Updated 30-Jan-2007 =-= Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico. EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 1 February 2006 at 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet, Lomas & University THIS MONTH: Dues Due Membership Chair January Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees Birthdays & Anniversaries Sunshine Committee January Board Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees New Members Sylvan Zuercher Mechanically Un-inclined Ray Trujillo CNM Calendar Everyone For Sale, Wanted, Free Everyone Breakfast at The Kettle Heula Pittman Bosque del Apache Tour Jim & Heula Tri-State Notes LeRoy Rogers "Care and Feeding" Booklet Sylvan Zuercher Remembering 30 Years of Tri-State Sylvan Zuercher Seven Years Ago Club Historian Tech Tip: Pilot Bushing Removal Sylvan Zuercher Synthetic Oil: Benefits & Disadvantages Randy Wicks COVER: The Lone Corvair at Bosque del Apache in January =-CNM-= PRESIDENT: Ray Trujillo 839-7436 ray @ bpsabq.com VICE-PRES: John Wiker 899-3076 wiker @ aps.edu SECRETARY: Charles Vertrees 299-0744 vertrees @ swcp.com TREASURER: Wendell Walker 892-8471 defarge505 @ aol.com MEMBERSHIP: David Huntoon 281-9616 corvair66 @ aol.com NEWSLETTER: Jim Pittman 275-2195 casa @ unm.edu PROPERTIES: Ruth Boydston 821-1506 CAR COUNCIL: Robert Gold 268-6878 beisbol30 @ msn.com DUES: CNM: 12 months $15.00 or 26 months $ 30.00 CORSA: 12 months $38.00 or 26 months $ 76.00 BOTH: 12 months $53.00 or 26 months $106.00 CORSA's home page: http://www.corvair.org CNM's newsletters: http://www.unm.edu/~casa CNM's home page: http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter871 Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: DUES, THIS MONTH: Fred Edeskuty 2006-Feb Carl Johnson 2006-Feb Joel Nash 2006-Feb Frank Stadler 2006-Feb Mike Stickler 2006-Feb DUES, COMING DUE SOON: Mike Hacker 2006-Mar Geoffrey Johnson 2006-Mar Oliver Scheflow 2006-Apr DROP IN 30 DAYS: Willard Davis 2005-Dec Roger Pape 2005-Dec DROPPED: Tom Bunter 2005-Aug Dan Clifford 2005-Aug Jacob Schlessinger 2005-Aug 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 that the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, provided that you send us the renewal form from your CORSA Communique! As of January 2006, past due memberships will be dropped after a one-month grace period. =-CNM-= Scenes from the Bosque del Apache tour can be seen throughout this issue. Above, a coyote has obtained his lunch and is heading for a quiet place to enjoy it. On the cover, Pat & Vickie Hall drove their Corvair - the only one to be seen at the tour. =-CNM-= Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter is published monthly by Corvairs of New Mexico, a chartered chapter of CORSA, the Corvair Society of America. Contents are copyrighted in the names of the Authors and CNM. Articles may be reprinted in any CORSA publication as a service to CORSA members provided credit to the Author and this Newsletter are clearly stated. All opinions are those of the Author or the Editor and do not necessarily reflect endorsement by CNM or CORSA. Material to be published should reach the Editor by the 15th of each month. Submit material as ASCII TEXT via e-mail to ( casa @ unm.edu ) or in ASCII TEXT format on Apple II, Macintosh or MS-DOS disk, or submit a readable manuscript. I don't like MS Word documents (they are ten times as big as the text they contain) but no problem, I can read them, thanks to icWord 3.0. The same goes for RTF files. So, send what you have, I'll read it! Photographs, either real ones or digital JPGs, are welcome too! This newsletter was produced in a nearly Microsoft-free environment using a 1989 Apple IIgs with GS/OS 6.0.1, a 1998 Macintosh G3 with OS 9.2, a 2003 Macintosh G4 PowerBook with OS-X and a 2003 iMac with OS-X. Software includes Bernie To The Rescue 2.6, Addressed For Success, ShadowWrite 1.3.4, Platinum Paint 2.0, Pointless and Harmonie for the Apple IIgs and AppleWorks 6, Photoshop CS, GraphicConverter 5.6, BBEdit 8 and InDesign CS 3 on the Macs. Printing is via HP LaserJet IIp and Apple LaserWriter Pro 630. Ask for more technical details if you are interested. Transportation requirements are provided by Albuquerque SunTran, 1965 Corvair Monza, 1990 Honda Civic, 1996 Mazda Miata and 2003 Honda Civic. And when I'm 64 I'll get by with a little help from my friends. =-CNM-= JANUARY MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS CALLED to order at Galles Chevrolet at 19:30 on January 4th. All officers were present along with 23 members. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that CNM had $679.08 in the checking account and $2,614.74 in the GMAC account for a total of $3,293.82. Introduced was Robert McBreen who had not been able to attend meetings in a long time. New member Dan Palmer was also introduced. He has bought an Ultravan as mentioned in the last newsletter. It is in great shape but he has to go to Maine to pick it up and drive it back. Another guest was Carey Hubbard who has bought a Greenbrier in very good shape. There was no Car Council report because they will not be meeting until the end of January. Robert Gold has set them an invitation to have as many Car Council club members join us when we tour the Balloon Museum in February. There was no report from the Sunshine Committee. There was not much to report on the Tri-State meeting. See your last newsletter and this one for more information. There will be a sign up sheet circulated for the Tri-State shirts. If I read my notes right the T-shirts will be $10.00, the golf shirts $16.00, and if anyone wants them, sweatshirts will be $15.00. There was a question about what the logo would look like. A copy will be brought to the next meeting for your perusal. AS MENTIONED IN the Board Meeting notes in the last newsletter, effective January 2006 the chapter dues will be $53.00 per year. This covers CNM dues and CORSA dues. When your dues renewal comes up, give your renewal form from CORSA and your check to Wendell Walker. Also as mentioned, effective January 2006, past due memberships will be dropped after a 30 day grace period. It was brought up that the board is considering two possible dates for CNM to go to an Isotopes game together. The dates are Thursday June 8th which is an evening game, or Sunday June 11th which is an evening game. There was no decision made at that time. We also need to decide about whether to go for reserved seating or box seating. There is a requirement of a minimum of 20 people to get a group rate. The board is looking into a tour of the Unser Racing Museum in mid-summer. It should be finished by then. The nomination forms for the Meissner Award were in the newsletter. They must be turned in no later that the February meeting to the Vice-President or any one of the past three recipients. There was an interesting article in the last newsletter about CNM's changing demographics over the years. There was a discussion on whether we should change or improve our recruiting efforts, and if so how. There were some suggestions, but more thought is needed. Joel Nash is rebuilding a differential, and there are several special tools needed for that job. He suggested that a registry of special tools be established by CNM. There would have to be very strict accountability if any could be borrowed. I remember when I was rebuilding a differential many years ago that it requires an inch-pound torque setting and I could not find the tool for under $60.00 so I used the finger setting and it worked out, but I would have felt better doing it the way it should have been done. Upcoming events are the Bosque del Apache Tour and the Breakfast at The Kettle Restaurant in January. In February there is the Balloon Museum tour on February 4th. There will be more information elsewhere in this newsletter. In March there will be our anniversary dinner at Papa Felipe's. Menaul & Eubank, on the 18th. Time is set for 18:00 (6:00 PM). We need to thank Steve and Rita for hosting the CNM board meeting at House of Covers for many years. OLLIE SAID THAT WE HAD not been doing our cleanup on Old Route 66 according to the state because we had not been picking up our orange vests. He explained to them that we had own orange vests and that we had been doing three cleanups a year and that our trash bags had been being picked up. They said OK but would we start doing four cleanups a year. The meeting was adjourned at 20:10 and was followed by a presentation on the Bosque del Apache by Jerry Goffe, illustrated by many nice photos taken by Jerry. -- Chuck =-CNM-= JANUARY BOARD NOTES Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER at Ray's print shop at 17:00 on 1/18/06. Present were Ray Trujillo, Sylvan Zuercher, John Wiker, Robert Gold, Jim and Heula Pittman, Dave Huntoon, Wendell Walker, and Chuck Vertrees. Treasurer, Wendell Walker, reported that CNM had $475.96 in the checking account and $2,625.20 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $3,101.25. President Ray reported that an Amsoil representative, Don Giles, will give a presentation immediately after the February 4th meeting at Galles. Vice-president John announced that the Saturday breakfast would be at the Kettle Restaurant on San Antonio and I-25 at 08:30 on the 21st. There were several other places mentioned as possible future places such as The Route 66 Diner, Loyola's, Weck's, and The Country Kitchen. Nothing special to report on the Tri-State meet. There is usually something elsewhere in each newsletter about it. Robert said that he called the other day to make motel reservations and that they were real nice. Knew all about special pricing for Corvair members, etc. It was suggested that we send a copy of this year's logo to the other clubs and try to get an idea of how many shirts that they might want. At least one Salt Lake member indicated that he would come. It was suggested that we send logos and special invitation to them and the Kansas clubs. Heula said that the Sunshine committee met last Sunday. She reported on the many things that they are working on for the Tri-State. They are working on 30 center places for the dinner tables in Montrose, and they will be such that they can be raffled off as door prizes. There also will be some for