Updated 30-Jan-2007 =-= Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico. EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 7 February 2007 at 7:00 PM Highland Senior Center at 131 Monroe NE THIS MONTH: Dues Due Membership Chairman January Meeting Minutes Chuck Vertrees January Board Meeting Chuck Vertrees Birthdays and Anniversaries Sunshine Committee Mechanically Un-inclined Ray Trujillo Car Council Report Robert Gold Thank you card the Barrett House Thanks from Ruth Ruth Boydston Thanks for Norm Brand card B. J. Brand Calendar of Coming Events Everybody Garage Tour Preview Bill Reider Wanted, For Sale or For Trade Everybody The CNM Newsletter CD Project Jim Pittman Tri-State 2007 Preview Steve Goodman Honor Thy Thermostat Bill Coyle, Long Island Corvair Association Seven Years Ago the Editor COVER: The Covers from Jim's Thirty February CNM Newsletters PRESIDENT: Ray Trujillo 839-7436 ray @ bpsabq.com VICE-PRES: John Wiker 899-3076 wiker @ aps.edu SECRETARY: Charles Vertrees 299-0744 vertrees @ swcp.com TREASURER: Wendell Walker 892-8471 defarge505 @ aol.com MEMBERSHIP: David Huntoon 281-9616 corvair66 @ aol.com NEWSLETTER: Jim Pittman 275-2195 jimp @ unm.edu PROPERTIES: Ruth Boydston 821-1506 CAR COUNCIL: Robert Gold 268-6878 beisbol30 @ msn.com DUES: CNM: 12 months $15.00 or 26 months $ 30.00 CORSA: 12 months $38.00 or 26 months $ 76.00 BOTH: 12 months $53.00 or 26 months $106.00 CORSA's home page: http://www.corvair.org CNM's newsletters: http://www.unm.edu/~jimp CNM's home page: http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter871 MEMBERSHIP DUES: Expired, to Become Inactive on 25-Feb-2007: "Lube" Lubert 2007-Jan Due This Month: Cary Hubbard 2007-Feb Carl Johnson 2007-Feb Clay Keen 2007-Feb Mike Stickler 2007-Feb Due Next Month: Clint Collins 2007-Mar Geoffrey Johnson 2007-Mar Coming Due Soon: Jerry Chapman 2007-Apr John Dinsdale 2007-Apr Bill Hector 2007-Apr Expired, Now Inactive: Cathy & Tom Bunter 2005-Aug Dan Clifford 2005-Aug Jacob Schlessinger 2005-Aug Willard Davis 2005-Dec Fred Edeskuty 2006-Feb Robert Moore 2006-Jun Lee Olsen 2006-Sep Dwight Simmons 2006-Sep Sally Williams 2006-Sep Steve Johnson 2006-Oct Joe Ashton 2006-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 Past due memberships will become inactive after a one-month grace period. Note that the Club will mail in your National Dues when you renew, provided that you send us the renewal form from your CORSA Communique! ON THE COVER: the February issue from each year from 1978 to 2007. This issue marks the start of Jim's 30th year as Newsletter editor. AT RIGHT: in February 2000, Jim is working on the 26th Anniversary Issue for March. Digital cameras, inkjet printers and computer power revolutionized the newsletter! ENCHANTED CORVAIRS NEWSLETTER is published monthly by CORVAIRS OF NEW MEXICO, a chartered chapter of CORSA, the CORVAIR SOCIETY OF AMERICA. Contents are copyrighted in the names of the Authors and CNM. Articles may be reprinted in any CORSA publication as a service to CORSA members provided credit to the Author and this Newsletter are clearly stated. All opinions are those of the Author or the Editor and do not necessarily reflect endorsement by CNM or CORSA. Material to be published should reach the Editor by the 15th of each month. Submit material as ASCII TEXT via e-mail to ( jimp @ unm.edu ) or in ASCII TEXT format on Apple II, Macintosh or MS-DOS disk, or submit a readable manuscript. I don't like MS Word documents (they are ten times as big as the text they contain) but no problem, I can read them, thanks to icWord 3.0. The same goes for RTF files. So, send what you have, I'll read it! Photographs including digital JPGs are welcome too! This newsletter was produced in a Microsoft-free environment using a 1989 Apple IIgs with GS/OS 6.0.1, a 1998 Macintosh G3 with OS 9.2, a 2003 Macintosh G4 PowerBook with OS-X and a 2003 iMac with OS-X. Software includes Bernie To The Rescue 2.6, Addressed For Success, ShadowWrite 1.3.4, Platinum Paint 2.0, Pointless and Harmonie for the Apple IIgs and AppleWorks 6, Photoshop CS, GraphicConverter 5.8, BBEdit 8 and InDesign CS 3 on the Macs. Printing is via HP LaserJet IIp and Apple LaserWriter Pro 630. Ask for more technical details if you are interested. Transportation requirements provided by Albuquerque SunTran, 1965 Corvair Monza, 1990 Honda Civic, 1996 Mazda Miata and 2003 Honda Civic. And when I'm 64, I'll get by with a little help from my friends. =CNM= JANUARY MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order at 19:07 on 1/3/07 at Highland Senior Center. All officers were present except Treasurer Wendell Walker, who sent in his report. There were 19 members present, which was a pretty good turnout considering the amount of snow and ice on the roads. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. The treasurer's report indicated that CNM had $677.83 in the checking account and $2,510.20 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $3,188.02. Sylvan Zuercher reported that there were no new members. There was no Car Council report because the first meeting of the year will be later this month. There was nothing to report from the Sunshine Committee. As was discussed in the past, newsletter editor Jim Pittman made a number of CDs of past newsletters. They cover from January 2007 back for several years. They sold for $10.00 a copy and were almost all sold out. A second edition may be possible depending on feedback. Upcoming events were discussed. The first is the trip to Bosque del Apache on the 13th of this month. We will meet down there at 08:30 and Jerry Goffe will have a van or bus to take the tour. The 20th of this month is the