Next Meeting - Thursday Sept 7 th 7:00PM - Black Bear Diner Hwy 680

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1 The Official Publication of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Corvair Society of America --- Chapter 947 Dedicated to the enjoyment, history and preservation of the Chevrolet Corvair produced from 1960 through This unique, rear-engined, air-cooled automobile WEB grabs as much attention today as it did 50 years ago! VOLUME 289 SEPTEMBER 2017 Look for us on the Web! Letter From the Editor 3.. SFBA/Valley Corsa Picnic 3. Treasurers Report 4.. Coming Events 4.. SFBA Corsa Meeting Schedule 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 7 th 7:00PM - Black Bear Diner Hwy 680 at Sycamore SFBA Valley Corsa -September 2017 Rd in Danville page 1

2 Letter From the Editor I hope you were able to attend our combined SFBA and Valley Corsa Picnic last month. We had 18 people show up (including wives and kids). A good turnout considering some regulars could not make it. In the parking lot. we had five nice Corvairs that attracted some attention. The cars were a bit scattered because they didn t arrive at the same time. I wonder if the Park Service would let us cone-off a small section for our cars? For an account of this see page 3 with more photos on page 7. Buck was able to pick up Fred s car from Marlene. See store on page 8. While getting the car ready for towing, Marlene found several Corvair bumpers that Fred had picked up from Dean s estate a few years ago. Buck thought she had a set for early Corvairs and a set for lates. See Classifieds. Without Minutes to write up this month it would normally be a shorter newsletter. Fortunately we had members contribute a couple of interesting articles. One by Buck accounts for one of his early Corvair experiences and another by Ed on how he originally got interested in Corvairs. I encourage all members to write up something (anything) and send it to me. That s what makes a newsletter (and Club membership) worthwhile! Current SFBA Corsa Officers President Joshua Deitcher, 375 Harris Ave, Rodeo CA (510) Vice-President Harry Kypreos, 7840 Creekside Dr, Dublin, CA HKypreos@epicor.com Secretary Treasurer Membership Library Newsletter Clark Calkins, 1907 Alvarado Ave., Walnut Creek, CA (925) CaCalkins@astound.net Paul Lacey, Blackberry Hill Rd, Los Gatos, CA (408) pdmlacey@cs.com Committees Harry Kypreos (address above) Dave Newell, 1481 Hamrick Lane, Hayward, CA (510) Clark Calkins (address above) Editor At Large Tony Richards Advertising Internet Web Paul Lacey (address above) CaCalkins@astound.net FBT&SM Raffle Prize The Fan Belt Toss will be coming up in October and this year the grand 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 Inland Empire Corvair Club Site: On the IECC (see Letter... on page 10) On The Cover: Our 15th annual SFBA/Valley Picnic was held last month. This was at beautiful Quarry Lakes Park in Fremont. The weather was nice. A slight breeze held the tempatures down. When we first started these picnics, the trees were just planted and shade was nonexistant. Look at them now! 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 the first Thursday at 7:00 PM at Black Bear Diner on Sycamore Valley Rd in Danville except for special occasions. Membership costs $25/yr (membership in CORSA, $38/yr, is encouraged). An associate membership (newsletter only) is avialable for $15/yr. Memberships begin on January 1 of each year (first year is prorated). 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 not include a subscription to the newsletter. All material should be sent to the editor (address above) or ed to CaCalkins@astound.net. Material must be received 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. page 2 SFBA Corsa - September 2017