children. They need Kleenex boxes. The square 4x4x4 boxes. Please start saving them and bringing them to the meeting. Other items and decorations on a Corvair-related theme are in the planning stage. Pens or pencils are planned for the goody bags. It was suggested that LeRoy Rogers be contacted to see if he would like to set up a model car display. Membership was reported on by Sylvan. He has a potential member to whom he is sending a newsletter. I was in error in the meeting newsletter in saying the young man who had bought a Greenbrier had joined. However, he was interested. Sylvan is also in contact with a long-past member who might be interested in rejoining. He has also called a few whose dues are about to lapse. Robert said that the Car Council has not met yet this year. However, he had called the secretary and had her enter an invitation to other clubs to join us at the Balloon Fiesta Museum. It was included in the newsletter from the Car Council which I had just received. He also said that the State Fair has called him about showing our Corvairs at this fall's Fair. It is all set up already. Jim brought up the condition of the other club newsletters that we receive. Some that are basically a few pages often, but not always, come through the mail in good condition. Those that we receive from other clubs with multiple pages, unless they are sent in envelopes, are very often received in semi or shredded condition. He would like to send our newsletter in envelopes since it is always multi paged, so that it would be received in a condition showing the effort that went into production. This will mean that it would require double postage because it would exceed 1 ounce. Approval to do so was voted on and approved by the board. IT WAS REPORTED that Steve Gongora has updated the CNM web page and has done a very nice job. The February 4th Balloon Museum tour is set for 14:00 with lunch at 12:30, possibly at Vick's Daily Cafe on Osuna. This will be confirmed at the February 1st meeting. The anniversary dinner on March 18th has been confirmed at Papa Felipe's at 18:00. This is the same place as last year. The price will be $13.00 per person. This includes everything except cervesa. A child's menu will also be available. Sometime in April we will probably take a Turquoise Trail trip. We would make Golden, Cerrillos and Madrid stops on the trip. There is lots of shopping in Madrid and there are several places to eat. Sylvan will check a back issue of his New Mexico Magazine for an article on this. The Bosque del Apache tour was a great success with 18 CNM members attending. Pat and Vickie Hall drove the only Corvair. Special thanks go to our intrepid guides Jerry Goffe and Mark Domzalski. It was suggested that we make this an annual affair with CNM members either joining the Friends of the Bosque or at least our making a contribution to the Reserve. The meeting was adjourned at 18:25. -- Chuck =-CNM-= HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Wendell Walker - February 9 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO: Two couples who celebrate their wedding anniversaries this month: Rita & Steve Gongora -- February 14 Sally & Nathan Williams -- February 18 =-CNM-= NEW MEMBERS Sylvan Zuercher I forgot to include last month that our new member Dan Palmer has purchased Ultra Van number 462 on E-bay. The only problem is, it is located in Maine. As soon as the weather gets better across the country, he will go to Maine and drive it back to Edgewood. =-CNM-= MECHANICALLY UN-INCLINED Ray Trujillo HELLO EVERYONE! Our Bosque del Apache Tour was a great way to kick off the new year. For those of you that were there, you know what I'm talking about. For those of you that weren't, you missed out on some sights that were very rare. Our tour guides Jerry Goffe and Mark Domzalski were terrific. They showed us a blue heron, redtailed hawks, blue birds, mallard ducks, coots, spoons, sand hill cranes, snow geese, turtles, coyotes, and even deer. I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention a lot of other wildlife we saw, but the highlight of the day had to be the numerous sightings of bald eagles. At the beginning of our tour Jerry and Mark showed us two bald eagles that were about a good 300 yard golf drive away, but we're able to get a good view of them through a telescope that Jerry set up. As we continued our tour we came upon a field were a handful of bald eagles were spotted, also about 300 yards away. As we watched the bald eagles someone in our group saw a bald eagle holding something in a tree only 100 yards away. Well, as we got closer we could see the eagle devouring a duck for lunch. It was truly a sight you don't see every day. It was magnificent! We must have watched this spectacular sight for about fifteen minutes. In fact we watched until the eagle finished his lunch and finally flew away. During our tour my youngest son Isaac got excited as he spotted some deer in the woods. The deer were fairly close and there were at least four of them. Next we came upon a field of snow geese and toward the back of the field were two coyotes stalking for some