The October 2020 newsletter - Text Version Updated 28-Sep-2020 ==== Copyright (c) 2020 Corvairs of New Mexico ======~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~====== October 2020 / VOLUME 46 / NUMBER 10 / ISSUE 541 ======~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~====== First Place, Tony Fiore Memorial Chapter Newsletter Award, 2005 & 2012 Third Place, Tony Fiore Memorial Chapter Newsletter Award, 2010 EDITOR Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING Regular Meeting: Saturday October 3rd 9:00 AM The Sawmill Market, 1909 Bellamah Ave. 505-563-4470 THIS MONTH President's Letter ........................... David Huntoon Dues Due Dates ........................ Membership Committee September Regular Meeting ......................... Kay Sutt September Board Meeting Cancelled ................ The Board Nomination Form for October Election ............. Committee Our Newest Members .......................... Heula & Vickie Mustang Story ................................ David Huntoon Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman ....... Movie Review Back Home in Oklahoma ........................... Dave Allin Treasury Report .............................. Steve Gongora TECH: Oversteer ............... Mike McGowan CHICAGO AIRHORN Twenty Years Ago: Campout: August 4-5-6, 2000 Steve Gongora Twenty Years Ago: Saving Another Corvair ..... Richard Finch Calendar of Coming Events ............... Board of Directors Birthdays & Anniversaries ............. Membership Committee October Issues, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 Years Ago . Club Historian COVER: David Huntoon's "New" 2006 Rousch Mustang ............................................................................. ............................................................................. OFFICERS and VOLUNTEERS President David Huntoon 505-281-9616 corvair66 @ aol.com Secretary Kay Sutt 505-471-1153 tarmo @ juno.com Treasurer Steve Gongora 505-220-7401 stevegongora @ msn.com Membership David Huntoon 505-281-9616 corvair66 @ aol.com Merchandise Vickie Hall 505-865-5574 patandvickiehall @ q.com Sunshine Heula Pittman 505-275-2195 heula @ q.com Newsletter Jim Pittman 505-275-2195 jimp @ unm.edu Old Route 66 David Huntoon 505-281-9616 corvair66 @ aol.com Past President Dave Allin 505-410-9668 dnjallin @ gmail.com Past President Ray Trujillo 505-814-8373 rtrujilloabq505 @ gmail.com Past President Pat Hall 505-620-5574 patandvickiehall @ q.com Past Vice-Pres Tarmo Sutt 505-690-2046 tarmo @ juno.com MEETINGS: Saturday October 3rd: The Sawmill Market, 9:00 AM -- 1909 Bellamah Ave. 505-563-4470 INTERNET: CORSA's home page www.corvair.org/ CNM's newsletters www.unm.edu/~jimp/ New Mexico Council of Car Clubs www.nmcarcouncil.com/ SCHEDULE CNM: 12 months = $25.00 or 26 months = $ 50.00 OF CORSA: 12 months = $45.00 or 26 months = $ 90.00 DUES CNM & CORSA: 12 months = $70.00 or 26 months = $140.00 ............................................................................. ............................................................................. DUES DUE DATES OCTOBER 2020 DUE LAST MONTH ====================== INACTIVE DATE 2020.09 Anne Wiker 25-OCT-2020 DUE THIS MONTH ====================== INACTIVE DATE 2020.10 Debra & Jon Anderson 25-NOV-2020 2020.10 Tony Lawler 25-NOV-2020 2020.10 Sylvia & Ray Trujillo 25-NOV-2020 DUE NEXT MONTH ====================== INACTIVE DATE 2020.11 Linda & Dick Cochran 25-DEC-2020 DUE DEC 2020 ======================== INACTIVE DATE 2020.12 David Huntoon 25-JAN-2021 2020.12 Lee Reider 25-JAN-2021 INACTIVE ============================ INACTIVE DATE 2020.02 Larry Yoffee 25-MAR-2020 2020.03 Natalie Robison 25-APR-2020 2020.04 Conner Siddell 25-MAY-2020 2020.04 William Darcy 25-MAY-2020 2020.06 Art Gold 25-JUL-2020 Send your Dues to: CNM Treasurer -- Steve Gongora c/o House of Covers 115 Richmond NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106 Past due memberships become inactive after a one-month grace period. The Club will mail in your National Dues if you send us the renewal form from your Communique. As of 26-Sep-2020 we have 42 active family memberships. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. WHAT'S UP DAVE? David Huntoon My message for this month is ...... Remember elections are at our next club meeting. Also the next meeting is Saturday October 3rd at the Sawmill Market at 9:00 am. Basically a club breakfast with an election thrown in. Hoping for some to step up and volunteer to help the club in the next year. Think about how you can help. After breakfast Larry Blair has arraigned a visit to the New Mexico Museum of Military History. In the same area. The Sawmill Market is in the Old Town area. I have scheduled our next and last Old Route 66 cleanup for Monday October 5th at 8:30 am. This will be our 5th and last cleanup of this year. Usually we have only three. I believe five is a better number as it makes each cleanup easier and faster. We had a crew of five last time. The usual suspects. Linda, Tony, me and this time Anne Wiker and our newest member Gregory Nelson. Thanks to all. Recently in contact with our UK member David Neale. They are of course under COVID restrictions that are changing week to week. Much like here! David expressed his amazement at our weather conditions. He mentioned how we can have fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and floods all in the same day. England is a good deal more moderate. Certainly fewer weather disasters! No place is perfect it seems. See you at the meeting, David Huntoon ............................................................................. ............................................................................. CNM GENERAL MEETING, 09/05/2020 Kay Sutt The meeting was called to order by President David Huntoon at 10:05 at the Mariposa Basin Park. Fifteen members were present. (The group was good at practicing social distancing with their lawn chairs and