Pullin’ Parts

Any afternoon pulling parts off of Corvairs is better than a few hours of employment, so I took last Friday afternoon off and spent it at the Corvair Ranch with Ken, a ‘vair good buddy of mine. I’d put together a list of bits and pieces I wanted to remove from PartsWagon and PartsCoupe. With Ken’s urging, for every part on the list we were able to unbolt, there was another part I just couldn’t leave behind. Three hours later we had the Suburban filled. Parts of note include PartsWagon’s rear hatch, engine cover, windshield, windshield trim, back seat, bumpers, the extremely fragile hatch covers, and a trailer hitch. The latter may come in handy if I do follow through with cool dream number two-hundred-thirty-one (a trailer made from a wagon’s rear half).

One item that really intrigued me, but which I was unable to remove was an aftermarket radio housing in PartsCoupe. In EMs, the radio is mounted in a separate sheetmetal enclosure that hangs under the center section of the dash. PartsCoupe’s radio was a period-correct Motorola AM/FM with a smaller display area than the stock GM of the time. To accommodate the size difference some company created a radio house that looked factory – it bolted to the dash and was painted. Not that I’d have a use for it, but it was unique and cool. Maybe next time I’ll try harder.

I spent a majority of Friday evening’s garage time unloading the Suburban moving all the parts into Wilma. Once empty, the truck got a thorough vacuuming.

With an hour or so left before bedtime, I moved on to YellowVert. Noone’s come forward wanting to buy her, so I’ve decided to part her out and the sooner the better. The first response to my revised post on the Corvair Center Forum asked for a second of the passenger side fender. The interested party is repairing some collision damage on an LM and needs some good, solid metal for the job. Since I don’t have a key to let me in the trunk, I removed the left front headlight bucket and unscrewed the two bolts holding the latch to the hood. Amongst the acorns and mouse-nest was, what appears to be, a new back window for a convertible top all rolled up in its original plastic packaging. I was more interested in the condition of the trunk, so I didn’t take it out to judge its condition. Could be a treasure.

I Love Numbers

Being an engineer, I'm all about the numbers. Here they are from last weekend..

2700 – dollars is the approximate value of the collection (if I were to sell the cars for scrap and liquidate the parts – which I’m not doing since it wasn’t Phil’s wish)
950 – miles driven to move Phil’s collection
525 – miles on the Suburban’s trip odometer
425 – miles Jonathan put on his Suburban
300 – dollars is the estimated value of stuff I will sell (4-barrel and adapter, wheelcovers, extra carburetors)
230 – dollars of gas burned during the move
11 – cars currently at my house
8 – Corvairs currently at my house
7 - boxes of parts and manuals
5 – Corvairs in Phil’s collection
3 – cars added to the fleet (with 1 being very temporary)
2 – ‘vairs taken directly to the Corvair Ranch
2 – engines and transmissions sitting in my utility trailer
2 – neighbors who (as far as I know) haven’t reported me to the city
1 - very big favor I owe Jonathan
1 – extremely tolerant lovely wife

It was, indeed, an epic weekend. It started Friday with an early arrival at Phil’s home where his brother, Bryan, and I sorted through parts, loaded two drivetrains and an engine cart into my trailer, and winched the good wagon onto Phil’s trailer. With the garage dealt with, we turned our attention to the four Corvairs sitting at the bottom of the yard. We changed the four tires that wouldn’t hold air and filled the rest. With Bryan steering and me driving the Suburban, we drug each hulk up to the driveway staging them for their subsequent removal. I got back home around 4:30, unloaded the wagon (now named Wilma – more on that later) into my new portable garage, unhitched the trailer, and proceeded to replace the Suburban’s leaking water pump.

Sunday morning I met Jonathan (with his Suburban and car trailer) at the park-and-ride. After an uneventful ninety minute drive to Waldorf, we winched the two LMs onto the trailers and headed back to Baltimore. The Corsa ‘vert was first off and we, with Victoria’s help, rolled it into the garage. Mikhaila’s Monza ‘vert rolled off easily and was placed in line in front of the wagon where Mikhaila and I immediately put a tarp over it in front of the incoming thunderstorms.

I then fed Jonathan an extravagant lunch of Doritos and a sandwich before we hit the road for our second run to Waldorf. We’d only been on the beltway for about ten minutes when the skies opened up. The rain, thunder, and lightening were tremendous. We were carefully driving around 30 mph with the rest of the cars on the interstates until we reached Rt 50 when it finally let up, but didn’t stop completely. We were able to start driving at the posted limit after that. The rain finally stopped about 20 minutes from Phil’s house and we thought we’d be okay, but as soon as we backed Jonathan’s trailer down the driveway to load the parts wagon it started raining again and didn’t stop until four hours later as we neared the Corvair Ranch. The afternoon was really rough because of the rain, but it ended nicely with us rolling the two EMs off the trailer and into the Ranch’s yard before we lost daylight. Jonathan informed me that my temporary trailer lights were not working, so I ended up driving home with the flashers going arriving just before 9. A very long day.

