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Post by Volktales on Nov 24, 2022 22:43:35 GMT -8
Why? Why do I do these things to myself. I already own far too many cars than most people would consider sane and have too many part-finished projects. Not to mention the recent acquisition of both a decent Corvair and an inherited Thunderbird. So, another car would be just stupid, wouldn't it???
Well, I had no intention of buying any more cars at all. But then my Dad's best friend Al, (who is a die-hard car guy) told me something interesting. His own brother (who he does not visit that often), is also a car guy. And it turns out his brother owned some cars that Al did not even know about. And one of them is for sale for a cheap price. And it is a car that I happen to quite like...
As a die-hard car guy, myself, you just know an investigation is in order no matter what. That will be this Saturday when a trip to Qualicum is scheduled. I will keep you guessing until then... And yes, there will be pictures...
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Post by 1hotvw on Nov 25, 2022 13:20:05 GMT -8
ok drum rolllllllllll and ?
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Post by tony on Nov 25, 2022 14:32:07 GMT -8
😲😲😲
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Post by Volktales on Nov 25, 2022 21:36:33 GMT -8
Tomorrow afternoon... If this car is good, then I would have to sell something to make room. Hmmmmm.
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Post by R & R on Nov 26, 2022 20:16:24 GMT -8
We hope you had a successful trip to Qualicum. Always excited about seeing a new addition to your collection. Soooooo.... Where's those pics?  And we are willing to help out with making room for the newest addition. If you have something Fast and Fender-less...we will break open the piggybank. |
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Post by Volktales on Nov 27, 2022 12:25:20 GMT -8
Well you probably guessed it, but here it is...  Yup. It turns out Al's brother has owned this 1965 Monza for almost ten years. When Al questioned him on why he did not tell him about it the answer was funny. "Because it wasn't a Ford!", this was in reference of course to Al's love for Thunderbirds and the blue oval in general...  But what about the actual car? First thing that grabbed my attention was the Chevrolet Rally wheels. These were common on various other GM products including Corvettes, Chevelles, and full size cars, but were not available on the Corvair. They were a popular upgrade from the puny 13" stock wheels back in the day. I love the look and this is my favourite "factory" wheel for the Corvair. I would love to see these on my blue '66...  These rims are popular enough to have been reproduced now, but they are not particularly cheap. There have been instances of quality control on the repros that are made off-shore of course. I think these are an original set, but not 100% sure...  The car is pretty straight, and I do like that colour. Code W is "Glacier Grey" which is not what it seems. Although hard to see in the pictures, in person it is actually a very light misty blue. Don't mind that at all. The paintjob itself was a cheapo respray at some time, and it is pretty rough...  A close look under the hood revealed no sign of accident damage, and original Canadian body colour paint. The American cars like my blue '66, have grey spatter-tone under there....  Everything seems good in the various nooks and crannies. Better than my blue one in fact...  Some surface rust in a few spots, but otherwise undamaged under the hood. Continued... |
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Post by Volktales on Nov 27, 2022 12:47:47 GMT -8
 A few close-ups for my own interest. You can see the car has been sitting for some time, and dirt accumulation has occurred. Storing a car under a sundeck is not particularly ideal...  Lookie at that bottle! The original glass bottle that held the GM concentrate solution is still there. Pretty cool. My blue car had a non-original plastic version...  A closeup shows the original paper label is in surprisingly good condition. And the Canadian version as well. I bet you that is quite rare...  Now onto the interior. Those seats are black and that is a light coating of mold on everything! Yuck! The actual seats are in excellent condition though. So are the door panels and headliner. Carpets were replaced at sometime with cheapo homemade versions, and would have to go for sure... So how did the interior survive so well???  