lunch also. Well, one of the coyotes got lucky as we saw him scurry off with one. Lastly, as our guided tour is completed we're driving out of the refuge and all of a sudden a large flock of snow geese begin their domino ascension into the beautiful blue New Mexico sky. Wow, what a great finish, it couldn't have been planned any better. It was just like the grand finale of a fireworks show... Perfect! Well, let's move on to our upcoming activities. First, we'll have Amsoil representative Don Giles do a presentation immediately following our February 1st membership meeting. This should be quite interesting to many of you. Then on February 4th we have our Balloon Museum Tour scheduled for 2:00 p.m. and prior to that lunch is scheduled at 12:30. We'll let you know the location of lunch at the meeting. For March, Larry Blair will do a presentation on how to redo a dashboard at our March 1st meeting. On March 18th we will have our Anniversary Dinner at Papa Felipe's at 6:00 p.m. The cost is $13 per person. So as you can see, we really have some great activities planned for you so please plan to come and enjoy them. Well, I guess that's enough said for now, so see you at the next club meeting. -- Ray Trujillo =-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 ============================================================================ | | | | | February | March | April | | | | | | : : : 1 2 3 4 | : : : 1 2 3 4 | : : : : : : 1 | | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | | 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | | 26 27 28 : : : : | 26 27 28 29 30 31 : | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 | | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | 30 : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 1 Feb 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 4 Feb 12:30 PM Lunch before the Balloon Museum tour - to be determined Sat 4 Feb 2:00 PM Balloon Museum Tour Wed 15 Feb 5:00 PM Board Meeting - Ray Trujillo's - H:839-7436 Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE W:266-4011 Fri 17 Feb 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 18 Feb 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Wed 1 Mar 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Wed 15 Mar 5:00 PM Board Meeting - Ray Trujillo's - H:839-7436 Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE W:266-4011 Sat 18 Mar 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Sat 18 Mar evening Club 32nd Anniversary Dinner, Papa Felipe's on Menaul NE Fri 24 Mar 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 5 Apr 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Wed 19 Apr 5:00 PM Board Meeting - Ray Trujillo's - H:839-7436 Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE W:266-4011 Fri 21 Apr 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 22 Apr 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Thu 8 June evening Isotopes Baseball Game - tentative Sun 11 Jun afternoon Isotopes Baseball Game - tentative Fri-Sun June 2-3-4 2006 Tri-State Event - Montrose, Colorado Coming Soon: Tour of Unser Racing Museum =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= =-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: I'm a former Corvair owner/member of CORSA with a collection of approximately 28 Corvair collectible toy cars (all in original packaging) looking for a good home. Manufacturers include Racing Champions, Mattel, Galoob, AMT Ertyl, Yat Ming and Sun Star. I am interested in selling them in one lot. Would these be of interest to anyone in CNM? Michael Reaves - (505) 590-0307 - Silver City, New Mexico - ( jumireaves @ cybermesa.com ) WANTED: Wire hubcap with prong spinner -- Bernie Urbassik -- 294-7751 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 = = = = = CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS = = = = = NOTE: Please tell me if any of these are obsolete and should be removed! - Jim = = = = = CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS = = = = = =-CNM-= BREAKFAST AT THE KETTLE WITH FELLOW CNMers Heula Pittman IT WAS 14.4 DEGREES when Jim and I left our house Saturday morning at 7:40! Brrrrrr! Our Brand-X (AKA Miata) soon warmed up so we could see through the condensation that instantly formed on the windows. So we didn't have any trouble finding San Antonio and the I-25 frontage road and spotting The Kettle's cheerful sign. Once we got inside the restaurant we began warming up with our hot cups of coffee. We were early but pretty soon Dave showed up, and then others drifted in. Altogether ten of us gathered, including one visitor, Carey Hubbard, the Volkswagen enthusiast who just acquired a Greenbrier. It was nice to finally meet Connie and Bob McBreen who have been members for some time. Hurley and Dave drove in from across the mountain, Wendell came from Rio Rancho and Anne and John drove from the body shop where they left their Corvair for painting. No doubt you will be hearing more about this project before long! Dave brought along a TRAINS magazine which had no Corvair stories, but featured a photo and article about Albuquerque's Roadrunner commuter train. The