This page contains material from the October 2005 newsletter

Updated 30-Jan-2007 =-= Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico. EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 5 October 2005 at 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet, Lomas & University NE THIS MONTH: Dues Due Membership Chair September Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees President's Letter David Huntoon September Board Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees Birthdays & Anniversaries Sunshine Committee Gilman Tunnel Tour Report Wendell Walker CNM Calendar Everyone Auction & Pot Luck Dinner Preview Heula Pittman For Sale, Wanted, Free Everyone Seven Years Ago Club Historian Thirty Years of Tri-State History Sylvan Zuercher Replace FC Front Springs, Shocks Robert Gold Replace FC Front Springs, Shocks Geoff Johnson Anniversary Thanks Paul Hopkins One Hundred Percent from the Internet COVER: Why are we always standing around our engine bays? Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: EXPIRED: Mark L Morgan 2005-Jun Tom Bunter 2005-Aug Dan Clifford 2005-Aug Jacob Schlessinger 2005-Aug Ray Trujillo 2005-Aug Doug Gadomski 2005-Sep THIS MONTH: Jon Anderson 2005-Oct Larry Hickerson 2005-Oct COMING DUE SOON: Del Patten 2005-Nov Willard Davis 2005-Dec David Huntoon 2005-Dec Walter Huntoon 2005-Dec Roger Pape 2005-Dec Wendell Walker 2005-Dec If your membership is due or has expired, please send your dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Note: the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, but only if you send us the renewal form from CORSA Communique! Photo: An Austin-Healey 3000 heads for San Ysidro on NM 550 on Saturday, 17 September 2005. -- Photo by Geoff Johnson =CNM= SEPTEMBER MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS CALLED to order at 19:40 on 9/7/05 at Galles Chevrolet. There were 20 members present including all of the officers. New member Robert Garrecht was introduced. He has a 1966 Corvair that he purchased in Denver. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that CNM has $238.25 in the regular checking account and $2,576.57 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $2,814.82. Robert Gold reported on the August 24th Car Council meeting. A one page summary was passed out. Bob Agnew called the meeting to order and thanked everyone for electing him President while he was away in Alaska. (Do I hear Chufa-Chufa-Chufa?) Councilor Craig Loy from District 8 was present and answered many questions about the "No Cruising" ordinance and the confiscation of vehicles of first time DWI offenders and "red light runners." Councilor Loy said that the confiscation was only for 30 days. From other questions that were asked, there is apparently a large number of rumors and very little solid evidence about some of the recent regulations passed by the City Council. (Possibly CNM could arrange for a councilor to attend one of our meetings.) The All Clubs Picnic was discussed. There was a very good turn out and a good time was had by all. The Car Council is receiving a lot of registrations for the swap meet and a lot of volunteers will be needed. I always have a copy of the full report on the Car Council meeting with me at the meeting if anyone would like to see it. There are always a large number of upcoming car shows listed. The Balloon Fiesta Car Show will be October 2nd. Everyone going has to line up together and they get in free. Check with Robert Gold about where and when to meet if you are interested. There have been some suggestions for the Logo for the Tri-State Meet turned in already. They need to be turned in by next meeting. The judges will be Sylvan Zuercher, Wendell Walker and Chuck Vertrees. The final result will be approved by the board. There was some discussion about Del Patten buying a new car. Possibly this was a remarkably preserved low mileage 1965 Monza we heard about? He got a parts car with it, and he kept mentioning that he had parts available. Next month is the last "Route 66" cleanup of 2005. It is the first Saturday after the meeting. Let's have a good turnout and it will only take a couple of hours. We adjourned at 20:08. FOLLOWING THE MEETING we had a presentation from Wendell Walker on how to install late model brakes on an early model Corvair. The presentation was excellent since Wendell had every little detail planned and demonstrated. Where any extra parts might be easier to use Del was sure to mention that if you need a replacement front end or anything else, he had it. =CNM= PRESIDENT'S LETTER FOR OCTOBER David Huntoon Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:22:23 EDT From: Corvair66 @ aol.com To: vertrees @ swcp.com, casa @ unm.edu, Beisbol30 @ aol.com, sbuna @ unm.edu, dtonge @ dailyherald.com, Defarge505 @ aol.com Subject: Sept board meeting To all, I won't be able to make the next board meeting. One of the things pending is the Montrose