Updated 30-Jan-2007 =-= Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico. EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 5 April 2006 at 7:00 PM Highland Senior Center at 131 Monroe NE THIS MONTH: New Member Membership Chairman Dues Due Membership Chairman March Meeting Minutes Chuck Vertrees Birthdays and Anniversaries Sunshine Committee March Board Meeting Minutes Chuck Vertrees For Sale, Trade or Wanted Everybody Mechanically Un-inclined Ray Trujillo Tri-State Memories III Sylvan Zuercher Calendar of Coming Events Everybody The 2006 Ike Meissner Award the Editor Thermostat Rod Adjusting Tool Robert Gold Madrid in the Morning David Huntoon Corvair Clutch Replacement 2 FANBELT FLYER John Priddy Car Council Report - Museum Car Show Robert Gold CNM Outing to Isotopes Park Robert Gold DO's and DONT's Revisited DENVAIR NEWS Steve Goodman Old Route 66 Cleanup Ollie Scheflow Cover Story: Flying Saucers Do Exist! Richard Finch Tri-state Preview LeRoy Rogers Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman FRONT COVER: Richard and Gayle Finch and their Flying Saucer BACK COVER: Map to our new meeting location at 131 Monroe NE BACK COVER: Larry Blair's Instrument Panel Restoration =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 =CNM= "In 1803 Thomas Jefferson paid Napoleon $15,000,000 for Louisiana, a vast territory stretching from New Orleans to what is now Montana. In 1803 $15,000,000 was a lot of money and many people were unhappy that Jefferson squandered so much money for a vast empty uncivilized wilderness. "In 2005 the national deficit was $804,000,000,000 and it is rising at a rate of some 20% per year. In 2006 most of us would think $804,000,000,000 is a lot of money to owe to China and Japan. But, except for a few spoil-sport accountants, no one is worried about it, least of all our elected representatives. "We have all adopted the slogan of New Orleans: Laissez le bon temps rouler. Don't worry, be happy, eat, drink and be merry, for the hurricane won't be here until tomorrow." =CNM= NEW MEMBERS Membership Committee Another new "old" member is Clint Collins of Tome, New Mexico. Clint was a member in the 1990s and is now getting back into Corvairs. We will be pleased to see him again! =CNM= DUES EXPIRED OR DUE OR APPROACHING DUE: DROP IN 30 DAYS: Mike Hacker 2006-Mar Geoffrey Johnson 2006-Mar DUES, DUE THIS MONTH: Oliver Scheflow 2006-Apr DUES, COMING DUE SOON: Jerry Goffe 2006-May Hurley Wilvert 2006-May Gordon Johnson 2006-Jun Robert Moore 2006-Jun Mark L Morgan 2006-Jun DROPPED: Fred Edeskuty 2006-Feb 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= 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 including 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 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= MARCH MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO order at 19:30 at Galles Chevrolet on March 1, 2006. All officers were present along with 15 members. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that CNM had $331.53 in the checking account and $2,636.95 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $2.968.48. A new member was introduced, Clint Collins. Clint was a CNM member back in 1993-1996 and other things took over with his time. He has now moved to Los Lunas and has a 1965 Monza Convertible. Also introduced was Jim Gould. Jim was also a past member but had to drop CNM because of poor night vision. (I think that Clint brought him tonight since they both live in Los Lunas.) Jim still has four Corvairs and we'd welcome him back. Pat Hall offered to bring him to meetings whenever he would like to come. As mentioned above we had nineteen members and guests attending. We are still having trouble with security and they locked the entrance 20 minutes before they were supposed to. As a result I am sure that some members did not make the meeting. More on that later in the minutes. Robert Gold reported on the Car Council activities. They asked him if CNM would run the Museum car show in May. Robert has talked with the Museum. We will take the responsibility if there is enough help from other clubs in the Car Council. They also want to raise the entrance fee to $10.00 this year. The new Firebird club has agreed to handle the annual picnic this fall. The Sunshine Committee is meeting monthly and is working on the center pieces for the tables at the Tri-State banquet. They still need the SQUARE Kleenex boxes. Please save these boxes and get them to a meeting or committee member ASAP. A sign-up sheet was circulated for those who want the Tri-State T-shirts, Golf Shirts or Sweat Shirts. Another sheet was sent around for volunteers to sign up for various jobs at the Tri-State such as registration, T-shirt Sales, Welcoming party, Judging, Parking and many other things that need to be done. We cannot count on just a few people to do everything, so volunteer all. Jim Pittman reminded everyone that the nomination sheet for the Boydston Award is in the back of the March newsletter. Those do need to be turned in soon, since the award is given at the Tri-State. A hat was passed to take up a collection for the Bosque del Apache. A fair amount was received and turned over to the Treasurer. As mentioned above, the agreement with Galles security was that the front gate would be open from 19:00 to 19:30. After that time it would be locked and anyone coming to the meeting would have to park at the showroom or across the street and walk to our meeting room. Also Galles would like all of us to leave at about the same time. As mentioned above, the front gate was locked at 19:10, 20 minutes early! This brought up a discussion about an alternate meeting place. John Wiker checked into using the APS meeting room where he has his classes. With all the charges that APS would require the expense would be too much. Larry Blair said that we could meet at the New Mexico Veterans Center. This would require a $150.00 refundable damage deposit plus a $25.00 nightly meeting fee. Then the good news. Ray Trujillo contacted the Highland Center. They will let us use their meeting room from 19:00 to 21:00 for no fee. There is plenty of parking and it is all on the ground floor. Some of us "more mature" members have been having a good time (NOT) tackling the stairs to the second floor at Galles. There was also some talk about changing the meeting to a daytime on Saturdays. This was considered to not be a viable option because too many members would have other things to do on their weekend off. Everyone is not retirees like some of the "more mature" members. (We don't get older, we just get more mature.) As a result of all our discussion, we decided that our April 5th meeting will be at the Highland Senior Center at 131 Monroe NE at 19:00 AKA 7:00 PM. This is a half hour earlier than normal. The location is basically behind the Dions' on Central. This is very close to the traffic light that is between Washington and San Mateo. A discussion of our April activity took place. The question was, did we want to go to