<VV> My bad car adventure

[bub049 at comcast.net]

Great story Goeff!

My story is identical! My son Jim wanted a 63 convert like mine as he basically grew up riding in the backseat. So, good dad that I like to think I am, I started looking for one. Not having unlimited funds, but having tons of parts, I decided to look for a rebuilder from the south. I too found a 63 Convert in Texas in the city of Austin. I too figured that a Texas car would be sweet in the metal department. And, I too wound up with a pig in the poke! My son and I pulled up to the guys hobby building and my heart sunk. I held out hope that the car we bought was out in back and not the rusted hulk sitting out in front. I found cars with less rust here in Minnesota! Well, we loaded it up and hauled it home where we started to make a valiant effort to save it.

Well, the short of it was that we gave up, junked the shell, and hauled home a rust free convert body from Jeff at California Corvairs. Now....lesson learned, right? Nah. I brought home a "One owner, little old lady car, 63 500 coupe with 1 option-powerglide and 44,000 original miles" from Missouri. Well, all that was true. The son selling the beast on eBay didn't mention that the little old lady never washed that pig in the last 35 years and it never saw a garage.  Another rusty beast!!! The car looked awesome in the eBay pictures. The thing started falling apart on the trailer on the trip home. I pulled the weatherstripping from around the trunk opening and 1/4 of the metal under the stripping came with the weatherstrip!
I am re-learning how to weld by taking that one apart and welding it back together. 

People must think I'm nuts hauling rust buckets INTO Minnesota! 

Bob Johnston
Frostbite Falls, MN


Message: 2 
> Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 15:45:38 -0600 (MDT) 
> From: Geoffrey A Johnson 
> Subject: Re: Corvairs and Deals from Hell 
> To: UltraMonzaWest at aol.com 
> Cc: virtualvairs at corvair.org 
> Message-ID: 
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed 
> 
> My bad car adventure- 
> I had wanted a convertible all my life. MY dad has a good 65 Corsa Vert 
> in his 
> garage, buried. Wont see it for years! 
> So in early 2002 on Ebay I got a 63 vert $300 "shell" from Texas. Did 
> not 
> look bad, but 
> a 
> big project. Seller had stripped most of the car before putting it up 
> for sale and grossly misrepresented the item! After the item ended I 
> noticed his previous auctions... for 
> all the parts off of my car! 
> I am in Albuquerque, it is in Dallas. How to get it back? Well I had to 
> go out of town for 3 weeks for field school. There I fell off a mountain 
> and broke my leg and had to come home. So we figured, well now is the 
> time to get the car! A friend looking for an adventure said he would go 
> with us to to get the thing, and we would use his truck, and he would pay 
> for gas and trailer rental even! 
> So him, me with a broken leg on crutches, and my sister Sally, hop in the 
> truck and take off. Get there and wow is Dallas an unpleasant place while 
> in a leg cast! Met the dirtbag with the car, and loaded it up while I 
> had the sinking 
> feeling of regret! The car was completely rotted! 
> 
> Everything had serious rust and deep 
> chunks of bondo. My first real encounter with a SALT car. The 
> previous titled owners had 
> been killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, and the car had I guess been 
> auctioned to this guy. I made the mistake of wasting some time stripping 
> its cheap paint before giving up on it. Cut chunks 4 inches thick of 
> bondo out of the 
> doglegs! Decided there was just no way to salvage it. 
> 
> 
> Now the positive side. In late December of last year I found a solid 
> AZ/NM shell of a vert in January, and 
> using many 
> pieces 
> from the trash one, it is on the road, and my daily driver. So far it at 
> least has the junk cars tranny, windhsield, clutch cable, and speedo 
> cable. So some good finally came out of the ordeal! The new one is not a 
> girl like the other Vairs, which are "The Lady Corsa", and "Yellows". It 
> is a 
> bird, named "Cardinal" for its color! 
> 
> -Geoff Johnson 
> 63 Vert 
> 63 Coupe 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 11 May 2005 UltraMonzaWest at aol.com wrote: 
> 
> > With all this talk of He / She / It and the various names / reasons ...... 
> > 
> > How about everyones WORST story of Buying a Corvair.......the Deal...the Car