In this issue: Ran When Parked by William Wynne Meeting Minutes and Activities Tech Session by Dean Zawacki Vair Lover s 10 Commandments AND MORE!

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1 Steve Lepkowski removes the Monza grille from Scott Cartine s convertible in order to replace it with a new one at the April Tech Session at Auto Brake. In this issue: Ran When Parked by William Wynne Meeting Minutes and Activities Tech Session by Dean Zawacki Vair Lover s 10 Commandments AND MORE!

PAGE 2 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE Officers for 2017 President: Scott Cartine (757) 814-0829 nygiantfn1@msn.com Vice President: John McPherson (757) 541-7877 jdmcpherson45@gmail.

Blackwell bryan@skiblack.com Allan Lacki redbat01@verizon.net Karl Haakonsen cityhawk@pobox.com John Nickel fivcent@tds.net Activities Schedule April 25 th TCC Social Mia Casita, 689 Phoenix Dr., Va.

2 PAGE 2 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE Officers for 2017 President: Scott Cartine (757) nygiantfn1@msn.com Vice President: John McPherson (757) jdmcpherson45@gmail.com Activities Chairman: Dean Zawacki (757) deanage5@hotmail.com Secretary/Treasurer: Anne Davis (757) annie-bo@cox.net Newsletter Editor: Dean Zawacki (757) deanage5@hotmail.com Historian: Smitty Smith (757) vairologist@cox.net Phone Committee: Helen Smith Barbara Gilliland CORSA/CPF Board President Mike Hall Vice President Dave Dewald Secretary Bryan Blackwell Treasurer Paul Sergeant Eastern Division Directors Bryan Blackwell bryan@skiblack.com Allan Lacki redbat01@verizon.net Karl Haakonsen cityhawk@pobox.com John Nickel fivcent@tds.net Activities Schedule April 25 th TCC Social Mia Casita, 689 Phoenix Dr., Va. Bch.,VA 23452, 6:30pm. Ph. (757) April 8 th - Oct. 28 th - Landstown Cruise In Registration begins at 4pm. $2. Sponsored by Virginia Chevy Lovers Club. May 9 th - TCC Business Meeting 7:00pm at Rick Hendrick Chevrolet on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk. Refreshments Robert Graefe Send us your birthdays and anniversaries So that we can celebrate them in the Newsletter! Annual Dues for 2017 will be due at the June business meeting. Please remit your payment of $12 to Anne Davis. Penny Chance Winners: We Need Your Articles! Publication Notice: To be a full member of The Tidewater Corvair Club (TCC), you must be a member in good standing of the Corvair Society of America (CORSA). Annual dues are $12.00 for TCC and $45.00 for CORSA. Due to insurance requirements, only paid member may participate in Club Events. The Spyder s Breath Gazette is a monthly publication, published and distributed by TCC, Inc. This publication is available for a donation of $10.00 annually. The Spyder s Breath Gazette reserves all rights with the following exceptions: Any material may be reproduced or reprinted by CORSA or any CORSA Chapter only for nonprofit purposes that benefit Corvair Enthusiasts. Any such reproduction must credit both the author and the Spyder s Breath Gazette. Rights for any other use must be requested in writing from The Tidewater Corvair Club. Correspondence should be sent to: Tidewater Corvair Club, Inc. Corvair Society of America 2901 Cardo Place P.O. Box 607 Virginia Beach, VA Lemont, IL

Vern knew the owner very well, and he had them both for more than 25 years, stored inside, in a dry place, but not sealed.

3 PAGE 3 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE It Ran When We Parked It By William Wynne (From a Corvair Powered Aircraft Forum. Submitted by Pete Jacobsen Builders, Vern and I picked up two core motors on Saturday. Vern knew the owner very well, and he had them both for more than 25 years, stored inside, in a dry place, but not sealed. Vern even knew the Corvair collector, another friend who sold these engines to the man we brought them from. Below are some pictures to illustrate why you should carefully store your engine following the advice I wrote in this story: Storing a completed engine. Upon inspection, each engine had 2 cylinders which were clogged with corrosion. Why? Because on a Corvair, one exhaust valve on each side of the engine is always open. If the exhaust isn't sealed, or the engine isn't in a bag, over a long period of time, those cylinders will rot. This is why I have always said to bring a 3/4" wrench and turn the engine 360 degrees to make sure it doesn't look like this inside. These motors didn't rotate at all, although they were probably perfectly fine when pulled from a car thirty years ago. Think about how many times someone has told you the BS that lead in fuel is "good for valves" as if it was the 11th commandment. I have said this a zillion times: "The byproducts of combustion of leaded gas are highly corrosive in the presence of any moisture." Leave it for a week, or a month, fine, but not longer. This is why we use unleaded fuel to break in motors at colleges, because they will be stored before use. This engine probably did run great the day it was pulled from a car. But with the exhaust left open, it formed this corrosion in two cylinders. The engine was filled with lead, so I am guessing the last time this engine ran in a car was in the mid-1970 s. Historical note: I have been working on engines for decades, but I have never seen a Valley Forge brand spark plug. Maybe the specialized in the cold end of the heat range. Judging a book by its cover story: When we got the engines back to my hangar, I knew they were going to need a fair amount to work. I broke out the pressure washer and the 375,000 BTU steam generator. Combined with a generous dose of purple cleaner, the engines looked very good on the outside in a few minutes. When engine shopping, don't be concerned if the engine is clean, only if it

PAGE 4 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE rotates.