locomotives and cars are brightly painted and ready to run. We wondered whether we were ever going to organize a ride on the Santa Fe Southern to Lamy? We treated ourselves to stories about exotic cars including that of a friend-of-a-friend who bought a low-mileage 1963 split-window Corvette for $2,000 and the story of the man who had a brand-new 1968 Corvette stolen and having it recovered, in excellent condition, 38 years later. A story about about the perils of driving a van through the state battling side winds led to a discussion of wider wheels, fatter tires and aerodynamic spoilers. We heard about bills from our legislators that would take away our ability to buy junker cars as parts cars to use to fix up our old but not yet junker cars. BREAKFAST FINALLY CAME. I think everyone enjoyed their meals - I know I did. It's always great to meet and visit with Members, especially those who are "new" to the Club. We hope that Connie and Bob will be able to participate in more Club activities in the future. =-CNM-= BOSQUE DEL APACHE TOUR Heula Pittman EIGHTEEN CNMers showed up bright and early Saturday morning, January 14, at Bosque del Apache. Only one Corvair made its appearance: a beautiful blue early convertible belonging to our new members, Pat and Vickie Hall. The rest of us enjoyed driving our various Brand-Xs. The weather was cooperative. It was rather cool early on but warmed up later in the day as the sun was able to send more rays through the mostly overcast sky. Our tour began about 9:45 with Jerry Goffe and Mark Domzalski as our tour guides. They have been acting as volunteers at the Bosque for some time. Their expertise and knowledge of birds and the operation of the refuge was made apparent as we toured many of the units on our 1985-vintage former school bus. Our driver was Stan Boynston who hailed from Bah Hahbah, Maine. Oops, I mean, Bar Harbor, Maine. We saw many types of ducks and saw areas where the salt cedars had been cleared and made ready for planting or flooding. The most spectacular sight of the day had to be the show the bald eagles put on for us. Just seeing these magnificent birds was great but being able to get up close and observe them was even better. Jerry's spotting scope brought them to arm's distance. Dave Huntoon spotted an eagle in a tree with his wings expanded. Three or four were flying about in the area as well. Our bus driver, also a volunteer and extremely knowledgeable about birds, stopped the bus so that we could get out our binoculars for a closer look. The eagle had caught a duck and was sitting on the tree branch feasting on his catch. Other birds circled around the tree, no doubt hoping for some tasty morsels to be dropped. The eagle sat there for a good thirty minutes enjoying his lunch and giving us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to observe him. Wow, what an experience that was! We spotted many other birds throughout the morning. We saw Coots, Blue Herons, Yellow headed black birds and several kinds of ducks. There were many white geese with black-tipped wings and a few Canada geese. And of course many Sandhill cranes, some eating and some gracefully flying. Sylvia and Ray Trujillo's son, Isaac, spotted deer feeding nearby. His keen eyes were able to discern about four deer in all, barely visible through the willows. Across a wide field full of white geese and Sandhill cranes we spotted two coyotes. One had his breakfast in his mouth and was taking it away to a more private location, while the other was still deciding whether to try his luck with the geese or follow his friend for a handout. The colors of the foliage were awesome. There were shades of yellow, brown and orange that spotted the landscape making opportunities for gorgeous photography. MANY THANKS GO to Jerry, Mark and Stan for a magnificent, memorable day at Bosque del Apache. Several of us stopped at a restaurant in San Antonio for some good Mexican food before heading for home. Jim and I decided to turn east from I-25 onto U.S. 60 and return via Mountainair. We stopped at the Abo Pueblo area of Salinas National Monument to see the large red stone church ruins, then made our way northward through the Manzano mountain scenery to Tijeras and then west via Old Route 66. It was a dawn-to-dusk educational excursion and we will enjoy processing and showing off dozens of nice photographs. =-CNM-= TRI-STATE - SUNSHINE COMMITTEE Heula Pittman THE SUNSHINE COMMITTEE will be decorating the tables and making door prizes for the Tri-State this year at Montrose, Colorado. We will make centerpieces for each of the tables for the banquet on Saturday evening. We need square tissue boxes (not rectangles) for our centerpieces. We are asking that anyone who uses this type tissues to please save your boxes for us. They can be given to any Sunshine Committee Member as you collect them. We do need them ASAP!! Your help will be appreciated. Thanks, Heula =-CNM-= TRI-STATE NOTES LeRoy Rogers ALL IS GOING WELL in planning for the June 2006 Tri-State in Montrose, Colorado. The host motel will be USA Inns at 1417 E. Main Street, Montrose, CO 81401. Their phone (there's