Next Meeting - Thursday Jan 4 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 293 JANUARY 2018 Look for us on the Web! Letter From the Editor Holiday Dinner Photos 3. Treasurers Report 4.. Coming Events 4.. SFBA Corsa Meeting Schedule How I Got Into Corvairs 6..Barbara J. Miller (Sep 29, Nov 30, 2017) 6.. SFBA Newsletter Printing Cost - Update SFBA Corsa Dues 9. Corvair Classifieds And There Was Cheese Cake for Desert! Next Meeting - Thursday Jan 4 th 7:00PM - Black Bear Diner Hwy 680 at Sycamore SFBA Valley Corsa -January 2018 Rd in Danville page 1

2 Letter From the Editor I hope you were able to attend our annual Holiday Dinner. Carol & I arrived around 6:30 to let the staff know. that we were expecting 12 to 15 people. As we were waiting for the tables to be setup, we sat in the front area to see who else would be coming. In short order Mike & Toni came, then came Phil and his wife followed by Buck and his wife. Mike indicated that Daniel would be coming to the dinner and the following day he would drive to Bakersfield to pick up another Spyder. I was not feeling very good this evening as I was getting over a nasty cold that had me laid up for a couple of days. I attempted to stay away from others even though it was not supposed to be contagious. I am sure I will hear about it if I wasn t successful! To accommodate our group, the staff setup three tables in one the center rooms. We nearly had the whole room to ourselves (at least initially). We started sitting at two tables which seemed good at the time as there would be empty seats for any late arrivers. We had only sat down for a few minutes when Josh, Jess and their son Hank showed up. This ran our total to twelve. In the end this was our final total. Tony & Janet apparently couldn t make it and Daniel decided to head to Bakersfield immediately and not wait for the morning. I guess he doesn t want to take a change on missing out on this car! The restaurant took our orders (we ordered off the main menu as we only had a few people avoiding the confusion of last year) and we enjoyed pleasant conservation while awaiting the food. I think the food here is quite good. People ordered the Salmon, Scampi as well as Spaghetti & Meat Balls. And there was Cheese Cake for desert! What more could you ask for. There are a couple of pictures on page 3. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did. It would have been nice to see more people, but at this 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@gmail.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 time of year you just can t find a time free of other commitments. So I thought this turned our as well as could be expected. Afterwards Carol indicated later that we all should have sat at one, (see Letter... on page 3) On The Cover: Following dinner I grabed a quick shot of the Happy Holidays cheese cake before it would get all cut up. In the end there were left overs for those interested (me!). 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 -January 2018

3 2017 Holiday Dinner Photos Here we are at one table, hopefully I have the names right. CW from the front we have Sandi & Phil Dalforno, Carol Calkins, Toni & Mike Lewis. At the second table, again CW from the front we have Harry Kypreos, Josh, Hank & Jess Deitcher, Eugenia & Buck Jones. Letter... large table. That way we could have more easily talked with others. I agree and we will keep this in mind for future years. On a less that enjoyable note, I was very saddened to learn that Barbara Miller passed away unexpectedly. I am sure you remember that years ago Joe and Connie Miller were regular attendees at our SFBA monthly meetings and pot lucks when we met in Orinda. At that time Connie was our membership chairperson and we would have 50 to 75 people each month and countless Corvairs. So there was plenty for her to keep track of. Connie passed away in 2009 and then their daughter Barbara stepped in to help Joe with household chores. While unable to attend our monthly meetings, when she could, Barbara and her brother Dan would bring Joe to our Holiday Dinners at the Hofbrau. It was always good to see them. Barbara was instrumental in keeping alive the annual Christmas White Elephant Raffle that Lu Goni started. She contributed many of the prizes that we remember so well. This faded away over the last couple of years as she was unable to attend. She will be missed! The Obituary from the Times is on page 6. This month Rob chimes in on how he got started with Corvairs. An interest- Treasurers Report December 2017 Paul Lacey Checking Acct. Cash/Checks Beginning Balance $ $00.00 Income Membership (renewal?) Expenses Newsletter (Dec) ($55.84)(*) ing account that most of us can relate to. See the story on page 5. Don t forget our first Bay Vairea Get Together is scheduled for Jan 28th at Aracely Cafe on Treasure Island. Mem- (see Letter... on page 8) Ending Balance $ $00.00 (*) Expenses have not been turned in. Bank balance still shows $ SFBA Corsa -January 2018 page 3