Hard to read in this picture, but the car really does have a genuine 63,000 miles on the odometer. The brake pedal shows virtually no wear, as do the seats and steering wheel. So that is a good thing, given my other two cars have another 100,000 minimum added on top of this... Note the rusty looking face of the dashboard. The original GM paint was very thin here, and many Corvairs have had this repainted in their lifetimes, including both of my other cars. Note the PowerGlide in this picture. I hoped it would be a standard trans for a change, but this was not the case...  Hard to photograph the back as it was close to the wall. Note the license plate expired in 2014, which is almost nine years ago since it last saw the road. The fuel in the tank did not smell bad though, and the owner thinks he put a fuel stabilizer in it at some time. How hard would it be to make it run again???  And yes that engine... You can see someone has been in there and fooled around a bit. The blue painted components look horrible, but at least everything was clean. The engine was very clean underneath, and not spewing everywhere... Maybe resealed at some time? Current owner did not know. Luckily the original air cleaner housing comes with the car. This engine is the standard 110hp version as found in every Monza. Will it run??? All fluids looked very clean and owner states in ran "perfectly" when last used. He is tall and did not find the car comfortable to drive so did not use it much and then parked it.  Unlike the blue car, this data plate is 100% accurate to what this car is. A 1965 Monza Coupe, with standard 110hp engine and optional PowerGlide, in the original shade of Glacier Grey with black interior. I like the fact this car has not been diddled with too much at all. Continued... |
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Post by Volktales on Nov 27, 2022 13:06:21 GMT -8
So why have I not bought it??? Well the down side is the car does have some rust. It is starting to rot in all the popular Corvair rust areas. It is WAAAAY better then the Gold car of course, but would certainly need some level of rust repair and a complete outside paintjob to be a nice car. I think that it could be made into a decent survivor/driver without too much effort and $$ invested. Not shown, the car also comes with its original stock wheels, tires, and hubcaps, a spare door, hood, bumpers, and a few miscellaneous parts. And how much for all this??? It could be mine for $4,500. Exactly half what I paid for Bluey. The smart thing to do would be buy it, swipe the Rallys for Bluey, make the car roadworthy, and sell it on and hopefully make a few bucks along the way. Except I have never done that with cool stuff because I always love it after awhile. And I WOULD have to part with my Fastback to make room and $$ to buy the Corvair. Still thinking about this situation... One other VERY cool thing happened when checking out the car...  He had this front bumper in the parts stash, with the missing bumper guards I need for Bluey. Although not wanting to sell this seperately at first, he later asked me what I would give him for the bumper. Desperately needing this part, I offered $100, which he happily accepted. As a bonus, the bumper mounting brackets I was missing are still there as well. This made my whole day, as these bumper guards are rare, and would have cost me WAAAAY more than $100 to buy them out of the US. Very happy about this!!!  And nothing to do with Corvairs, these next pics are for Don. Look! Wooden boaty stuff!   I know nothing about kayaks, but Don and his wife have a hankering for stuff like this. It is made of wood, is about sixteen feet long, and he thinks the skin material is there as well. Anything good, Don??? Anyway, I am still mulling over if I should buy the Corvair or not. If it was rust free, I would be collecting it today... |
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Post by R & R on Nov 27, 2022 15:09:28 GMT -8
Thinking is highly over-rated !!!
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Post by tony on Nov 27, 2022 16:09:12 GMT -8
You better hurry up and get it into your garage before Rebecca gets home , she'll never notice it amongst all the other cars! lol😁
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Post by CrazyBrit on Nov 27, 2022 17:57:20 GMT -8
Lol. You have a very patient and understanding wife.
