[1969] (no subject)

[David Newell]

Hi all,
I got an email from Dave Dykwell last month in which he asked about the extra '69 Body number XXXX, which the CPF bought last year. Here's what he asked:

"Mike McGowen wants us to put an article together about the '69 Fisher Body.  None of us
has very many documented facts to use. If you could send me or Mike Hall some information to use we'd be happy to supply Mike with an article."

I sent him the reply pasted in line below, which is everything -- AFAIK -- that's known about body XXXX.

Thought some of you might be interested. If any of you know more about the Pate connection, please let me hear from you :o)

Thanks,
Dave

Here's my reply:

"About 1969 body XXXX: There's no documentation known to exist about it. On 5-30-13 I sent the BOD and CPF Staff an email, at the urging of Larry Claypool, about the possible purchase of XXXX by the CPF. I noted at the beginning of that email that my original email to Rusty (the seller) about the body's history was in line, further down in that email's thread. Here it is again with a few comments added in [ ]:

Please give me credit if you use any portions of this email."

Text of my 11-20-12 email to Rusty, then the current owner of XXXX, that I sent to the Staff & BOD 5-30-13:

Hi Rusty,
Thanks so much for getting in touch and for the pictures of XXXX! Congrats on being its new owner. Mark [Ellis] talked to Harold [previous owner, who bought the body from the Pate Museum] a few times and planted a seed with him about donating it to the YAHC Museum in Ypsilanti where we have the CPF Corvair Museum set up. I'm not involved with the CPF anymore even though it was the brainchild of Harry Jensen and myself.

The odd thing about XXXX is that I've never seen anything in print at GM about it or any documentation at all. When it was built Fisher still had most of its autonomous assembly plants including the one at Willow Run. I'm sure you understand that it was a separate operation from the Chevrolet plant there. Although the two plants cooperated, their relations were competitive in some ways and not always good natured. 

Fisher Body's assembly operations had been dissolved and absorbed by GMAD (Assembly Division) long before I started serious historical interviews and research in 1979, and most of their assembly records have since been destroyed. I interviewed the man who was the Fisher Willow Run manager at the time XXXX was built [and got great photos of 6000's body when it was finished at Fisher from him) but he didn't recall an extra body. And I've yet to find anyone who was with Fisher Willow Run who specifically remembers building XXXX or an order to build it. 

I have several salaried guys on record from the Chevy plant who were involved with stashing Corvair parts at the plant after 6000 was built...in case the Corporation wanted one more Corvair for some reason. I have that effort documented. So I presume the same thought occurred to or was shared with the Fisher plant...one more complete body would be required if another Corvair was called for.

One thing is sure in my mind: that XXXX was never sent over to the Chevy plant, as no one there that I've talked to remembers it. I think it must have stayed at Fisher until it was disposed of. It's very likely that it was sent over to Fisher's headquarters and engineering buildings on 12 Mile Road in Warren next to the GM Tech Center rather than being stored at Fisher Willow Run.

The closest I've come to any record of XXXX is a photo. It was given to me by a Fisher Willow Run Body Shop supervisor. The Body Shop was the first phase of the Fisher plant and was where the body was welded up and metal finished "in white" before the paint process was begun in the Paint Shop. The pic shows this man and another exec posed with a coupe body holding a crude little hand lettered sign on the deck lid that proclaimed the body to be the "last Corvair". He said it was the last body built in the Body Shop so it COULD be XXXX, or even 6000. We'll never know because it's in white, as were all bodies when they left the Body Shop! The pic has never been published but if I write a piece about XXXX I'd unveil it then.

The best thing about XXXX is that it's the perfect illustration of just how many assembly operations Fisher did on Corvairs and other GM cars. Most folks, as I'm sure you've found out, think Fisher built up the body in white and maybe painted it but that's it. I tell them that if a job's not in the Chevy Assembly Manuals, then a component supplier did the work...which included Fisher for the body, AC Spark Plug for the instrument cluster, Chevy Gear & Axle for the suspension etc. Occasionally Fisher "bought" operations from Chevy when it was convenient (like putting in the rear antenna wire -- normally a Chevy operation -- so it could go underneath the Fisher-installed sill plate).

Sadly the Pate Museum was never any help. I spoke with their people many years ago, shortly after Harold bought XXXX and they claimed that they'd lost the file on it. All they could say was that the body "was given to a major GM stockholder" and later donated it to them. I heard somewhere else that the person was also on the Pate Board, but the Museum wouldn't/couldn't give me a name. If you have a name I'd love to do some research. Is there ANY kind of paperwork with XXXX? Anything at all from GM or with a Pate person's name?

That's all I know about XXXX but I'd sure like to know more. Be sure to tell Harold how grateful we are that he never made XXXX into a car.

Thanks again Rusty. Sorry for the delay in answering but I "answer all emails in the order in which they're received" and it takes awhile sometimes!

All the best,
Dave
510-782-4265