
were 23 members and 2 guests present. We were glad to see our president and
family back from Spain. Sylvan is starting to feel a little better and hopes to
be able to make the next meeting.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the
newsletter. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that CNM had $676.50 in the
checking account and $4,644.76 in the GMAC account for a total worth of
$5,321.26.
Mark Martinek reported on the last Car Council meeting. Most of the
report concerned the coming September Car Auction, Corral, Show & Swap Meet.
The Car Council has an established website: NMCCC.TRIPOD.COM. Information on
coming events can be found there.
Mark Domzalski did not have any new CORSA rumors. We will have to
read our latest CORSA Communique and see if we can find any.
Bill Reider still has lots of T-shirts and golf shirts. The price is
being reduced to get rid of our supply. See Bill for the latest price.
The Santa Fe Fourth of July car show was mentioned. Be sure and
check out our website. Steve has added a lot of new pictures.
The swap meet mentioned in the Car Council report is on September
26, 27, and 28. CNM will volunteer to work the gate in the morning of some of
those dates. It was said that the 28th is the date for the State Fair car show,
but now there is some question if that is the date. STAY TUNED!
The meeting was adjourned at 20:02. This was followed by a presentation
by two officers of the Albuquerque Police Department bicycle patrol: Charles
Hedrick and Cory Snyder. They work out of the "Mighty Southeast" Substation,
the best in the city. Thanks to Jerry for coordinating this presentation.
===
Board Meeting Notes
Jim Pittman
On Wednesday 20-Aug-2003 at 5:10 PM President Robert Gold called the meeting to
order at House of Covers. Present were Mark Domzalski, Joel Nash, Steve
Gongora, Geoff Johnson, Sally Johnson, Jim Pittman, Heula Pittman and Jerry
Goffe. Chuck Vertrees, planning ahead for his absence, had asked your editor to
take notes. Wendell Walker, planning ahead for his absence, had mailed a copy
of the treasurer's report. It said we have $742.50 in checking, $4644.76 in the
GMAC account, for a total of $5387.26.
Robert said that the Sesame Street number for today is "21" as in: the
State Fair car show will be on Sunday 21 Sep 2003.
Robert said he really enjoyed the presentation at the last meeting. It
was more about police activities than about how to get into your car when you
had foolishly locked yourself out, but no matter.
Robert reminded us that there will be elections in October, so we'll
need a slate of candidates. Sylvan has been the one-man nominating committee
and election committee in the past but he may be less active this year. Not to
worry: Mark Domzalski wishes to run for president and Sally Johnson wishes to
run for vice president. Although they were not present to be asked, we believe
Chuck and Wendell wish to run for re-election as secretary and treasurer,
respectively. There's no lock on any office: other people in the club are
welcome to run for any office. (Editor-for-life Jim reminded us that the
newsletter editor's job is not an elected office.)
Sally & Geoff have ideas for events and they wanted to bring them to
the board meeting. First, they observed that in recent years we have had few
activities where people actually bring their Corvairs. They were thinking of
organizing a show-and-shine for a weekend before the State Fair. Mark commented
that these things work fairly well for a breakfast on a Saturday. Robert
commented that it need not be a big to-do but a low key event just to get
people to come out with their Corvairs.
Geoff commented that many people have their Corvairs "finished" or
restored, but others have cars that are continually in a state of change. We
should attract both kinds of Corvair owners. Steve said we should look at the
British Sports Car Club newsletter: they go to breakfasts about twice a month.
Sally will check out a restaurant for holding a Saturday show-and-breakfast.
Sally suggested we could have monthly tech sessions - especially for
new Corvair owners - in the past we have had sessions on how to repair brake
systems, carburetor tune sessions, how to adjust headlights, speed checks with
radar gun, how to install windshields.
Sally said, with apology to present and past officers, that meetings
tend to be "dull" and this may contribute to problems with member retention.
Ways to overcome this could include being sure to put a notice of upcoming
speakers in the newsletter so members will be looking forward to meeting;
re-arranging the meetings to have the speaker first and the business meeting
later. Then we'd need to be sure the speaker knows how much time is available.