breakfast at 08:30 at the Kettle Restaurant at San Antonio and I-25. February will have the garage tour as set up by Bill Reider. This will be preceded by lunch at the Fiesta Restaurant at 4400 Carlisle NE at noon. Then we will go to Jay Hertz's garage followed by Cary Hubbard's garage. There will be maps at the February meeting for those who do not want to go to the lunch, so they can meet everyone at the first stop. February will also have a TUNA Saturday on the 17th. Breakfast will be first at Little Anita's on Isleta and Rio Brave at 10:30. Then to Cary Hubbard's garage. We will be working on a 1964 differential and possibly a backup switch. March will be the club's annual anniversary dinner, probably at Papa Felipe's. There has not been a date established yet, but read on. Del Patten was in town over the holidays and some of us met at the Owl Cafe for breakfast. He will still be in D.C. for some time. We will have to get him to write a letter for the newsletter about the clubs in his area. Members were reminded that nominations for the Ike Meissner award are due. There is a form in the January newsletter. Fill yours out and turn it in to John Wiker at the February meeting. This award will be made at the Anniversary Banquet. After the last meeting, Sylvan Zuercher gave a demonstration on getting the early model Corvair turn signal mechanism to work. Robert Gold is now retired, so we can start to pile lots of work on him to keep him out of Anne Mae's hair. The meeting was adjourned at 19:39. -- Chuck =CNM= JANUARY BOARD MEETING Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order on January 17th at 17:00 at Business Printing Service. President Ray Trujillo reported that he had made arrangements with Papa Felipe's to have our annual anniversary dinner there on March 10th at 18:00. It has always been well taken care of there. It was suggested that one of the door prizes could be a one year membership in CNM. If any member has a source for some door prizes that would be great. Mike and Brenda Stickler have asked the board to consider a 4th of July BBQ at their home. They can see three public fireworks displays form their home in Corrales. The 4th of July is also the first Wednesday of the month. We could consider the BBQ as our regular meeting. The time is a consideration since it won't get dark until about 19:30. We would need to have the BBQ and what passed as a meeting before the fireworks. This will have further discussion. Brenda and Mike also have had Business Printing do some 2007 calendars for them. They turned out so well that we thought that CNM members could submit some Corvair pictures and we could issue a 2008 calendar. It would cost about $1.00 a page for the calendar. Let the board know what you think! We also learned that Norm Brand passed away last December. Norm was a long time CNM member and also a past president. A card was sent. Treasurer, Wendell Walker, reported that CNM had $779.82 in the checking account and $2,510.20 in the GMAC account for a total of $3,390.02. He also issued a check for $125.00 to Jim Pittman to cover some of his expenses in producing the newsletter. Heula Pittman told us that the Sunshine Committee has continued to send out Birthday and Anniversary cards. Some new cards have been designed. Also she reported that Ruth Boydston is better and is getting around with a walker now. Gayle Finch is still not doing too well. We are hoping she will improve. Membership reported that past member Kevin Sullivan is going to rejoin CNM. Cary and Bob will both be going to the Car Council Meeting this month. Future activities include the January 20th breakfast which will be past when you receive this. February 11th is the garage tour conducted by Bill Reider. Lunch will be at Fiesta's Restaurant at noon, then on to the garage tour to Jay Hertz's and Cary Hubbard's. A map will be available at the February meeting for those who just want to go on the garage tour without going to lunch, so they can meet at the first garage. February 17th is a TUNA Saturday at Cary's garage to work on Pat Hall's differential. They will probably be there for 2 to 4 hours. Saturday March 10th will be our Anniversary Dinner at Papa Felipe's at 18:00. We did not know how many members attended the Bosque del Apache tour. NOTE to all members. The nomination forms for the Ike Meissner award are due at the February Meeting. The board meeting was adjourned at 18:02. -- Chuck =CNM= A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISH GOES TO OUR FRIEND: Wendell Walker who celebrates his birthday on February 9th! Three CNM couples celebrate their WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES this month. They are: Rita & Steve Gongora February 14 Florence & Bill Hector February 27 Sally & Nathan Williams February 18 =CNM= MECHANICALLY UN-INCLINED Ray Trujillo Hello Everyone! Well, it looks like New Mexico is in the grips of its first legitimate winter in several years. I've lived here my entire forty-seven years and I can't remember getting as much snow as we received in the two day span that happened over the New Year's holiday. And with all this snow sticking around and not melting very quickly, even the daytime temperatures are well below a comfortable range for me. Normally I'm able to get in a couple of rounds of golf a month during our usually pleasant winter afternoons, but this year it's been impossible. Now I don't mind staying at home when the weather is stormy because usually it's only for a few days at the most, but this winter has kept me inside a little bit more than I can handle. On the weekends I like to get outside as much as possible since my job keeps me inside the majority of