It was a lot of work and a lot of time, but I feel good knowing I honored Phil’s wish that I make sure his Corvair “stuff” will be re-used and I helped his widow by removing five non-running vehicles from her home.

My Excitement Builds

This butchered version of Pontiac's (RIP) last slogan amply applies to my current state of mind. A few days ago I received the "let's do this" e-mail from Phil's brother, Bryan. The gist of the e-mail exchange that ensued was: he would be in Maryland the 24^th and 25^th; we would go through Phil's collection, gathering all the Corvair stuff (the five cars included); load it onto trailers; and I'd haul it away.

When I mentioned this to the lovely Loriann, she reminded me of two things. First, the city of Baltimore frowns greatly upon the operation of a salvage yard in a residential neighborhood. Second, she will not tolerate our driveway looking like a junkyard – some stuff needs to go before anything new shows up.

What’s my plan to keep peace with the zoning Nazis and my tolerant-to-a-point spouse? I’ve been able to find a generous club member who has offered me a spot in their yard for the fall/winter storage of the popup tent trailer, Victoria and I put her sailboat on Craigslist, and I just bought a portable garage.

Victoria and I still intend to get Luna’s top installed before the end of the weekend so she can be parked on the street with the rest of the fleet. It’s a good thing our neighbors never park their cars on the street or have visitors stop by that need a parking spot.

While there are five Corvairs in Phil’s collection, only three will ever darken our driveway. The parts wagon and the ’62 coupe will go directly to the Corvair Ranch with, hopefully, the understanding from proprietor Jeff that I can come up in the near future and remove some parts without charge. The rusty, unsaveable Corsa ‘vert will get parted out for its 140HP/4-speed drivetrain for my future use and some Corsa-specific parts that will be sold to make back some gas money. Afterwards it too will end up at the Ranch. Only the wagon and hopefully the LM Monza ‘vert will become part of the fleet with the latter being Mikhaila’s and my father-daughter project.

Phil’s Collection

Last Thursday I drove down to Phil’s house and met his brother, Bryan. Not surprisingly, he’s a very friendly guy with great stories to share just like his brother. After I extended my condolences, we began chatting about cars and planes as avid motorheads are prone to do. Before I knew it nearly two hours had passed. We had walked around the yard and into the garage with me inspecting and photographing each of the cars in Phil’s collection.

As we walked, we talked, and Bryan agreed that most likely only the ’62 wagon in the garage was restorable, while rust had eaten away too much of the rest of the cars. The 4-speed Monza wagon sitting in the garage seemed to be in quite solid shape other than the floors. The front valance was holey, but a new replacement panel was sitting on the floor in front of the car. The drivetrain had been removed, but there were a couple engines in the garage, so rebuilding candidates are available.Sadly, the most valuable of the Corvairs, a ’66 Corsa convertible (one of only 3,142 made that year), is in very rusty condition. The rocker panels – the backbone of these cars – are swiss cheese. The car may be savable, but would take someone with lots of welding experience and lots of time. I didn’t check the serial number of the 140 engine residing under the engine lid, but the four-barrel intake setup topped by a large-looking Holley indicated this one had been modified. The other convertible in the collection may (and it’s still a big may) end up being Mikhaila’s project car. While it has some rust-through in the passenger door jamb (never an easy fix), the rest seemed solid. The rest of the ‘vairs will more than likely go to the Corvair Ranch donating their good parts to other people’s projects.

At the end of our walk, I confessed to Bryan that I was the typical Corvair owner - perpetually on a tight budget. Therefore, while I couldn’t offer them any money for the Corvairs, I would make sure each was put to its best use. I’d haul the part cars to the Corvair Ranch and I’d find good homes for the restorable one(s). This way I felt I was keeping the promise I made to Phil to help him get rid of his “Corvair stuff.” Bryan said that he would pass my offer on to Phil’s widow and get back to me. Additionally, I offered to post the photos of the ’38 Nash and ’41 Buick on the web and pass on to him any reasonable offers that come from that. I’m not in any hurry to take on the task of moving the cars since I’m still trying to finish up Ringo, but I told Bryan that once we had a deal, I’d make sure the Corvairs were moved as quickly as possible. I can only imagine how the sight of them sitting in the backyard is painful to Phil’s widow.

Currently, I’m patiently waiting for a response from Bryan. It’s fine with me that I haven’t yet heard from him since I must finish Ringo before I can afford the time required to move Phil’s collection.