<VV> One More Corvair Story

[Ken Maxwell]

Hi Everyone,

Just one more Corvair story. In the mid '70's, I used to just love to go to junkyards looking for Corvair parts. One nasty February Saturday morning, it started to sleet as I prowled through my favorite junkyard. Needing "any port in a storm" I dove into a '60 Corvair that I hadn't seen before. It obviously had just been pulled in. As I waited out the sleet, I looked around. It was a "plain Jane" '60 4-door 500 with nothing special to recommend it, but then I noticed that the keys were in the ignition. I turned the key and got the red lights. I tried to start it, but it wouldn't turn over so I just sat there freezing in a sleet storm. Then it hit me! This thing has power and a gas heater! Could I be that lucky? I pushed the heater levers down and "whoosh" the heater fired right up! I was in hog heaven! There I was sitting in the middle of a junkyard in a beat up Corvair in a sleet storm and I was toasty warm! Life was good! I was actually getting a little drowsy as I warmed up until I noticed the first whiff of smoke. I immediately shut off the heater but the smoke became thicker. I panicked and forgot about the keys so I jumped out and used my trusty screwdriver to pop out the front  lock and open the trunk. I threw snow on the now blazing inferno and somehow got the fire out. An autopsy revealed that an unfortunate mouse had built a nest in the combustion chamber! I shut the trunk and casually sauntered out of the junkyard telling the guys "nothing for me today" and I hightailed it out of there. I didn't go back there for months!

Ken Maxwell
Louisville, KY
69 Convertible
69 500