the time. I was getting a little stir crazy and cabin fever had definitely set in so I needed to do something to relieve my cold winter sweat and stop the annoying imaginary voices. Since golf has not been an option lately I've been driving my Corvairs quite a bit more than normal this winter. Don't get me wrong, I drive my Corvairs in the winter but not as much as I do in the summertime. In order to stay out of a straight jacket I've been going on some nice long rides in my Corvairs. Sadly none of my family members join me on these treks as they have found their own way of filling their time. I still ask if they want to come along and they'll almost always say no, but that doesn't stop me from going. Anyway, one day Sylvia asked me if I got bored driving alone and my answer was I'm never bored or alone when I'm driving either of my Corvairs. You see, both my Corvairs still have stock AM radios in them and I've found two really great stations that play outstanding music that's basically from the 40's to 70's era. On my trips I'm accompanied by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Patsy Cline, and countless other legends. Talk about great company. To me it doesn't get much better than this unless of course one of my family members comes along. There's just something about this music. It simply fits so perfectly when driving a Corvair on a long and relaxing ride. It really is an experience that puts me back into a more innocent place and time. My rides always get me in a better mood and they seem to restore my energy. If you haven't discovered these two AM radio stations, they are 1550 K-JOY and 1600 Oldies. I thought it would be a good idea to share this information with you because there's only so many legends that I can fit into one little Corvair. All right, it's time to move on to our upcoming activities. First of all, on February 11th Bill Reider has set up a garage tour to begin at 1:30 pm at Jay Hertz's and then we'll move on to Cary Hubbard's place. Prior to the garage tours, those interested in getting together for lunch can do so at the Fiesta's Restaurant located at 4400 Carlisle NE. Bill will distribute maps to the two garages at the next membership meeting so please plan on attending. Secondly, on February 17th we'll have a TUNA Saturday at Cary Hubbard's garage starting at noon. If I'm not mistaken we will be working on Pat Hall's differential and it makes no differential to me whether you'd like to help or learn on this project, just don't hesitate to come. Next up, on Saturday March 10th CNM will hold its Anniversary Dinner at 6:00 pm at Papa Felipe's restaurant located at 9800 Menual NE, just east of Eubank. The price per person is a reasonable $13 and it includes your choice of entree and a non-alcoholic drink. This will be CNM's 33rd anniversary, so plan to come and celebrate with your fellow members. Also regarding the anniversary dinner, if you can donate a door prize for that evening that would be greatly appreciated. Please remember that we also present the Ike Messiner award at the anniversary dinner so please submit your nomination forms to John Wiker at the February membership meeting. Lastly, I was surprised to hear that none of our members showed up for the Bosque del Apache tour scheduled on January 13th. I called Jerry Goffe to find out how many members attended so I could do a report for this article. Jerry reported that he and Mark Domzalski had a van ready for our group and they were disappointed when no one arrived. They were looking forward to seeing us but I'm guessing the cold weather possibly kept people from attending. So on behalf of the club I expressed to Jerry that we were still grateful to him and Mark for arranging a tour for CNM and that we were also disappointed that no one was able to make it. Well, I guess that's enough said for now so I hope to see you at the next club meeting and remember to give Frankie, Deano, Elvis, Doris, Patsy and our many other countless pals a ride once in a while. See you soon! -- Ray =CNM= REPORT OF THE CAR COUNCIL MEETING OF JANUARY 24, 2007 Robert Gold Well, it has finally happened. After a two month layoff the Car Council met again at the Old Car Garage. I was pretty excited about this meeting because this was going to be my chance to see what new cars Bob Agnew was working on. Alas, I was disappointed. It seems that he hasn't begun many new projects. In fact, he actually had a vacant space in his shop. I suppose that the winter is not a very good time to attract interesting car projects. I hope that when the weather warms folks with the classy cars will want to get their restoration projects underway. I'll have to see. I'll describe those in future car council reports. Lacking cars to talk about I guess I'll move on to what happened at the meeting. The Corvairs of New Mexico were out in force at this meeting of the council. Providing me moral support were Geoff Johnson and Cary Hubbard. It was very nice to see Geoff's "Radio Flyer" Lakewood and Cardinal, his early convertible parked outside of the Old Car Garage when I drove up. I felt sorta bad that I didn't drive a Corvair. I opted for the water heat of my El Camino. I know, I know, a Corvair does have a good heater, but as a former hydrologist I sort of gravitate to water. The first major topic covered in the meeting had to do with the council's new web page. I would give you the URL at this time, but when I tried the one I had written down it didn't work. I'll give it to you next time. Anyway, at a nominal cost John Duran was able to get us a web page with all sorts of bells and whistles. Each member club will be able to link to this site with car event notices and