the Rio Rancho car show or do a tour of the Turquoise Trail and go to Madrid and Golden? The latter was the choice of the membership. It was also decided that it would be a great idea to combine the tour with an Econo-Run. We have had very enjoyable Econo-Runs in the past but none recently. The board will work out the details at the next Board meeting. Under upcoming activities is our Route 66 cleanup. This will be at 09:00 AM on Saturday March 4th. We are supposed to do four cleanups a year now instead of three. There will be a car show at Galles on March 11th and 12th, Saturday and Sunday. Again this is very short notice. There will be food. Prizes will be awarded. Times are 10:00 to 16:00 each day. The CNM Anniversary Dinner will be at Papa Felipe's on Saturday March 18th at 18:00. The location is 9800 Menaul NE, just east of Eubank. Immediately after the April 5th meeting, Bill Gilmore of the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce will give a presentation. The Unser Museum tour is tentatively set for Saturday August 19th from 14:00 to 16:00. Again, the Balloon Museum tour was a great success. We adjourned the meeting at 20:30, and then were treated to a presentation by Larry Blair on restoration of late model Corvair dashes. Larry expanded on the information in last month's newsletter article, and passed around a disassembled late Monza dash as well as a Corsa dash for our inspection and comparison. Those of us who have been into our Corvair instrument panels found the talk of great interest. Thanks, Larry! -- Chuck =CNM= Happy Anniversary to: Connie & Bob McBreen April 1 Opal & Sylvan Zuercher April 21 -- Sixty Years!! Happy Birthday wishes go to the following CNM Members: Mike Stickler April 2 Nicholas Wilvert April 2 Bob McBreen April 7 Elizabeth Domzalski April 9 Ray Trujillo April 9 Ollie Scheflow April 25 Emma Rogers April 28 -- The Sunshine Committee =CNM= MARCH BOARD MEETING Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS called to order at Business Printing Services at 17.10 on 3/15/06. Wendell Walker was not able to attend but he sent the treasurer's report by Jim Pittman. CNM has $332.24 in the checking account and $2398.99 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $2731.23. We also have $50.00 to be given to Jerry Goffe and Mark Domzalski to be presented at the anniversary banquet for the Bosque del Apache. The Anniversary Dinner will be this coming Saturday at Papa Felipe's Restaurant. Mark Domzalski has agreed to be our master of ceremonies for the evening and give out the door prizes and raffle prizes. There will be several nice raffle prizes provided by the Sunshine Committee. Raffle tickets will be $1.00 each. Many door prizes will be available from John Wiker and Mike Stickler. Robert Gold will present the Ike Meissner Award after a presentation about Ike and what he did for CNM over the years. There will also be a presentation to Steve and Rita Gongora for the many years that they provided a meeting place for the CNM board, and a presentation to Jerry Goffe and Mark Domzalski for their tour presentations to the Bosque del Apache. Ray met with Mike Kaminski from Galles and invited him to the banquet. The board was reminded about our new meeting place at the Highland Senior Center starting on April 5th and also about the new meeting time of 19:00 AKA 7:00 PM. John Wiker will get certificates of awards for the Tri-State and Robert Gold will get the frames. There will be no breakfast meeting this month because of the Anniversary Banquet, however there will be a breakfast meeting on April 22nd at 08:30 at Loyola's at 4500 Central SE. The May breakfast will be on the 20th at the Route 66 Diner. No Secretary report. No Treasurer report, but Wendell sent word that he would bring the completed Meissner Award plaque to the Anniversary Dinner. The arrangements for the Tri-State are going nicely with no problems. Heula Pittman reported that the Sunshine Committee is coming along on the center pieces for the Tri-State but can use more of the square Kleenex boxes. The are also about to run out of money which Wendell will take care of. Robert Gold reported that the Car Council Museum Show scheduled for the 21st of May is in progress. CNM is responsible for mailing out publicity, for parking, and for ballot counting. Robert will need some help on April 12th to stuff the envelopes for publicity and registration. We will need a good turnout on the 21st of May to handle parking, at least 6 CNM members. Each car will get a space and a half space so they will not be crowded. There will be two feature spots near the museum and we will try to get Larry Hickerson's Rampside in one of them. Ollie Scheflow will bring the orange vests with the CNM logo for those that will be parking cars. Ballot counting is a great thing to volunteer for. Comfortable seats in and air-conditioned room! Jim Pittman said that the April newsletter will have an article by Richard Finch plus an article from another newsletter and a Route 66 report. Upcoming things include a presentation after our next meeting by Bill Gilmore of Route 66 Chamber of Commerce. He will have a tape on the upcoming 80th anniversary of Route 66. On April 8th CNM is planning an Econo-run on the Turquoise Trail. All cars are welcome but ONLY Corvairs will be graded for mileage. Let's try to get a good turnout of Corvairs. We will try make an article written by Ike Meissner on fuel economy available before the run. It was decided that CNM would attend the Isotopes game on June 11th. There will be details at the next meeting and a decision on whether to get reserved seats for $7.50 or box seats at $9.50. There have to be 20 seats sold to get this price. The first Route 66 cleanup was on March 4th. Thanks to Ollie Scheflow, Dave Huntoon, Jim Pittman, Robert and Javier Gold, and Ray Trujillo for volunteering their time. They said that it was really trashed this time compared with the past. Since we are required to do four cleanups this year, the next three dates will be May 6th, August 5th, and October 28th. Ollie suggested that we might start doing a regular "Discussion of The Problem of The Month" at each meeting. Someone who is having a Corvair problem could put it on the floor and probably several CNM members have had the same problem and have come up with a way to solve it. It sounds like a pretty good idea to your Secretary. Thanks to Larry Blair for an excellent presentation on instrument cluster restoration. The meeting was adjourned at 18:26. -- Chuck =CNM= = = = = = = = = = = = = = FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED = = = = = = = = = = = = = = FOR SALE: 1 Gas Guard used 65-69 $12.00 High & Low Horns - Early and Late Used all work $10.00 each GM Emergency Brake front cable 65-69 heavy duty $20.00 1 Set Hydra Lifters for Corvair $40.00 Shifter Shaft Seals. Early or Late $ 3.00 each Air Cleaner Gaskets Late. Tube to Cleaner Base. $ 1.50 Air Cleaner Gasket top of Carb. $ 1.50 pr. PVC Valve for Corvair CV584C $ 6.00 Turn off your Headlights 