This motor invariably looks better inside than one which drove the last 3 or 4 years without an oil change.

dissimilar metals factor an all iron car engine would not have. Corvair Tech Session By Dean Zawacki The club met at Auto Brake this past Saturday, April 22, at 9:15 am.

4 PAGE 4 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE rotates. Counterintuitive Grease Monkey Experience: an engine that is covered in goo on the outside constantly leaked oil, and thus had a continuous oil change going on. This motor invariably looks better inside than one which drove the last 3 or 4 years without an oil change. Besides, an oil leak core motor began the "self cocooning" anti-exterior corrosion process before hibernating a few decades waiting for you to need a flight engine core. dissimilar metals factor an all iron car engine would not have. Corvair Tech Session By Dean Zawacki The club met at Auto Brake this past Saturday, April 22, at 9:15 am. We ended up doing a number of things to a number of cars. Another hint at how long this motor was stored: When was the last time Shell sold spark plugs? Look at the size of chemistry project going on in Cylinder #2. Part of what drives this process is the fact that Corvairs have aluminum heads and iron barrels, diving a The first car up was Smitty s wagon. He has been recovering from recent shoulder surgery, so we all chipped in to be of whatever help we could. The goal was to replace the gasket on the transmission fluid pan. Since he only had a few hundred miles on the fluid, he wanted to collect and re-use it. John McPherson stood underneath with a funnel and container as we drained the pan, while Scott Cartine loosened the pan bolts.

PAGE 5 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE over. The Ultra will always stay where it is put. Smitty s new engine bay on the 1964 wagon.

in the fluid. This will keep them from circulating back through the system.

Hold on! There was the magnet, stuck to the OUTSIDE of the pan! (It s in the picture. Can you see it?

Next up was Scott Cartine s beautiful late model convertible.

5 PAGE 5 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE over. The Ultra will always stay where it is put. Smitty s new engine bay on the 1964 wagon. Once we drained and removed the pan, Smitty showed us where he had added a strong magnet to the pan to catch any steel particles that may be floating around in the fluid. This will keep them from circulating back through the system. The magnet had done its job well, as it was coated with a good layer of fuzzy metal particles. We were getting ready to put the pan back, when whoops! Hold on! There was the magnet, stuck to the OUTSIDE of the pan! (It s in the picture. Can you see it?) Took it back off the car, put the magnet inside the pan where it belonged, and finished the job. Next up was Scott Cartine s beautiful late model convertible. He wanted to replace his stock Monza rear grille with an upgraded Corsa grille with the aluminum inserts. Steve Lepkowski got busy removing the old grille, and John Gilliland helped Scott get the driver s side thermostat shroud off, as it needed to be replaced. We cleaned the pan and the magnet, and Smitty applied some Perma-Tex Ultra Blue to the gasket and to the pan. He always uses the Ultra line of Perma-Tex, as the regular stuff turns to mush and gets into the pan and all

PAGE 6 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE As they worked on installing the new thermostat bellows, John McPherson and Dean Zawacki worked on adding new 3-prong spinners to the wheels.

6 PAGE 6 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE As they worked on installing the new thermostat bellows, John McPherson and Dean Zawacki worked on adding new 3-prong spinners to the wheels. Last but certainly not easiest was Dean Zawacki s 500 coupe, which needed new universal joints. By this time, most of the tech session participants headed for home, but John Gilliland and Steve Lepkowski stayed behind to see the project through to completion. After removing the wheels and loosening the axle, we started on the driver s side. The old universal joint fell apart on removal, so there was no going back. After some gentle coercion and a few false starts, we finally got the driver s side installed. On the passenger s side, I had to check the axle bolt. A previous inspection had indicated that the bolt was loose. When I got the axle free and was able to inspect the bolt, a different problem presented itself: the bolt was sticking out because it was too long and had bottomed out. I removed the bolt and Robert was able to take about 1/4 off with a hacksaw. Then everything went together as it was designed. On this side, it seemed we put into practice everything we had learned on the driver s side, and the reinstallation went much smoothly. A quick test drive confirmed the success of the installation, as well as the observation that we had no additional parts left over. While this was not one of our usual themed Tech Sessions, we did accomplish quite a bit on our cars. 2 of the new members showed up, and, as always, it was an invaluable learning experience for us shade tree mechanics. John works on installing the new spinners. Corvair Lover s 10 Commandments By Smitty Smith I doubt that many of you know that every paper issue of the Spyder s Breath was kept, stacked by date and put in binders. The binders are a wealth of history of the club and people who have belonged to it. Since getting my arm worked on it is still pretty painful to type at the computer. A little bit goes a long way. I got to thinking about some of the stuff I had read in the files, and one article stood out in my memory. So here it is after an hour of flipping through musty pages: Many moons have passed and many sons and daughters born since these commandments were last published. In an effort to keep you from sinning accidentally, here they are being published again for your enlightenment.