other information. I don't begin to understand all the technical aspects of the site, but it sounds like it will be quite an asset to the car community. I'll need to talk to Jim Pittman to see how CNM can best use the site. Many thanks to John Duran for his good efforts. We next talked about the upcoming Supernationals car show to be held at the fairgrounds. The show will run from February 2-4. This year's show is a bit different in that the organizers have invited the car clubs that comprise the council to display cars at the show. Fifteen spots have been alloted for council cars at a cost of $40.00 per car. The cars will be displayed at the NM Expo's Flower Building. Each club will have the opportunity to set up a table to distribute literature whether or not they have a car on display. At this time I know that Geoff Johnson and Larry Hickerson will be entering this year's field. Larry's perfect Rampside will be displayed with the high ticket cars. You can see Geoff's Lakewood in the council's area. In addition to cars on display there will be a showing of automotive art and a group of auto pinstripers will be there working their magic. It sounds like a real good time. One other thing, if you want to go you can get $9.00 discount tickets at NAPA stores. The regular admission price is about $11.00. It's always nice to save some money. I know that since I just retired. Bob Agnew then made a pitch (Notice my reference to baseball? It's almost time for Spring Training. We just need to get through that Superbowl stuff) for his Spring Thaw event that takes place at the shop next to the Old Car Garage. He hasn't finalized the dates but it will happen during one of the first two weekends of April. You can bring your car in and have it serviced and diagnosed for a donation to Bob's favorite charity. I'll be getting more information out when I know more about it. I do know that it is so much fun that many people just drop by for the food and fun without even having a car worked on. The meeting wound up with discussions about the council's yearly events, the Albuquerque Museum Car Show, the swap meet, and the all car club picnic. The scheduling of this year's museum car show conflicts with the Tri-state on May 20. If you can't make the Tri-state be sure to attend the museum car show. It's a lot of fun and full of interesting cars. There was a request made at the council meeting for 2 or 3 more people to serve on the planning committee. The report on the council's swap meet was that it will be held at the same place as last year in Los Lunas, September 28-30. Vendor prices will not change. It was suggested that the council spend some additional money on advertising to help increase the number of people who go to the meet to shop for parts. No final decision was made. Lastly, the rep from the Rickshaw Club talked about the picnic to be held on August 5, 2007 at the Villanueva State Park. The council will be supplying food this year and there will be an opportunity for folks to camp out the night before the event. I'll have more about all this later. Someone suggested that the member clubs ante up a small donation of $25 or so to help out the event. That was about all that was brought up at this month's meeting. I didn't hang around for John Duran's in-depth description of the new web page. It wasn't that I didn't think it was important, I just didn't think I'd understand much of what he would say. That could probably also sum up my approach to my career with the Federal government. Fortunately, my bosses didn't catch on to that until I had gone. Now that I don't have to spend my valuable time earning a living I hope to be a more regular attendee at the council meetings and therefore give all you CNM'ers better info about the happenings of the council. That will only happen if I wake up from my afternoon nap in time for the meetings. Stay tuned to this column to see how that works out. -- Robert =CNM= [ Thank-you card from Barrett House for our Christmas donations ] =CNM= [ ] [ The day before Thanksgiving Ruth Boydston was at the cabin and ] [ was cutting up a fallen tree. The piece of tree fell the wrong ] [ way, injuring her leg. She had to go to the doctor and then ] [ had to use a walker for several days but is much better now. ] [ Ruth asked us to put the following note in the newsletter. ] [ ] [ Thank You from Ruth Boydston ] [ ] [ I want to thank my second family, CNM, for all your prayers and ] [ cards. I'm sure your wonderful thoughts got through. Now I'm ] [ waiting to see if I'll be able to drive soon. ] [ ] [ Love you all, Ruth ] [ ] =CNM= [ Thank-you card from B. J. Brand, Mrs Norm Brand ] =CNM= ============================================================================ 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 ============================================================================ | | | | | February | March | April | | | | | | : : : : 1 2 3 | : : : : 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | | 25 26 27 28 : : : | 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | 29 30 : : : : : | | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 7 Feb 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Sun 11 Feb 12:00 noon Fiesta's Restaurant, 4400 Carlisle NE, before our tour Sun 11 Feb 1:30 PM Garage Tour: Jay Hertz's garage & Cary Hubbard's collection Sat 17 Feb 12:00 noon TUNA at Cary Hubbard's garage - differential rebuilding Wed 21 Feb 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 23 Feb 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 24 Feb 8:30 AM CNM breakfast -- TBA Wed 7 Mar 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Sat 10 Mar 6:00 PM Anniversary