masks.) We are happy to welcome a new CNM member this month! He is James Richardson, and he lives in Santa Fe. He owns a 1963 Monza 900 coupe. Welcome to James (Jim?). We hope to see you at a meeting soon. President's Report: David Huntoon reported the next Old Route 66 cleanup is scheduled for Monday, September 7, at 8:30 A.M. He indicated he will have the final cleanup in October, weather permitting. Secretary's Report: Kay Sutt had nothing to report, except a minor correction to the August Board Meeting Minutes. Steve Gongora was not able to attend that meeting due to work. Treasurer's Report: Steve's reconciled bank statement shows a balance of $6,997.93. The Sutts handed him a $5 bill, so the balance exceeds $7,000, and Steve reported he just received a check from Tim Shortle from Durango for five years membership dues. Thank you, Tim, we hope to see you at club events from time to time. (More about Tim later in this report.) Sunshine Committee Report: Vickie Hall and/or Heula Pittman were not present at the meeting, so there was no report. Newsletter Committee: Jim Pittman was not present, but previously informed the secretary the deadline for the next newsletter is 9 PM on Friday, September 25. Old Business: Jim Pittman reported the change in CNM leadership has been requested for the CORSA website. Lee Reider was available after the September meeting for those who wished to help her clear her garage of Bill's machines/tools. Larry Blair reported tools were the main items remaining, but there was also a 20-ton drill press. Two or three members indicated they could go with Larry after the meeting to Lee's. No nominations for club officers had been received by David Huntoon as of the meeting time. Club Members are reminded that Jim will include another nomination form in this month's newsletter. Please return nomination forms to David or come to the meeting and vote in person. Your participation in the club is what keeps Corvairs and CNM alive. David has indicated he would prefer not to be president next year, and your humble secretary will also be glad if someone else is willing to take on that responsibility. The major activity for the next officers will be completion of the 2021 Albuquerque Tri-State meet. Since most of that was planned for 2020, the main duty of the new board will be to provide oversight for the Tri-State committee. CNM has been in existence 46 years, with a few charter members and many people who have belonged since nearly the beginning. Especially in this time of social distancing and social isolation, active club participation is beneficial for CNM, but also for each member who participates. New Business: The next club meeting will be at Sawmill Market at 1909 Bellamah Avenue, NW, on Saturday, October 3 at 9 A.M. (NOTE: this is an hour earlier than typical meetings to ensure we can find seating closer together than later in the morning. Breakfast is available from several venues in the facility - check it out online to find your favorite.) Larry Blair suggested a trip after the meeting to the New Mexico Museum of Military History, and he will check to see if we can make a reservation for the group to tour that facility. Starting in November, if pandemic restrictions continue, we will need to make other arrangements for meetings when the colder weather precludes outside meetings in person. Will we meet remotely (i.e., Zoom), will we meet in a restaurant somewhere? We need to be thinking about this and make a decision at the October meeting, so come with ideas! Terry Price has agreed to head the Tri-State Committee. Thanks, Terry! He reminded everyone that strong club participation, both in the planning stages and during the event, is vital to make it a success. The Albuquerque Tri-State event has been rescheduled for May, 2021. Contact Terry to volunteer your time to help! Announcements: It was reported that Terry Copp had been in the hospital, but was now home and doing better. A condolence card was sent to Michael Bertrand upon the death of his girlfriend. Michael, the Corvair Vagabond, visited NM for a few months last year and attended several club meetings. Tarmo announced Tosh Gregg, who now owns Dan Palmer's old Ultra Van, called him because he was having problems with the differential. Tarmo and Pat Hall agreed to work on it for Tosh, to get him back on the road. Tarmo gave a report about his Volvo. He replaced the surface belts on the engine in the spring, and a few weeks ago the car started making noise (luckily, he was close to home) and the engine simply died and would not restart. Examination showed one of the new belts had shredded and wrapped itself around the gear, damaging the timing/cam belt, resulting in damage to the pistons and head. Tarmo reached out to Tim Shortle, a fellow Corvair owner in Durango, and Tim helped in diagnosis and potential repair of the car. Tim operated a Volvo repair shop in California until he moved to Durango, where he opened a Volvo shop in the mid 2000's. His generous assistance and extensive experience provided Tarmo great help in the diagnostic and decision-making process regarding his beloved Volvo. Many thanks, Tim! The meeting was adjourned at 10:50, after which folks spent time catching up with one another in the parking lot. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. BOARD MEETING 09/16/2020 CANCELLED ............................................................................. ............................................................................. Nominations for CNM Officers for the October Election Elections are to happen at the October meeting. A Nomination Form was included in the September newsletter and here. You may nominate someone, or volunteer yourself. Get the names to David Huntoon before the October meeting. NOTE: If you nominate someone, you should clear with them in advance that they will be willing to serve. We need: President: _________________________________ Vice-President: _________________________________ Secretary: _________________________________ Treasurer: _________________________________ If you want to help determine the trajectory of the Club as we make our way out of this pandemic, consider running for one of these offices. It can be fun and rewarding if you make it so! ............................................................................. ............................................................................. NEWEST MEMBERS A big welcome to our newest members, James Richardson and Mary Zelli who live in Santa Fe. They own a light blue Monza 900 2-door convertible. We welcome you guys to CNM and look forward to working with you in the future and seeing you at Club events and meetings. We will mail a new member packet to these guys soon. AND, welcome back to our friends, Timothy Shortle and family from Durango who recently "re-upped" as continuing CNM members. Vickie and Heula ............................................................................. ............................................................................. MUSTANG STORY David Huntoon So, here's the thing. Nearly 10 years ago, 10/25/10, I was told ....... 2 months to live. A little surgery, rip open chest, partially disassemble the heart, insert new valve (low compression) and out of hospital 5 days later. Four or five emergency room visits and a couple "procedures" over the next few years and I am completely fixed. No meds, etc. This year I will be 75 and decided to give myself a nice present. After all 75 is kind of a milestone. New computer, no. Bicycle, no, Motorcycle, maybe. Car, ok! First looked at used Corvettes but not enough room for golf clubs and cart. New cars? Covid had dealer showrooms shut down. Takes some of the fun out of new car shopping. Beside that new Camaros and Mustangs look ANGRY! Not to my liking. Used cars online can be fun. So many nice used cars online. After a few months I saw this striking 2006 Mustang. White, Roush stage 2 with 20 inch aftermarket wheels. Stage 2 is suspension, interior and aero body kit with a little carbon fiber. Motor is stock but seems extra healthy and sounds great. Called, drove it, bought it. Interesting that it weighs 700+ lbs more than my '63 Monza cvt. Has more than 3 times the horsepower and gets slightly better mpg. 25-26. 70mph is at 2000 rpm, that helps. I know you can now buy new cars with 450-700 horsepower. I feel real good with just 320. A nice, tight, good looking machine with many styling cues of the original Mustang. Grille, roofline, tail, etc. Happy motoring, David ............................................................................. ............................................................................. WINNING: THE RACING LIFE OF PAUL NEWMAN -- MOVIE REVIEW Jim Pittman For all of us who are car enthusiasts (and what member of Corvairs of New Mexico is not?) and for those of us who are really really tired of this COVID pandemic (and you know that all of us are tired of it) it has been a chore to occupy all our time for the last half year staying at home, avoiding crowds, missing out on car shows and suiting up in a mask, a six-foot avoidance bubble and an anxiety level cranked up to 11 whenever we venture out. We drive our cars occasionally (they need to be driven regularly) but we can't go to stores (closed) or restaurants (closed) or to visit friends -- we may get (or give, who knows) the dreaded virus. But we yearn for the good old days of January or February when we had no pandemic worries and our plans for many events for the year 2020 looked promising. So while the Pandemic months tick along with no end in sight, we while away the time with streamed movies or sports events, or we pretend we are having visits (hey, it's better than nothing) with friends and family members via Skype or Zoom. So! I want to tell you about a great racing movie that we recently saw courtesy of Netflix. It was a documentary about something that, I am chagrined to admit, I knew nothing about: the auto racing career of Paul Newman. The last time I was at a car racing event (with Richard Finch and his SAAB racer, Riverside, California) was in 1968 and in the years since then the closest I have been to car racing were club tours to Galles/Kraco Racing and a couple of visits to the Unser Museum in Albuquerque. Somehow I didn't know that movie star Paul Newman was an accomplished race car driver and a successful racing team owner. This included his team finishing second at Le Mans in 1979. For whatever reasons, I just was not paying attention to car racing. In recent years and months we have watched several movies about cars or racing or car people, including: "TUCKER"; "FORD V FERRARI"; "DRIVEN" about John Z DeLorean; "1" about Formula One; "GRAND PRIX" with James Garner; "LE MANS" with Steve McQueen. And most recently, a documentary "WINNING: THE RACING LIFE OF PAUL NEWMAN." This action-filled movie told us things about Paul Newman that I never would have suspected. His interest in motor racing started with the 1969 movie "WINNING" when he was 44 years old. The documentary emphasized how "P. L. Newman" started at the bottom, learning to race in cars like Datsun 510s and Datsun 1600s. He totally concentrated on racing, learning, practicing and perfecting basic skills and working up to the ultimate, co-driving in the Twenty-Four Hours of Le Mans, perhaps the world's most demanding race. The documentary is full of interviews with racing greats and celebrities such as Mario Andretti, Sam Posey, Bob Bondurant, Willy T Ribbs, Robert Redford and Jay Leno, just to name a few. For Corvair fans who are interesting in racing, or for movie fans who think of Paul Newman only as a highly respected actor, this documentary is a must-see. I highly recommend it. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. BACK HOME IN OKLAHOMA Dave Allin Well, we made it. Jan and I are now fairly settled in our new home in Oklahoma City, and are very pleased with the house and the neighborhood. I really love my new three-car garage with epoxied floor, with plenty of room for all three cars, all my tools, and space to work. Now if it just had a lift. . . . We towed the Corvair out here, not because it wouldn't make it, but because it was high summer and the car has no air conditioning. My friend Jud, who you may have met at the Alamosa Tri-State, volunteered to tow the car out with his pickup. We went to U-Haul to reserve one of their car-hauling trailers, and ran into a problem. After giving them all sorts of information about his truck and my car, we were told that their computer said my car wouldn't work on their trailer. According to them, the bumper height on the Corvair was too low, and the computer recommended we use a two-wheel tow dolly on the front wheels and disconnect the drive shaft. I asked them to double check what car they had entered, and they assured me they had correctly entered 1969 Corvair. Our assumption is that when someone programmed the computer, they entered the data for a 1969 Corvette instead of Corvair. We signed a waiver and they rented us the trailer anyway. We initially loaded the Corvair nose first, since it was a four-wheel trailer, and initially it seemed fine. When we got out on the interstate, however, Jud said the trailer was wandering back and forth, so we pulled off into a parking lot and reloaded the Corvair rear first. The U-Haul trailer has a nice fold-down fender that allows you to open the car door, but when we reversed the car, that meant we had to exit through the passenger door. Not a real problem, but something to consider. With the weight bias now corrected, we resumed our journey, and had no further problems. We made it to Oklahoma City in about nine hours, and parked the trailer at the motel that night. The next morning we unloaded the car and took the trailer back to a U-Haul center that was about four blocks away. All told, it cost me about $280 to rent the trailer, which seems very reasonable. One of the advantages to living here in Oklahoma is that almost all gas stations carry pure gas with no ethanol. Now I can be less concerned about having my fuel pump go out on me. I had to check tire pressures right away, because at this lower elevation, the tires were correspondingly lower in pressure. With that corrected, the car runs great. I've taken it on several fairly long drives at highway speeds, and even in 95-degree temperatures it did not overheat. I have joined the local Corvair club (Central Oklahoma Corvair Association). We were still getting settled in when the August meeting occurred, and the September meeting was canceled for some reason. They have informal meetings every week, however, at the property of one of the members, a guy named Ken, and I attended one of them. Ken has a small cattle ranch on the east edge of OKC, along with several large buildings full of Corvairs. On Sunday and Wednesday mornings all members of the club are welcome to come have coffee at Ken's, and if necessary, use one of his lifts. Among his cars is an 8-door Greenbrier undergoing restoration, and he has several station wagons in various stages of completeness. Fortunately for Jan, Ken says he never sells his Corvairs. I miss the New Mexico club, and really appreciate all that the club did for me. If the Tri-State actually happens next year, I will try to be there. Happy motoring. Dave Allin ............................................................................. ............................................................................. Reprinted from the SEPTEMBER 2020 AIRHORN - Chicago Corvair Enthusiasts MCSCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS by Mike McGowan Oversteer Corvairs oversteer. Oversteer is evil. Therefore, Corvairs are... wait, there must be a flaw in that chain of reasoning. Oversteer isn't evil, its just different; unexpected. Neither oversteer nor understeer is problematic until you get up to cornering speeds where tire traction is noticeably slipping away. At that point, most drivers will lose control. This may include you. In surveys of drivers, especially men, most all consider themselves "above average." I studied statistics in college, so believe me, it is not possible for virtually everyone to be above average. Overconfidence does not compensate for lack of skill if you find yourself driving into a corner too fast. What is oversteer? It is simply a way of saying that the rear tires will exceed their maximum traction limits before the front tires when speeding through a curve. Understeer is the opposite, the front tires give up first. The joke description is that an understeering car goes off the road front-first while an oversteering car goes off the road backwards. A technical test is to drive in a circle and hold the steering wheel steady, then accelerate the speed; an understeering car will go in an ever-widening spiral while an oversteering car will spiral inwards. If you don't adjust the steering angle, eventually the understeering car will go straight off the road but the oversteering car will spin. If you corner fast enough, any car will lose control in some way. What makes a car oversteer? If most of the mass (weight) is at the rear, that creates more sideways force at the back when accelerating (turning). This is in accordance with Newton's law F = ma where greater mass and greater acceleration cause greater force. The greater weight also presses down on the tires making more friction, but there is an upper limit where the rear tires are overloaded and slide. Understeer is the opposite, when a car is heavy on the front axle, which is most prevalent in modern vehicles. Which is better for driving safely? Well, the virtue of understeer is that unskilled drivers will instinctively correct for it. When a front-heavy car starts to lose traction in a curve and veer towards the outside, most all