Steve pointed out that when the speaker is last, it gives the person
time to observe the meeting and get a feel for the people there, and get better
prepared for their talk. So we need to think about this.
Sally continued that they want to have an autocross (Mark pointed out
that the chair for the 2005 CORSA autocross was present at the meeting, hint,
hint) and maybe we could go to the UNM Pit parking area some Sunday morning.
Mark said we have been thinking about reviewing the constitution to
bring it up-to-date. We need more formal statements of job descriptions for the
officer positions. Robert brought up the need for better planning for the club
awards, in particular, trying to incorporate the other Tri-State clubs into the
process for selecting the recipient of the Boydston award. We have brought this
idea up at Tri-State events and so far have had little response except for
Steve Goodman's participation.
Robert mentioned our planned participation in the NMCCC swap meet,
26-27-28 September. There is a car show Sunday 28 September. Since we will
participate in the swap meet (we are scheduled for early Sunday) we can go to
the car show as well.
Joel said he would check with Larry Blair to speak at our next meeting
on combat engineering in the military in Vietnam. He has slides to illustrate
an interesting and informative talk.
Mark said that Tarmo is working on plans for our October Aspencade tour
and at this time the tentative date is 11 October, a Saturday.
The meeting was adjourned at about 5:55 PM.
===
From the Driver's (Hot) Seat
Robert Gold
21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21
I bet you're wondering why have I written the number 21 so many times to begin
this column? It's because if I don't say that number enough times I'm going to
forget it. To begin with, I want to encourage everyone to attend this year's
State Fair Car Show. I organize the show every year and in the past I could
remember when it would be held. That was not the case this year. There I sat at
the last meeting telling everyone about the show, but when it came time to
state the date I forgot it. The previous newsletter said the show would happen
on the 28th of September. I thought that was wrong, but I wasn't sure. Well I'm
sure now-- THE STATE FAIR CAR SHOW WILL BE HELD ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21.
So if you want to have a great time, and get lots of ribbons to brag
about, make sure you're there. Details about the show are in an article in this
newsletter.
Well that's enough of my senior moments for this month. I do remember
that I attended the Council of Car Clubs picnic and my family had a wonderful
time. That's if we ignore the fact that Sara managed to take a header into the
play area tires. It was quite a moment when she slipped and literally
disappeared into the bowels of one of those gigantic truck tires. We knew
everything was all right when she started yelling. Dead children don't yell. We
cleaned up her scratch and she was off to terrorize the world.
The Car Council did a mighty fine job in making everyone feel at home.
I count as one of my better suggestions to include the picnic as our regular
August event. A quick count of the various cars showed that the three Corvairs
were the most of any one make there. Great going CNM'ers. Oh yes, I can't talk
about the picnic without commenting on one more thing. You see I'm the safety
officer for the USGS here in town, so I tend to notice safety problems. There
was an individual at the picnic who was trying very hard to start the charcoal
for the barbecue. He stacked the charcoal and applied the lighter fluid and
threw in a match. The fire started slowly and died out. So he threw some more
fluid on it and fired it up again. It then died again. We watched as this guy
sprayed so much fluid on the coals that we were ready for a reenactment of
Pompeii. Luckily nothing bad happened, I guess we could say, "no harm, no
foul".
The summer is starting to wind down, but CNM still has a lot of
activities planned. Sally and Geoff Johnson were kind enough to attend the last
Board meeting to propose some changes in how we do things in order to make the
club more friendly to new members. I took offense (just kidding!) when Sally
said that new members might not be enthralled by the monthly Car Council
report. I guess I'll need to jazz up the presentation so that the membership
doesn't go to sleep. Anyway, Sally and Geoff suggested that in preparation for
the upcoming State Fair Car Show (21 21 21 21...) we have an informal "show and
shine" event a couple of weeks before the show. The idea is to encourage the
membership to actually bring their Corvairs to an event so all of us can see
what wonderful cars we have.
I remember way back when I started in the club I was worried that I
would be looked down upon when I drove up in my primered 65 Monza. That fear
evaporated when I took a look at the cars parked around Ed Black's. What most
impressed me was Sylvan's early model that was sort of customized (bashed in)
in the back. Anyway I think it's a great idea to emphasize Corvairs, so Sally
will be looking into a place and time for all of us to get together.