Dinner at Papa Felipe's, Menaul & Eubank NE Wed 21 Mar 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE --- -- Mar ------- Look for our first "Old Route 66" cleanup this month! Fri 23 Mar 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 24 Mar 8:30 AM CNM breakfast -- TBA Wed 4 Apr 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Wed 18 Apr 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 20 Apr 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 21 Apr 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast -- TBA Fri-Sun May 18-20 Tri-State Meet - Monte Vista, Colorado - Pikes Peak club Sat-Sun Sep 8-9 Moriarty EAA Fly-in and Old Car Display =CNM= GARAGE TOUR - FEBRUARY 11, 2007 AT 1:30 PM Bill Reider We will be visiting Jay Hertz's garage at 2420 Midtown Pl NE, then off to Cary Hubbard's to see his collections of cars. I will have maps at the February meeting, so be sure to attend. If you won't be at that meeting, let me know and I will try and get a map to you. Jay has a collection of 1930's Chevys and Fords. He just got a new "33" Chevy that I haven't seen yet. His cars are all in excellent shape and I'm sure you will enjoy seeing them. He also has a shop that is great. Then we will be off to Cary's. He has a number of other cars besides Corvairs. For such a new collector I think that he has a great collection. If interested, some of the members will get together for lunch at the Fiesta's Restaurant, 4400 Carlisle Blvd NE at 12 noon. Jay Hertz's garage is just a short distance away. The restaurant is on the southeast corner of Carlisle and Montgomery. LeRoy Rogers will be making arrangements at the restaurant. If you need additional information you can e-mail me at "breider28 @ msn.com" or call me at 299-4597. -- Bill Reider. =CNM= = = = = = FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED = = = = = FOR SALE: 1966 Corvair Monza II 2-door, 6-cyl, fuel injected, engine top is all chrome, new tires w/spare, 5-spd, less than 9,000 miles. Dana, P.O. Box 321 Vaughn, NM 88353 505-584-0103 WANTED: a good hood for a 1963. Dick Cochran - Grants, NM - 505-287-8403 WANTED: 2 ea, Powerglide aluminum bell housings, any year. Richard Finch, cell # 505-430-1258 WANTED: 1964-66 Three-bar spinner hubcaps, any condition, complete or parts. Geoff Johnson -- 730-6601 FOR SALE: 1968 Corvair Monza Convertible, 110 HP, 4-speed. New front seat upholstery, New carpet, 2-year old top. Sheet metal in floor has been replaced. Needs paint, has rust. Asking $3,000 John Arnold 505-281-5542 FOR SALE: 1961 Monza coupe, '66 110-HP engine, Powerglide. New interior, needs paint, minor body work. Make offer Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 hurbrenwil @ peoplepc.com FOR SALE: 1968 Monza coupe, 110-HP rebuilt engine, 4 carbs, Powerglide. New paint, good interior. Make offer Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 hurbrenwil @ peoplepc.com = ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5 TO NON- MEMBERS = =CNM= THE CNM NEWSLETTER CD PROJECT Jim Pittman This project began with the observation that between the end of 1974 and the end of 2006 our club had produced 376 monthly newsletters, many of which contained interesting articles, stories, member profiles, reports on club events, photographs and Corvair technical tips. Some of us keep our back issues, but I thought that having newsletter material in computer-readable form on a CD disk could be a useful resource. I set out to put together such a CD disk and the first version became available at the January 2007 meeting. Corvairs of New Mexico was started in March, 1974, and our first president, Mark Morgan, started a monthly newsletter with the January 1975 issue, actually mailed in time for Christmas, 1974. Over the years we have managed to keep the newsletter going in spite of a few missed months in the early days. I took over editing the newsletter in February 1978 and we have not missed a month since. We mail photocopied newsletters to all our members and to several other Corvair clubs and CORSA-related individuals across the country. Over the years we have remained true to the format Mark started in 1974: a cover illustration, a list of officers and contacts, a list of members whose dues are coming due, meeting minutes, a calendar of future events, reports on recent club activities, technical articles and tech tips. Every December we publish an index for the year and every January we publish an updated member list. The newsletter has always had artwork, usually as line drawings and occasionally as halftone photos. In general the reproduction quality of drawings was good but the results with photos ranged from mediocre to poor to terrible. In late 1998 digital photos became available (thanks, Wendell) and it became much easier to incorporate higher-quality photography in the newsletter. These photos were in color, even though the newsletter has always been printed in black-and-white. For several years I have been maintaining an internet web page primarily to hold material from our newsletters. At first I provided only the text version of each newsletter. Soon I added an index to all our newsletters starting with January 1983. If anyone found something of interest in the index, they could ask me for a photocopy of that issue. Bill Reider suggested that, when I finished my page layout of the newsletter, I could export it to a PDF file and then e-mail that file to our members. It turned out to be easy to make a PDF file, easy to make it full color, and easy to put it on my web page. I did not want to send large files to ninety-plus addresses, but I could easily notify everyone via e-mail that the new newsletter was now available