<VV> Claypool's parts car

[Tony Underwood]

At 08:55 PM 4/1/2010, Chris & Bill Strickland wrote:

> >such a thing as the limit of practicality. If some people choose 
> to exceed it, so be it. But at some point, you simply don't have 
> enough left of the "original" item to call it the original item. 
> You get my point?
> >
>
>And, to whom are you speaking?  Perhaps, to me?
>
>If so, the point is that the limit of practicality is different for
>different people and different locales -- Take Widman's 1960 --  on the
>west coast, it is a hopless crushable basket case --  I sold a better
>body shell for scrap as no one wanted it for free -- In Bolivia, with
>their import laws, labor rates, and Richard's desire, suddenly it
>changes to a doable project.
>    http://www.widman.biz/Corvair/English/English.html



I've been watching this thread... and I can NOT help but ponder the 
fact that Richard's '60, as it appeared in the junkyard, was looking 
rather a lot like MY unrestored and well used '60...

...which I drive regularly.

Hey, it had more paint on it than my '60 has.





>You can't impose your standards of practicallity onto others -- it is an
>individual thing dependant upon individual situations, individuasl
>resources, and individual desires.


...and the matter of the costs of labor factors highly here.


MY labor is free.   White Post Restorations labor is not.   More on 
this in a moment.



>And, I believe you are introducing a new argument in regards to the
>original post -- "originality".  Your words, "restored to 'as built'
>condition" only refers to condition, not originality, so now, you want
>to talk "originality"?  Well, Original and restored can not, by
>definition, sit side by side -- only unrestored cars are "original" --
>once you start restoring, you can aim for your "original condition", but
>the process itself destroys any "originality".


If you repaint a car it's no longer original.   I think people get a 
little too carried away with this "original" thing.

My '60 is original except for the front seat and engine (seat is a 
bench from a Buick, engine is a '66 110).   ...and the front 
floors.   And, the headliner.  ...and a few other things.   It does 
have its original paint, some of it.





It's been brought up several times that a Corvair generally is "not 
worth it" if it's rusty.  The question of whether or not it's "worth 
the trouble" is strictly subjective.   Too many restoration houses 
are out to not just make a living, they wanna make a killing.  A 
Corvair is unlikely to ever find its way into White Post for obvious 
reasons UNLESS someone deems it worth the expense and that means 
someone is willing to spend whatever it takes no matter what.

That's fine... it's their money.

Richard obviously thought his Corvair was worth the time and 
expense.   In the end, his car turned out nice.   He seems happy with 
it.   I kept noticing that throughout the process, the photos of the 
car in its various stages demonstrated that its body really wasn't 
any worse than the car I'm driving now.

Another point to consider (as has been brought up before) is supply 
and demand.   I saw one "farm field" car get turned down several 
times by people who thought it was "too rough for me".   It sat for 
years untouched and eventually ended up selling for almost twice what 
had been originally asked primarily because the supply of cheap nice 
projects had dried up, and if you wanted to play you were gonna have 
to pay.



Another example was a '63 Spyder that a friend and I pulled out from 
under a stand of pine trees in mountain country, been sitting there 
perched on blocks of tree stumps for decades, no engine or transaxle 
but otherwise complete and original everything, paint and interior 
which was filthy but otherwise actually rather decent.   Low miles... 
last inspection sticker still on the windshield, dated march of 
1971.   Brought it back to town and stopped by another Corvair guy's 
place to show him...  he said "Good luck with that one, it's far too 
rough for me".

The car was covered in pine sap and black grime and was filthy... but 
underneath all the crud was a good body with nary a bubble on it 
anywhere.    Its only rust anywhere was a scratched up spot just 
below the rear bumper where something had scraped the paint off and 
surface rust had etched a hole the size of a pickle in the cove 
panel, easy fix.   Other than that one spot, the body was rock solid.

We scrubbed it down with Pine Sol cleaner and DuPont White 
compound.   Odd mix... but it worked and cleaned the car nicely and 
it actually shined up.   Located and installed a 102 driveline, 
armor-all'ed the interior to within an inch of its life after 
scrubbing it down with 409 cleaner.  It came out ok as well, was even 
soft.   Later on, a Spyder turbo driveline was located and installed 
to get the car "back to what it oughta be".


The car was driven to the next VA Vair Fair, no problems except for a 
balky coil that got replaced upon returning home.  Eventually it was 
sold to someone outta town, then painted and spruced up, then bought 
by someone else here in town who brought it back to Roanoke whereupon 
it received a few more tweaks and some dedicated attention after 
which it began winning trophies at shows local and 
elsewhere.   Eventually the car was sold for a 5-figure sum...  not 
too bad for something that had been passed over by several people who 
felt it was "too rough for me".

The moral of the story is to look at a car for what it could be and 
not as what it appears to be.   Consider what it's worth to YOU... 
not as what it would be worth for resale.


If all you're gonna do is fix up a car specifically for resale and 
NOT for your own personal satisfaction, just forget it and get out of 
Corvairs altogether and save your money for that '60s musclecar 
project that's gonna cost more than what you'd get out of it anyway 
but your ego would justify having lost money on the process because 
it was "worth the expense" even though you end up being afraid to 
drive it for fear it might lose value or a bird may crap on it or it 
might get struck by a meteor or taken up in the Automotive Rapture or 
something.


Me, I do my own work, and my labor is FREE.   That's why I still have 
this '60 along with the other cars (including a '60s musclecar) 
because it's always gonna be me wrenching them and not White Post.


I wanna enjoy what I have, not worry over whether or not it's "worth 
it" because for me if I decide it's gonna happen it's already decided 
that it's "worth it".


tony..


PS:   in 1984 my '60 had been slated for scrapping/parting out 
because someone felt it "wasn't worth it".