TriState logo, I asked Sylvan to have a decision by the next club meeting. Only three designs submitted, perhaps the decision is already made. Chuck would know since he is on the decision committee. If there is a choice already made, the BOD can vote to make it final and proceed from there. That is about all, see you at the next club meeting. David (also will be out of the email loop for the next week) =CNM= SEPTEMBER BOARD MEETING Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS CALLED to order at 17:18 at House of Covers. Present were Jim and Heula Pittman, Sylvan Zuercher, Steve Gongora and Chuck Vertrees. There was no treasurer's report or discussion of the last meeting minutes. The location of this month's Saturday breakfast was brought up and nobody knew where it was going to be. It was conjectured that since this month's "breakfast Saturday" was immediately followed by "State Fair Car Show Sunday" the plan would be that when everyone got their cars parked at the Fair on Sunday they would all find some breakfast then. As far as anyone knew, the annual Potluck and White Elephant auction has not been mentioned and it was not on the schedule. We decided that the board, such as it was, should check. After consulting with Rita and Steve Gongora it was decided that the annual Potluck and White Elephant Auction would be held at House of Covers on Saturday, November 5th at 18:00, AKA 6:00 PM. Collect your treasures that you want to pass along to new owners, and plan your pot luck dishes that you want to bring. This is always a great and fun family affair. Ask Robert Gold about eyeballs! The CNM Christmas Party will be Sunday December 4th at the Kirtland AFB Officers Club at 12:00 noon. This is also a great family function so be sure to put it on your calendar. Sylvan brought up that nothing had been said about election of officers, and according to our Constitution and By-Laws, election of officers will take place annually. According to tradition this is at the October meeting. Your Secretary said that he would continue in office and it was assumed that the Treasurer would also continue, although Wendell is in California and we could not check with him. Our current President and Vice-President were not at the meeting so we could not check on whether they wanted to continue in office. Sylvan had talked to a few CNM members about running for office. The board members present went through the membership list and came up with eight members who we thought would make good officers. Sylvan will contact four of them and Jim will contact four. Hopefully we can get some commitments and have them printed in this newsletter. We would like to have at least one candidate for each office to present as a slate of candidates to the membership for a vote at the October meeting. LEROY ROGERS IS WORKING on the Tri-State. He will be going to Montrose again the last weekend of this month. He has contacted the Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Bureau. Also there is a member of the Colorado Springs club who lives in Montrose and LeRoy is trying to locate him. LeRoy hopes to have details in the November newsletter about the hotel and price. It is only eight months until the Tri-State. Sylvan will write a short article for each newsletter about past Montrose Tri-State meetings and possible activities at the 2006 event. There was some discussion about goody bags and possible games to organize for the Tri-State. If you have ideas, please contribute them. Several ideas for the design of the logo for the 2006 Tri-State have been submitted. The committee will meet soon to pick the winning design. It's probably not too late if you have a design you want to submit; get it to one of the club officers or to Sylvan. THE MEETING WAS adjourned at 18:16 and then some of us went out to admire the big new alloy wheels and big new Michelin tires on Steve's red Rampside. =CNM= HAPPY OCTOBER BIRTHDAY to the following CNMers: Sylvia Goffe October 16 Bill Reider October 17 Erica Anderson October 25 Jon Anderson October 27 The Sunshine Committee =CNM= TOUR TO J & R VINTAGE AUTO MUSEUM, PONDEROSA WINERY, GILMAN TUNNELS Wendell Walker SEVERAL CNM MEMBERS joined a large group of "old car" people who met at the J & R Vintage Auto Museum on Saturday, September 17. After breakfast burritos, we drove to NM 550 and then north to San Ysidro, then east along NM 4 to highway 290, the road leading to the Ponderosa Winery. Returning to NM 4 we drove through Jemez Pueblo and turned left onto NM 485, crossed the Jemez River and headed up into the canyon leading to the Gilman Tunnels. The group had been pretty much together up to this point, but there was a problem with a Chrysler Airflow which had to pull to the side of the road when the engine quit running. A group of us "old car" folks stopped and gathered around, trying to diagnose the problem. Soon it was obvious that no fuel was getting to the engine. The (added-on) electric