3 SFBA/Valley Corsa 2017 Picnic I arrived early, about 9:15, hoping to secure a couple of the tables that overlook the lake and have lots of shade. But even at this time the best were taken. I found two tables that weren t bad that had some shade anyway. We didn t really need two tables, but we did need two BBQs so that s what I picked out. As shown below one group that beat me there was a Tai Chi class so at least there was some music as I waited for others to arrive. Morning Tai Chi Class It was overcast in the morning with a slight breeze. Good thing I brought my jacket. As we were all sitting around enjoying the day I noticed a party next to us having a catered birthday celebration and I thought, that s the way to do it. No muss, no fuss. Just come and eat! I manned one BBQ working on burgers and dogs while Seth took care of the tri-tips on the other. Others took care of setting up the table so we could easily help ourselves to all of the available items. Thanks to all for helping! There is never enough time between burgers to talk with everyone, but I tried to take a break every now and then to at least welcome the people as they arrived. There would be time after eating for more extensive conversation. Some people brought extra chairs, which was a good thing, as the concrete bench seats get hard after a while. Five Corvairs graced the parking lot. There were three late models, one early model, and one Rampside. I took a few pictures shown on page 7. The picnic broke up about 3:00 as we gathered our belongings and packed our cars for the drive home. All-in-all I think everyone enjoyed themselves and the weather was just right for a change. Not as hot as it has been in prior years. It was a bit after 11:00 and I was starting the briquettes so they would be nice and hot by 11:30 or so and I could get the food going early. Just then Paul pulled in to keep me company and get setup until the others showed. Seth showed up a little bit later with the allimportant cargo, tri-tips! In the end there were 18 people and 2 dogs and we polished off a dozen burgers, and equal numbers of hotdogs, and 1 ½ trip-tips. Then there were many salads, munchies, drinks, and desserts. Burgers, Hotdogs, & Tri-tips. Yum! Treasurers Report August 2017 Paul Lacey Checking Acct. Cash/Checks Beginning Balance $ $00.00 Income Membership Renewals $25.00 Expenses Newsletter (Aug) ($81.20)(*) Picnic (approx) ($60.00)(*) Ending Balance $ $00.00 Catered Birthday Party (*) Expenses not turned in yet. Bank balance as of 08/24/ 2017 stood at $ SFBA Corsa -September 2017 page 3

4 Coming Events Sept 7 th Sept 9 th Sept 24 th Oct 7 th Oct nd Nov 2 nd Regular SFBA meeting, Black Bear Diner, 807 Camino Ramon, Danville,CA Ageless to Anarchy, Automobile Driving Museum (ADM), El Segundo, CA 10am-3pm. Bringing the Corvair Community Together Six Cylinders at a Time Flyer and Event Info: Autmotive Concourse at Monarch Dunes, Nipomo, CA. More info at Tech Session. Concord, CA Great Western Fanbelt Toss & Swap Meet, Palm Springs, CA Regular SFBA meeting, Black Bear Diner, 807 Camino Ramon, Danville,CA SFBA CORSA Meeting Schedule 2017 Thursday Jan 5, 7:00 PM Thursday Feb 2, 7:00 PM Thursday Mar 2, 7:00 PM Thursday Apr 6, 7:00 PM Thursday May 4, 7:00 PM Thursday Jun 1, 7:00 PM Thursday Jul 6, 7:00 PM Saturday Aug 5, 12:00PM SFBA/Valley Club Picnic at Quarry Lakes Park, Fremont, CA Thursday Sep 7, 7:00 PM Saturday Oct 7, 7:00 PM Thursday Nov 2, 7:00 PM Saturday Dec 9, 7:00 PM Tech Session, Buck s house in Concord, CA SFBA Holiday Dinner, Location & Date to be determined. page 4 SFBA Corsa - September 2017

5 One day while browsing at a local book store I came upon a Corvair repair manual. On the cover was a transparent view of a 1965 Corsa Coupe. You could see all of the inner mechanics of this marvelous machine.i was hooked and I had to have one. My Interest in Corvairs - Ed Rodrigues- The search began. I found one at a small used car lot in San Francisco. It was a 1965 Corsa Coupe with a 140 engine. The color was Evening Orchid with all of the options. It had a blown cylinder 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 in I replaced the blown cylinder and drove it for many years Classifieds... Bill Thomas 4 carb heads (1 pr), angle port exhaust, all new parts $ R+L Rear Control Arms (1 pr) w/rebuilt axle bearings w/backing plate. $300 both. Late 110 Rebuilt Motor, TRW STO pistons, long block no carbs, dist, alt $800. All New Engine parts from crank to heads for a 145 cu motor $650. SFBA Corsa -September 2017 page 5

