Every journey begins with that one first step
As most of you know I was involved in an accident with my car about 2 months ago in which a large truck wanted my place in the left lane of the freeway, and I ended up riding the divider wall with the front corner of my car for about 40 feet. He either didn't care, or didn't know he did this and kept going to never be seen again. There were no injuries to me or my wife (Thank God), and I was able to back off the wall and pull off the road to check out damage.
All in all, after riding the wall at 60mph for that distance there was very little visible or apparent damage...
I submitted my claim to Hagerty and they followed up very quickly and took great care of me during the process and gave me a very fair settlement for repairs. After looking at the damage and what was going to be needed to fix this, based on the existing rust and prior front end damage, I decided (with advice of others) to say goodbye to this car and start all over with a solid body shell and transfer everything possible over to the "new" car. If I continued with this car, I'd have a beautiful paint job on the front end of a rust bucket. Was not worth time, effort or $$.
I found a empty shell in pretty decent condition with the help of Pat Hall in Los Lunas, that in fact turned out to be a 1965 Corsa Convertible, Factory Black with Red Interior. Destiny, I tell you..Destiny. I know the history of this car and the prior owner and it's been in NM since at least 1990, if not longer (proven by the little rust on the car).
Therefore, the plan is to have all the needed body work done (see below), send it to paint at my buddies shop, then set it side by side with the "Rust Bucket" and start transferring everything over piece by piece, nut by nut, and trim by trim. Anything that is too far gone due to rust or wear will obviously be replaced (Clarks and Rafee here I come). As I have told my friends and family that have asked about this endeavor, I will become "Willow Run" in my garage. LOL
This work WAS NOT DONE BY ME, I'll say this now. I give FULL CREDIT to Bill Darcy here on the forum, along with his trusty helpers shown in the pictures. He did an AWESOME job and I am thrilled. THANK YOU BILL!!!!!!
With the help of my youngest son Saturday Morning, we got the front dropped out of the old car and up on my bench to for me to wire brush and paint. I also want to take the springs out and cut one coil out to lower the stance. This was a replacement front end I put on the other car and it sat pretty level front to back and I want a front rake. Just never got to it before the wreck. I'll do a complete brake job and lube while it's there also.
Geoff came by in the afternoon and we finished disconnecting everything from the engine and dropped it out of the rust bucket. My new engine cart worked spectacularly! We'll break it open (again) and try and tackle some more leaks that sprung up on it after the last time we went thru it.
My 20yo niece Lauren also came by to supervise. She'd asked me if she could come by when I was working on it because she wanted to learn how to work on cars and has always admired my Vair. I now have my 2nd Padawan apprentice since Chloe has moved on (still breaking hearts and making the boys drool over her and her 62 Monza tho!!)
Geoff came by in the afternoon and we finished disconnecting everything from the engine and dropped it out of the rust bucket. My new engine cart worked spectacularly! We'll break it open (again) and try and tackle some more leaks that sprung up on it after the last time we went thru it.
My 20yo niece Lauren also came by to supervise. She'd asked me if she could come by when I was working on it because she wanted to learn how to work on cars and has always admired my Vair. I now have my 2nd Padawan apprentice since Chloe has moved on (still breaking hearts and making the boys drool over her and her 62 Monza tho!!)
My Story
I picked up this car off eBay Memorial Day of 2007 out of Grand Junction, CO. I was browsing eBay looking for parts for a ’62 Monza 500 I acquired from my Dad and saw this. I was hooked, LM design, Black and a convertible.
It had the stock 13” wheels and Corsa hubcaps on it, no top, and a banged up Drivers door from a prior accident that wasn’t repaired correctly, but she was mine now. The family and I took a drive and made a longer weekend of a long Holiday weekend to pick it up. The door damage was from a frontal impact that caused the entire front quarter panel to need replacing. Problem was, the prior owner’s body shop welded the panel 1” too far back into car, causing the door to not open without “popping” the bottom corner and making the doorjamb stick at the midpoint. I ended up having to cut metal from the body portion of the car to allow the door to be moved back. It was a “fair day” driver for about 9 months or so until a CorvairCenter (CC.com) forum member offered me a replacement frame and top for a price I couldn’t refuse. After that was installed I came across another CC.com member selling the wheels and tires that you see now, for another unbelievable price I couldn’t refuse. I have done miscellaneous repairs over the years and now have a pretty good running car.
This is a great car that always gets a second look and thumbs up whenever it’s and about (more when the pretty blonde wife is driving it…go figure).
Thanks for taking a look at my ’65 Corsa Convertible. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I can’t give Larry enough credit for the artistic eye and photographic abilities he has. He has made my car look really good. I have made a great new Corvair AND Fly Fishing buddy from this adventure.
Russ
Art Gallery
There's more! Go back up to the menu and click on "In the Beginning". Thanks for the opportunity to do this photo shoot with you Russ. Glad you like the result. Let re-shoot someday .