<VV> New Engine, Butt Ugly and Alice - Videos

Bill Hubbell whubbell at umich.edu
Fri Mar 2 00:51:22 EST 2007


These last two movies, also shot in 1997, chronicle the end of the engine
rebuilding and show off the eventual recipients.

 

In the first video we get a brief photo tour of the new engine and a closer
look at Butt Ugly, the 1964 coupe that the engine came from and to which it
will initially return:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3UqF3xWMWc

 

The second video, shot in early May 1997, occurred right after the Virginia
Vair Fair.  I had just bought Alice, my 1964 sedan (for $500), and you will
see her sitting in the driveway at the start of the video.  However, at the
time of this video, Alice is not running and Butt Ugly is, having just
received this new engine.  However, his steering was so erratic I had not
felt safe driving him on the highway so we had been forced to attend the
Vair Fair in a water-pumper.

 

 

Upon arriving home with our new Corvair, we were so excited from our recent
exposure to so many Corvairs that we just had to take a ride in one, so we
(my son, Geoff, and I) take Butt Ugly out for a spin while my wife, Mary
Ann, films us.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2bHb5sGqPc

 

Unfortunately for Butt Ugly, this would be his last ride, for the car was
plagued with rust (the whole rear end, hence the name) and Alice was not, so
a few days later we began the process of removing the new engine from the
coupe and installing it in the sedan.  This was not as easy as it sounds (?)
as the coupe was a four speed and the sedan a Powerglide, necessitating a
bell housing swap.  Overall, I spent a hectic six weeks between the Virginia
Vair Fair and the Lake Placid convention preparing Alice to make the trip.

 

Butt Ugly never ran again.  I eventually deemed the rusted rear end (rear
engine frame rail) too much work to repair, so I moved it to my back yard
and gradually took it all apart, saving whatever I could before hauling the
remaining pieces to the dump.

 

Butt lives on in several cars: Smitty's wagon got the left fender, Spike got
a piece of the right fender, another piece of the fender and the trunk lid
are going into my other sedan (Mr. Poop), Alice has his engine, and many
other parts have been used in several Corvairs in the area.

 

 

Bill Hubbell

 

 



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