4 Coming Events Jan 4 th 2018 Jan 28 th Feb 1 st April 8th Regular SFBA meeting, Black Bear Diner, 807 Camino Ramon, Danville,CA Bay Vairea Get Together, 8:00 AM Aracely Cafe, Treasure Island,CA. Come on out, grab a cup of coffee, share Corvair stories and stay for the Flea Market. SFBA Holiday Dinner, Frankie, Johnnie, & Luigi Too!, Dublin Blvd, Dublin, CA Poppy Run, hosted by Corsa West.100 miles of 1960 back country roads with inspiring views. SFBA CORSA Meeting Schedule 2018 (Tentative) Thursday Jan 4, 7:00 PM Thursday Feb 1, 7:00 PM Thursday Mar 1, 7:00 PM Thursday Apr 5, 7:00 PM Saturday May 5, 10:00 AM Thursday Jun 7, 7:00 PM Thursday Jul 5, 7:00 PM Saturday Aug 4, 12:00PM Thursday Sept 6, 7:00 PM Saturday Oct 6, 10:00 AM Thursday Nov 8, 7:00 PM Saturday Dec 8, 7:00 PM Tech Session, location to be announced. SFBA/Valley Club Picnic at Quarry Lakes Park, Fremont, CA Tech Session, location to be announced. SFBA Holiday Dinner, location to be announced. page 4 SFBA Corsa -January 2018

5 How I Got Into Corvairs - Rob Massari In 1995 I was working as a flight instructor and mechanic at the Napa airport and one of my students was washing her old car to sell. I asked about it and it was a 1964 Corvair Monza convertible. Yellow with a tan top and it did not have a straight panel on it. It had been in several accidents before she ever owned it and the bondo was very plentiful. I knew she had little money so I met her asking price of $2,000 with my thought that it would run for a few years of fun and then it would break down for scraps. The thing never did. I used rebuilt parts from small Cessna s and ran 100 Low Lead fuel through it and it ran to 198,000 showing on the odometer (actually I think it was 98,000, but I know it had been turned over once). By then I was flying charters and one of our customers was a big cash tipper so I used my tip money to buy a 140HP engine as the oil pressure was getting lower and lower on the original engine. I put in seat heaters and spark plugs to shoot flames out the exhaust. An electric fan for additional cooling in stop n go traffic. With my cassette player bought from K-Mart I was really doing well. I joined Corsa right away, but never the Bay Area Corvair Chapter because I didn t want to drive to The City for meetings. I somehow found out we meet in Danville and that was drivable for me on a weeknight so I joined. In the summer of 2012 I saw an ad for a 1964 Spyder Coupe shell for sale by Skip in Mantan in the hills east of Redding. I flew a small plane with some mechanic friends to look at it and decided $800 was worth the investment so we took the 140HP out of the beat up convertible and put it in the nice clean Spyder. There are a lot of airframe differences between a convertible and a coupe. I didn t realize that until we were waste deep into the project. We replaced the electrical system with a custom Ron Frances system. LED amber front blinkers. Intermittent wipers and a timer on the interior lights. Cruise control with on onboard computer I bought when I first purchased the car and never installed. It was the best money could buy in Haha-ha Custom Auto Sound radio with an amp in the bonnet and four speakers total. I used the decorative louvers just aft of the rear window as 3rd brake lights using LEDs from a motorcycle and did the same with the backup lights putting them down by the rear air grill. This freed up the remaining two of the four tail lights to be used as brake & signal lights so it is very visible at night (I do not have them sequential, but that would be a cool trick). We had the exhaust custom made 2-into-1 to fit the 140HPs usual dual-exhaust into the Spyder s single-exhaust fairing. It looks and sounds very good. It took about two years total working on weekends and evenings. I had it on the road for almost 1,000 miles and was rear ended in Hercules. Damn. The body work was surprisingly easy, but the engine had to come out again. We did a valve job and ground the heads and replaced the flywheel. Cleaned all the cylinder fins and replaced all the air baffles. I still need to finish installing the interior trim, get the CHT to work and I have a 12-plate oil cooler I d like to install, but otherwise it has been a very good car and very easy to maintain. I grabbed these pictures of Rob s car. These are not current but should give you an idea of what he has been working on A nice and clean 140 installation. Seth s wires of course! SFBA Corsa -January 2018 page 5