pump sounded as if it was working okay, and we soon determined that the in-line fuel filter was completely clogged. We looked in all the stopped cars for a piece of fuel hose to bypass the filter, and even stopped passers-by, all to no avail. At last a bright idea: just poke a long skinny screw driver into the opening of the fuel filter and poke a hole through the filter element. When reassembled, the car started and ran fine. Why did the filter get clogged in the first place? Well, the car had been sitting for many years, so probably there was a lot of accumulated junk and debris in the gas tank. We continued up the spectacular canyon to see the tunnels, and many of us went to Jemez Springs to find lunch. It was beautiful weather and a great tour. Geoff Johnson provided several photos of the cars for your approval. Thanks to all who showed up - some were from the Santa Fe and Los Alamos areas whom we seldom get to visit with. =CNM= ============================================================================ C O R V A I R S o f N E W M E X I C O C O M I N G E V E N T S ============================================================================ | | | | | October | November | December | | | | | | : : : : : : 1 | : : 1 2 3 4 5 | : : : : 1 2 3 | | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 | 27 28 29 30 : : : | 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 | | 30 31 : : : : : | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 5 Oct 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 8 Oct 1:00 PM CNM Ladies - TBA Sat 15 Oct 10:00 AM Parts Sale! Bill Reider's - 9417 Las Calabazillas NE Wed 19 Oct 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 21 Oct 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 22 Oct 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Sat 22 Oct 10:30 AM Car Project at Ray Trujillo's. H:839-7436 W:266-4011 Wed 2 Nov 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 5 Nov 6:00 PM Pot Luck and Auction - House of Covers - see below Wed 16 Nov 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Wed 16 Nov 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman - Early this month! Sat 19 Nov 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Sat 19 Nov 10:30 AM Car Project at Ray Trujillo's. H:839-7436 W:266-4011 Sun 4 Dec 12:00 noon CNM Christmas Party at Kirtland AFB Officers' Club Wed 7 Dec 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 10 Dec 1:00 PM CNM Ladies - TBA Wed 21 Dec 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 23 Dec 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 24 Dec 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA =CNM= AUCTION AND POT LUCK DINNER -- Saturday, 5 November, 6:00 PM Heula Pittman IT'S TIME ONCE AGAIN for our annual get-together at House of Covers. Steve and Rita Gongora told us at the Board meeting this week that YES! they would host and conduct the auction and pot luck dinner again. We will meet at 6 PM on Saturday, November 5. We will start with our meal. Guys and Girls, this is a great opportunity to try out those new recipes for casseroles and desserts you've been thinking about. Our Club has a reputation for cooking up and devouring some of the best foods on the planet. Last year Del Patten treated us to his famous green chile stew - YUM! Will he do a repeat this year or will he have a totally new recipe for us to try? There are several electrical outlets that we may plug in crock pots or warming trays to keep our foods at the right temperature. Rita and Steve do a fantastic job of convincing us to bid on all kinds of items as they perform their auctioneering skills. I encourage all of you to start cleaning out closets and garages and collecting things. Most anything from car parts to kitchen gadgets will be great. Last year we had a scanner donated, a set of tires, wheel covers and a TV set. Small appliances, Christmas ornaments and trinkets, toys and games, books (the cookbooks went over well last year!) and numerous other "treasures" were donated. This is a a great time to get to know some of our newest members. Rita and Steve are the BEST to host this event for us for many years now. In years past, we have made as much as $450 for the Club treasury. I urge everyone to come on out, support the Club and join the insanity - oops - I mean fun! =CNM= * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NOTE: Please tell me if any of these are obsolete and should be removed! - Jim * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED * * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR SALE: 1968 Corvair Monza Convertible, 110 HP, 4-speed. New front seat upholstery, New carpet, 2-year old top. Sheet metal in floor has been replaced. Needs paint, has rust. $3,000 -- John Arnold 505-281-5542 WANTED: Wire hubcap with prong spinner -- Bernie Urbassik -- 294-7751 FOR SALE: 1963 Corvair Monza coupe, Automatic, one previous owner. All original interior. Runs great, needs nothing, well, maybe gas! $5,500.00 - Ruth Boydston - 821-1506 Pre Fan Belt Toss Sale! At the Reiders' Saturday Oct. 15. 