30 seconds to 3 minutes after you leave your car. New. $10.00 Call Bill Reider - 299-4597 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 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 = = = = = CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS = = = = = =CNM= MECHANICALLY UN-INCLINED Ray Trujillo HELLO EVERYONE! Now that spring is in the air, it's time to dust off your Corvairs and get ready for our first economy run in several years. The scenic Turquoise Trail will be our route for this event. I personally have never been involved in an econo-run, so I look forward to participating. Dave Huntoon is chairing the econo-run so please read his article in this newsletter for all the specifics. Let's all hope for one of our spectacular New Mexico spring days for the trip to Madrid and Golden. In my article last month I wrote about CNM's 32nd Anniversary and what a tremendous accomplishment it was for all the families involved. You know as time passes on and the longer I'm in the club the more I see why CNM has not only survived but thrived for so many years. To show you what I mean, our Anniversary/Award Dinner was an outstanding success because members made it happen. Whether it's making certificates, ordering a plaque, donating door prizes/raffle items, serving on an awards committee, writing an award packet, being the Master of Ceremonies, presenting an award, collecting money, taking pictures for the newsletter, selling raffle tickets and all the other tasks it takes to make an event worthwhile. I know you get the idea but I wanted to acknowledge the awesome participation by our members. So to everyone, I say great job and thank you very much! Moving on now, as most of you know it has become more and more difficult to have our meetings at Galles Chevrolet. Well, no longer, on April 5th we will begin having our membership meetings at Highland Senior Center (131 Monroe NE). We also have a new starting time of 7:00pm. I believe a new location and an earlier staring time will be good for our club. Then immediately after our April meeting I've scheduled Bill Gilmore of Route 66 Chamber of Commerce to talk about the 80th Anniversary of this great American road. It should be quite interesting, so please plan on attending. In the meantime don't forget to get your Corvairs ready for the econo-run. Well, I guess that's enough said for now, so see you at the next club meeting. -- Ray Trujillo =CNM= TRI-STATE MEMORIES III Sylvan Zuercher Well here it is, just two months away from celebrating the thirtieth year since the first Tri-State. Have you, and all the Corvair Clubs receiving this newsletter, planned ahead and made your reservations? How many old and new friends will we see there? The parade from the Motel to the Show-N-Shine on Saturday on the street in front of City Hall will be impressive! Will your Corvair be one of the, as some times in the past, up to over 40 Corvairs on display? There are many attractions in Montrose. Among these are: * Montrose Antique Trail, * Montrose Historical Museum, * Walking Historical Tours, * Wineries, and * The Umcompahgre Farmers' Market at Centennial Plaza. There are many other attractions including swimming, golfing, maybe even horseback riding. Over the years, attendees have come from many different states, among them, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada and the "original" Tri-States of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Who will the long distance winner and the minor glitch winner be? In years past, the long distance winner has been Wayne Christgau with his incredible "Bonanza" high-mileage 1969 Monza coupe. The next time you see Wayne, ask him about Hoss Cartwright and the 1969 Corvair coupe and all the adventures Wayne had with his green Monza -- some of them in Greece and England! When someone at the Tri-State has a problem, there always seems to be a part available that was brought along for possible use if needed. And when the problem is being addressed, there are usually about five people helping and about ten or twelve giving free opinions on how to fix the problem! It's not too late to plan to go to Montrose. Make your reservations NOW! For more information, see LeRoy's preview on Page 14. See you at Montrose! -- Sylvan =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 =============================================================================== | | | April | May | June | | : : : : : : 1 | : 1 2 3 4 5 6 | : : : : 1 2 3 | | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 | 28 29 30 31 : : : | 25 26 27 28 29 30 : | | 30 : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | | | =============================================================================== Wed 5 Apr 7:00 PM Meeting Location Change: Highland Senior Center 131 Monroe NE Wed 5 Apr ....... After the meeting, Bill Gilmore of Route 66 Chamber of Commerce will do a presentation on Old Route 66 events! Sat 8 Apr 10:30 AM Turquoise Trail Tour and Economy Run - more later! Wed 12 Apr 6:00 PM Process mailing for the Museum car Show - Old Car Garage Wed 19 Apr 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 21 Apr 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 22 Apr 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - Loyola's Restaurant - 4500 Central SE Sat 22 Apr ....... Rio Rancho Car Show - contact Wendell Walker Wed 3 May 7:00 PM Meeting Location Change: Highland Senior Center 131 Monroe NE Sat 6 May 8:00 AM Route 66 Clean-up - Ollie Scheflow Wed 17 May 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Sat 20 May 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - The 66 Diner - 1405 Central NE - Photo Op! Sun 21 May early! Albuquerque Museum Car Show - CNM will be setting up! Fri 26 May 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Thu 1 Jun ....... Some of us leave for Durango, Colorado (Tri-State weekend) Fri-Sun 2-4 June Tri-State Event - Montrose, Colorado Wed 7 Jun 7:00 PM Meeting Location Change: Highland Senior Center 131 Monroe NE Sun 11 Jun 6:00 PM Isotopes Baseball Game - Robert Gold Wed 21 Jun 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 23 Jun 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 24 Jun 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Tue 4 Jul early! Fourth of July on the Plaza - Santa Fe Sun 6 Aug ....... NMCCC All Clubs Picnic - TBA Coming up in August: Tour of Unser Racing Museum - tentative date is the 19th. Fri-Sun 22-24 September - NMCCC Swap Meet - Los Lunas =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= =CNM= THE 2006 IKE MEISSNER AWARD Master of Ceremonies Mark Domzalski gave the floor to Robert Gold of the Awards Committee who read the Meissner Award text prepared by Sylvan Zuercher which told many of us things we didn't know about John "Ike" Meissner and his activities with Corvairs of New Mexico. This year's award goes to Tarmo Sutt who has been an active member of CNM for some thirty years. Congratulations, Tarmo! List of all Meissner Award recipients: 01. 1987 Bill Hector 11. 