Next Meeting - Thursday Sept 7 7:00PM - Black Bear Diner...

SFBA Corsa -September 2017 page 1

The Official Publication of theSan Francisco Bay Area

Chapter of the Corvair Societyof America --- Chapter 947

Dedicated to the enjoyment, history andpreservation of the Chevrolet Corvairproduced from 1960 through 1969. Thisunique, rear-engined, air-cooled automobilegrabs as much attention today as it did 50years ago! VOLUME 289 SEPTEMBER 2017

Look for us on the Web!http://Clubs.Hemmings.com/CorsaNews

WEB

2.. Letter From the Editor

3.. SFBA/Valley Corsa Picnic

3. Treasurers Report

4.. Coming Events

4.. SFBA Corsa Meeting Schedule 2017

5.. My Interest in Corvairs

6..The Two-Piece Crankshaft and Failed Oil Pan Story

6.. Super V-8 Rampside

8..Fred’s car gets Moved

11 Corvair Classifieds SFBA/Valley Picnic for 2017

Next Meeting - Thursday Sept 7th

7:00PM - Black Bear Diner Hwy 680at Sycamore Valley Rd in Danville

SFBA Corsa - September 2017

The Spyder Web is published twelve times a year by SFBA Corsa, Chapter 947 of the Corvair Society Of America (CORSA). The group meets monthly on thefirst Thursday at 7:00 PM at Black Bear Diner on Sycamore Valley Rd in Danville except for special occasions. Membership costs $25/yr (membership inCORSA, $38/yr, is encouraged). An associate membership (newsletter only) is avialable for $15/yr. Memberships begin on January 1 of each year (first year isprorated).

Advertising space in the Spyder Web is available for $50/yr (1/4 page), $75/yr (1/2 page), and $100/yr (full page). Business card size ads are $25/yr but do notinclude a subscription to the newsletter. All material should be sent to the editor (address above) or emailed to [email protected]. Material must bereceived at least two weeks prior to the next meeting date.

USE OF MATERIAL: Written permission from the Editor is required for all original material for any use other than reprinting in a Chartered CORSA Chapter newsletter.Permission must be sought in advance for material reprinted herein.

Current SFBA Corsa OfficersPresident Joshua Deitcher, 375 Harris Ave,

Rodeo CA 94572 (510)388-4986

Vice-President Harry Kypreos, 7840 Creekside Dr,Dublin, CA 94568email: [email protected]

Secretary Clark Calkins, 1907 Alvarado Ave.,Walnut Creek, CA 94597 - (925)478-8909

email: [email protected]

Treasurer Paul Lacey, 16550 Blackberry Hill Rd,Los Gatos, CA 95030 - (408)354-9393email: [email protected]

Committees

Membership Harry Kypreos (address above)

Library Dave Newell, 1481 Hamrick Lane, Hayward, CA 94544 - (510)782-4265

Newsletter Clark Calkins (address above)

Editor At Large Tony Richards

Advertising Paul Lacey (address above)

InternetWeb http://Clubs.Hemmings.com/CorsaNewsemail [email protected]

Letter From the Editor

On The Cover: Our 15th annual SFBA/Valley Picnic was held last month. This was at beautiful Quarry Lakes Park inFremont. The weather was nice. A slight breeze held the tempatures down. When we first started these picnics, the treeswere just planted and shade was nonexistant. Look at them now!

.

(see Letter... on page 10)

I hope you were able to attend our combined SFBA and

Valley Corsa Picnic last month. We had 18 people showup (including wives and kids). A good turnout consider-ing some regulars could not make it. In the parking lotwe had five nice Corvairs that attracted some attention.The cars were a bit scattered because they didn’t arriveat the same time. I wonder if the Park Service would letus cone-off a small section for our cars? For an accountof this see page 3 with more photos on page 7.