6 The Two-Piece Crankshaft and Failed Oil Pan Story - Buck Jones Back in the early seventies, that s 1970, not 1870, I used my 66 Corsa to commute from San Francisco to Fresno. The work week was Tuesday 700 am, then ten days to the Thursday of the following week until 6 pm. Then I d drive home after work back to SF. We worked ten days in a row across the weekend, then got four days off, Friday Monday and then started all over again. We only did this during the summer with long daylight hours so we could work a 10 hour day. It was a very big construction project. We had a company camp in the high Sierra so I d roll in late Monday night from SF and get to sleep, then up at 6 am. I drove down to Gilroy and then over the Pacheco pass through Los Banos. It was the easiest route after trying the Altamont a number of times. Somewhere around my 20th trip back home over the Pacheco pass, with outside temperatures over 100, the two piece crankshaft happened. I was just at the top of the pass doing about 70mph (I put a 3.27 gearset differential in for mileage) when a large bang occurred and the engine slowed considerably with lots of backfiring and shaking. Well I pulled over at the truck brake check area and stopped. The engine continued to idle. The crank pulley would move in and out a small amount when I tried to rev it up. When I attempted to rev it up it was not happy. Since it was mostly downhill from there to Casa de Fruta, I got back in and took off real slow till the down hill section started and I cut the engine. I got pretty near the bottom and rolled to a stop. Then what? Well I figured since it was broken anyway I started it back up and made it part way back to Gilroy very slowly until finally I had an oil pan failure! Well what I mean was a rod went through the engine case and pieces punched a hole in the oil pan. Luckily it happened just outside the city limits and I had just pulled of the road since it really was running very badly. Most of the oil ended up in the dirt on the side of the road. There I was on Thursday night at 9 pm with no chance of getting home to SF. So I slept in the car and got a tow the next morning to the Gilroy Chevy dealer. Now remember this was 1971 and some dealers still had 1969 Corvairs on the lot. And the parts department still had complete long blocks for warranty work. They had never seen an engine that broke with a two piece crankshaft. So I asked them to pull the engine give me the 140 heads back and install a factory 110 that they had in stock. Anyhow I drove that car with the new engine for another 60,000 miles before I changed it back to a 140. Total bill for the new engine and installation was about $640. Which was two pay checks back then! I still have the car today. Super V-8 Rampside! A buddy of mine sent me these photos of a Corvair Rampside that showed up at a car show in Arroyo Grande a few weeks ago. I don t know why it didn t show up at this year s VairFest. This gentleman has made it his life s work and it shows. The attention to detail is amazing. It s simply gorgous! Notice the air intake scoops on the sides. The only draw back I can see is that you can t carry much in the truck bed anymore and the ramp is not as useful. In case you can t read the signs, the sign on the truck bed reads This 1961 Corvair has been owned by Nate Fearonce since It is his life s work. Never finished until he s finished. and on the ramp the left sign says Look in the miror at my read-end and on the right reads 1961 Corvair Rampside Pickup were built from 1961 to Originally had 80 horsepower horizontally opposed six cylinder engine in the rear. Only American truck built with a ramp on the side. page 6 SFBA Corsa - September 2017

7 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 name correctly) 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. SFBA Corsa -September 2017 page 7

8 Fred s Car Gets Moved After returning from vacation, Buck was able to pick up Fred s Garrity s 67 Corvair Coupe that he had purchased a month earlier from Marlene. So on Saturday, July 22 I showed up at Fred s house to help Buck and his friend (forgot the name sorry) move the Corvair. The car was sitting on blocks with flat tires on the side of the yard behind a gate and lots of foliage. The first step was to replace the tires and get it off the blocks so it could be moved to the street. It was a tight squeeze between the fence and bushes but we were able to change the tires and jack it up enough to remove the blocks. With this done we were able to push the car up to the gate, which was just barely wide enough to let the car pass. At this point we had to use Buck s truck to pull the car up the embankment to the street as it was too difficult push it by hand. This took some jostling, as the street was not wide enough for a straight pull. But with some persistence we got the car positioned on the side of the road for its journey back to Concord. Buck s plan was to then call AAA and have the car towed. There wasn t much more for me to do now so I left thinking all is well. Later I heard that Buck waited 2+ hours for AAA to show up! But he eventually did get the car towed. page 8 SFBA Corsa - September 2017