on my web page. So, at present, my web page holds news items, a calendar of coming events, a list of club officers, a list of members with dues due dates, a preview of next month's newsletter, text versions of all newsletters from January 1996 to date, an index to all newsletters from January 1983 to date, a few photos, the CNM constitution, a statement about our awards, and the current and the previous month's newsletter in PDF format. Anyone with access to the internet can access any of this material at any time. If this material were available on a CD you wouldn't have to be connected to the internet to use it. Also, the CD could hold all the newsletters in PDF format, not just the two most recent. So with the approval of the board I undertook a club project to produce such a CD, and the first version is now available. There are definite limits to this project. Not all the back issues of the newsletter are available in machine-readable format. It would be a time-consuming effort to scan the originals into computer files. The material that is now in machine-readable format takes up a lot of space on a CD! The 94 issues in PDF format take up 248.3 megabytes of space, and 136 issues in text format take up 5.3 megabytes. I wanted to include some photos of club activities on this CD, and included 385.7 megabytes worth of JPG photos in the first CD. If I update the CD to provide more issues of the newsletter in PDF format, that will reduce the space available for photos. Possible future developments: There should be some kind of search function on this CD to make it easier to find items of interest. I don't know how to include such a search function and I do not have time to find out how. Perhaps I can include this in a future version. In the meantime, there is an index which can be searched for titles of articles and authors of articles, but not for words or phrases in articles. This CD could be updated occasionally to include new newsletter issues or to include new features. Is it useful enough to put in the effort to update it? Should the club commit to producing CDs and offering them for sale to other CORSA clubs or members? Only time will tell. Feedback on the first version of the CD would be a big help. Thanks -- Jim =CNM= TRI-STATE 2007 Steve Goodman Pikes Peak Corvair Club cordially invites all CNM members to Monte Vista, Colorado on the weekend of May 18-20, 2007 for the annual Tri-State Corvair meet. The main attraction to the area is the GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL MONUMENT, a few miles east and north of Monte Vista. Also there is an alligator farm nearby. The city park for the Show 'n' Shine has been reserved, we can park on the grass, it is on the west side of town. Also the motel is on the west side of Monte Vista, named MOVIE MANOR. It is a Best Western and it well renowned for the ability to be able to watch the drive-in movie next door from your motel room. The schedule will be the same as always, Friday is registration day, starting after lunch and continuing until supper time. The motel has given us an area for the registration away from the desk and check-in area. The motel also has its own restaurant and will be hosting the Saturday night banquet. Motel prices are: SINGLE QUEEN--$64 plus tax (per night) SINGLE KING $69 plus tax (per night) and DOUBLE QUEEN bed $74 plus tax (per night). There are 25 rooms blocked and ready for reservation, the suggestion is to get your room early. Please identify yourself by using the word 'CORVAIR' in your opening conversation. The phone is: 719.852.5921 There is also an RV park next door if you are bringing a motor home. The Saturday night banquet will be a buffet with roast beef and baked chicken plus potato, vegetable, salad, bread, small dessert and beverage of coffee/tea/soda. The price of the meal is $20 per person and includes tax and tip. PPCC is designing a T-shirt for the occasion and the usual goodie bag and dash plaque will be present. Judging for the Show 'n' Shine will be a combination of attendees voting for class wins and the local townsfolk voting for PEOPLES' CHOICE. Any questions should be directed to: Steve Goodman 303.278.4889 (w) or 303.934.5027 (h) or rearengine.steve @ worldnet.att.net (email). Hope to see all of the CNM members attend. -- Steve =CNM= HONOR THY THERMOSTAT (Reprinted from THE SILICON VALLEY CORSA "REAR VIEW" JANUARY 2007) One of the most important and most misunderstood items in your Corvair engine is the thermostat. The 1960 engine employed a thermostat, but its application and operation was different from 1961-1969 system. The 1960 unit operated a damper ring on the top of the engine to control engine temperature. When cold, the ring extended deeply into the center of the engine fan blocking the fan from moving air. As the engine warmed up, the bellows expanded and through a linkage arrangement, moved the damper ring out of the fan, permitting the fan to move a larger quantity of air. The 1961 system, although identical in construction to 1962-1969, had no automatic choke system - 1961 had manual chokes. At this point, it becomes important to know a little more about the thermostat itself. Corvair thermostats are brass bellow canisters filled with ether that contract when cold. As they are heated, the ether expands and the bellows gets longer. One of the major design characteristics is that when they fail, they expand fully and stay that way. Contrary to conventional thermostats used in water-cooled engines that sometimes cause engines to boil when they fail, Corvair engineering brilliantly overcame engine destruction from overheat by using reverse logic and allowing the engine to run