<VV> rust-free western bodies

[Padgett]

Probably are as many as "rust-free southern cars". I drove several thousand 
miles from Myrtle Beach to Naples looking before I bought mine. Of course 
what I was looking for was a running and presentable car on a limited 
budget. The one I found in Maryland still has some mechanical issues and is 
far from a show car but is what I wanted and can fire up at any time and 
take anywhere.

Right now am limiting it to within the AAA 100 mile (century plus) towing 
though. There are some cosmetic issues I will need to deal with someday but 
suspect a 95 hp (to run on 87 PON) exchange engine is the next step. Have a 
pair of heads so really almost any engine will do  but have made the 
mistake before of pulling a car apart that did not get out of Group Red for 
years and will not do that again. When the engine comes out, another will 
be waiting to go in.

Need to remember that Corvairs are at least 37 years old and were built 
before modern anti-corrosion methods were available. Things are waaaay past 
their design life.

While a rust-free car is possible, you are going to need to forget any 
location that is green and has trees over ten feet tall. My travel takes me 
fairly often to the Richland/Pasco area in central Washington state and 
that is high desert with less than 5" of rain a year. If anywhere, that is 
where you would find what you are looking for. In California, Bakersfield 
or Sacremento would be good places as would anywhere in Nevada but not 
necessarily in the plains states. Unfortunately there are also not many 
people in these places and cars there now may not have been there originally.

So while there are definitely places to avoid since any Corvair was 
probably street driven and left out in its first years, just being from a 
salt-free state does not mean rust free (and any state with an oceanview is 
going to have problem areas along the coast - one reason I live in Orlando 
but in the 1960s, there was not much population in Florida except near the 
coasts). Any car that has been sitting in anything with a dirt floor may 
have issues. You just have to look and take your chances.

Padgett