The thought at this time will be a breakfast combined with a parking
lot get together to look at the cars. Another suggestion was to have an
autocross for those who like to go fast. In recent years we've emphasized more
sedate drives and car shows, but haven't done much in the speed department. So
I guess it's time we strap on the helmet and let 'er rip! We'll try to discuss
some of this at the next meeting. For sure we'll firm up the show and shine
event at the meeting.
Speaking of the next meeting, Joel Nash has arranged for Larry Blair to
speak on engineering in Vietnam. It is at this point I'd like to pause and make
one of my many confessions to the membership. I've had a professional
relationship with Larry for many years. It began when I headed a project for
the USGS to collect water data in the Albuquerque area in cooperation with the
Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority (AMAFCA). Larry was the
Director of that agency and I was floored when I discovered that he was a
Corvair fan. Since then I've had a chance to follow his career as he became the
head of the City of Albuquerque Public Works Department, and to learn a little
bit about his background. All I can say is that I'm astounded at what Larry has
accomplished in his life. He had been honored numerous times by the New Mexico
Society of Professional Engineers as the most outstanding engineer in the area,
and that does not even include his accomplishments in the military. He is truly
a renaissance man. In addition he has a wry sense of humor that comes up
unexpectedly whenever his gives a talk. With this in mind I encourage you to
come and hear Larry. You won't be disappointed.
Looking into the future, plans are beginning for the somewhat annual
Aspencade. Tarmo Sutt is heading up the effort. This is one event that is
unique every time it's held. We may be traveling through the Jemez Mountains or
we could be in the Santa Fe area. Who knows. At this point only Tarmo knows,
and hopefully we'll be hearing from him at the next meeting to see what's up
this time.
I guess that's all I have for this month. I could talk about the Golds'
soccer adventures, but that will have to wait to farther into the season. All I
can say is that Anne Mae is beginning the journey into coaching. I know she'll
be unlike any coach the AYSO has ever seen. Just one example should be proof of
that fact.
Sara's team colors are lime green and black. To this Anne was inspired
to suggest that the team be called the margaritas. The AYSO management thought
that name to be "inappropriate." So goes life in the Gold household.
I guess that's all for now. Be sure to attend the next meeting on
Wednesday, September 3 at 7:30. I hope to see you there!
-- Robert Gold
===
* * * * * * FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED
FREE: 1964 Corvair coupe - needs restoration,
new cylinder head.
Geoff Johnson - 720-1484
FOR SALE: Extra Greenbriers to go -- call Carl Johnson - 344-3178
Talk to me. Must also be discussed with Sally & Geoffrey.
FOR SALE: Yellow Tri-State T-shirts $10 - XXL $12
Yellow Tri-State Golf Shirts $14 - XXL $16
Call Bill Reider 299-4597
FOR SALE: Book on MG-T series.
Comes with an MG-TD.
$7,500.00
Jerry Goffe - 345-3100
FOR SALE: Super Manual for 1960 Cushman.
Comes with a 1960 Cushman.
$3,000.00
Jerry Goffe - 345-3100
FOR SALE: 1961 Honda Scrambler
No book.
