Subject: FW: <VV> Best Corvair story.

[bub049 at comcast.net]

My best Corvair Story  or two.....

In 1974 I wanted to go to the Chicago CORSA Convention with several other folks from the Minnesota club. I had almost finished building my '63 Spyder convert up from a rust free donated body shell. (1 of those free Corvairs we used to get in those days). I had a wife and 2 kids and a mortgage and no money to go to the convention. So, my wife and I sat down and we scratched all the money together we could get, borrowed my dad's Standard Oil credit card and his AAA card, fixed the passenger seat so I could quickly remove it and packed a pile of food that would not spoil. I believe there were 6 or 7 cars that were caravaning from St Paul/Minneapolis to Chicago. One of my single buddies had enough cash to rent a room in the host hotel. Well, three of us slept in our cars in the host hotel parking lot and used his room to shower and dress. The reason for the loose passenger seat? I would slip the seat out and turn it around facing the rear of the car so I could lay on the back seat and 
curl my legs up onto the cushion of the reversed front seat. I used sheets to cover the windows. The other 2 guys slept in their 95 vans (complete with shag carpet and "dingle balls" and hanging beads). It was my first convention and I loved every minute of it, but still can't figure out how I slept in the back seat of a 63 ragtop.

In 1976 my daily driver was a red 63 Monza coupe that I got for $25 because the front brakes were gone. I went over the brake system, vitoned the engine, cleaned the heater ducts and drove it. Well, I never looked at the floorpans. One spring morning I was driving to work and there was this huge puddle covering the road. No sweat. I blasted on through it and was enjoying the look of the bow waves when the carpeting exploded in my face and muddy water blasted through the rotten floorpan, hit the roof, and rained down on my head. I was soaked. All I could do was laugh as I turned my half drowned Monza around and went home.

The good old days!

Bob Johnston
Frostbite Falls, MN
CORSA since '72