<VV> ragtop an IT????

[Tony Underwood]

At 12:43 hours 05/10/2005, Tareece at aol.com wrote:
>Tony,
>    Tony, Tony, Tony....How can a vehical such as a Corvair Convertible (of
>ANY vintage) be a bland, flavorless, impersonal, "IT"?


Oh, it's hardly bland or impersonal.   It's actually an "in your face" sort 
of car.


>For 40 years they have
>survived bumps, bruises, abuse and neglect.


This one, particularly so.   As mentioned, it started its second life after 
having been an abandoned vehicle which was one day away from being trucked 
away  to the scrapyard, left behind in a disabled state by a previous owner 
who owed some considerable back rent, disappeared one night.  The car sat 
behind the "brownstone" style apartment building for a couple of years, 
picked over by vandals and getting filled to the window fuzzies with 
garbage, and remained as such until I came along.


>Only to be reborn or pampered or put
>on a strict management regimen where they remain legitimate modes of
>transportation albeit with character, charm, and personality.

It took a while to get this one back together, but it finally did get that 
way, and turned out OK.  It has served well through the years, and always 
seemed to run well.   I haven't driven it anywhere since last 
October.  It's parked for now, awaiting the completion of a couple of 
pending projects whereupon it gets its current finish stripped off, some 15 
year old fiberglass removed and replaced with fresh sheet metal, and 
prepped/painted.   The car is gonna end up not very stock... but then again 
it's served as a stock Vair long enough, now it's gonna get some mods, as 
soon as I get a couple other things taken care of first.    Looks like warm 
weather is finally here to stay and maybe I can get some things 
accomplished now.


>   I could go on with stories of about 4 or 5 other distinct Vairs, including
>"Oilslik", "Brown Cow", "Thumper" and the VAIR-ious adventures of each...but
>hey, maybe in a book ot be done in the future...hmmmmmmm

I have stories of my own...   as most people in here do.


>    But anyway....each is so unique because of diffent ownership histories
>that they all have their own personalities, and it would be so sad if they 
>were
>as vanilla as most of cars put out since the demise of our make.


Just about every Vair here has a bit of a curious past.   The '65 Corsa 
ragtop as an abandoned stripped vehicle, the '60 4-door almost parted out 
for its gas heater and interior, the '67 500  coupe bought at the last 
minute from a goober who didn't know how to get it to run and had until the 
following Monday to get the car off his property or the city was gonna tow 
it to the impound lot and fine him.   There's the '60 Monza coupe that was 
all-original, faded paint and heater-delete, Florida car, currently 
enjoying it's fresh Roman Red basecoatclearcoat.    Then there are the two 
Lakewoods, one of which hadn't been on the roads since 1969 but is now 
alive and kicking, a '62 ragtop that had been stored since '71, and three 
'69 Monzas, one bought from a fellow who was dying and sold it  to us 
knowing we'd take care of it, one given to me by the previous owner who 
suddenly lost storage and had to move the car by 6 PM that evening or else 
(which was later involved in a rather serious accident resulting in 
injuries to its driver and the conviction of the offending Ford owner, 
currently in storage awaiting additional repairs), and one bought sans 
engine from a list member (currently has a fresh engine back in it).   Add 
to this the 3-years-previous acquired white Lakewood, aka "The Killer 
Wagon" (and I'm dead serious when I say "killer") currently in storage 
(that makes a total of three Lakewoods), and then there are the "parts 
cars" which aren't really parts cars... one which spent some time under 
water, one which changed hands a number of times with no title, and two 
ragtops ('65 and '66) which are actually too solid to be regarded as parts 
cars (at least one of which is gonna get resurrected).   Oh, did I mention 
the '65 Greenbrier which at one time in its life was evidently turned over 
and down an embankment and then repaired well enough to drive onward for 
two more decades before it ended up in the fleet (currently also in 
storage)...?

Those are the Vairs.   I could start in on the Subaru, Porsche, and the 
Fiats next...


It's difficult enough to keep up with the various vehicles, so adding 
additional confusion by assigning gender to any of them would only make me 
more neurotic.


tony..