cold if the thermostat fails. It now becomes important to understand why we need thermostats. It seems to be a common misconception that if the engine is air-cooled, it's going to get hot quickly. Not so, especially in winter climates of the northern U.S. But this doesn't mean that southern Corvair owners, or for that matter northerners, can remove the thermostat system in hot weather. Controlled engine temperature is vitally important. For example, the heat-sensitive choke coils are located in the lower shrouds just above the exhaust manifolds. When both thermostats work properly, the doors at the rear of the shrouds will be closed when the engine is cold. This blocks any movement of fresh air by the fan until enough heat is present to expand the thermostat and open the doors. The result is rapid warm-up to a controlled temperature (approximately 200 F). The dramatically important issue to be understood is that this amount of heat is necessary to make the choke mechanisms turn off. Bad thermostats cause delayed (sometimes never) choke turn-off (therefore increased fuel consumption) and extended time on fast idle (also integrated in the choke function). So now you can see that much aggravation with faulty chokes may really be caused by bad thermostats. Just in passing, if you have modified your Corvair by using headers, a tremendous amount of heat that was generated and stored in the lower shrouds is lost. Even if you carefully constructed new lower shrouds, the headers exit the shroud area so quickly there is insufficient heat built up and the chokes may never work again. Another very important heat value comes in getting the oil up to temperature. Delayed warm-up of oil produces larger amounts of oil contamination. If and when the oil gets to proper temperature, it can boil (evaporate) impurities. Contamination, such as water (from condensation) and gasoline that got there in excess while the engine was on a rich mixture from the chokes, will prematurely break down any oil if not evaporated. If this begins to sound like a vicious circle, it should, because it is. By now, the big picture that the design of the thermostat and its related mechanisms were correctly and carefully engineered should be apparent. There are a few more related details that need to be explored. Heater hoses are very important. If they are split or disconnected completely, the air dam effect in the lower shrouds will be lost. If your Corvair has bad push rod tube "O" rings and you've removed the heater hose to keep the unpleasant fumes out, you should fabricate block-off plates at the elbows where the hoses connect to the engine. Use metal to construct these plates. Temperatures between 300 and 400 F can be present in this area under some driving conditions, so don't use a combustible material. Don't use clothes dryer hose for heater hose. It is not constructed for this heat range and can cause serious problems, among them toxic fumes, if the plastic ignites. There is another hose in the engine compartment at the far right-hand comer as you face your engine. Very few people know the true function of this hose. This is the pickup for the heating system for "cold" air. Your owner's manual tells you cold air can be directed through your defroster by partially depressing the heat control. This is its pickup point. If this hose is broken or missing, the effect of the engine fan is reduced. The cool, fresh air just entering the fan will escape through this hole and diminish the fan's efficiency. Coming back on the main subject of thermostats, here is another point of interest. The driver's side thermostat door will almost always open first and close last. This is because there is more heat on the left side of the engine than the right. The oil cooler is on the left exhaust manifold, and the manifold has 4 more inches of cast iron inside the shroud than the right manifold. Apparently this is one reason why the summer/winter plate was installed on the left side. The thermostats themselves are quite fragile and seem to fail frequently. The only accurate way to diagnose a bad thermostat is a door that is not closed when the engine is stone cold. There are a few other possibilities to check first before purchasing your new thermostat. For one, make sure the hinge pin to the door has not fallen out. On early models, some thermostat stands were screwed to the lower shroud, the later ones were riveted. Check to see that the stand is still securely fastened to the lower shroud; finally, examine the linkage to see that the clip is holding things together and the rod has not unscrewed from the thermostat. Install your new thermostat carefully. Mount the thermostat to the stand first. Then, while holding the end with a 1/4" wrench, screw in the control rod (hold the 1/4" wrench securely; any twist to the thermostat could cause a rupture). I have never found any explicit instructions in the factory service manuals for the adjustment of the control rods. I've set mine at mid-range for years with no adverse effects. The only important condition is that the doors be securely shut when cold and open to a horizontal position when the engine is up to temperature. A final word of caution; pulling the doors open to see inside for any reason provides considerable risk to the thermostats. I hope this information puts an honorable light on thermostats, so frequently abused and misunderstood, and maybe helped you find some answers to problems related to thermostats but attributed to other causes. -- Bill Coyle - Long Island Corvair Association =CNM= SEVEN YEARS AGO Jim Pittman Seven Years Ago - February 2000 - Volume 26 - Number 2 - Issue 293 Our cover showed most of