[1969] '69 500 5649 with Cloth Interior: Does anyone know where 5659 is?
David Newell
chevrobilia at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 6 17:05:25 EST 2015
Hi,
I've known Joe for many years and I'm the one who got him to speak at the Jacksonville convention in 2009. I'll call him and see if he remembers anything about this issue.
But I'm not thinking that Fisher ran out of 500 upholstery -- just that they may have run out of Green 500 vinyl.
BTW I just spoke with John Wilson in Texas, the owner of 5659 (the latest 69 500 we know of with Green upholstery). John bought the car in 1980 with 28K miles and had it reupholstered then because the upholstery was shot. He still has the car (now with 32K) but doesn't recall if the material was cloth or all vinyl. He's going to look for pictures of the car when he bought it and confer with his son.
Bottom line is that we need to find another 500 after 5649 with a green interior.
Dave
--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 3/6/15, Dave Keillor <dkeillor at tconcepts.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [1969] '69 500 5649 with Cloth Interior: Does anyone know where 5659 is?
To: "David Newell" <chevrobilia at yahoo.com>
Cc: "1969 at corvair.org" <1969 at corvair.org>, "1969 at sashimi.org" <1969 at sashimi.org>, "Ed Thompson" <ed.thompson at quarles.com>
Date: Friday, March 6, 2015, 1:48 PM
Dave,
No, I have
no knowledge of the cars you mentioned. One thought is to
contact Joe Casey who was Supervisor of the "Corvair
Room". He will be speaking at Eva McGuire's Meet
the Maker's event. Eva is in contact with him. I would
think that if they had run out of bench seat upholstery,
there would be a good chance that Joe would remember.
Here's a link to Eva's Facebook posting: Meet
the Makers
Dave Keillor
On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 2:53
PM, David Newell <chevrobilia at yahoo.com>
wrote:
Dave,
Thanks for your input. I have that brochure, of course, and
think that 5649's interior resembles the bottom photo
(standard Nova interior) very much except that the vertical
pleats are sewn in 5649 rather than defined only by dark
vertical stripes in the Nova fabric. Since substitute Fisher
seat covers would have been sewn up in Grand Rapids rather
than at Willow Run, any available GM fabric or pleat pattern
could have been used.
I've asked Mike & Cathy for a closeup photo of the
cloth material so I can compare it to the fabric samples in
the '69 dealer album. Cloth matching the 500 Green
interior color was used in the Nova, Chevelle, and full-size
Chevy car lines.
Meanwhile, do you know of any '69 500s with the Green
interior built after 5649 and 5659? Or have a more current
location for 5659? If we can turn one up with the stock
Green vinyl interior it would definitely point to 5649
having been reupholstered by the selling dealer...which was
my original take on the car and I still lean in that
direction.
Dave
--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 3/6/15, Dave Keillor <dkeillor at tconcepts.com>
wrote:
Subject: Re: [1969] '69 500 5649 with Cloth Interior:
Does anyone know where 5659 is?
To: "David Newell" <chevrobilia at yahoo.com>
Cc: "1969 at corvair.org"
<1969 at corvair.org>,
"1969 at sashimi.org"
<1969 at sashimi.org>,
"Ed Thompson" <ed.thompson at quarles.com>
Date: Friday, March 6, 2015, 7:44 AM
The
interior has a Nova look about it, but doesn't
match
with the pictures from a '69 Nova brochure.'69
Nova Bench Seat Interior
Dave Keillor
On
Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 4:49 AM, David Newell <chevrobilia at yahoo.com>
wrote:
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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