6 SFBA Newsletter Printing Cost - Update Here is an update on our newsletter printing costs. As reported a few months back, our printing costs took a big jump from maybe $50 to $80/month and our dues wouldn t cover this increase. At that time we asked people, if they could, please take the newsletter via or our web site to help save on costs and, hopefully, prevent a dues increase. Several responed that this would be fine and it has helped a lot. For the last two months I have been having 19 copies printed and mailed by our printer (Walnut Creek Printing) compared to 27 copies previously. In addition I generated and mailed 5 more copies myself. I wanted to get the printed number below 20 just to gauge how much we could save if we got to this point. I was pretty certain that the costs were not linear so this would help us judge the Club s expenses (which need to be covered by dues). The bills for these last two months has come to $82 (for the printer) and $5 (for my stamps) or $43.50/month. Now these newsletters were only 10 pages long which is a bit below our average of 11.3 pages. So I expect our average costs to be around $46-$47/month. This does not include expenses for our Picnic or Tech Sessions which come to an additional $100/yr or $8/month. Our dues generate about $45/ month with our present membership. This year we have been fortunate in that merchandise sales (thanks to Josh!) have helped fill the gap. It seems to me with a bank balance of $3000+ that are current income is close enough to our expenses that adjustment to Club dues is not a necessity. Altough it would be nice if we could get a few more people willing to get the newsletter via (or the web site) 2018 SFBA Corsa Dues As you know we try to keep everyone on the same dues schedule so we all renew on first of the year. If you joined mid-year then just pro-rate the dues at $2/month. This helps our planning. The dues are $25 for the year if you are a CORSA member or $30 if you are not (the Club has to pay CORSA for non-members). Either pay at a meeting or send a check payable to SFBA CORSA to Harry Kypreos (see address list on page 2). Harry handles our membership paper work and will pass the check on to Paul, our Treasurer, for deposit. Harry also keeps me informed so I can keep the address labels up to date. I know a few people have already paid for 2018 but I don t have a complete list handy. I will get a detailed list together and publish it in the next newsletter. That way you will know who and who not paid for this year (at least what our records show). page 6 SFBA Corsa -January 2018

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8 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. All New Engine parts from crank to heads for a 145 cu motor $650. Late 110 Rebuilt Motor, TRW STO pistons, long block no carbs, dist, alt $800. Letter.. bers have been asking for years for get togethers outside of the meetings. Here is our chance to show our real interst! page 8 SFBA Corsa -January 2018 Our next meeting will be on Thursday, January 4 th at Black Bear Diner in Danville. We start around 7PM and usually have dinner and talk cars first followed by a more formal meeting. Hope to see you there

9 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. Three Late model rears (one has bumper guards) and one front. Asking $50/each or $75 a pair OBO. Contact Marlene at (925) Danville area (09/17) CORVAIR PARTS WANTED 140 NOS GM Exhaust valves. Part # Need 1 or more.contact Ed Connolly (650) ( edconnolly@ earthlink.net) (10/17) 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 8) SFBA Corsa -January 2018 page 9

10 SFBA CORSA 1907 Alvarado Ave Walnut Creek, CA FIRST CLASS To: Corvairs Bought & Sold - Always in Stock! page 10 SFBA Corsa -January 2018