the members who attended last month's board meeting. President Hurley ran the January meeting, our first at the top of the long flight of stairs at Galles Chevrolet. We had $6,128.18 in the treasury. Dennis told us to look at the new CNM web site. The new "women's auxiliary" was getting organized. LeRoy planned a garage tour for March. Other items included: a progressive dinner; a trip to Santa Theresa to see an aircraft museum; the State Fair car show; new CNM license plates; the Tri-State; a Bar-B-Q; a camping trip; a potluck & auction; a summer film festival; an auction in Scottsdale, Arizona; the latest word on "Horseless Carriage" license plates; the disposition of the club library and the library van. Maybe we had too much going on this year? Billiken's Y2K-compliant Corvair suffered from software bugs; was it running Windows? An article by Del reported the latest on mechanical snafu's and the fun of a wet camping trip. We reprinted a classic CNM article from the January 1988 newsletter called "Dark Intrigue" in which Tom Martin told about his role in getting New Mexico's very first Corvair shipment at Galles-Grosbeek Chevrolet on September 25, 1959. Finally, a Virtual Vairs tech tip on "Flippin' belts" told us several common practices that should be avoided if we wanted our fan belts to live long and prosper. Fourteen Years Ago - February 1993 - Volume 19 - Number 2 - Issue 209 The cover showed last month's sad and neglected wreck, all fixed up as a new early Monza coupe. President Del ran the meeting. We had new members Bruce Heim and Frank Stadler. Will Davis reported $1,137 in the bank. Sylvan had heart surgery and was in the hospital at Lovelace. Bill Reider received the Ike Meissner Award for 1992. We planned a February garage tour and a dinner meeting in March. We took orders for club golf shirts. Jerry showed a video made during a recent trip to the Northwest Territories. LeRoy previewed the special March meeting at the Triple R Museum, AKA the Tool Museum, which housed a fabulous collection of tools and toys. Our feature article this month was "My First Corvair" by Bill Reider. We need more members to write articles like this. Bill told about the 1962 Monza convertible he bought at Nicky Chevrolet in Chicago. He was not content with what GM put on the car and soon had it equipped with a Bill Thomas four carb kit, trombone exhausts, Mallory dual-point distributor and a fan belt tensioner. Tech tips this month: closing body seams with "High Tech Leak Check Seam Sealer"; painting the bottom of your car with "Hammerite Rust Stop Metal Finish Paint"; building a handy holder for cans of spray paint; removing tie rods; removing tie rod ends; removing steering knuckles and front springs. We also had several Otto Mechanic cartoons and a political article passed along by Francis on American jobs going overseas. Twenty-one Years Ago - February 1986 - Volume 12 - Number 2 - Issue 125 The cover was a map of Guam with Corvair by Mark Morgan. President Clayborne ran the meeting. A new member was Brad Bobotis. LeRoy reported that we had $556 to spend. We planned a garage tour, a "snow trip" and a caravan to a Phoenix mini-convention. There were new Clark's catalogs. Engineering wizard George Morin described electro-chemical nickel-plating techniques and passed around several samples. Clayborne asked what the meaning of "economical" was to the original GM engineers who designed the Corvair. Did they mean a low coefficient of drag? Good fuel economy? Or did they mean an inexpensive car to buy and maintain? Mark Morgan, touring the world with the Navy, sent us an article he called "Driving in WESTPAC, Part 1: Guam" but it included some notes on Hawaii as well. Apparently there's a lot of automotive fun to be had on a small island with a speed limit of 35 MPH. Bill Reider's column on Corvair repair discussed brakes and how to maintain them. The first rule: get good quality shoes. Another tech tip was an illustrated article on towing the 1965 Corvair, courtesy of GM. Twenty-eight Years Ago - February 1979 - Volume 5 - Number 2 - Issue 41 The cover featured George Morin and his award-winning 1964 Monza. At the January meeting we raffled a set of NGK spark plugs. We had $396 in the bank. A new member was Stan Johnson. We planned a Club birthday party in March, a Winrock car show in April, a State Fair car show in September and an Aspencade-Econorun in October. The Club's new posts of Treasurer and Membership chairman were filled by Francis Boydston and Ike Meissner respectively. We discussed a Club purchase of bulk items such as spark plugs, oil and air filters and wheel bearings to get discount prices. We were still worrying over the official name of the Newsletter. Jim listed eight functions of the Newsletter and asked for suggestions for improving it. In an article entitled "These are the Good Old Days" Jim argued that we were at a fortunate point in the life of the Corvair: our cars are still new enough (and technically advanced enough) that we can afford to drive them every day if we want, and still numerous enough that parts and repairs are readily available. Jim said we should enjoy driving our Corvairs now and if we'd keep them in shape we would be able to drive them for years to come. Ike Meissner provided an article on adjusting timing for driving at high altitude with regular gasoline. Tech tips this month include: Using a rocker panel from a 1969 Camaro to replace the corresponding part on a 1965 Corvair; checking the inner front wheel bearing for fit BEFORE installing; adjusting the front wheel bearings; and using a short piece of 7/32" hose over the end of a new spark plug to avoid cross-threading it. =END=