<VV> Carl Sagan's 64 Spyder Convertible & a question

[Ruth Dorogi]

In 1983 my oldest son Mark was a graduate student in physics at Cornell
University in Ithaca, N. Y.  While cruising around Ithaca in his 1966 Corsa
convertible he spotted a 1964 Spyder Convertible in a driveway.  He ended up
buying the car & had it trailered home to Brocton, NY.  It was very rusty, but
had the smoothest running turbo engine that we had ever seen.

We pryed open the locked glove compartment and found the usual mouse nest and
urine stained documents including doctor and repair bills and the 1964 Owner
Protection Plan made out to the original owner - Carl Sagan. My son thought
that was neat!  We called the woman that sold the car and she said " Oh yes,
that was Carl's old car." It had been sandwiched in an accident and had slight
damage to the front and rear and never repaired by the new owners.

Carl Sagan was an astronomer, educator at Cornell, author, and adviser to the
NASA Apollo Moon program.  He popularized science in the PBS series Cosmos
seen by 500 million people in 60 countries.  The movie Contact starring Jodie
Foster was based on one of his novels.

The Spyder was exposed to the weather from 1972 to 1983 when my son bought it.
We never did anything to it, and it still is in our backyard somewhat
protected, but very, very, rusty.  It still has structural integrity (early
models are stronger than late models).  I have the mechanical, welding, and
painting skills to restore it but I'm afraid not much of the original car
would be left.  I have restored other corvairs nearly as bad (West Coast
owners would faint) to concours condition but at 70 years old it would be a
tremendously difficult and expensive task.

My question is - would it be worthwhile restoring this rusty 64 Spyder
Convertible because it was owned by Carl Sagan? It would be a challange.
Thanks.  Dennis Dorogi