drivers will turn the steering wheel in harder which is the right thing to do. Unfortunately when the limit of traction is reached the car will plow nose-first into the outer guardrail no matter how you turn the wheel. By contrast, an oversteering car going too fast into a turn will actually rotate inwards as the rear axle loses traction. The proper tactic here is to turn the front wheels toward the outer guardrail, which most drivers will not dare to do, so the car will continue to rotate until it slides sideways or backwards into some bad place. The thing is, if a driver can skillfully countersteer with the tail out, then both the front and back axles of the car will generate their maximum traction and maybe get through the curve. This is superior to an understeering car that never uses its rear axle steering potential as it drives straight off the road. Of course the safe way to get through a curve is to slow down before going into it. That is Plan A, if you have the skills and self-restraint to do it. Braking in the curve when you realize you are reaching the limit of traction is an instinctive reaction but maybe not effective. Braking transfers weight forward, onto the front wheels and off of the rears. On an understeering car this makes more downforce on the front wheels which increases total traction there, a good thing, but the braking uses up some of that traction thus compromising the steering traction. On an oversteering car the result is disastrous: braking steals some of the cornering traction from the rear tires, and weight transfer reduces the total traction at the rear. It takes skill and courage to keep your foot off the brake when your Corvair is speeding through a curve at the limits of control. What about neutral steering, a perfect balance between oversteer and understeer? That seems like an attractive concept, and some cars are designed with the weight balance to do that, but remember that is a balance point so under real-world driving conditions the response will change from oversteer to understeer as you drive. This requires skilled driving to manage. So your car oversteers, what can you do about it? Not much. Unless you can move a lot of weight to the front or seriously redesign your chassis and suspension, your adjustments are limited. On a late model Corvair you can run seven-inch wide wheels at the rear with appropriate size tires; keep narrower wheels and tires at the front. This increases rear track width (slightly) and rear tire contact area, which helps the rear axle traction. (I also upgrade the wheel diameter to 14 or 15 inches to give more wheel and tire choices.) One effective way to improve rear-to-front traction balance is by reducing front traction. Chevrolet recommended low pressure in the front tires of all Corvairs. This was a serious compromise, but necessary for handling balance. Another way to tune handling balance is with anti-roll bars, sometimes called swaybars. Their obvious use is to regulate body roll, when you speed around a corner and the car leans to the outside of the turn. But it also reduces cornering traction on that axle. What is less well understood is that a swaybar increases traction on the other axle. So, a front swaybar reduces front axle traction and increases rear axle traction. Corvairs were originally designed to have a front swaybar, which was deleted for cost-saving reasons. In 1962-63 that was an option, and from 1964 till the end it was standard. The bars got bigger and stronger over the years, so the 1965-69 cars with their improved rear suspensions and strong front swaybars can almost feel like they understeer. Of course at the limits of cornering performance the Corvair's true nature will re-emerge and the tail will swing out My tech tip for this month may sound perverse, but on a well set up late model Corvair I like a rear swaybar. After you have balanced the car by widening the rear wheels and tires, and maybe moving the weight of the battery or at least the spare tire to the front, a modest rear swaybar adds back some oversteer. Addco makes, or in the past did make, a swaybar that fits below the rear trailing arms and gives a moderate amount of body roll control. It won't do you much good if you get out of control in a fast corner, but in everyday motoring it makes a Corvair into the happy tail-wagging puppy we love to drive. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. TWENTY YEARS AGO (ALMOST) AUGUST 2000 NEWSLETTER CAMPOUT - AUGUST 4TH, 5TH, AND 6TH Steve Gongora The camping was supposed to start on Friday August 4th, 2000 but everyone made the push on Saturday morning on the short trek up to Ruth Boydston's cabin. Chuck and Julia Vertrees had rushed to the Bernalillo stop at 7:15 AM only to find an abandoned meeting place. He continued on to Ruth's to catch up only to find that they were the first family to get there. I guess everyone had the same idea and started later, both in a day late and a later hour. Sorry about that Chuck. The Gongoras and Pleaus caravanned up a couple of hours later. Debbie drove her Ford van trailering her pop-up tent and Dennis followed in his 65 Monza. Dennis was headed up to Colorado Springs after the campout to start his new position at Intel. The Decks, the Pattens, and the Wilverts got to Ruth's cabin just minutes after we arrived. I'm surprised that we didn't see each other on the highway. Ruth had set up a large tent just in case it rained. Everyone set up camp and all pitched in to make each site look like they just came from a Boy Scout School. The afternoon brought the company of the Golds, the Domzalskis, and Mr. Jerry Goffe and Kaluha, the dog. After all settled in we took turns surveying the community with the "Turtle". The "Turtle" is the small gas powered 4-wheel transport that Ruth uses to travel from cabin to cabin in the area. The kids had a blast. Debbie Deck had activities for all the campers. The "fishing tournament" had everyone fishing for items on a special list she had put together. This was a sort of scavenger hunt from copper wire to paperclips. The winners were tied and the prizes went to the Gongoras and Ruth for collecting 14 items each from the list. Everyone brought dishes and meat and were treated to a feast for dinner. I'm sure the neighbors could get a whiff of the meat cooking. After dinner, we sat around the campfire. The copper wire, from the scavenger list, was to be used to throw in the fire. Debbie showed us that the copper wire gives a beautiful green glow. The event was such a hit that we all are looking forward to next year. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. TWENTY YEARS AGO (ALMOST) SEPTEMBER 2000 NEWSLETTER SAVING ANOTHER CORVAIR! by Richard & Gayle Finch Actually, Dennis and Debbie Pleau "saved" the little 1964 Monza convertible several years ago when they bought it from Frederico and Rebecca Garza and parked it at the Pleaus' great house in Albuquerque. Gayle and I merely took possession of it last Saturday and towed it home to Tularosa. For the past 12 months or more, Gayle and I had been looking for an early model Corvair convertible for Gayle to drive as her daily-driver car. Her current daily driver is a 1991 Chevy Cavalier convertible with 135,000 miles on the odometer. It isn't worn out yet, but the way we both look at the car situation is that as long as we are driving a convertible to Corvair events, it might as well be a Corvair. My daily driver is a 1965 Corvair 4-door with over 250,000 miles in its record book. Our 1969 Corvair powered Ultra Van only has 27,500 miles on its odometer. We have been very busy moving from Santa Barbara to Tularosa and trying to attend car shows and air shows for our book business, and we did not find an early model convert that was near us until last month when we saw Dennis's ad in the "Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter." Last month I called Debbie and Dennis and we made a deal for me to buy their 1964 convertible. Dennis said it was towable and I made a date with him to pick it up last Saturday. The drive from Tularosa to Albuquerque is 220 miles and takes 4 hours including a food stop in Corona, NM. We arrived at the Pleaus' really nice house at 11:45 AM and saw the yard and driveway full of Corvairs. Well, there were only three of them there. After giving the 1964 Monza a general look over, Dennis and I started removing the front bumper and hooking up the custom made tow bar. By 12:30 we had the bar hooked to the Corvair and to our 1991 convertible and had the rear auxiliary light bar attached. Dennis jacked up the rear of the Monza and I crawled under it with a quart of 90 wt transmission oil and put most of it in the dry transmission. I could see a leak at the shifter shaft seal that warned of a low oil level in the tranny. The differential dip stick showed oil in the operating range. Dennis told me that he had driven the Monza to his house several years ago and that the handling was really squirrely and that the engine was running rough. The body showed rust spots at three fenders, indicating previous body work from replacing three fenders. I did not see any other damage and when I was under the car to fill the tranny, I saw very little rust except under the driver's side floor. There were two baseball-sized holes there. The trunk floor was not even rusted through. Several really positive things showed in the cursory inspection at the Pleaus' house. The original jack and lug wrench were in the trunk. The wsw bottle was intact and even had a small amount of factory fluid still in it. The three wire wheel covers were factory options. The odometer showed only 59,485.0 miles and this seemed pretty accurate as backed up by several repair receipts in the glove box. After we visited for just a few minutes, Gayle and I said goodbye to the Pleaus and drove off for Tularosa. We stopped about one mile down the road on 2nd Street and I checked the temperature of the front and rear wheel bearings and brakes on the Monza and the tow bar hookup. Everything seemed fine, so we drove on to the Winrock Center to shop for lawn mower parts. I checked the Monza wheel bearings again there. Next, we headed out toward Moriarty on I-40 and I got a taste of the squirrely handling of the Monza. After getting the car home, I discovered that it had good radial tires on the rear and 78 series bias-ply tires on the front plus totally ineffective rear shocks. Mixing radial tires with bias-ply tires is asking for poor handling.The secret to getting the Monza to track behind the Cavalier was to stay on the road and not make any brisk steering inputs. We stopped for gas at Moriarty and I checked the wheel bearings again there. We also stopped in Carrizozo to take pictures at a wrecking yard and I again tested the wheel bearings. On any trailer or car towing trip, I feel of the rear axle part that shows at the wheel and I feel of the grease cup on the front wheels. If the hubs feel hot, then I know I have a wheel bearing needing grease or worse yet, about to go out. The Monza made the entire trip without a single problem. After we got the car home on Saturday evening, I parked it and rested. On Sunday morning I disconnected the tow bar from the Cavalier so we could drive the Cavalier to church. On Sunday afternoon, I began taking out the seats, carpet and cleaning out the New Mexico "sunshine" (dust). I must have vacuumed out a gallon of dust and washed out another gallon of dust with the garden hose! I found that the rust in the driver's side floor was caused by the large rubber boot around the speedometer cable being grossly out of place. Every time the Monza drove through a water puddle, the left side floor would get a dose of muddy water in through the speedometer cable cut out. Then the muddy water would stay in the carpet and rust the floor on that side of the car. On Monday I put a spare battery in the car and actually motored the engine