Monday, April 30, 2012

The Fleet is Enlarged


So after some negotiations, Victoria has the car she’s wanted all along, a LM convertible. We bought it from a fellow Baltimore Corvair club member who threw in a bunch of extras as part of the deal. It runs, it stops, it doesn’t start on its own because it needs a new battery, its current top may just blow off on at highway speeds, and she won’t get to drive it around immediately since it also needs all new tires. We’ll also thoroughly check out the brake system before letting her (the car) loose on the road. The rust won’t hold it back from becoming a daily-driver, but it will be fixed before a new coat of robin’s egg blue is applied. Victoria hasn’t named the car yet, so for now it will be referred to as V’s vert.

Sunday afternoon three of us (Victoria, Mikhaila, and I) drove up into the beautiful environs of north-central MD to the barn where fellow CORSA of Baltimore member, Chuck, has a barn full of Corvairs and another barn full of Corvair parts and pieces. We got there a few minutes before Chuck, but his son, Kevin, was there and we started our final inspection of the car. What we were looking for were what parts were needed for a complete restoration. Chuck offered to throw into the deal whatever he had in his parts’ barn that we needed. We wrote down some things and, after Chuck arrived, followed him into the barn and began poking around for the parts and pieces on our list. After thirty minutes or so, the following parts were lying on the grass outside the barn’s door: passenger door, right side front fender, grill bar, front air cowl grill, AM radio, and a wiper switch. The latter was actually for Glinda.

After getting out the towing equipment, I loaded the parts into the back of the Suburban while Victoria drove her new purchase out of the garage and lined it up facing the Suburban’s rear hitch. We bolted on the tow-bar and dropped the hitch over the ball. Mikhaila placed the lights on the ‘vert’s rear fenders and ran the cable up to the Suburban’s plug. Once we were all hooked up and tightened, we said our goodbyes and headed on home. Thankfully, the ‘vert towed like all good Corvairs and we were parked in front of fleet headquarters before we knew it.

With Glinda, Ringo, and Heidi parked at the curb, V’s vert was washed and then took up residence in the garage.

2 comments:

  1. need help have a tow bar and truck, what kind of base plate did you use on corvair for final hook up? thanks

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  2. I tow with an '07 Silverado 1500. I just hook right up to the Corvair front bumpers (after making sure they're securely attached to the body of the car).

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