10:00am to 2:00pm. I have many New and Used parts. Many of the parts that have been previously advertised as well as many more will be available. Have lots of used heads as well as many transmission parts, sheet metal, and many, many small parts. Call Bill Reider 299-4597 for more Information. American Parts Ignition Cabinet. $35 Cabinet is 84 inches high and 30 inches wide. Has writing desk & fluorescent lamp in center of cabinet. 2 ea Steward Warner Vacuum Gauges w/light. The gauges have a 270o sweep that makes it very easy to read. One with a 3-3/8 inch plastic piece that will fit into the clock space in a 1965-1969 Corvair. The other is in a housing that can be mounted. $30 each. 1 ea Gas Guard used 1965-1969 $12 High & Low Horns - Early and Late Used - all work $10 each Turn off your Headlights 30 seconds to 3 minutes after you leave your car. New $15 NOS GM Emergency Brake front cable 1965-1969 heavy duty $20 Brake Pedal pad for 1962-1969 Power Glide. $5 CORSA Clock - working - in nice shape. $75 2 ea Knobs with Screws for late Clocks $10 each Would you like to adjust your valves with the engine running but don't want to get oil all over the driveway? I have some 6 hole valve covers with new rubber gaskets that will do the job with a minimum mess. $20 each. Call Bill Reider 299-4597 FREE PARTS CAR: 1964 Corvair Monza Coupe. Fairly straight body, little rust. Has all windows. PG, has early crankcase in place, would need new engine. No title. Geoff Johnson. Pictures available. geoffj @ unm.edu - 505-720-1484 FOR SALE: 1962 Wagon 700 $1.500.00 OBO -- Terry Price 872-0100 1967 Monza 2-door coupe, 110-HP, automatic. $2,500.00 OBO Great interior, good condition. -- Terry Price 872-0100 FOR SALE: 1961 Monza coupe, '66 110-HP engine, Powerglide. New interior, needs paint and minor body work. Make offer - Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 - hurbrenwil @ peoplepc.com FOR SALE: 1968 Monza coupe, 110-HP rebuilt engine with 4 carbs, Powerglide. New paint, good interior. Make offer - Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 - hurbrenwil @ peoplepc.com FOR SALE: 1966 Corvair Monza 2 dr hardtop - 110-HP stick John Wiker 899-3076 / 239-3311 * * * * * CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS * * * * * =CNM= SEVEN YEARS AGO Jim Pittman Seven Years Ago - October 1998 - Volume 24 - Number 10 A Rampside and a Corvan adorned our cover, along with the balloon logo for the CNM convention. Dennis ran our meeting and Wendy said we had $5880 in the bank. Kay & Tarmo were the "parents" of an 18-year-old exchange student from Sweden. Bill & Lee and Chuck & Julie were the only CNM members who attended the NMCCC picnic where Bill's fan belt toss game was a big hit. There was discussion of the move to create a Transportation Museum in downtown Albuquerque; a problem was where to get the $3.2 million to buy the railroad's building. This issue was full of tech tips. Benny Abeyta told about fixing slop in a Forward Control shifter. Mark Domzalski told in detail how he installed an electric fuel pump on a 1966 Monza. An article by Norm Helmkay was titled "The Powerglide Brake" and said -- well, you should read it to get the full meaning of the title. Let's just say, the Powerglide is one tough transmission to survive being shifted into reverse when cruising down thw freeway at fifty MPH. A discussion from Virtual Vairs told why you should not put your spare tire (or bags of sand or heavy tool boxes) in your Corvair trunk. Finally, Sylvan told about seeing the SURF BALLROOM in Clear Lake, Iowa when he visited our former member Wayne Christgau. Just ask Sylvan about it sometime. Fourteen Years Ago - October 1991 - Volume 17 - Number 10 A white Greenbrier with dark stripe adorned our cover. Sylvan introduced new member Bob Carlson. Wendy said we had $465.95 to spend. Members said they had a good time at Flagstaff; Larry Blair's Spyder got top prize. Our sponsor Milt Sanchez reported that Ed Black Chevrolet was to be sold to Ken Johns and moved to Lomas and Louisiana NE. Rossie Morris of Sundance Automotive talked to us about his adventures driving a Model-T in the Great American Race. President Steve Gongora complained that the year was going by in a blur, and he'd probably agree that time is passing even faster these days. Steve pointed out how fortunate we are for the quality of people in our Club. That's still true today. Bill Lawless previewed our excursion to Rancho de Chimayo for a pleasant lunch. Tech tips included wintertime paint protection, more places to look for vacuum leaks, how and why to prime your oil pump after a rebuild, retrieving something you dropped into the intake manifold, alternator ball bearings, brake bleeding and steering gear adjustments. Twenty-one Years Ago - October 1984 - Volume 10 - Number 10 On