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10 Letter.. site, click on the pic that says Win This Car. That will take you to ticket purchasing. I received an from Sherry & Chuck Jensen (Chuck is CORSA s Harry Jensen s brother). They have a nice 63 Monza Convertible they have mostly restored and are now trying to sell. See Classifieds for more details. There is going to be a car show at Monarch Dunes in Nipomo (just below Arroyo Grande) on Sept 24th. If they can get 12 Corvairs to register, then they will have their own Coral. So if you are interested, contact Jim Pennell of Central Coast Corsa ( ) who s keeping a Corvair head-count so the organizers know what to expect. I received an from Walnut Creek Printing (they do our newsletter) indicating that they have raised their rates. It s a substantial increase for us from about $50/month to $80 (or $1.85/copy to $3). Our current dues at $25/year does not cover this increased cost. I haven t checked other outfits but I expect I would find similar prices. We either have to increase our yearly dues or push people towards online (or ) access or change the way the newsletter is printed and mailed. We could introduce a tier system; maybe $25/yr for and $35 for printed copy. Currently the printer handles all of the work from printing, labeling, adding stamps, and mailing. This is convenient for me as all I have to do (besides produce the newsletter) is to the newsletter and label names. Although it might save money, I hesitate to change this arrangement, as it would be more work on my part. Bring some ideas to the next meeting. At the National Convention in July it was announced that Original Parts Group would be carrying Corvair parts soon. You can order your free catalog by going to restoration-parts-catalog-corvair.asp. We have added a Tech Session to the 2017 calendar. Buck has generously offered to host us in October at his place in Concord. We have not decided on a topic but be sure to come to the next meeting where we will discuss this and more! Our next meeting will be at Black Bear Diner in Danville again. As usual I or someone else will arrive early and request a large table in the back room. Let s have a lot of Corvairs show up as Summer is almost over and it will be getting dark earlier. page 10 SFBA Corsa - September 2017

11 Corvair Classifieds CORVAIRS FOR SALE '63 Corvair Monza Cvrt ( 62 Interior/ Trim, 64 Suspension). New '65 140, 4 carb Engine. New battery, custom exhaust, and Alternator. New powder coated cvrt top w/ canvas, disk brakes w/ new master cylinder. New Paint, 15" wheels, new trans and front/rear suspension. Still needs: lt/rt fender scratches, cvrt top trim/clips/seals, fuzzies, emblems, other minor issues ( for more info). Less than 500 miles on it since restore. Needs TLC. Contact Chuck & Sherry Jensen at sherry.jensen@att.net (9/17) 63 Monza convertible. PG/140hp engine. Minimal rust. Needs full restoration. $2,500/bo (415) (05/17) 65 Corsa Coupe. Turbo body with 140 motor. Original black paint, dropped valve seat, new seats & carpet, suspension upgrades. Asking $1450. Red Bluff area. Call Skip Polacchi (530) (04/17) CORVAIR PARTS FOR SALE Bumpers, Marlene has these bumpers for sale. Early and Late models (one has bumper guards). Asking $50/each or $75 a pair OBO. Contact Marlene at (925) Danville area (09/17) CORVAIRS WANTED Cvrt, Lane Davidson is looking to buy a late model convertible, 4 sp in decent shape for a driver. Castro Valley area (510) CORVAIR PARTS FOR SALE Skip Polacchi has the following parts for sale. Parts are located in Red Bluff & Santa Rosa. Best to call evenings (530) Besides these listed parts Skip also has many more engine parts, 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, $ Rear Air Grill (NOS) $ Read Air Grill, very good. $ Rear Axles with good bearings. $55 each 1964 Turbo Carb Kit, NOS major kit. $65 Early Bumper Guards, Reconditioned 4 complete sets. $180 per set Early Bumper Guards, used - very good, 4 complete sets. $100-$120 per set. (see Classifieds... page 5) SFBA Corsa -September 2017 page 11

12 SFBA CORSA 1907 Alvarado Ave Walnut Creek, CA FIRST CLASS To: Corvairs Bought & Sold - Always in Stock! page 12 SFBA Corsa - September 2017