Buck was able to pick up Fred’s car from Marlene. Seestore on page 8. While getting the car ready for towing,Marlene found several Corvair bumpers that Fred hadpicked up from Dean’s estate a few years ago. Buckthought she had a set for early Corvairs and a set forlates. See Classifieds.

Without Minutes to write up this month it would nor-mally be a shorter newsletter. Fortunately we had mem-bers contribute a couple of interesting articles. One byBuck accounts for one of his early Corvair experiencesand another by Ed on how he originally got interested inCorvairs. I encourage all members to write up some-thing (anything) and send it to me. That’s what makes anewsletter (and Club membership) worthwhile!

The Fan Belt Toss will be coming up in October and this year thegrand raffle prize is a ’63 Monza Convertible with a 140 and 4 speed.$5 per ticket; $20 for 5 tickets. For online ticket sales visit the InlandEmpire Corvair Club Site: http://www.iecorvairclub.com. On the IECC

FBT&SM Raffle Prize


Treasurers Report – August 2017Paul Lacey

Checking Acct. Cash/ChecksBeginning Balance $3569.16 $00.00

Income Membership Renewals $25.00

Expenses Newsletter (Aug) ($81.20)(*) Picnic (approx) ($60.00)(*)

Ending Balance $3452.99 $00.00

(*) Expenses not turned in yet. Bank balance as of 08/24/2017 stood at $3594.16.

SFBA/Valley Corsa 2017 PicnicI arrived early, about 9:15, hoping to

secure a couple of the tables that over-look the lake and have lots of shade.But even at this time the best weretaken. I found two tables that weren’tbad that had some shade anyway. Wedidn’t really need two tables, but wedid need two BBQs so that’s what Ipicked out. As shown below one groupthat beat me there was a Tai Chi classso at least there was some music as Iwaited for others to arrive.

Morning Tai Chi Class

It was overcast in the morning with aslight breeze. Good thing I brought myjacket.

It was a bit after 11:00 and I was start-ing the briquettes so they would be niceand hot by 11:30 or so and I could getthe food going early. Just then Paulpulled in to keep me company and getsetup until the others showed. Sethshowed up a little bit later with the all-important cargo, tri-tips! In the end therewere 18 people and 2 dogs and wepolished off a dozen burgers, and equalnumbers of hotdogs, and 1 ½ trip-tips.Then there were many salads,munchies, drinks, and desserts.

As we were all sitting around enjoyingthe day I noticed a party next to ushaving a catered birthday celebrationand I thought, “that’s the way to do it.”No muss, no fuss. Just come and eat!

I manned one BBQ working on burgersand dogs while Seth took care of thetri-tips on the other. Others took careof setting up the table so we could eas-ily help ourselves to all of the availableitems. Thanks to all for helping!

There is never enough time betweenburgers to talk with everyone, but I triedto take a break every now and then toat least welcome the people as theyarrived. There would be time after eat-ing for more extensive conversation.Some people brought extra chairs,which was a good thing, as the con-crete bench seats get hard after awhile.

Five Corvairs graced the parking lot.There were three late models, one earlymodel, and one Rampside. I took a fewpictures shown on page 7.

The picnic broke up about 3:00 as wegathered our belongings and packedour cars for the drive home.

All-in-all I think everyone enjoyed them-selves and the weather was just rightfor a change. Not as hot as it has beenin prior years.

Catered Birthday Party

Burgers, Hotdogs, & Tri-tips. Yum!


Coming Events…Sept 7th Regular SFBA meeting, Black Bear Diner, 807 Camino Ramon,

Danville,CA

Sept 9th Ageless to Anarchy, Automobile Driving Museum (ADM), El Segundo,CA 10am-3pm. “Bringing the Corvair Community Together Six Cyl-inders at a Time” Flyer and Event Info: https://tinyurl.com/lwvnd4j.