$2,650.00
Jerry Goffe - 345-3100
* * * * * * * * * * * CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS
===
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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
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| S e p t e m b e r | O c t o b e r | N o v e m b e r |
| | | |
| : 1 2 3 4 5 6 | : : : 1 2 3 4 | : : : : : : 1 |
| 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
| 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 |
| 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 | 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 |
| 28 29 30 : : : : | 26 27 28 29 30 31 : | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 |
| : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | 30 : : : : : : |
============================================================================
Wed 3rd Sep 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE
Sat 13th Sep 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - TBA
Wed 17th Sep 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers
Fri 19th Sep 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman
Sun 21st Sep 7:00 AM State Fair Car Show - Robert Gold - 505-268-6878
Fri 26th Sep ....... NMCCC Auction - more information later
Sun 28th Sep ....... NMCCC Swap Meet - more information later
Wed 1st Oct 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE
Sat 4th Oct ....... Old Route 66 Clean-up - more information later
Sat 4th Oct early! Balloon Festival starts - continues through week
Sat 11th Oct CNM Ladies - TBA
Wed 15th Oct 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers
Fri 24th Oct 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman
Wed 5th Nov 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE
Fri-Sat 7-8 Nov Great Western Fan Belt Toss & Swap Meet - California
Sat 8th Nov 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - TBA
Sat 15th Nov ....... CNM Pot Luck & Auction - more information later
Wed 19th Nov 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers
Wed 19th Nov 9:00 PM ===EARLY=== Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman
Wed 3rd Dec 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE
Sun 7th Dec Christmas Party - more information later
Sat 13th Dec 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - TBA
Wed 17th Dec 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers
Fri 19th Dec 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman (early)
Wed 7th Jan 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE
Sat 10th Jan 1:00-4:00 CNM Ladies - TBA
Wed 21st Jan 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers
Fri 23rd Jan 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Subject: Next Meeting
Larry Blair confirms he will talk on combat engineering at the September 3 CNM
meeting. - Joel Nash (joelnash AT msn DOT com)
===
State Fair Car Show
Robert Gold
Corvairs of New Mexico will be holding our sixth annual State Fair Car Show on
Sunday, September 21. This is the last day of the Fair.
We'll meet at the Furr's Cafeteria parking lot on the southwest corner of
Central and San Pedro at around 7:00 AM and will leave around 7:20 to enter the
Fairgrounds through gate 3. This is the furtherest gate to the south on San
Pedro. Admission, if we are lucky, will not have to be paid when we enter the
fairgrounds. We will be parking on Heritage Ave just south of the Manuel Lujan
Building. This is where we were last year.
Show times are from 8:00 AM to approximately 4:30 PM. Ribbons will be awarded
for three "best of" classes and seventeen novelty classes. This should assure
that you'll be getting at least one ribbon to display to the world. You'll get
to display your awards as soon as the judging is completed, which should be
before lunch.
If you have any questions call Robert or Anne Mae Gold in the evenings at
268-6878 or send email to: beisbol30 AT aol. DOT com.
We've had good support for this show in the past, so let's keep up the good
work this year!! See you there
-- Robert Gold
===
Seven Years Ago September 1996 Volume 22 - Number 9
On the cover, conventioneers from Pennsylvania mistake Acoma Pueblo for condos.
President Mark Domzalski ran our meeting and treasurer Will Davis said we had
$1133 to spend. From the Car Council: the VMCCA was preparing an "un-fair" car
show (since the State Fair was having no car show this year) and CNM planned to
participate. Bill Reider said the convention bank account held about $15,670
and he was in a hurry to pay all bills and close the account. Ollie Scheflow
reported that we now "owned" the second mile (eastbound from Tramway) of old
Route 66 and we'd probably do our first clean-up as soon as we could be trained
by the highway department. Your editor was putting together a "How to Run a
Convention" booklet and asked for articles from all committee chairs. An
outline of the topics took up a whole page.
Sylvan welcomed new members: Wayne & Judy Ward of Las Cruces had 40 Corvairs
including an aqua Spyder convertible. Sal Roybal had a 1963 convertible.
Michael & Joan Hurst had a red 1964 turbo convertible. C. H. Valerio had a 1964
gray coupe. Johnny & Veronica Silva of Espanola had a 1963 convertible. Bruno
Parks of Iowa paid dues at the convention to get our newsletter.
Mark thanked all who worked on the convention and asked members to try to
attend as many meetings as possible. Mark also described the sinking feeling
when his Rampside just quit motivating - turned out that the drive shaft broke
and the ends melted into blobs. The tech tip was - replace the shaft with a new
one, not an old spare!
Bill Reider discussed torque patterns for Corvair heads. There's the shop
manual way, Richard Finch's way, and then there's Bill's way. Each is better
than the others. Actually, Bill's way minimizes the number of times you have to
change the socket on your torque wrench as you go around the pattern.