1997 Mark Domzalski 02. 1988 Jerry Goffe 12. 1998 Wendell Walker 03. 1989 LeRoy Rogers 13. 1999 Dennis Pleau 04. 1990 Jim Pittman 14. 2000 Rita Gongora 05. 1991 Sylvan Zuercher 15. 2001 Oliver Scheflow 06. 1992 Bill Reider 16. 2003 Anne Mae Gold 07. 1993 Steve Gongora 17. 2004 Larry Blair 08. 1994 Mike Stickler 18. 2005 Robert Gold 09. 1995 Chuck Vertrees 19. 2006 Tarmo Sutt 10. 1996 Debbie Pleau 20. 2007 ............... =CNM= THERMOSTAT ROD ADJUSTING TOOL Robert Gold On the surface it would seem that I would be a "go to" guy when it comes to car repair. My Father was a life-long mechanic who raised a family from the proceeds of his auto shop. His specialty was automatic transmissions. Those are the devices containing all sorts of gears, plates, ball bearings, and springs. It always amazed me that he could take one of those things apart and reassemble it and have no parts left over. What's more it would now be working properly. As a child I hung around the place and got to see work being performed. My problem was that I never really paid any attention to what he was actually doing. However, my younger brother Alan did and he became a certified GM mechanic. I, on the other hand, wound up with a civil engineering degree and a career in the earth sciences. I realized in later years that I didn't have the temperament to be an auto mechanic. I was too impatient to take the time to do things right and more often than not when I was done things worked worse than when I started. Even though I didn't develop into a competent mechanic I did develop a love of all things in the car culture, so when I moved here in 1981 I bought a 1966 Corvair Monza because it was so cool. I figured I'd have no troubles since my mechanic brother was living with me. My plan was to have him keep the car running. Alas, he moved away and I was stuck with having to figure out what to do next. I developed a two-part approach. I found a first-rate Corvair mechanic in Dave Langlois and I joined the Corvairs of New Mexico. My strategy has worked out nicely for over 25 years. I now have a well running fleet of cars and when things go wrong either Dave or CNM comes to my rescue. I've mentioned in previous articles that I think our club is composed of first-class folks. As president I realized that when things needed to get done someone usually stepped up and did the job. That's why we have so many things to do through the club. Recently I purchased a 1965 Corsa convertible. One of the things that needed to be completed was the installation of the thermostat lower shrouding and doors in the engine. I know what those things are, but I never had to do any work before to make the system operate. Two CNM'ers came to my rescue-- Wendell Walker and Bill Reider. Wendell helped me install all the pieces. When I left Wendell's miracle factory in Rio Rancho my convertible had heat. That is a wonderful thing to have in December. All that was left was the dreaded adjustment to thermostat doors so that when the engine was warm the doors were completely opened. I had attempted to do the adjustment many years ago and my reward was busted knuckles and a barely passable job. However, I remembered also that Bill Reider had done this work for me and that he had a magic tool to do the adjustment accurately and easily. I contacted Bill and with is guidance and his tool I got the job done. I asked Bill if he would make me one of his magic tools. He replied, Yes, but only if I wrote a tech article about it so all the CNM'ers would benefit. Well I got the tool and you're now getting to read a tech article about it. So what exactly is this magic tool and what does it do? Simply this tool is made from a single length of 3/16-in steel tubing about 9 inches long. It attaches to the rod that extends from the thermostat. This allows you to pull on the rod to insert the swivel into the thermostat door. As I mentioned previously, this tool makes it possible to accomplish this process without hurting your hand and to have a properly adjusted thermostat. It is truly a thing of beauty to have the thermostat doors opened to just the right angle when the engine warms up. Maybe points should be awarded for this when the vehicle is judged at concours !!?? In order to make this tool you'll need the following: * 10 inches of 3/16" steel tubing (This is sold as brake or fuel line at NAPA. I discovered that you can't find this at Pep Boys!) * tubing cutter * tubing bender * hammer * vice * two 3/8-inch hex head bolts (big enough to use to bend tubing) * torch or other device to heat stuff up * a container of water As you can see from the picture included in this article, the adjustment tool is bent at both ends. One end is bent so you can pull on the tool to keep the thermostat rod in place. The other end has a more complex bend so that the tool is firmly attached to the thermostat rod by wrapping around the rod at the swivel. The first thing to do is to create the bend that you will hold on to when doing the thermostat adjustment. That is the bigger bend shown in the picture. The bend is made using a tube bender. You can remove any excess tubing in this bend by using the tubing cutter. After this is done it is time to create the bend at the other end. To do this insert the two hex head bolts in the vice next to each other. Insert the tubing between the bolts and gently bend the tubing approximately to position shown in the picture. After doing this flatten the tubing with a hammer. Reinsert the tubing and bend it until the end of the tubing matches the bend in the picture. When you are satisfied with your work heat that end using a torch until it glows. Plunge the end into the water to harden the metal. After everything is cooled down you can check the bends of the tool by attaching it to the thermostat rod at the swivel. Pull on the tool and if the tool holds securely your in business. If it doesn't hold try bending the tool slightly until it does hold. If nothing you do will make that darn tool work do what I did and give Bill Reider a call and he'll "make it all better." I hope you find this description to be helpful. Having this tool in your toolbox will go a long way in making you a first-class Corvair mechanic. It also helps to be a member of Corvairs of New Mexico. -- Robert Gold =CNM= MADRID IN THE MORNING........ David Huntoon As you may already know, we have planned a trip to Madrid for the morning of April 8th. A pleasant way to welcome the return of warmer weather, although this winter could hardly be considered harsh. A little shopping and exploring in Madrid for those so inclined with a little lunch perhaps. Funny how many of our events revolve around food isn't it? Anyhow it was suggested we revive one of our older activities to coincide with the drive to Madrid. It can also be considered a good way to get your Corvair ship-shape and back into regular use. We will include an econorun for those driving their Corvairs. We will meet at Tramway and Central at 10:30 AM. There are three gas stations there. One is in the Smith's parking lot, one is a Chevron across the street, and there's a Shell station further south on Tramway. Just look for the giant flagpole. I chose the Shell station because it is the least busy, likely due to its location furthest from that busy intersection. I will top off the tanks of those participating cars and you can leave for Madrid. Just go east on I-40 or on the frontage road to North 14 and turn north to Madrid. Once in Madrid you can park on the street or the Mine Shaft parking lot. We can then spend some time bumming around. I will leave first to meet everyone back at the Shell station where we will top off again and record your fuel use. I will use a standard mileage number to figure the mpg to eliminate individual odometer errors. It should be about 32 miles each way. Let's see if we can get someone to use 2 gallons or less. This will not be an all day affair, we should wrap it up by 2 o'clock. You need not drive a Corvair to be a part of this. All are welcome, but the econorun will be for the Corvairs. Madrid is an interesting place and if you have not spent any time there, I am sure you would enjoy it. As far as tips to improve your fuel economy, I am hardly an expert, but there are a few common sense actions. First, get rid of those three spare tires and stockpile of old parts in the trunk. Weight is not your friend. Proper tire pressure is important. An under-inflated tire or tires is a real drag, really. Clean air filters are also important when looking for that last bit of economy. Perhaps as important as any is driving style. You don't have to drive slowly but you should drive steadily. Every time you depress the accelerator the accelerator pumps dump fuel straight into the carb. A nervous foot will surely ruin your gas mileage as quickly as anything. Steady is the way to go even when accelerating. Fast or brisk acceleration is not necessarily a bad thing as it gets you to cruising speed and top gear as soon as possible. So think steady foot and top gear as soon and as long as possible. Good luck and see you on the eighth! -- Dave =CNM= CORVAIR CLUTCH REPLACEMENT, PART 2 John Priddy FANBELT FLYER - March 2006 Last month I covered the parts list and costs, and this month I'm going to describe what needs to come off and the machine work needed when replacing your clutch. Obviously you'll need to separate the engine from the transaxle to remove the clutch, pressure plate and flywheel assembly. I'm not going to cover the drive train removal at this time but as I mentioned last month I recommend removing the engine/differential/transmission as an assembly. This is because when separating the transaxle from the engine, sometimes (usually) the input shaft does not release from the pilot bushing in the crankshaft and you have to separate the engine and transaxle by almost two feet. If you pull the engine with the transaxle still in the car you risk damaging the end of the input shaft on the pressure plate spring and breaking the clutch release bearing snout on the differential (you don't want to do that either). It's much easier to support the engine and move the transaxle away than to support the engine, pull it away from the transmission, and have enough room to clear the rear motor mount and crossmember. Many a Corvair wears scars from this method. Frank and I used two floor jacks, one with an engine cradle that supports the lower block without damaging the oil pan and the other jack directly under the differential. With all the necessary driveshafts, lines, hoses, wires, and cables disconnected, unbolt the transmission mount and motor mount bolts and slowly lower the drivetrain from under the raised body and roll it out. Unbolt the starter and the five perimeter bolts. You'll need to remove the short heater duct extensions to get to two of the nuts; With the engine supported and a jack under the differential, pull the transaxle away from the engine while maintaining the same angle between the two. If the input shaft separates from the crankshaft, carefully guide it through the pressure plate assembly. If the input shaft hangs up, you'll need to pull the transaxle back about two feet before the transmission end of the input shaft comes out of the differential. DO NOT rest the input shaft on the throwout bearing snout on the differential. It's fairly thin and brittle and difficult to replace. Once the engine and transaxle are separated pull the input shaft through the pressure plate assembly being careful to avoid scratching it. Remove the six bolts holding the pressure plate to the flywheel (you may need to have someone to hold the crankshaft pulley from turning). The pressure plate and clutch disc will fall off with the last bolt so be ready for them. Remove the six bolts holding the flywheel to the crankshaft. These were torqued pretty tight when installed and the bolts don't have washers behind them so be sure to use a six-point socket that's been ground down to remove the rounded edge on the socket to increase the contact area on the bolt heads. It's extremely important to prevent rounding the bolt heads. Because the bolts are inside the bell housing where there's limited accessibility, they'd be almost impossible to remove from the crankshaft with an extractor if the head gets damaged. Remove the spacer ring and lift the flywheel off the crankshaft. Carefully check the crankshaft front seal for oil leaks. If there's any sign of oil, you'll need to replace the seal with a new high-temperature Viton seal. That will require removal of the oil pan and the bell housing. Once again, while you're in there..... don't omit it if it needs to be done. Also check the four lower bolts that attach the bell housing to the block. They should NOT have washers behind them and should have conventional or standard heads i.e., no captive washers or extended heads. Anything else will interfere with the bolted flywheel and cause other damage. The pressure plate should be rebuilt. As mentioned last month, Arizona Brake and Clutch can rebuild the pressure plate. This cost about $35.00 Next, the pressure plate and flywheel assembly needs to be balanced. Use the old bolts that you took out of the pressure plate to bolt the two together and take the assembly to the balancing shop. The cost to balance the assembly is about $95.00. Now you're ready to remove the pilot bushing from the crankshaft. We used a 5/8-inch medium-thread grade #6 bolt with a 1-inch long 1/4-inch rod welded on the end. This tool when used with an impact wrench will pull the pilot bushing out in about 10 seconds. The long-used method of filling the pilot bushing with grease and topping the end of the input shaft into it with a mallet will also work but can be messy. The throwout (or clutch release) bearing simply slides off the snout but you should inspect the surface of the snout for unusual wear or signs of damage. Check the condition of the release fork, the pivot, pin, and actuation rod. If any of these show excessive wear such os elongated holes, grooves, or excessive