<VV> North, South, East & West

[LonzoVair@aol.com]

I had no intention of taking advantage of the kindness of these four guys I'm 
going to tell you about, but they are all good friends to me, and where I'm 
from you treat good friends better than family. The fellows are from four 
different directions from me here in Kentucky, Ken Hand from Michigan, Chuck Armer 
from Georgia, Tony Underwood from Virginia, and Terry Kalp from Kansas. All of 
these guys are well known in the Virtual Vairs world, some for their wise 
cracks, some for their mechanical knowledge, and some for their "Lets Do It" 
attitude. They all came together during the CORSA Convention in Lexington to help 
me out of a jam, partly because I have a broken leg and I just needed the 
help, but mostly because thats the kind of guys they are.
A few days before the start of the convention Chuck Armer emailed me asking 
how things were going. He knew I was in the process of selling my house and 
that I had a 63 Greenbrier with clutch problems. I told him the old house was 
about 50 miles north of the convention hotel and that the "new" house was about 
80 miles west of the hotel. He later sent out an open invitation to help him 
get the Greenbrier to the parking lot of the Hyatt, to which several 
volunteered. I believe at that time Tony Underwood and Terry Kalp offered their services. 
Plans were ironed out right after the Virtual Vairs meeting thursday night, 
and friday they journeyed north in Chuck's beautiful Caddy de Ville, a.k.a. 
"Buttercup", equipt with trailer, winch, and air compressor.
I was waiting there at the house with my daughter Sarah when they pulled into 
the driveway. What followed next was amazing. Within a few minutes they had 
the van up on the trailer and ready for the drive south. Once back at the hotel 
they unloaded it from the trailer and parked it near Ken Hand's spot in the 
outdoor vendors area, finding a rusted out brake line in the process. It was 
now in the capable hands of a first rate Corvair mechanic. All I had to do was 
come up with any parts needed for replacing and of course to be able to get it 
from the Hyatt to the "new" house. A piece of cake!
Ken started on it early, and once apart said the flywheel was "not 
satisfactory". I had a new clutch disc and oil filter, but no flywheel. After searching 
through all the vendors I finally found a kind soul with a lightly used bolted 
flywheel, turbo pressure plate and new release bearing and pilot bushing. 
Upon further inspection I also discovered my differential had an "early" clutch 
fork pivot ball, and I needed the longer "late" style. Ken swapped it out and 
also lubed up the clutch cable. While Ken was waiting on the parts he was 
helping another poor soul replace his powerglide in his 8 door Greenbrier. Some of 
us are just so lucky! 
The van hadn't been started in almost 3 years, and the main concern was the 
carbs and the gas in the tank. I remembered pouring some sta-bil in there 
before I parked it, but since then the wasps and mud daubers had over run the 
cracks and crannies of the van. That became very appearent when we finally got it 
started. The engine came to life, a moth flew out of the left Harley fish tail 
exhaust pipe, as well as a 5 inch paper wasp nest shaped just like the inside 
of the pipe. Several mud dauber nests became flying projectiles as Tony revved 
up the engine. He was enjoying this! The van finally settled down and started 
firing on all cylinders, and Tony shut it off. 
Once everything was back up and running together it was almost "too good". 
The new disc was fuzzy, so Tony decided to burn the fuzzies off. He ended up 
snapping the parking brake cable. I stopped back by to see how the progress was 
coming and I noticed my van was gone. Tony looked at me and said "We sold your 
Greenbrier. You didn't really want that thing, did ya?" Meanwhile, in the back 
parking lot, I see my van zoom past and Chuck is driving it around, almost 
like he's autocrossing! Tony then told me he was chirping tires in second gear. 
"Nice van" he said.
I really owe these guys; Chuck for being the instigator and mastermind of the 
whole thing, Terry for his willingness to help and being ready for an 
adventure, Tony for fixing the rusted brake line and getting the van started, and to 
Ken for working in the oppressive heat and humidity and not getting paid 
anything near what he is worth. I know a few others had also wanted to help, but 
their schedules just couldn't make it happen. A very heartfelt and sincere THANK 
YOU to each and every one of you.  It is guys like this that make this club 
feel like a family. Their spirit and attitude are what makes a group like this 
great. 


Lon Anderson in White Mills, KY
CORSA, Corvanatics, Central Kentucky Corvair, Derby City Corvair
Quart Low Quarterly editor
1961 Greenbrier pg, daily driver
1963 Greenbrier 4spd... now safe in White Mills
1964 700 sedan 95/pg