the cover, CNM members stared at the tail of a B-52 at the Atomic Museum. We had no key to Ed Blacks so our September meeting was outside under the stars. Your editor penned a report on our visit to the National Atomic Museum which was still located at Kirtland AFB at that time. He said that walking around among all those casings of hydrogen bombs gave him the willies. Bill Reider's column discussed cylinder heads and included many part numbers for same. Clayborne announced details of the Christmas party. Tech tips told of shock installation and fuel filter changing. Twenty-eight Years Ago - September/October 1977 - Volume 3 - Number 7 State Fair car show awards went to Francis Boydston, Clay Keen, Benny Abeyta, Steve Gongora, Hector Gongora, Glen Thompson, Doug Morgan and Joe Vertrees. A car show at Winrock had at least eight Corvairs, including James Giblin's 1961 Lakewood and Brian Ballou's 1966 V-8 Corvair. Ike Meissner planned a "rally race" for the club in Pojoaque, with lunch at "The Line Camp" restaurant. A club dinner at Bella Vista was well attended. Glen Thompson officially resigned as newsletter editor and apparently no one was willing to take over the job. This issue was the last for 1977. =CNM= CELEBRATING THIRTY YEARS OF TRI-STATE HISTORY -- FROM CNM NEWSLETTERS Sylvan Zuercher December 1975 We received various letters from Rocky Mountain CORSA (RMCC), hoping we could get together for an inter-chapter meeting between Denver and Albuquerque. (Trinidad or Raton?) March 1976 Tentative date for meeting, July 9-11 in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. The Bonneville Corvair Club of Salt Lake City (BCC) has expressed interest in participating. April 1976 The CORSA National Convention will be held at the Sheriton-Valley Forge Hotel in King ot Prussia, Pennsylvania, beginning July 15th. May 1976 The joint meeting with RMCC, BCC and CNM will be held in a place called Montrose, Colorado, 310 miles from Albuquerque. At least fourteen CNM members indicated they want to go. The collective thinking of the three club presidents was that traveling to the Natiional Convention was rather far, the heat and humidity would be uncomfortable, and with the Bi-Centennial events going on at the same tme, it would be too crowded. The Western Division strongly suggested that RMCC not meet with other Clubs within three weeks of the National Convention. They want any local event to be at least four weeks before or after the Convention. The decision to meet was also VERY STRONGLY disapproved by the CORSA management team, at that time located in Florida. -- Continued next month -- Sylvan Zuercher =CNM= TALE OF THE REPLACEMENT OF FRONT SPRINGS AND SHOCKS ON A FORWARD CONTROL PART 1 -- GENERAL DESCRIPTION Robert Gold I'D LIKE TO RELAY to the CNMers my latest positive Corvair repair experience. As has been the case, this tale includes a large dose of Geoff Johnson and Sally Williams as well as a dash of Larry Hickerson. For many of you who have attended recent car shows you may have seen my 1961 red and white Rampside. Then again, you might not have noticed it if I parked next to Larry Hickerson's Rampside, since Larry has taken Corvair restoration to a new level. Anyway, I was lamenting to Larry at a show how the front of my truck leaned to one side and that I was thinking of replacing the front springs. I was also whining about how the springs I got from Clarks for a couple of my cars did not result in the ride height I wanted. Larry suggested that I look into buying a spring- shock combo that was being sold by Ken Hand in in Michigan. His web address is http://www.corvairmechanic.com/ Larry said that the advantage of this setup was that it lowered the front end of a FC slightly and got rid of the up and down motion after you go over a bump. That sounded good to me, so I contacted Ken and had him ship me the parts. That is when I turned to Sally and Geoff. With a positive attitude, Geoff came by the house and within about two hours he had the right side spring and shock replaced. We decided to wait a week to complete the job so Sally could come back from her travels to Spain. The time delay also let me coordinate with Larry so he could be involved also. On week two Sally, Geoff, and Larry combined to finish up the job. We let the truck down off the jack stands and took a look at the results. The truck looked great! The front end was now slightly more than 1/2 inch lower than before and now the truck had a slight "rake" from the back to the front. Also, when we took the truck for a drive it performed just as advertised. Gone was bouncing motion when we crossed over major bumps in the road. I would highly recommend this change to FC's. TALE OF THE REPLACEMENT OF FRONT SPRINGS AND SHOCKS ON A FORWARD CONTROL PART 2 -- TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION Geoff Johnson FC'S HAVE ALWAYS HAD a wallowing sort of motion going through bumps in my experience. It is kind