play, replace those parts. And finally, the input shaft seal inside the transaxle should be replaced. You'll need a small or lightweight slide hammer to remove the split ring retainer and seal. Use a thick washer, one that's just big enough to fit through the rubber seal, and bolt it to the end of your slide hammer. Insert the end of the slide hammer with the washer securely attached, behind the seal and carefully tap around the perimeter of the seal. Do not pry against the side of the snout that holds the seal. It's brittle and can break. Next month we'll cover reassembly. =CNM= CAR COUNCIL REPORT - MUSEUM CAR SHOW Robert Gold Greetings from your phantom car council rep. We are now two meetings of the Car Council into 2006 and I can report that I have yet to attend a meeting. What's more, I'm not going to be able to make the March meeting either. However, please don't stop reading because I do have some things to report. Even though my travel schedule for work has prevented me from actually attending these meetings, I have been working hard to make sure Corvairs of New Mexico are well represented in the council. Geoff Johnson attended the January meeting. Though I wasn't able to get a sub for the February meeting I maintained email contact with Joyce Clements to keep up on what was going on. Since I didn't actually participate in the council meetings I'm not going fill up this space with various observations about the cars on display at the Old Car Garage, or other elements of the council meeting. What I want to focus on is the upcoming Museum Car Show. This show is important to the car council because it is one of the "big three" events put on by the council every year. It is particularly important to CNM because this year we volunteered to be a major participant in the activities. By this I mean to do some of the work behind the scenes to make the event a successful one. I had a meeting with Joyce Clements, who with her husband Jim, are largely responsible for the planning and success of the museum car shows. I can report she is again hard at work setting up this year's effort. I talked to her about scheduling of the show work and how CNM could best help out. First and foremost the members of Corvairs of New Mexico need to plan to participate in the show by showing their cars. Last year was sort of a down year in attendance. How do I know this? Well, we had so few cars I actually won an award for my car. I know that there are many cars in CNM that are better than mine, so make sure you plan to come out on Sunday, May 21, 2006. In addition to our normal display of cars, the rampside of Larry Hickerson has been selected for special treatment. He will be displaying his to-die-for rampside in an area designed to focus attention on his truck. It would be nice if we had a big turnout to show our appreciation to the council for such first class treatment of a Corvair. In addition to displaying our cars we are tagged to perform three important tasks- mailing of event flyers, parking cars at the show, and counting votes. Flyers will need to be sent out to about 500 individuals and groups. In order to do this we have tentatively scheduled an envelope stuffing effort for April 12, 2006 at the Old Car Garage. We will need to have at least three CNM'ers at this event. We have volunteered to direct parking at the show. This is an important effort since our goal this year is to provide added space between the cars on display. That means those directing the parking will need to be "on their toes" and make sure proper space is made. In addition to the satisfaction of doing a good job each CNM'er will be wearing a reflectorized vest with the CNM logo on the back. That's quite a fashion statement. I think we should consider submitting a picture or two to GQ magazine. We'll need about 6 people for the parking effort. Lastly, as in past years, we'll need to provide 2-3 people to count ballots. Those of us who have done this work in the past will tell you it is a nice place to be in the afternoon when temperatures start to rise. We get to sit in a nice comfortable chair in an air-conditioned room and tell stories to members of other car clubs. It is a fun time. So fellow CNM'ers it is time to step up and help out with this major effort. If you participate I'm sure by the end of the day on May 21 you'll look back and realize that you had a really nice time. Isn't that what this car club thing is all about? We'll be circulating signup sheets at the April 5 meeting of CNM. If you can't make the meeting and you wish to participate you can call me at 268-6878 or email me at (beisbol30 @ msn.com). I guess that's all I have for now. This is your phantom Car Council Rep signing out.-- Robert Gold =CNM= CNM OUTING TO ISOTOPES PARK Robert Gold Have you ever wished for special treatment? To go to a sporting event and have any area reserved just for you and your friends? And what's more, get a discount at the same time? Well CNM'ers your wish is about to come true. We're planning an outing to see the Isotopes AAA professional baseball team on Sunday, June 11, 2006. Game time is 6:05 PM. If the club has a group of 20 or more we will received discounted tickets ($7.50 per person) in the stylish reserved section of Isotopes Park. In addition to being able to sit with all those wonderful club members we'll have our club recognized on the ball park's state-of-the-art scoreboard. That way all those folks who aren't getting special treatment will be jealous of us. This is a no lose proposition. To participate in this fun time you'll need to prepay for the seats you want by the May 3rd meeting of Corvairs of New Mexico. You can give your payment to me or a CNM board member. I'll be sure to confirm that the payment has been received. Oh yes, there is one more thing. You might be curious to know who the Isotopes will be playing. The 'Topes will be playing the Memphis Redbirds, farm club of the mighty St. Louis Cardinals. It is just a coincidence that we'll be seeing the Redbirds and that I grew up in St. Louis. Trust me. Be sure to circle June 11 on your calendars. I'll see you at the ball park! -- Robert Gold =CNM= DO'S AND DONT'S (REVISITED) by Steve Goodman -- DENVAIR NEWS - March 2006 I was reminded after last month's article that I left out an important DO and that was the windshield washer assembly. The nozzles are easily plugged but blowing from the top downward with an air hose will easily unstick any dirt. The stock pump is minimal, I replace it with a constant pump that squirts as long as the button is depressed. Check the hoses too, they get hard and allow for leaks. It isn't nice to find your trunk full of liquid. =CNM= OLD ROUTE 66 CLEANUP Ollie Scheflow The club held its first of four cleanups for 2006 on March 4th. Those participating were: Robert & Javier Gold, David Huntoon, Jim Pittman, Ollie Scheflow and Ray Trujillo. Before we headed out Jim made a few photos of the four Corvairs present. The weather cooperated so it was a nice day for picking up trash. The amount