Fourteen Years Ago September 1989 Volume 15 - Number 9
The cover featured styling sketches by Fred Edeskuty showing variations on the
Lakewood: a pickup, an "El Camino" and a two-door mini station wagon. Tom
Martin asked whether the benefits of mailing our newsletter to so many other
clubs was worth the considerable cost. Bill Reider gave the recent national
convention in Kansas City high marks. President Bill Hector reported on the
movie "Tucker, the Man and his Dream" and said there were many parallels
between the Tucker and the Corvair. Tech items included carburetor idle
circuits a la Bill Reider and a complete price guide from Old Cars magazine.
Twenty-one Years Ago September 1982 Volume 8 Number 9
The cover showed an Opel "Spyder Corsa" which probably never made it from
Europe to the USA. Treasurer Mary Twilley reported $382 in the bank. President
Bill Reider reported that CNM was now registered with the IRS as a non-profit
organization; several members claimed that they were, too, but not on purpose.
We again discussed the idea of bidding for a CORSA convention in Albuquerque.
Bob Phillips volunteered to organize our Christmas dinner.
George Morin gave a talk on front suspensions. LeRoy reported on the CORSA
convention in Syracuse, New York, rating it Excellent. LeRoy previewed our
upcoming trip to Trinity Site.
Twenty-eight Years Ago August/September 1975 Volume 1 Number 8
There was not a separate issue for September. In the August/September issue we
said we were expecting a report from Steve and Hector Gongora who planned to
drive up to the Denver CORSA convention. Jim reported on a Road & Track article
about a car show at the Newport Harbor Art Museum which featured a 1968
Corvair. Ike Meissner's tech tips included: be careful when buying a used
generator as it may have been rebuilt before and the commutator may be too far
gone; the standard Corvair pulley is too small and turns the fan and generator
too fast, so look for a larger pulleyfrom a truck; stay away from aluminum end
plates as they tend to crack; brushes can be replaced with hard carbon brushes
for longer generator life.
===
There and Back the Aircooled Way -by- Dave Huntoon
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a high school reunion. I had never
been to one and since I now have the time, being a person of leisure, I thought
I would give it a try. It was in Illinois and I could combine it with a brief
visit to my family, still all in Illinois. To add a special twist to it, I
would drive back in my '61 VW bug. Not a Corvair, but both rear engined and
aircooled. Besides I wanted to test/prove that all my work on the VW would hold
up. Sort of an acid test.
Took tools, oil, parts, fuel pump, and a fan belt. The same type of things most
Corvair owners are familiar with. I left on a Monday morning towards Tucumcari
and then Rt 54 up into Oklahoma and Kansas. Stopped the first night in Wichita.
No problems so far, though the 100 degree in the afternoon was a bit much. Sort
of like a sauna. My car is pretty loud to begin with and with the windows open,
it only adds to the commotion. Of course I knew it would be like that, but
knowing it and actually experiencing it is another matter. Don't need no
stinkin' AC or cruise control or gas gauge (optional on VWs until '62).
A big thunderstorm overnight in Wichita cooled things off nicely for the next
day. I could even leave the windows up for most of the morning which helped
with the noise problem. Up to Topeka and then secondary roads to St Joseph and
across the top of Missouri. Crossing the Mississippi at Keokuk, up the River
Road along the Mississippi (love typing the word Mississippi) through Nauvoo
where the Mormons left for places west. Nauvoo looked like an interesting place
with fine old buildings and houses and a vibrant tourist industry. I hadn't
planned on going that far on the second day and looking at the map I could
figure I had maybe 5 hours left to get to Elgin, 40 miles west of Chicago.
Interestingly, we have two other members of CNM from Elgin: Ollie Scheflow and
Jon Anderson. Okay, Jon is now in Colorado but it still counts. Go figure the
odds on that. I persevered and got to my parents' place at 9PM. Still no
problems with the VW other than a slow leak in a tire.
Folks are fine, brother and sister likewise. The weather was not hot at all,
mid 80s, green grass all over, large trees, fields of corn and soybeans and
oats, all that Midwest stuff. My brothers' Corvairs (Greenbrier and '64
convertible) are well except for a dragging rear brake on the '64. I worked on
that some, not sure if it is fixed yet. Time will tell.