over several revolutions to prove that it was not seized. The car is now parked under our carport with a "real" car cover over it, and it is very clean now. I must have spent 12 hours washing dust out of every crack and crevice. Glove box records show that the car was sold new at Curry Chevrolet in Scarsdale, NY. The 110 hp engine number shows it was manufactured in April 1964. Then it was owned for several years by Joseph and Mary Lite of Albuquerque before Frederico Garza bought it in 1990. I could not find who had purchased it new. Gayle and I plan to start restoring the Monza in December. We will install air conditioning in it like Mr. Del Delaney had done in his 1962 Monza, and use it for our primary, daily transportation. Our Siamese cat turned her nose up at it when we brought it home all dusty and dirty, but as I continued to wash it and clean it up, she has now taken to taking naps on top of its black rag top. Sleeping on it means that she has accepted it. I will write more about the car as we start to restore it. Gayle and I really like the car and are glad we decided on buying an early model. ............................................................................. ............................................................................. Happy Birthday Wishes to October CNM'ers: Jon Anderson Erica Anderson Terry Price Happy October anniversaries: NONE ............................................................................. ............................................................................. TREASURY REPORT FOR 08-17-2020 to 09-14-2020 DATE CHECK# AMOUNT PAYEE DESCRIPTION BALANCE = $6,887.93 ========== ==== ========== =========== ========================================= ========= 2020.09.03 $ 100.00 Dues T.Shortle 52 m CNM $ 100.00 $6,987.93 2020.09.14 Cash $ 5.00 Donation Kay & Tarmo Sutt - Donation $ 5.00 $6,992.93 2020.09.14 $ 50.00 Dues J.Richardson 26 m CNM $ 50.00 $7,042.93 ========== ==== ========== =========== ========================================= ========= 2020.10.01 OCT NEWSLETTER ===================================================== $7,042.93 ............................................................................. ............................................................................. ============================================================================ | October 2020 | November 2020 | December 2020 | | Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa | Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa | Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa | | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | 1 2 3 4 5 | | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | 29 30 | 27 28 29 30 31 | ============================================================================ SAT 03 OCT 9:00 AM BREAKFAST MEETING: MEETING AT THE SAWMILL MARKET SAT 03 OCT 9:00 AM 1909 Bellamah Ave. 505-563-4470 **** WEAR MASKS **** SAT 03 OCT 9:00 AM Election of Officers today SAT 03 OCT 9:00 AM After breakfast Larry Blair has arraigned a visit to SAT 03 OCT 9:00 AM New Mexico Museum of Military History in the same area. MON 05 OCT 8:30 AM -- Old Route 66 Cleanup -- meet at the I-40/NM-333 Triangle WED 21 OCT 5:00 PM Board Meeting: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED WED 28 OCT 7:30 PM NEW MEXICO CAR COUNCIL MEETING: CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 FRI 30 OCT 9:00 PM Deadline for items for November 2020 newsletter MON 02 NOV >> TARGET FOR PRINTING AND MAILING NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER << ============================================================================ SUN 01 NOV 2:00 AM - Set your clocks back an hour because the government stole an hour out of your life back in March and we all have to tolerate a one-hour jet lag experience to get it back. SAT 07 NOV 10:00 AM Meeting: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED WED 18 NOV 5:00 PM Board Meeting: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED FRI 27 NOV 9:00 PM Deadline for items for December 2020 newsletter MON 30 NOV >> TARGET FOR PRINTING AND MAILING DECEMBER NEWSLETTER << WED 00 NOV [ NO CAR COUNCIL MEETING THIS MONTH ] ============================================================================ SAT 05 DEC 10:00 AM Meeting: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED WED 16 DEC 5:00 PM Board Meeting: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED FRI 16 DEC 9:00 PM Deadline for items for January 2021 newsletter ! EARLY ! MON 17 DEC >> TARGET FOR PRINTING AND MAILING JANUARY NEWSLETTER << ! EARLY ! WED 00 DEC [ NO CAR COUNCIL MEETING THIS MONTH ] ============================================================================ SAT 02 JAN 10:00 AM Meeting: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED WED 20 JAN 5:00 PM Board Meeting: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED WED xx JAN 7:30 PM NEW MEXICO CAR COUNCIL MEETING: >>>>>>>> TO BE DETERMINED FRI 29 JAN 9:00 PM Deadline for items for January 2021 newsletter MON 01 FEB >> TARGET FOR PRINTING AND MAILING FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER << ============================================================================ See the New Mexico Council of Car Clubs Web Site for more "NMCCC" activities ======================== http://www.nmcarcouncil.com/ ====================== ............................................................................. ............................................................................. SEVEN YEARS AGO [ OCTOBER 2020 VOL 46 Nr 10 Issue # 541 ] Jim Pittman 2013 Vol.39 Nr 10 #457 COVER: Corvairs wait to enter the State Fair. Ollie Scheflow is honored for seventeen years of Old Route 66 cleanups. David showed off his Smart fortwo 2dr Cabriolet. Former members (1983-2001) Karen and Clayborne Souza visited. Vickie told about a trip by Pat and Lube and friends to bring five Corvairs and many parts down the mountain from Cedar Crest to Los Lunas and the overheated engines that resulted. Planning was going well for the 2014 Chama Tri-State. 