of trash seemed to be heavier than normal due to the five months span over winter, not to mention recent windy weather. Half of the trash was fast food cups and cartons and liquor or beer bottles. Perhaps we need to campaign to get the fast food and liquor industries to help us by advertising more responsible disposal of their products. Some of the unusual trash items this time were: a pristine (unopened) bottle of Desanti mineral water, syringes (fortunately without needles), shirts, sweatshirts, rags, a bushel-basket-sized bag of bottles and foam blocks, a bra, a squashed cell phone, a large wood filing cabinet drawer and some bicycle tires. The poor quality of our plastic bags forced some of us to double-bag our trash. Thanks to everyone for helping and I hope to see more of you at the May 6th cleanup. -- Ollie =CNM= COVER STORY: FLYING SAUCERS DO EXIST! Richard Finch And we have pictures to prove it! For many years since the news media first began to report on the Roswell Incident, I had been a non-believer in flying saucers. To back me up in my beliefs, I cite all the grainy, fuzzy, poor quality photographs that we see periodically on TV, especially programs that are produced by British Television. It seems that about every 3 to 6 months, a British TV production would come out with another program that reported or purported that new information had just recently surfaced to prove that flying saucers do exist. But as you know, each of these TV programs are just re-hashed versions of previous programs. All that changed dramatically on an April day back in the year 2003 when Gayle (my wife) and I were parked in the New Mexico Desert just about 90 miles West of Roswell, New Mexico. As you can see from the included picture of Gayle and the "real flying Saucer," the space aliens in the flying saucer were likely flying around, spying on the activities at White Sands Missile Range when they spotted our Ultra Van and mistook it for an "Outer Space Mother Ship" and decided to land near us for possible assistance or to replenish their supplies. At first we were just sitting out there in the Desert in our 1969 Corvair Powered Ultra Van, enjoying the scenery. Suddenly, we heard an unearthly sound, much like the air raid sirens that we hear on old movies that are about World War II times. Picture the sound as a just-starting up air raid siren, only it did not increase in frequency, but it just stayed at a low buzzing sound, except that it was hundreds of times louder. That may be why I have this constant ringing in my ears every minute of the day now. After a few seconds of hearing this unearthly sound, we heard a "thunk" right outside our Ultra Van, and immediately the buzzing sound stopped. So, my wife Gayle, being a true believer of Space Fiction, (science fiction ), decided to put on her black leather jacket and go outside to see what the noise was all about. She took her walking cane with her for protection, just in case. The picture that accompanies this TRUE story, shows what she found outside. A Real Flying Saucer had crash landed just outside our Ultra Van! I got my camera when I saw what Gayle had discovered out there in the New Mexico Desert. I hurriedly took two pictures of the crashed flying saucer with Gayle looking on, to give a size comparison of the space ship to show how small it really was. For the next few minutes, we checked out the saucer while being on the lookout for the mandatory little green space men that are always reported to accompany flying saucers. My question always was, "Why do they have such large heads, skinny bodies, no clothes, large beady eyes and no expression on their faces?" As we inspected the crash site, (just less than 90 miles west of Roswell), it appeared that the mandatory "Green Space Men" were in fact only green lizards that were intent on eating a bunch of red ants that were busily digging up dirt right by the flying saucer. Then it dawned on me that the red ants, who were digging dirt, were in fact the space aliens who had just flown in to dig up minerals to fuel the space ship, (flying saucer). Since the ant-like aliens were so busy harvesting our special red New Mexico dirt, they did not try to abduct us and take us with them. That was a very good thing. Again I say, "that was a very good thing!!" Because the space aliens did not appear interested in taking us captive for purposes of planting radio transmitters in our brains, Gayle and I decided to inspect the flying saucer more closely. It appeared to be just like our Earthling Satellite TV dishes, just bolted together with some 1/4" hardware store bolts that had SAE-NF threads and non-locking nuts holding the halves together. Space aliens must be the ones who invented our now-well known stove bolts! On closer inspection, it appeared that the cockpit or flight deck of the flying saucer was made just like an earthling street lamp globe. This may be also another invention that somehow has found its way to earth over the past several centuries. Maybe aliens really did invent street lights? Who knows? Several other features of the flying saucer were very familiar, such as the similarity of the gray finish that looked like Earthling spray paint and what looked like spray bomb black paint on the gray paint, but at that point it appeared that the space aliens were finished with mining dirt for the fuel cells in the saucer, so Gayle and I decided to beat a path to get out of there and leave them alone! As we cranked up the Corvair powered Ultra Van and drove away, we looked back to see what was happening, but the flying saucer was still standing up on its edge. A couple of days later, we drove by the crash site and the flying saucer had been righted up and appeared to be sitting on 3 concrete blocks. But we knew that the concrete blocks were not really concrete, because Mars does not have any concrete plants like we have here on Earth. My guess is that the ant-like space aliens had traveled across the New Mexico Desert and like all good little ants are known to do, they got together and carried the concrete blocks to the crash site on their backs! About two days later, the flying saucer was not there any longer. It had apparently launched itself and its crew of ant-like aliens back into space. There are several unexplained things about this TRUE story that do not make sense. One thing is that we saw, two days later, an apparent family of four humanoids, out in the desert at the crash site, with rakes, raking the New Mexico dirt to hide any proof that the crash had happened there. Another very strange thing about this TRUE story is that during the entire time I was typing the story on my Hewlett-Packard Computer, my tongue was firmly planted in my left cheek!!! For those who are still doubters, I offer the following proof of where the crash happened. It is exactly 87 statute miles West, South-West of the Roswell City limits, on the 240-degree radial and exactly 5 statute miles East of the Restricted area of White Sands Missile Range, a top secret military