<VV> Quote : "most cars begin life as a ..."

[Tony Underwood]

At 02:55 AM 8/7/2010, Charles Lee wrote:
>Maybe Corvairs are, to some degree, but OBD has put an end to the shade-tree
>mechanic, for the most part. although it's still cheaper to screw it up
>yourself, instead of paying someone else to screw it up.


I admire the Corvair not only for its innovation, but for its simplicity.


>And what do you learn paying someone else, except to be more and more
>dependent on them, because you haven't learned anything !
>The Flat-Rate Manual is the best fiction I ever read !


Never read it myself, neither the original nor the abridged variants...


>My favorite "restoration" article was by a guy (CORSA member in CQ) who was
>restoring a Corvair, and it was full of "find a good upholstery shop for the
>interior" and "find a good engine rebuilder" and "find a good body shop" and
>he did nothing himself !!!!


Restoration?   Can anybody claim to have "restored" anything they 
didn't actually do themselves?


>It's always easier to buy this or that, but fixing it yourself just plain
>feels better, never mind putting another $100 dollar bill in your wallet for
>each hour you don't pay someone else !


I do everything myself... mechanical, cosmetic, etc.   I refuse to 
pay somebody else to do what *I* am able to do.


>Sure, there are some things we can't do but I'm sure there are some guys
>(and gals) here who would disagree even with that ?


So far, so good... in having been able to do just about everything 
I've ever needed to do to any Corvair to fix whatever was wrong with it.


...I will grudgingly admit that I'd take a crankshaft to a specialty 
shop to have it turned if it needed it... since I don't have access 
to the hardware necessary to do that sort of thing.   But I'd sure 
put the engine together myself.

Besides... I can't afford to pay what a lot of engine builders charge 
for such...  along with the fact that putting the engine together is 
half the fun of owning it in the first place, once you consider that 
it's your handiwork that made it what it is.



tony..