Sept 24th Autmotive Concourse at Monarch Dunes, Nipomo, CA. More info athttp://www.monarchdunes.com/-automobile-registrants

Oct 7th Tech Session. Concord, CA

Oct 20-22nd Great Western Fanbelt Toss & Swap Meet, Palm Springs, CA

Nov 2nd Regular SFBA meeting, Black Bear Diner, 807 Camino Ramon,Danville,CA

SFBA CORSA Meeting Schedule 2017Thursday Jan 5, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Thursday Feb 2, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Thursday Mar 2, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Thursday Apr 6, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Thursday May 4, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Thursday Jun 1, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Thursday Jul 6, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Saturday Aug 5, 12:00PM SFBA/Valley Club Picnic at Quarry Lakes Park, Fremont, CA

Thursday Sep 7, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Saturday Oct 7, 7:00 PM Tech Session, Buck’s house in Concord, CA

Thursday Nov 2, 7:00 PM SFBA Regular meeting, Black Bear Diner in Danville, CA

Saturday Dec 9, 7:00 PM SFBA Holiday Dinner, Location & Date to be determined.


My Interest in Corvairs- Ed Rodrigues-

One day while browsing at a local

book store I came upon a Corvair re-pair manual. On the cover was a trans-parent view of a 1965 Corsa Coupe.You could see all of the inner mechan-ics of this marvelous machine.I washooked and I had to have one.

The search began. I found one at asmall used car lot in San Francisco. Itwas a 1965 Corsa Coupe with a 140engine. The color was Evening Orchidwith all of the options. It had a blowncylinder and rust in the usual places.The salesman said the car at one time

belonged to Mrs. Ellis Brooks.

I purchased it for $270. This was in1970. I replaced the blown cylinder anddrove it for many years…

Bill Thomas 4 carb heads (1 pr), angleport exhaust, all new parts $1500.

‘65-’69 R+L Rear Control Arms (1 pr)w/rebuilt axle bearings w/backing plate.$300 both.

All New Engine parts from crank toheads for a 145 cu” motor $650.

Classifieds...Late 110 Rebuilt Motor, TRW STOpistons, long block no carbs, dist, alt$800.


Back in the early seventies, that’s

1970, not 1870, I used my ’66 Corsato commute from San Francisco toFresno. The work week was Tuesday700 am, then ten days to the Thurs-day of the following week until 6 pm.Then I’d drive home after work back toSF. We worked ten days in a rowacross the weekend, then got four daysoff, Friday – Monday and then startedall over again. We only did this duringthe summer with long daylight hoursso we could work a 10 hour day. It wasa very big construction project. We hada company camp in the high Sierra soI’d roll in late Monday night from SFand get to sleep, then up at 6 am.

I drove down to Gilroy and then overthe Pacheco pass through Los Banos.It was the easiest route after trying theAltamont a number of times. Some-where around my 20th trip back homeover the Pacheco pass, with outsidetemperatures over 100, the two piece

crankshaft happened. I was just at thetop of the pass doing about 70mph (Iput a 3.27 gearset differential in formileage) when a large bang occurredand the engine slowed considerablywith lots of backfiring and shaking. WellI pulled over at the truck brake checkarea and stopped. The engine contin-ued to idle. The crank pulley wouldmove in and out a small amount whenI tried to rev it up. When I attempted torev it up it was not happy. Since it wasmostly downhill from there to Casa deFruta, I got back in and took off realslow till the down hill section startedand I cut the engine. I got pretty nearthe bottom and rolled to a stop. Thenwhat? Well I figured since it was bro-ken anyway I started it back up andmade it part way back to Gilroy veryslowly until finally I had an oil pan fail-ure! Well what I mean was a rod wentthrough the engine case and piecespunched a hole in the oil pan. Luckilyit happened just outside the city limits

and I had just pulled of the road sinceit really was running very badly. Mostof the oil ended up in the dirt on theside of the road.