facility! It is also exactly 7 statute miles South of Tularosa, New Mexico. You can go look for it to prove it to yourselves. The picture of the flying saucer has the exact desert and mountain scenery that you can see if you go there. So, here is proof that space aliens are not little green men, they are in reality, similar to our own red ants, much smaller than we have been led to believe. Green men are just fiction. And if any British Television Producers want to buy my story and my pictures to make a new documentary, the story and pictures are available for a very large sum, not in British Pounds but in American dollars!! By Richard Finch, now a believer ???? POST SCRIPT TO THE FLYING SAUCER STORY Richard Finch A few months after Gayle and I saw the "real flying saucer," we saw this unusual object just flying overhead above our Piper Cherokee airplane. This time, Gayle had a camera handy and took this picture of a ?? flying saucer just above us?? We were just flying along near Las Cruces, New Mexico at an altitude of 6,000 feet. Could it have been another flying saucer? =CNM= TRI-STATE PREVIEW LeRoy Rogers Our planning for the June 2006 Tri-State in Montrose, Colorado is on track. The host motel is 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. Our room rates will be $50 per night. The rates go up in May, but we Tri-State people will get this rate, provided we register by ten (10) days before the event. So, when you register, ignore the posted rates. When you register, be sure to fill in the "Business Affiliation" blank with "Tri-State" so they will know you are with us. There will be T-shirts, sweat shirts and golf shirts with the 2006 Tri-State logo for sale. Prices will be $10 for T-shirts, $15 for sweat shirts and $16 for golf shirts. You must sign up for sweat shirts and golf shirts BEFORE the deadline of April 15. You don't have to pay until you receive the shirts. 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. There will be a model car display and awards for the best model cars. If you have model cars, plan to bring them! The banquet will be at the Elks' Lodge Saturday evening. The Sunshine Committee is preparing table decorations - they don't need any more tissue boxes. We need more 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. -- LeRoy =CNM= SEVEN YEARS AGO Jim Pittman Seven Years Ago - April 1999 - Volume 25 - Number 4 - Issue 283 On the cover, former secretary Les Campbell speculated on what an early two-seat convertible sports car might have looked like. Mark Morgan's Billiken had just bought a Fiero. President Pleau called our meeting to order at Casa Chevrolet. Visitors were Don & Viola Smith from Alamosa and Don Heath, a former member who owned a 1967 Yenko, said to be in the CORSA museum. Wendell said we has $6,833 to spend. We discussed better places to stash our money. The Museum's special cars for this year's car show were Packard (100 years), Mercury (60 years) and Mustang (35 years). We has a talk by Tom Mumford of Maaco. Tom said for special paint jobs, see him. Jim reported on our successful 25th anniversary dinner party, including the talk by former New Mexico Territory governor Lew Wallace who told us what the local area was like before there were Corvairs. Governor Wallace also had a few things to say about the Hollywood film Ben Hur. Mark Martinek tech tipped about the infamous electrical-short-to-a-frayed-heater-hose problem. We should all know about this. Another tip said, don't bother trying to get gasoline out of a leaking carb float; just buy a new one. A nice letter from Denver's Steve Goodman reviewed the contributions of many CNM members to the Tri-State events over the years. Finally, Bill Reider provided the answers to his 25th Anniversary Corvair Quiz. Fourteen Years Ago - April 1992 Volume 18 - Number 4 - Issue 199 Our cover drawing by Mark Morgan featured a Texas motif to accompany his article, Driving in Texas, another in his continuing series of articles about driving in exotic places. But, wait! The article appeared in LAST month's newsletter! President Steve ran the meeting, Secretary Chuck wrote the meeting minutes and Treasurer Wendell said we had $1089 in savings plus checking. New members included Wil Boyd, Norm Brand, Tony Fuller and John Martinez. (Norm was an old time member and still had his award-winning '62 convertible.) Wayne Christgau reported by mail that all was well with him in Iowa. Bill McClellan was taking over the newsletter assembly and mailing job. LeRoy reported on the Car Council and we had many activities to discuss this month: the Great American Race, a visit to Galles/Kraco Racing, the CC Picnic, the State Fair, a Road Rally, a stop at Tinkertown on a trip to Madrid, an Arts-in-the-Park tour and the Tri-State in Las Vegas. A busy month! And, we had a short talk at the end of the meeting by our sponsor, Mrs Cindy Johns. In the spirit of April foolery, I contributed a hilarious spoof of the campaign promises of political hacks, I mean, candidates. Little did I know that the next seven years would bring political jokes that wouldn't be fit to print in a Family magazine like Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter. I also printed some cartoons about logging in the national forests that drew a complaint from Francis about political content in the Newsletter. Twenty-one Years Ago April 1985 Volume 11 Number 4 - Issue 115 The April 1985 cover was a drawing of the NASA space shuttle. Did you know a Corvair could fit comfortably in the cargo bay? Possibly there was a '69 convertible in the cargo bay of this one. Francis ran our meeting, Bill Hector wrote the minutes, Sylvan gave our bank account as $418 and we had a slide and audio tour of the fabulous Clark's Corvair Parts operation. We planned a flea market sale. Bill McClellan contributed Part III in his series on Learning to Weld. Tech tips included how to remove those pesky frozen fuel line fittings without rounding them off, how to install a tachometer in the dash of a '65-'69 Monza, how to align your '65-'69 shifter tube and where to get a great leather steering wheel cover. Twenty-eight Years Ago - April 1978 - Vol. 4 - Nr 3 - Issue 31 The April 1978 issue illustrated "Close Encounters of the Corvair Kind" by Mark Morgan. Secretary Steve Gongora wrote up minutes. We appreciated Ed Black's Chevrolet for providing our excellent meeting place. We had another great dinner at Bella Vista out east in Cedar Crest. We were represented at the Car Council by LeRoy Rogers. Plans for the San Diego CORSA Convention were featured. A technical article told how to synchronize Rochester HV carburetors; thanks to Bill Reider. Other tips told how to replace late model speedometer cables (Larry Claypool) and what spark plugs to buy (Paul Walton) and, just in case anybody read last month's quiz, the answers were provided this month. =CNM= BACK COVER: Map to of our new meeting location: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Larry Blair showing his restoration of a late instrument panel =end=