of a characteristic that makes an FC an FC. I thought much of this was inherent to sitting over the front wheels, until I drove Robert's 140 powered VW van, which had a much gentler ride. Robert said that he was ordering a kit that would correct this in his Rampside. So the plan to replace the springs was set to go forth in Robert's garage, where "The Big Apple" as it is known resides. We started on Sunday by cleaning, positioning, preparing, and loosening 44 year old suspension components. We laid out the tools needed for the job, and jumped in. As it turns out, the suspension had been worked on in the past, and one major change would make our job much easier. The ball joints on this truck had been replaced with bolt-in ball joints rather then the original rivet style. Usually, if the ball joints are original, a Pickle Fork ball joint separator must be used. The nut and cotter pin is removed, and the flat part of the pickle fork is faced towards the part that will not move, while the angled face goes against the ball joint. A few whacks on the fork with an appropriate (BIG) hammer will free the ball joint. Alternatively two large hammers tapped together on opposite sides of the knuckle will sometimes free it as well. It can be a lot of work. Our case was much simpler. After the shocks were removed, the bolt in ball joints meant we could unbolt them and lower the control arm. The spring came right out. Already we were way ahead of our planned work schedule. A note of caution here. Coil springs are under a lot of pressure and can easily pop out and go flying if proper steps are not taken. In our case we had the truck on jackstands, and after disconnecting the ball joints we used a large floor jack under the control arm to lower it. We then released the spring pressure slowly in a controlled manner. The spring then fell right out. Once the old spring had been removed we used a coil spring compressor to compress the new spring enough to get it to fit properly into the spring pockets. Then we raised the jack to compress the spring back to the point that the lower ball joint could be reconnected. After that it was a simple matter of reconnecting the steering arms, and putting the new shocks in. When all was said and done the job was significantly easier then we had expected. THAT'S A GOOD THING! =CNM= Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 09:00:33 -0600 From: Paul Hopkins ( phopkins @ comcast.net ) To: corvair66 @ aol.com Subject: ANNIVERSARY THANKS Dear David, and members of the Corvairs of New Mexico: THANKS TO JOHN WIKER, GORDON JOHNSON, and the Corvairs of New Mexico, my wife and I enjoyed a wonderful 40th wedding anniversary dinner on August 13. Our first purchase together, 40 years ago, was a yellow, 1966, Corvair Monza coupe, and on our anniversary Saturday we enjoyed looking at aging wedding pictures, including one with two grinning young people looking out of the side window of that Corvair as they set out on their honeymoon. Imagine my wife's surprise, then, when we walked out of the house to go to dinner, and there was John Wiker's yellow Monza coupe waiting to take us for a ride. She didn't quit laughing all evening! We had great fun recalling those good old days, and we enjoyed the respectful waves from several homeboys driving classic (and sometimes souped up) old cars and trucks along the way. If Gordon Johnson hadn't parked his yellow convertible outside the gym one day several months ago, and if he hadn't suggested I make it to a couple of Corvair club meetings this summer, this great evening would not have been nearly as much fun. So thanks to all of you for your hospitality and help, and especially to Gordon for offering, and John and Ann for making the blast from the past another wonderful memory. And as a souvenir, we now have two matching photos framed in our living room -- one a copy of that grinning young couple, and another of a bit older couple, still grinning, and both set in a snazzy yellow Corvair Monza coupe. Paul Hopkins ( phopkins @ comcast.net ) =CNM= Subject: ONE HUNDRED PERCENT Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 19:30:00 PST Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes life 100%? Here's a little math that might prove helpful in figuring out this mystery. If A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Then, H A R D W O R K equals 8 1 18 4 23 15 18 11 = 98% and, K N O W L E D G E equals 11 14 15 23 12 5 4 7 5 = 96% But, A T T I T U D E equals 1 20 20 9 20 21 4 5 = 100% And, B - - - - - - T equals 2 21 12 12 19 8 9 20 = 103% So, it stands to reason that hard work and knowledge will get you close, attitude will get you there, but it will take b------t to put you over the top. Selected by Jim Griffith. MAIL your joke to funny@netfunny.com. Join and contribute to the Electronic Frontier Foundation today. This joke's link: http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/02/Mar/percent.html =end=