The reunion (40 years) was Saturday evening in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Not a
typical reunion (I guess) in that there was no band or cardboard-tasting
catered meal. Just a room above a pub with a bar and some pizza, pretty low key
but correct in my estimation. Bumped into (literally) quite a few of the people
I have known since I was 5 years old. Really nice to know they have done well.
Lawyers, judges, engineers, business men, doctors - nice group of people. I
felt like an underachiever compared to some of these people. When one would ask
what I had been doing the last 40 years, it would take maybe 2 minutes tops to
relate my history. Oh well. The pretty girls then are still pretty now,
stunning in many cases. Not quite the case with some of the guys. A little
extra poundage and a little less hair (something I can relate to) made
recognition more difficult. That is why they invented name tags. Later in the
evening, after dark, most went on a three-hour pleasure cruise (Gilligan's
Island springs to mind) on a large tour boat around Lake Geneva. The sun was
down. A gentle breeze from the progress of the boat and the motion of the boat
itself was a fine way to kind of wind things down. I would say all there had a
good time, me too.
Since I thought the VW was sounding a little different, perhaps it was just my
hearing had not recovered yet, I changed the plugs, adjusted the valves and
adjusted the fan belt. It was still spitting some when cold but that was likely
a carburetion problem from being at 700 feet instead on my normal 7000 feet. I
left it alone. I had also noticed the oil pressure was 5 pounds lower on those
100 degree trip days: 30 versus a normal 35 pounds at 70 MPH after being fully
warmed up, which takes a good hour. Next time under similar conditions I would
like to try full synthetic oil and see if it makes any difference. Any bets?
During my stay I drove my brothers' Greenbrier (110 HP, PG) around on several
errands. Easy to drive, gets lots of attention, so my brother and I have
hatched a plan. Since he wants a kind of hot, noisy, slightly modified street
car and I like to drive the 'Brier we are going to trade. He gets my turbo
coupe and I get the 'Brier. Haven't quite figured out how or when yet, maybe
next year at the convention in Lexington. Maybe sooner, who knows? We both just
got the itch for something different, so that is what we are going to do. The
Greeny is one that I found in Moriarty maybe 8 years ago and hauled back to
Illinois after fixing the PG and replacing tires. So it is coming home, but
then again my turbo is leaving its home. The balance is maintained.
I left on a Monday morning again using I-88 to I-80 through Iowa into Nebraska
and then south to Manhattan, Kansas for the night. Used I-70 from there to Rt
56 to come back through Kansas and Oklahoma and into New Mexico at Clayton.
Another hot day. In the end, I had no mechanical problems, no repairs on the
side of the road. The bug got 33 MPG for an average fuel economy. The best MPG
was on the Interstates at 70 MPH rather than 60 MPH on the secondary roads.
Must be those finely tuned forty-year-old VW aerodynamics that kick in at 70
MPH. Yeah, that's it.
All went well as I had hoped. Saw only two old VWs on the trip and waved to
them but got no response. All old VW guys wave out here and I see at least a
dozen every time I go to town. I would like to thank Del and Kim for taking
care of my cats while I was away. They are kind of shy, so Del and Kim rarely
saw them, but the food was consumed and the litter box was used so assumed all
was OK. As indeed it was.
And that, my friends, is my 3000 miles the aircooled way.
===
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 20:38:21 -0500
From: Dennis & Debbie Pleau (ddpleau AT earthlink DOT net)
Subject: Re: Web Page
PPCC now has a web page. We had an unofficial one before which one of our
members had posted, but it went away. CORSA gave PPCC a site, and I put this
together tonight. It's far from done. Jon Anderson has volunteered to be
webmaster so I'm going to transfer it all to him. I will finish the picture
pages which I have listed but don't have links from yet. Note, I have a link to
the CNM web site.
Check it out at http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter809/
Dennis
===
Resurrecting a '66 Corsa
Geoff Johnson
It sounded nuts at first and I was not really into the idea. We wanted an
autocross car. The idea was originally conceived when we had run out of car
projects. My sister's '61 was a good solid runner, and my Buick was just about
finished, and my yellow '63 was still in a long rehabilitation after its
accident. The most likely choice was a hull of a '66 Corsa that had sat
engineless and abandoned for 30 years outside of our father's house. There was
also a '64 coupe that needed a cylinder head, and a lot of work. We settled on
the Corsa since we wanted a late model to counter balance all of our EM's. It
had several things going for it, factory fast steering, factory headrests, and
a lack of rust, other that though, it was very rough.