not a toll-free number) is 970-249-4507. Before you phone them, note that you should be able to make your reservation via the Internet. Point your web browser to: http://www.usainnsofamerica.com and follow the directions to register. Room rates will be $50 per night and even though the rates go up in May, we Tri-State people will get this rate. When you register, be sure to fill in the "Business Affiliation" blank with "Tri-State" so they will know you are with us. The Show-n-Shine on Saturday will be in the street in front of City Hall and the street will be roped off for us. The banquet will be at the Elks Lodge Saturday evening. We need to come up with items for door prizes and items for the goody bags. We are looking for a suitable item of some value to raffle. There will be dash plaques for everybody. There will be T-shirts and Golf shirts for sale. Prices are not firm yet but expect $14-$16 or so. There will also be grey sweat shirts and these must be ordered in advance. We will get to these details soon so look for more information at club meetings and in future newsletter articles. =-CNM-= COMMENTARY: READ YOUR "CARE AND FEEDING OF YOUR CORVAIR" BOOKLET Sylvan Zuercher OVER THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS, I have had conversations with members on parts bought at Clark's and other vendors. I mentioned that these parts were available locally. It seems that the booklet is forgotten when it comes time to find a part, which could be available locally, without calling, waiting for and paying shipping costs. Many times the local price is lower. If higher, consider shipping cost and waiting time. A lot of research and proof reading went into the Booklet which was to be for the benefit of you Club members. So the next time you need a part, find your 6th printing Booklet, read it and find out if it is available locally. If you don't have the updated version, come to the next meeting with an extra $5.00. Ruth Boydston will have one for you. -- Sylvan =-CNM-= REMEMBERING 30 YEARS OF TRI-STATE Sylvan Zuercher [As you recall from last month, I had just left the Tri-State Event and the rest of the Albuquerque group was far ahead as I cruised along at comfortable speeds, enjoying the drive and the scenery. Then the "Blue Crud" started making terrible generator noises! What to do?] SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN DURANGO, with a very bad generator and parts houses closed and 200 miles to get to Albuquerque on some of the most desolate stretches of then-not-good highway and not much traffic. While it wasn't very appealing, the choice was to press on and to keep my fingers crossed, and besides, the generator wasn't TOO noisy. Little did I know. Fat, dumb and happy! All went well for an hour or so. By then the noisy bearing became really louder and really got my attention. After a while, I began a conversation with "The Blue Crud" and said I was sorry we didn't win the worst looking Corvair award and I really didn't blame you. The bearing noise only became louder. I begged, pleaded, cajoled, threatened, promised better treatment and possibly let go a few words that matched the color of the car. By that time, we approached CIVILIZATION at the Counselors' pit stop. Lo and behold, there was the caravan from Albuquerque. Pulling into the rest stop, the noise was apparent to everyone. LeRoy Rogers (this year's organizer of the Tri-State) agreed to follow me the rest of the way. Soon after we continued, my fan belt let go. No problem, I had a spare. A quick change and we were on our way. Until just outside of Bernalillo when, you guessed it. The belt went again. No problemo. LeRoy had a spare. Again a quick change and we are on our way. By the time we pulled up to my house in Albuquerque, the bearing was so loud that it could be heard a block or so away. Well, at least we made it. The next morning, I went to the shop, ordered a new bearing and rebuilt the generator. The outer race was in pieces. The inner race was frozen on the shaft and had to be pressed off. The ball bearings were melted into a few elongated shapes. I still have these pieces. Not too long after, "The Blue Crud" got a rebuilt Alternator installed. There were many more HAPPY times after that. But "The Blue Crud" never did win the worst looking Corvair award. And I guess I never did get over that. =-CNM-= SEVEN YEARS AGO Jim Pittman Seven Years Ago - February 1999 - Vol 25 - Nr 2 - Issue 281 The Valentine's Day cover asked if you could love two Corvairs more than one. Obviously, yes. President Pleau ran our meeting at Casa Chevrolet. LeRoy had taken over from Bill McClellan the job of bringing the newsletter to Casa for mailing. Mark Domzalski suggested that the club should get a better print of the January cover photo and frame it for the archives. Guests included Lloyd Platt, an old friend of Tarmo's. Bill Nelson of Pennzoil/Quaker State gave us a good talk on the current state of automobile lubricants. Wendell reported $6,909.89 in our treasury and as our "Nike" investment was up for renewal and there was brisk discussion about what to do with our money. We decided