There I was on Thursday night at 9 pmwith no chance of getting home to SF.So I slept in the car and got a tow thenext morning to the Gilroy Chevydealer. Now remember this was 1971and some dealers still had 1969Corvairs on the lot. And the parts de-partment still had complete long blocksfor warranty work. They had never seenan engine that broke with a two piececrankshaft. So I asked them to pull theengine give me the 140 heads backand install a factory 110 that they hadin stock. Anyhow I drove that car withthe new engine for another 60,000 milesbefore I changed it back to a 140. Totalbill for the new engine and installationwas about $640. Which was two paychecks back then! I still have the cartoday.

The Two-Piece Crankshaft and Failed Oil PanStory - Buck Jones

A buddy of mine sent me these pho-

tos of a Corvair Rampside that showedup at a car show in Arroyo Grande afew weeks ago. I don’t know why itdidn’t show up at this year’s VairFest.This gentleman has made it his life’swork and it shows. The attention todetail is amazing. It’s simply gorgous!Notice the air intake scoops on the

Super V-8 Rampside!sides. The only draw back I can see isthat you can’t carry much in the truckbed anymore and the ramp is not asuseful. In case you can’t read thesigns, the sign on the truck bed reads“This 1961 Corvair has been ownedby Nate Fearonce since 1964. It ishis life’s work. Never finished untilhe’s finished.” and on the ramp the

left sign says “Look in the miror atmy read-end” and on the right reads“1961 Corvair Rampside Pickup.14891 were built from 1961 to 1964.Originally had 80 horsepower hori-zontally opposed six cylinder enginein the rear. Only American truckbuilt with a ramp on the side.”


SFBA/Valley Corsa Picnic Photos

Jimmy’s Late Model Coupe Hal’s Rampside and Ken’s ‘64 Spyder Convertible

Fernando’s Convertible (hope I remembered the namecorrectly)

Roger’s very nice Coupe

Here’s our group, hovering around the shade. A nice view of the lake, they even allowed fishing this year.


After returning from vacation, Buck

was able to pick up Fred’s Garrity’s‘67 Corvair Coupe that he had pur-chased a month earlier from Marlene.So on Saturday, July 22 I showed upat Fred’s house to help Buck and hisfriend (forgot the name – sorry) movethe Corvair. The car was sitting onblocks with flat tires on the side of theyard behind a gate and lots of foliage.

The first step was to replace the tiresand get it off the blocks so it could bemoved to the street. It was a tight

squeeze between the fence andbushes but we were able to changethe tires and jack it up enough to re-move the blocks. With this done wewere able to push the car up to thegate, which was just barely wideenough to let the car pass.

At this point we had to use Buck’struck to pull the car up the embank-ment to the street as it was too diffi-cult push it by hand. This took somejostling, as the street was not wideenough for a straight pull. But with

some persistence we got the car posi-tioned on the side of the road for itsjourney back to Concord.

Buck’s plan was to then call AAA andhave the car towed. There wasn’t muchmore for me to do now so I left thinkingall is well.

Later I heard that Buck waited 2+ hoursfor AAA to show up! But he eventuallydid get the car towed.

Fred’s Car Gets Moved


Letter..site, click on the pic that says “WinThis Car”. That will take you to ticketpurchasing.

I received an email from Sherry & ChuckJensen (Chuck is CORSA’s HarryJensen’s brother). They have a nice ’63Monza Convertible they have mostlyrestored and are now trying to sell. SeeClassifieds for more details.

There is going to be a car show atMonarch Dunes in Nipomo (just belowArroyo Grande) on Sept 24th. If theycan get 12 Corvairs to register, thenthey will have their own Coral. So if youare interested, contact Jim Pennell ofCentral Coast Corsa (805-474-1316)who’s keeping a Corvair head-count sothe organizers know what to expect.