In 1972 it had been purchased from a used car lot in Santa Fe for its engine.
The engine was pulled, and the car was headed to the scrap yard, when our dad
traded some other car parts for it. He never really seemed to have plans for
it, and it sat, and sat, and sat. I remember as a kid climbing in through the
shot out windows and playing with the shifter pretending to drive it. The New
Mexico sun took its toll on the interior, and paint whilst it sat.
In 1996, when the convention was in Albuquerque, we were thinking of thinning
out the collection, and offered it up for sale. A man from California wanted to
buy it and we pulled it around the house so he could pick it up. The main
purpose he wanted it for though was the quick steering, and we were relatively
sure he would have picked it up and stripped it. We did not want this happening
to an otherwise good body, and told the man thanks but no thanks. Later the
same prospective buyer asked again saying that he had plans to put the car
together if we would sell it to him, with its transaxle. So dad said ok, at
that point neither Sally nor I had any interest in the car so it looked like it
was going. Well thanks to our dad's lazy outlook on life, he never arranged the
deal and it never left.
On Easter Sunday of this year, I borrowed a friend's truck, rented a tow
trailer, and we set about loading the hulk up on the dolly. It took most of the
afternoon to retrieve it. First we had to excavate it from 2 feet of
accumulated crud (fencing materials, volvo parts, sports equipment...) around
it. Then to find tires that could hold it up for its 4-mile journey to my
house. We got the car home and set about cleaning out the hulk all the time
wondering if we had made a wise decision in attempting to resurrect the dead.
That night I set about rebuilding the brakes as everything was surely gone
after 30 years of sitting. Within four days the car had good brakes.
Enter another Corvair. A 1966 A/C Sedan that in 1975 someone thought it would
make a good dune buggy. This person crudely cut the front off with an
OxyAcetylene torch, after that they gave up and my dad picked up the remains
for 50$. It still ran, but had loose flywheel bolts, so it sat as well. This
would be our source for a powertrain, an engine that runs and could be used
until we finish building it a perfect 140. I set to removing its powertrain,
which had roughly half an inch of dust on everything from sitting. A messy
dirty job, in cramped quarters, as the car was parked in on all sides but the
one that was 1 foot away from the garage wall. Within a weekends hard work we
had it out, and moved over to our house for cleanup, and flywheel and clutch
replacement. It was a three speed so we had to find and put together a good
'66+ 4-speed for it.
Then came assembly. We had a bucket of bolts and a lot of stray parts.
Amazingly the powertrain bolted together and up into place in the Corsa with
relative ease. Not a cakewalk but easier then when I put an engine in my Buick.
For the better part of a weekend we sat, slowly rounding up stuff we needed,
bolting it together and putting it in place. We did remarkably well having
never worked on a standard, or late model Corvair. Then all of a sudden, very
much to our surprise it was almost together! Got in turned the key and bam! It
was alive. Deafening, as we still had to put the muffler on, but it was
running. Within about an hour we were ready to take it around the block. Two
weeks to the day from when we brought it home it was alive! I never believed it
would happen.
From there came hundreds of other things involved in resurrecting a car from a
30-year slumber. Clean, oil and grease everything that needed it. Removed 3
feet of accumulated newspapers, TV parts, sports equipment and other assorted
junk from the interior. We replaced the hood that was dented with a good one. I
put a door of matching color on to replace the badly dented one on the
passenger side. I had to replace most of the window glass as vandals had shot
it out over the years. We put 14-inch FC rims on to have a better choice of
tire sizes for autocrossing. Within about a week of the engine first running it
was approaching roadworthiness. Getting it registered was far easier than we
thought it would be, since it had been out of the system for so long. We put in
the original very nice condition black seat out of the parts car, making the
interior much better. The Corsa dash was completely restored, and all the
gauges now function, along with the addition of two Stewart Warner Greenline
gauges, to monitor oil, and keep a better eye on vacuum.