that $5000 should go into another investment fund, for better financial flexibility. LeRoy contacted Vic's Daily Cafe to schedule a dinner party to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We talked about a special Anniversary issue of the newsletter. Remember the VMCCA's "Unfair Car Show" organized to spite the State Fair? Well, it was to be no more - the turnout had gotten too low. We planned a garage tour the Kim & Del Patten's place, with breakfast at Kokopelli's in Cedar Crest. Tech tips this issue included the pros and cons of solid valve lifters vs hydraulic lifters, the value of an original Corvair A/C unit, and how to prevent your muffler rusting out. Trivia questions from Virtual Vairs: Is there a 12-step program to help Corvair nuts recover? Is there a Corvair Road or Corvair Lane or Corvair Street anywhere? Fourteen Years Ago - February - 1992 - Vol 18 - Nr 2 - Issue 197 Our cover featured a gaggle of late coupe silhouettes. Chuck Vertrees took notes; Steve Gongora presided; Wendell Walker reported on finances: $958 in the bank. Wayne Christgau was leaving Albuquerque (but not CNM) to live in Iowa. Plans for CNM's Tri-State meet in Las Vegas (NM not NV) were discussed. We planned a garage tour to see Bobby Unser's garage. We planned this several times and it always fell through. Maybe someday... President Steve told us he had secured guided tours of Montezuma Castle and Fort Union at the Tri-State. He asked members to sponsor events for the Club this year. Sylvan told us of a new publication "The Lone Racer" put out by Rossie Morris and Sundance Automotive. It discussed Rossie's participation in the Great American Race with his Model T race car, and Rossie thanked CNM for our help with the 1992 race. In a technical vein, Francis Boydston told how to really fix those pesky Powerglide cable leaks, and we lifted a short article from another publication telling how to convert engine sizes from cubic inches to liters. (Example: a 1960 Corvair is 140 cu.in. = 2.29 liters, a 1961 is 145 cu.in. = 2.38 liters, and a 1964 is 164 cu.in. = 2.69 liters. Modify your 1966 engine by boring it to the maximum 3-9/16" while keeping the stroke stock at 2-15/16" and you'd have 175.7 cu.in. = 2.88 liters.) Twenty-one Years Ago - February - 1985 - Vol 11 - Nr 2 - Issue 113 The February 1985 cover depicted three late coupes. Francis Boydston was president and Sylvan said we has $385 in the bank. For our garage tour we were told we would see Jerry Goffe's Aston-Martin; did we? Francis suggested that we organize more events with the White Sands Corvair Club in Alamogordo. Tech tips were off to a good start with Part 1 of an excellent series on welding by Bill McClellan. Jim Pittman reported on installing Holley carbs (which Clark's called the ultimate Corvair carburetor setup) on his 1966 Monza 110-HP 4-speed, with quite a few negative comments to go with a few positive features. Finally (a month late) we listed all 54 CNM members. Twenty-eight Years Ago - January/February 1978 - Vol 4 - Nr 1 - Issue 29 This was Jim's first venture into editing a Corvair newsletter and all these years later he's still trying to get it right. Joel Nash was our president and Steve Gongora took meeting notes. We appointed LeRoy Rogers to represent CNM at the Car Council. An editorial outlined a short history of the Corvair and our Club and suggested future developments in the Corvair hobby and how we might influence them. Francis Boydston told how to grind valves with an electric drill. And we thanked Ed Black's Chevrolet for providing us with a comfortable and convenient meeting room every month. =-CNM-= TECH TIP: PILOT BUSHING REMOVAL Sylvan Zuercher HAVING USED a hacksaw blade to split the bushing and a cold chisel to remove it, a better method was devised. A 5/8 x 11 tap and a 12 point x 1/2" socket will do the job. With the socket on a 1/2" drive ratchet wrench, place the tap into the bushing and begin to screw it in. After the tap bottoms the bushing will walk its way out. No messy oil or wad of wet bread to splatter all over. Blow the shavings out with compressed air or use Brake Kleen to wash them out. Install ONLY a GM#6256648 replacement bushing, or one of the Corvair parts supplier's parts. Dorman and some other parts (you can identify them because they can be picked up with a magnet) are not bronze and will wear out rather quickly. The correct pilot bushing is sintered bronze soaked in oil. I use a 12" cut off input shaft (melted apart from abuse) to drive the new bushing in. Drive the bushing until it bottoms on the flange on the end of the crank. Some have suggested driving the pilot bushing in only to the FRONT edge of the crank so that a new seal surface can be used. Once an early model Muncie 4-speed came into the shop in very bad condition due to incorrect positioning of the bushing. The input shaft drilled a neat hole through the front aluminum plate due to the flush installation instead of the correct bottoming. The 1961 and 1965 shop manual show the proper spacing. So much for poor advice and expensive repairs. =-CNM-= SYNTHETIC OIL: BENEFITS & DISADVANTAGES -- Randy Wicks