PAGE 7 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE The Vair Lovers Ten Commandments. 1. Thou shall never store thy Vair out of doors if thou hast a garage. Thy wife s modern iron, but not thy Vair. 2. Thou shall not covet thou neighbor s garage, nor his battery charger nor his floor jack, for surely these things will be lent to you by other members.

Thou shall not buy thy wife a new bonded harmonic damper nor an NOS set of 66 carburetors for Christmas, for surely she will make all your future Christmas stockings empty. 3.

Thou shall not read thy Communique on company time lest thy employer make it impossible to complete thy restoration. 5.

7 PAGE 7 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE The Vair Lovers Ten Commandments. 1. Thou shall never store thy Vair out of doors if thou hast a garage. Thy wife s modern iron, but not thy Vair. 2. Thou shall not covet thou neighbor s garage, nor his battery charger nor his floor jack, for surely these things will be lent to you by other members. time, for they have been known to accumulate totals. 9. Thou shall not build the family a new family room and then use it to store Corvair parts, nor store a Corvair in the attic. 10. Thou shall not buy thy wife a new bonded harmonic damper nor an NOS set of 66 carburetors for Christmas, for surely she will make all your future Christmas stockings empty. 3. Thou shall not love thy Vair more than thy wife and children. As much maybe, but not more. 4. Thou shall not read thy Communique on company time lest thy employer make it impossible to complete thy restoration. 5. Thou shall not despise thy neighbor s 47 Plymouth nor his 58 Edsel nor either cast admiring glances at them; but surely thou may bask in favorable comments on thy Vair. Corvair For Sale FOR SALE BY LOCAL OWNER: 1965 Corvair Coupe 110/PG Rough exterior. Will run but not currently running. $1500 or best offer. Leonard Johnson (757) Thou shall not allow thy sons and daughters to marry (except if they elope) during the high holy days of the Convention. Likewise council thy wives and daughters that they should not conceive during the months of September or October lest they be tempted to deliver during the holy days. If they are set upon by misfortune then they must surely hold off til August to deliver. 7. Thou shall not deceive thy wife that you are going on a romantic Sunday drive when in truth you are going to check out another Vair. 8. Thou shall never reveal the cost of thy restoration to thy wife. Not even a little at a April Birthdays 4/21 - Barbara Gilliland Did we miss yours? Send your birthday and anniversary to the Spyder s Breath!

8 PAGE 8 April 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE April Minutes Meeting of April 11, 2017 called to order at 7:05 pm by club President, Scott Cartine. There were two visitors tonight and they joined the group. Tom Kayton, the new owner of a 64 Monza 900 and Cliff Cason, owner of a 63 Monza 900. Cliff is the son of former club member, Jim Cason. Welcome!! The trip to Kitty Hawk was fun BUT disappointing. The museum was closed for renovation. Those attending did have a good time just walking over the site and checking out the designated places that had information available. Three choices for the Social on April 25th are Mia Casita Grill on Phoenix Dr. (near Lynnhaven Mall), Crazy Buffett, Military Hwy/Greenbrier Pkwy area and Outback Steak House in Kemps River Shopping Center. Mia Casita Grill was chosen. We will meet there at 6:30pm. 50/50 drawing was won by Tom Kayton. Meeting adjourned at 8:05pm.. Smitty reported that he had driven the wagon on a road trip. There is a leak somewhere as there was smoke! Tech session will be held at Rob s on Saturday, April 22 at 9:15. We will be checking out issues with the leak along with going over John s car again on the stalling issue. Vair Fair will be held June 2 through 4 at the Howard Johnsons in Lexington, VA. Preregistration for the event has to be postmarked by May 20th. All registrations postmarked after this date will be considered as on-site registrations and on-site costs will apply. Anne Davis will be handling the registrations. Still need people to step up for volunteers at the event. Please contact Scott Cartine to volunteer and he can tell you who is still needed. It was reported that the rooms were already filled. Anne will call and check on that. (Note I did call and Cathy, the manager, has opened up more rooms. If you call and they tell you no rooms, ask for Cathy. She works 7 to 3 and will be happy to help you.) Please get your registrations to Anne!

In this issue: Steering Column Tech Session - by Dean Zawacki A Word From the President AND MORE!

In this issue: Steering Column Tech Session - by Dean Zawacki A Word From the President AND MORE! Spring is here is your Corvair ready? Robert Graefe does some grinding on John McPherson s 1964 Convertible during a recent tech session. It s time to get your car out and get it in shape for the 2016