After driving it for a few weeks it popped a valve seat one Saturday night
while sitting at a stoplight. We got it home and pulled the head the next day.
The valve seat dropped because of an excessively worn guide. I put on a head
with new valve guides and N.O.S. valves. Since, it has been running and driving
beautifully, becoming my daily driver, since it is such a joy to drive. It
still needs tons of bodywork and a paint job, but that will come soon. The '63
coupe is in line ahead of it though for bodywork, as it is almost finished
being repaired.
===
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 20:47:10 -0500
From: Dennis & Debbie Pleau ( ddpleau AT earthlink DOT net )
To: casa AT unm DOT edu
Subject: Tri-State Hotel information
Jim, Here's the information on the rooms for next year's Tri-State - Dennis
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 16:35:55 -0600
From: "Brown Ken" ( KBrown AT lps DOT k12 DOT co DOT us )
To: ( lwredvair AT msn DOT com ) Cc: ( ddpleau AT earthlink DOT net )
Please tell your members that they have to mention "Corvair Club" for May 21
Friday through checkout Sunday May 23, 2004. They can come earlier or stay
later for the same rates. I think our members have failed to mention the
Corvair Club block for the Tri State and they were told no rooms are available
as they are saving 54 for us. The cost is $50.00 per night tax included and
only 13 non-smoking rooms are available. Six of our members toured the hotel in
eight different rooms and could smell no smoke so I think they do a wonderful
job of cleaning without spraying that awful perfume substance. We are excited
about the chance to make this the largest turnout ever for TriState and are
working on a lot of family and driver events and fun. If you would be so kind
to forward this message to the President of the Albuquerque club, I would
appreciate it. If your members have any trouble after doing the above steps,
please ask them to call back on the 800 number and dial extension 2199 and
either talk to or leave a message with the Special Events manager Jenn who is
great. She will take care of any problems we might encounter. Thanks for the
picnic yesterday. Due to things I had on my plate I was late getting there but
everyone enjoyed a good time.
Mention also to your members that Sept. 10th is the deadline to call me at
303-347-3404 in Littleton or Ben Benzel at 719-598-6886 or e mail me at this
address to get into the north gate of the USAFA for our picnic on Sept. 14th
Sunday from 11-4 PM If in doubt call and if they don't come no problem, but if
they decide on Friday or Saturday they can't get in. My home phone is
719-481-6812 and cell is 719-337-5348
Ken
Ken Brown
Littleton Public Schools
Director of Assessment and Evaluation
303-347-3404
kbrown AT lps DOT k12 DOT co DOT us
===
Editor, CORSA Communique - 30 July 2003
P O Box 607
Lemont, IL 60439
Gentlemen,
I got my Communique today and immediately sat down to read it. I was delighted
to see Frank Dotson's article on the "Best Newsletter" award. I thank all of
you at CORSA for making this award a part of CORSA's tradition. I believe a
good newsletter is a major part of maintaining a healthy and prosperous club.
In recent years many Corvairs of New Mexico members have commented that CORSA
should have a "Best Newsletter" award, and furthermore that if it did, our
newsletter would certainly win it. I always told them not to be so sure. I
never expected our newsletter to win or even to be considered. There are just
too many attractive newsletters out there for ours to make much of an
impression. I know; we get several exchange newsletters every month, including
some that you mentioned, and some of them are very nice indeed.
I believe the primary value of Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter lies in a quality
a CORSA committee would hardly be able to judge: dependability. Since February
1978 we have not missed an issue. We always have the same basic content: some
kind of picture on the cover, officer contacts, new members, notice of dues
due, meeting minutes, a calendar of coming events and a "seven years ago"
feature. Occasionally we are even able to include articles of general or
technical interest.
Our club has been exceptionally fortunate in always having a broad range of
talent and interests among our members, a consistent meeting time and place,
and a regular and reliable newsletter to keep everyone in touch. In my opinion,
the appearance of a newsletter every month, without fail, is a large part of
what makes for a successful club.
Thanks again for an important award, a good article and a great publication.
Jim Pittman
Editor, Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter
Corvairs of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87112
===