<VV> My First Corvair-an attempt for more stories.(long)

[Ryan Verthein]

okay.  I was just thinking how cool it would be to
share a story and ask that you guys share some of
yours...a nice happy thread with Corvair content.  Fun
reading!

I had a couple of different cars before my Corvair. 
The first one ever was this Chevy Deluxe 4
door...rusted all to hell, sitting in the
alley...hadn't been touched in a long time.  I went to
the mans door, and asked him if he wanted to get rid
of it.  he told me that he would give it to me for
free, all I had to do was get it home....so I did.

We drug the 4 door beast home, and I got right to work
on it...I think I was maybe 15. (only 4 years
ago...seems like forever.)  we painted the car with
paint brushes and black rustoleum....my dad bought all
of the tune-up parts for the car, and got it running. 
Our motto between my dad and I has always been that if
it turns over, we can make it run...and that we did. 
it had a 235 babbit-oiler in it with a powerglide. 
the car ran VERY well...it didn't blow blue smoke when
we started it, it idles nicely...hell, we even drove
it a couple of times....it was a really smooth running
car.

Only problem was, it was a TOTAL pile.  the body was
rusted to hell, and the frame was so bad that when I
jacked it up, you couldn't open the doors.

So I parted the car out on eBay...got about 2500 for
all of the parts I could POSSIBLY take off the car.  I
bought a guitar, and another old Chevy (my second love
in this world is the 49-54 Chevy passenger cars.  I
just like how they ride and look....classic styling.)

the 49 was much better.  the body had a good bondo job
on it, and a cool looking paint job-light blue paint
on the back, and front to back were dark blue
lightning strike scallops.  The interior had been done
in blue by someone, and smooth chrome rims here added.
 the car had also been lowered 4 inches front and
back.

the 216 that was in it blew up on the way home, so we
had a 235 full pressure from a 59 Chevy put in with a
good used truck clutch.  so heavy that after driving
in traffic cruising the strip, my leg was in pain. 
but when you revved her up to 3700 rpm and dumped the
clutch...you could burn her through first and second
gear.

The car burned oil like crazy...but I lifted the back
end back up and drove it for two years before deciding
to sell it and by my next new car...a Corvair.

Fast forward to a little over a year ago early
November.

I saw pictures my dad had sitting on our printer of a
V-8 conversion he had done with some friends when he
was just out of high-school.  a 66 Monza coupe with a
high performance 327.  I wasn't sure what a Corvair
was, or WHY you would put a V-8 in the backseat...but
it got me interested.

So onto Google I went.  The first thing that popped up
that was of interest was Norm Witte's Legends of the
Engine Compartment.  he was still in the process of
building when I first found it...and I read for about
2 hours...every single post he had made about the car.
 

I was INSTANTLY infatuated with this car.  I went to
the Corvair Corsa site, read everything, went to the
CORSA site, read everything....I got onto VV, and
asked around for a good car.  i decided the definitive
car for me was a 1965 Corvair Corsa Turbo coupe.  So I
found one.

In comes Dale Dewald with exactly what I was looking
for...a project car.  I figured what better way to
learn ALL about the car then to get one in need of
work so i can learn as I go.

Little did I know that there are NO Corvair guys in
Northern Minnesota to help me out...but at the time, I
was living in Burnsville, MN...not far from where the
MN chapter of Corsa met.  I joined, and started going
to the meetings.

Everyone told me I was crazy for starting out in
Corvair land with a car that didn't run.  But I told
em I was young and I can take it.  So I saved up, and
bought myself exactly the car I wanted.  Dale and I
wheeled and dealed, and talked for a long time on the
phone.  we finally got it figured out that he would
deliver the car to me in Grand Rapids one weekend when
I was up  to my good buddy Kevin's garage (my garage
had an Edsel in it.)

I worked on it on the weekends when I came up...and
finally Kevin's dad told me the car had to go.  he was
getting pissed that it wasn't on the road, or at least
out of his garage....So after a couple of weeks of
avoiding them, I rented a car dolly, took my moms Fo*d
van, and picked up the car one day when no one was
home.  ( I of course told them later that day.)

I won't go into much more detail, but I've done a LOT
of work...taking out the old POS frozen turbo engine
(with no turbo on it)  and reviving the 110 that Dale
gave me with the car to get er back on the road.

I'm putting on an ALL new brake system(with a dual
MC), a new (and improved) interior, having the car
stripped to bare metal and repainted (not for some
time yet)  and then I'm going to build up a mild
performance engine that I can drive everyday with, and
then get on the track and make some good times with.

I was telling Jeff Calrk earlier in an e-mail that it
was awesome when I got the title for MY corvair in the
mail.  I've driven my dad's cars, or ones I bought
that were in his name for a couple of years....but I
was on my own, and making really good money last year,
so I bought the car, and put it in my name.  it's my
first ever car in my name...and even though I have
been weak at times, I will never sell it, cause it's
my baby.  I have to get her on the road, and drive the
car til long after the doors fall off.

That's my story, and I'm stickin to it like POR-15 to
rusty floors.

Ryan V.




1965 Corsa/110/4
http://www.edselmotors.com/corsa.html
and http://free4allband.tripod.com/corsacorvair.html


		
__________________________________________ 
Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about. 
Just $16.99/mo. or less. 
dsl.yahoo.com