[1969] '69 500 5649 with Cloth Interior: Does anyone know where 5659 is?
David Newell
chevrobilia at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 6 05:49:46 EST 2015
All,
I heard back from Mike & Cathy Lee, the owners of '69 500 #5649 -- the car now on Ebay with the pleated, Nova-like cloth interior fabric. They sent pictures of the Fisher Body tag and there's absolutely nothing unusual about it. Just the 708 Green all vinyl interior trim code. So that should rule out any special order or VIP car gone astray. Also, when Mike and Cathy bought the car on Ebay it definitely had the fabric seats.
Now the story gets interesting: in our '69 Finger-Tip Facts Corvair roster (including the three update sheets that Mark sent out) AND the February 2011 1969 Group update to our roster, only ONE 500 later than 5649 shows up with a GREEN interior: #5659, painted Frost Green and which first appeared on the 2004 update sheet.
There are a number of 500s listed later than 5649 with the other two all-vinyl interior choices of Blue & Black, but only the one Green interior 500: 5659. There are also several 500s with no Trim color listed. It just might be possible that Fisher Body ran out of 500 Green vinyl shortly before 5649 & 5659 were to be built and substituted modified green cloth Nova seat covers on a few cars. Just a thought, but I think it's a theory worth pursuing.
ONLY YOUR HELP WILL TELL....
1) Does anyone know where '69 500 # 5659 is? Or know where John Wilson, the listed owner, is now? The 2004 roster update sheet shows it belonging to John in Tool, Texas. The phone number for John in the latest CORSA roster I have is very likely not his anymore although I left a message anyway. It would be very interesting to see if 5659 has the stock Green vinyl interior or not :o)
2) Does anyone know of any 500s with Green interiors LATER than 5649? Perhaps one's been added to the roster since the last update in 2011?
Please let me know if you can help with this little mystery. Thanks!
Dave Newell
--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 3/5/15, David Newell <chevrobilia at yahoo.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: '69 500 with Cloth Interior on Ebay, # 321686548673
To: "Wade Lanning" <wblanning at comcast.net>
Date: Thursday, March 5, 2015, 11:58 AM
Thanks Wade. I don't know if Fisher
would have used them but it's worth a try.
It occurred to me that Mark may have never seen the body
plate for this car and had just put down 708 in the roster
update since the car had a green interior. So I asked the
seller to tell me what the code on the Fisher plate is or
send a pic of the plate. Looks like he was on the '69 Group
list!
Dave
--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 3/5/15, Wade Lanning <wblanning at comcast.net>
wrote:
Subject: Re: '69 500 with Cloth Interior on Ebay, #
321686548673
To: "Newell, David" <chevrobilia at yahoo.com>
Date: Thursday, March 5, 2015, 6:51 AM
Dave,
thanks for your comments. Your insight is always
interesting.
I
never did call the person that worked in the GM upholstery
shop. I should do that and maybe ask if his shop ever
made
custom seat covers. I'll make a point to call him soon
and I'll let you know what he has to say.
Wade
From: "David
Newell" <chevrobilia at yahoo.com>
To: "Wade Lanning"
<wblanning at comcast.net>
Cc:
1969 at corvair.org, 1969 at sashimi.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 11:04:24
PM
Subject: Re: '69 500 with
Cloth Interior on Ebay, # 321686548673
(Adding the '69
Group)
Hi
Wade,
Thanks for the heads up on this 500:
#5649 on Ebay. This is the first time I've seen anything
about it and I don't recall Mark ever mentioning
anything about a 500 with a cloth (seating area) interior.
The car was first listed on our 1-06 roster update sheet,
showing interior code 708 (500 green, all vinyl) and Paint
Code 50, Dover White. The notes are "Ebay Auction
11/05, Idaho". It'd be interesting to hear if
anyone in the '69 Group saved those Ebay pictures from
2005 and if the car had a cloth interior then.
My gut reaction is
that the car was reupholstered at some point, perhaps by
the
selling dealer with a special customer in mind who backed
out of the deal.
But it's interesting that the
vertical pleat sewing pattern is very similar to that used
in the standard '69 Nova interior. The standard Nova
interior came with a similar green fabric though you
can't really compare the fabric pattern by looking at
the Ebay photos. It shouldn't have been difficult for
Fisher Body to adapt a Nova upholstery set to the
Corvair.
If this
was originally meant to be a special-ordered interior for
a
VIP and installed at Willow Run, keep in mind that neither
Willow Run or other Fisher plants sewed their own seat
cover
sets. The sets came to the plants fully sewn from the
Fisher
Body Grand Rapids Trim Plant. The car assembly plants
simply
installed the covers. If this car was a VIP order, Fisher
would have supplied the custom seat covers to Willow Run
from either Grand Rapids or from their experimental shops
near the GM Tech Center.
Most importantly, if the interior was
intended to be a VIP job from the start, the interior code
on the Fisher Body tag in the engine compartment would
very
likely be "--", "SPEC" or some variation
instead of 708.
The upholstery looks tastefully done and
a bit out of place with the rest of the car.
Dave
--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 3/4/15, Wade Lanning
<wblanning at comcast.net>
wrote:
Subject: '69
on ebay
To: "Newell, David"
<chevrobilia at yahoo.com>
Date:
Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 6:17 PM
Hi
Dave,
I don't know if you
got to see this low
mileage car at the
Jacksonville convention, but I talked to
the owner about the interior there. As I
recall at the
time he speculated it was
re-upholstered soon after it was
bought
since '69 Vairs weren't made with cloth
seats. Now he's saying it is the
original
interior.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-Corvair-Monza-1969-chevrolet-corvair-coupe-/321686548673?forcerrptr=true&hash=item4ae60330c1&item=321686548673&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
Wade
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