Westwind - CORSA West of Los Angeles Volume 33 Issue 1 AS YOU MAY RECALL from my Oil Temperature program, engine life is reduced when oil temperatures rise above 210* F using conventional oil. Chevrolet tests confirmed that even the mildly tuned 1960 Corvair engine would run 230* F at 60 mph in 100* F heat. Other Corvairs with turbos, air conditioning or A.I.R. (smog) pumps would be capable of generating even more heat. In my own testing, using a "deep-fryer" thermometer, and Dave Statland using his infra-red digital thermometer, we easily found Corvairs that exceeded safe oil temperatures on a fairly cool day (Cruiz'N'Picnic and the Poppy Run). While improving the oil cooling will certainly help this situation, our engines would survive heat better if they were to use an oil that could handle the temperatures that a Corvair engine can produce. Fortunately, such an oil exists today. Originally developed for jet engines, synthetic oil is now factory-fill in many high-performance cars. The same oil that protects Corvette, BMW and Porsche engines can also prevent the oil breakdown that occurs in our air-cooled motors. What Is Synthetic Oil? Synthetic oil is different from conventional motor oil because it is created chemically instead of being distilled directly from petroleum. The resulting base oil molecules are uniform in size for a given viscosity. Conventional base oil is a mixture of different size oil molecules. Benefits * Better Thermal Stability. With its uniform molecular size, synthetics are able to withstand temperature extremes that would destroy conventional oil. Conventional oil's large molecules breakdown in high heat, while its small ones are oxidized or burned off. The broken large molecules are free to combine with oxygen and form sludge. Reportedly, synthetic oil can tolerate chronic 300* F temperatures. Because it is created "from scratch," synthetics lack the impurities found in even the best conventional oil. Paraffin, or wax is gone. This is one of the primary reasons synthetics flow so well in cold weather. The wax is simply not there to solidify. * Less Friction. Synthetics resist "shearing." Less oil thickening over time like regular oil. The result is more power and less fuel consumption. * Less Sludge and Deposit Formation. Resulting from thermal stability and better additives. * Less Oil Consumption. The smaller molecules in conventional oil are easier to burn off. * Lasts Longer. Mobil 1 now has an oil designed to go 15,000 miles. However, in conversation with an oil company representative, they stated one year as the maximum for drain intervals with synthetics. Other companies boast longer change intervals. With seldom-driven or weekend-driven Corvairs, one year sounds reasonable. Regularly driven Corvairs could be changed more frequently to keep the oil in "Concours Condition." * Less Engine Wear During Start-up. Better flow allows the oil to get to moving parts faster. * Protection for Overheating Engines. You may have dropped a valve seat, but at least your oil is still good and protecting what is left of the engine! * Better Protection During "Extreme Driving Conditions." Short trips, high or low outside temperature, long idling, towing, track driving and stop-and-go traffic are all considered "extreme." In fact, any driving not at a steady speed in moderate weather is considered "extreme." Under these conditions, conventional oil breaks down or forms sludge faster. Car manufacturers often recommend more frequent oil changes under these "extreme" (normal driving in Los Angeles) conditions. Synthetics excel in this category. * Greater Engine Durability. For all the above reasons. Disadvantages * Cost. More expensive than conventional oil, but much cheaper than an engine rebuild or a turbocharger rebuild. * Leakage. While the manufacturers say that if your seals and gaskets are in good shape, there should be no leaks. However, an oil company representative did admit that the deposits formed by conventional oil can seal small leaks. Synthetic oil will probably clean those deposits out and restart leaks in those marginal gaskets. Seal life is supposed to be the same or improved. * Flushing. Not required according to manufacturers when the change to synthetics is made. I would think as a precaution it would be wise to pull the oil pan and remove any sludge manually rather than have the synthetic clean it out and circulate it through the engine. * Break-in. Although fine for new cars, I doubt it would be wise to try to break in a rebuilt Corvair engine with synthetic. The rings might not seal. Those Who Like 20W-50. For those who only like using 20W-50 oil, there is a grade of Mobil 1 that is designed for Harley-Davidson motorcycles that might work very well in a Corvair. It is blended for the high heat that those engines encounter (Mobil 1 V-Twin 20W-50) CAPTION 1: One of the best reasons to use synthetic oil is to reduce oil coking (from exhaust heat) in the turbocharger. CAPTION 2: Other hot areas include the cylinder walls, rings and valve guides. If the sump is 230o F, imagine how high the oil temperature is in these localized hot spots.