I received an email from Walnut CreekPrinting (they do our newsletter) indi-

cating that they have raised their rates.It’s a substantial increase for us fromabout $50/month to $80 (or $1.85/copyto $3). Our current dues at $25/yeardoes not cover this increased cost. Ihaven’t checked other outfits but I ex-pect I would find similar prices. We ei-ther have to increase our yearly duesor push people towards online (oremail) access or change the way thenewsletter is printed and mailed. Wecould introduce a tier system; maybe$25/yr for email and $35 for printedcopy.

Currently the printer handles all of thework from printing, labeling, addingstamps, and mailing. This is convenientfor me as all I have to do (besides pro-duce the newsletter) is to email thenewsletter and label names. Althoughit might save money, I hesitate tochange this arrangement, as it wouldbe more work on my part. Bring someideas to the next meeting.

At the National Convention in July itwas announced that Original PartsGroup would be carrying Corvair parts“soon”. You can order your free cata-log by going to https://www.opgi.com/restoration-parts-catalog-corvair.asp.

We have added a Tech Session to the2017 calendar. Buck has generouslyoffered to host us in October at hisplace in Concord. We have not decidedon a topic but be sure to come to thenext meeting where we will discuss thisand more!

Our next meeting will be at Black BearDiner in Danville again. As usual I orsomeone else will arrive early and re-quest a large table in the back room.Let’s have a lot of Corvairs show up asSummer is almost over and it will begetting dark earlier.


ClassifiedsCorvairCORVAIRS FOR SALE

'63 Corvair Monza Cvrt (‘62 Interior/Trim, ‘64 Suspension). New '65 140, 4carb Engine. New battery, custom ex-haust, and Alternator. New powdercoated cvrt top w/ canvas, disk brakesw/ new master cylinder. New Paint, 15"wheels, new trans and front/rear sus-pension.

Still needs: lt/rt fender scratches, cvrttop trim/clips/seals, fuzzies, emblems,other minor issues (email for more info).Less than 500 miles on it since restore.Needs TLC. Contact Chuck & SherryJensen at [email protected] (9/17)

‘63 Monza convertible. PG/140hp en-gine. Minimal rust. Needs full restora-tion. $2,500/bo (415)787-2164 - (05/17)

‘65 Corsa Coupe. Turbo body with 140motor. Original black paint, droppedvalve seat, new seats & carpet, sus-pension upgrades. Asking $1450. RedBluff area. Call Skip Polacchi (530)474-4227.- (04/17)

CORVAIR PARTS FORSALE

Bumpers, Marlene has these bumpersfor sale. Early and Late models (onehas bumper guards). Asking $50/eachor $75 a pair OBO. Contact Marlene at(925)837-7291. Danville area (09/17)

CORVAIRS WANTED

‘65-’69 Cvrt, Lane Davidson is lookingto buy a late model convertible, 4 sp indecent shape for a driver. Castro Val-ley area (510)329-0640

CORVAIR PARTS FORSALE

Skip Polacchi has the following partsfor sale. Parts are located in Red Bluff& Santa Rosa. Best to call evenings(530)474-4227. Besides these listedparts Skip also has many more engineparts, heads, cams, cranks, posi,turbo. All new or rebuilt.

F/C Turned brake drums (2) - $20

F/C Front door NOS L&R lock latch -$30

Corsa Communiqués + Quarterlies,1970 - 2000 - $150

1964 Rear Air Grill (NOS) $150

1964 Read Air Grill, very good. $75

1963-1964 Rear Axles with good bear-ings. $55 each

1964 Turbo Carb Kit, NOS major kit.$65

Early Bumper Guards, Reconditioned4 complete sets. $180 per set

Early Bumper Guards, used - verygood, 4 complete sets. $100-$120 perset.

(see Classifieds... page 5)


FIRST CLASS

To:

www.CaliforniaCorvairParts.com

SFBA CORSA1907 Alvarado AveWalnut Creek, CA 94597

Corvairs Bought & Sold - Always in Stock!

Next Meeting - Thursday Sept 7 7:00PM - Black Bear Diner...

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