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Post by PICTUP on Nov 27, 2022 20:26:48 GMT -8
And nothing to do with Corvairs, these next pics are for Don. Look! Wooden boaty stuff! I know nothing about kayaks, but Don and his wife have a hankering for stuff like this. It is made of wood, is about sixteen feet long, and he thinks the skin material is there as well. Anything good, Don??? That is an interesting looking skin-on-frame boat. Seems like a blend of "traditional" European and Greenland Inuit construction, or perhaps Irish(think Curragh). Obviously built for a big person with that large radius in the front of the cockpit. From what I think I see it(I can't tell if it is a boy or girl boat) looks to have a pleasing accentuated sheer. I wonder how much rocker the keel has? Maybe when you go look at the car again, I could tag along and see the kayak in person? . . . . . The Corvair looks pretty good. I agree, those wheels would look awesome on "Bluey", plus 14" tires would be easier to find than 13 inchers, no? They do suit that Canadian-built Corvair's colour palette too. Are those blocks of wood just keeping the engine weight off the back suspension? Big decision for sure. Rebecca was all for the "nice" car in Vancouver, but was that because she wanted you to have another Corvair, or did she want you to have a " nicer" Corvair? I think the idea of getting this running, as we all know you quite enjoy, swapping parts, then passing it along to a new owner(that doesn't have your resurrection skills but still wants a driver Corvair) to be an idea worth considering. I know how you don't like to part with cars, but if this car can make the car you have even better, that idea seems to be a great way to achieve it and perhaps pocket a little bit of cash to help Bluey even further...and keep Rebecca happy too   |
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Post by Volktales on Dec 14, 2022 22:00:26 GMT -8
 So today was finally the day. Of course I could not stop thinking about this car, and with the sale of my Fastback complete, it meant I had the necessary funds to buy the Corvair, AND a place to actually put it. So I told the owner I would take the car, contingent on hearing it actually run first, and making sure it would go into gear. I headed up there on Monday with Don, to see if the thing would actually start. First I pulled the sparkplugs out, and pumped a mixture of Marvel Mystery oil and ATF into each plug hole. The plugs all looked to be burning evenly, and normally which was nice. Then the engine was turned over by hand two full revolutions, and it turned smoothly and freely. The fuel line from the tank to the pump was disconnected, as well as the ignition coil positive terminal. A battery was connected, the key was tried and the engine cranked over just fine. This was to allow the oil in the bores to circulate, and expel any excess fluid. The plugs were reinstalled, the distributor cap was pulled to check the points, but this was unnecessary due to the fact it had an electronic ignition conversion. A temporary fuel line was installed, and the carbs primed with fuel from a squirt bottle. And away she went! There was an issue with the ignition switch/wiring however, and the engine would shut off as soon as the key was released. A jumper wire solved this temporarily, and once installed the engine happily kept running. Not surprisingly there was a noisy lifter or two at first (very common on hydraulic engines that have sat), but this cleared up after about ten minutes of running. The initial smoke show was spectacular for awhile, until the Marvel cleared out of the bores... Then drive was engaged, which was delayed at first, but then fine once running for a bit. Think it needs topping up judging by the bottle of ATF in the engine compartment... The car seemed to behave itself, so now it was time to see if it would move...  And it moved out of it's resting place just fine. Drove up on the trailer too without any problems at all. Well maybe one, actually. With old cars that have sat around for years, you just can't be too careful. When I disconnected the original fuel line, I did not plug it up. This was because I assumed the tank was likely near empty (the owner thought it was), and the fuel gauge said less than 1/4 tank. Because of this no fuel escaped from the removed line when working on the engine. Driving it up the trailer ramp was a different story, as the tank had more than enough fuel to leak out through the open fitting once the car was on the ramps. At first we thought the leak was water caught up in the car's body. Uh no, that was gas. Lots of gas. Ooops.  No question there will be a lot of cleaning going on, but the car will be very presentable inside once done. I just have to figure out how to get rid of that awful musty smell...  Yet another night picture that the camera does not want to focus very well. Either that or I was just too excited looking at the car coming home. As previously mentioned, this one is intended as a summer daily driver, and I am looking quite forward to that... |
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Post by alltypes on Dec 15, 2022 0:07:35 GMT -8
Good things always happen in 3's...congrats to you. Original Gold, Kelowna Blue and Qualicum Silver...and Santa's coming in 10 days, oops!
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Post by Volktales on Dec 15, 2022 11:55:12 GMT -8
You know what? I like those names, and they are going to stick... Working on the car today to get it ready to drive home (at the shop at the moment).
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