2006 Vol.32 Nr 10 #373 COVER: Airplanes and the "Library Van" at the Moriarty airport. Returning member Dick Cochran was introduced. Christmas plans including supporting the Barrett House. We met Richard Finch at the EAA fly-in. Photos of historic aircraft filled the newsletter. Jim suggested compiling a CD with back issues of the newsletter. David suggested making videos at club events. Ray's "Mechanically Un-inclined" letter suggested that we all go to the upcoming pot luck and auction. He predicted that fall weather was the perfect time to drive your Corvair. Steve Goodman previewed the 2007 Monte Vista Tri-State. Santa Fe resident Bill Lawless was restorating a Canadian-built turbo Corsa. Bill completed this project single-handedly in record time. Robert was the first to warn us that our initials had been appropriated by T-VI. 1999 Vol.25 Nr 10 #289 COVER: Jim's 1966 turbo Corsa was pictured at Dog Canyon near Alamogordo in 1967. New members Ron & Debbie Deck were introduced. Our campout this year was very wet. Tarmo & Mark planned a Fall Tour. Debbie worked on the 2000 Tri-State. Wendell told us about the Wheels Museum. Chevrolet dealers displayed the new 1960 Corvair on October 2, 1959. To celebrate, we planned a parade down Central in our Corvairs. Dennis thanked us for a fun two years as CNM president. A newspaper article profiled CNM member Larry Blair with interesting details of his careers and adventures. The issue wrapped up with photos from the State Fair, possibly the first digital images to appear in our newsletter. 1992 Vol.18 Nr 10 #205 COVER: The 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the new world. The three Spanish ships had Monza crosses on their sails. We discussed the Swap meet, the State Fair, the Aspencade, CNM elections and our Christmas dinner. Jon Anderson was a guest and soon became a member. Carl Johnson told about driving a Corvair to the Alanta convention. President Steve thanked Bill Reider for putting together the Care and Feeding booklet which has garnered national attention. LeRoy reported on the State Fair show: eighty cars on display, thirteen of them Corvairs. Chuck reported on the Orange Barrel Funkhana: fourteen drivers negotiated the course and the winner was Debbie Pleau. Brenda previewed the Christmas dinner at the All-Indian Pueblo Center. A guest article by Mark Shaw examined the pollutants emitted by old cars in typical driving conditions. Even well-tuned sixties cars contribute more than their share of environmental degradation. Tech tips included a recommendation for using Dow Corning GN metal assembly paste when assembling your engine, filling the bowl of your newly-rebuilt carbs with gas before trying to start the engine, and a report that tuning up all old cars would be the most cost-effective way to significantly reduce smog. 1985 Vol.11 Nr 10 #121 COVER: Another Mark Morgan early-model styling concept. Bill Hector took notes, Francis presided and we had $543 in the bank. We saw a television news story about Clark's Corvair Parts. Bill Reider's monthly column discussed the importance of keeping springs in shape and told how to check ride height. He recommended new springs, not spacers to prop up sagging springs. Tech tips included a template for mounting late model bumper guards and how to fix a leaky trunk. To get those stuck jets out of your carb without damage, use a screwdriver with a blade the same width and thickness as the jet's slot. The blade should be straight-ground or hollow-ground, not tapered. 1978 Vol.4 Nr 9 #37 COVER: A snail's path spelled out CORSA. Congressman Runnels got the Manuel Lujan bill shelved; this bill would have paid dealers or junk yards $300 to scrap any pre-1968 vehicle. Joel Nash was our president, Tarmo Sutt our VP and Steve Gongora our secretary-treasurer. Les Campbell was organizing the State Fair show and we wanted to put on another Winrock show. New members were Greg Corazzi and Ken Bell. Jim's article "Don't Paint Your Wagon" asked CNM people to think about why they own Corvairs. Jim asserted it was more important to keep them running well so they'd be fun and useful to drive than to paint them up so they'd look so good you'd be afraid to drive them. What do you think? The third part of Bob Helt's tune-up article covered ignition timing. Terry Gray reported on the State Fair where nine Corvairs showed up. The crowd was overheard making the usual remarks: Where's the engine... My brother used to have one of those... My dad's Corvair was the one with four cylinders... I had one and never should have got rid of it... I'd never own a car like that... ======~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~====== ======~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~====== Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter is published monthly by Corvairs of New Mexico, chartered Chapter #871 of CORSA, the Corvair Society of America. Copyright by the Authors and by Corvairs of New Mexico. Articles may be reprinted in any CORSA publication as a service to CORSA members, provided credit to the Author and this Newsletter is clearly stated. All opinions are those of the Author or Editor and are not necessarily endorsed by Corvairs of New Mexico or CORSA. Material for publication should reach the Editor by the 15th of the month. Send material via e-mail ( jimp @ unm.edu ) or submit a readable manuscript. I prefer ASCII TEXT, but MS Word or RTF are fine. Photographs are welcome. The newsletter is composed using Apple computers. Software includes Mac OS-X, AppleWorks, Photoshop CS, GraphicConverter, BBEdit and InDesign CS. If you care, ask for more details. When I'm 64, I'll get by with a little help from my friends. ======~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~====== ======~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~=====~====== =END=