These days most of our Corvairs sit out the winter driving challenges, but back in the day they were picking through the snow and ice with rest of the traffic. Here s a nice, nostalgic seasonal pic for your enjoyment. In this issue: The New Prez Looks Ahead by Scott Cartine Meeting Minutes and Activities New Year s Resolutions by Dean Zawacki Wagon Rebuild Update by Smitty Smith AND MORE!
PAGE 2 Jamuary 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE Officers for 2017 President: Scott Cartine (757) 814-0829 nygiantfn1@msn.com Vice President: John McPherson (757) 541-7877 jdmcpherson45@gmail.com Activities Chairman: Dean Zawacki (757) 235-4489 deanage5@hotmail.com Secretary/Treasurer: Anne Davis (757) 471-5207 annie-bo@cox.net Newsletter Editor: Dean Zawacki (757) 235-4489 deanage5@hotmail.com Historian: Smitty Smith (757) 468-2726 vairologist@cox.net Phone Committee: Helen Smith Barbara Gilliland CORSA/CPF Board President Mike Hall Vice President Dave Dewald Secretary Bryan Blackwell Treasurer Paul Sergeant Eastern Division Directors Bryan Blackwell bryan@skiblack.com Allan Lacki redbat01@verizon.net Karl Haakonsen cityhawk@pobox.com John Nickel fivcent@tds.net Activities Schedule January 21 st Tech Session Auto Brake 7512 Avenue J 23513. 9am. Topic: EM Door adjustment. We ll be looking at Dean s car to correct a bad seal around the doors. January 24 th TCC Social Mongolian Barbeque Restaurant, 862 N Military Hwy, Norfolk, VA 23502, 6:30pm. Ph. (757) 459-2400. January 28 th - CVCCC Polar Bear Run More details to come. Go to http://www.carclubcouncil.com for more info. February 14 th - TCC Business Meeting 7:00pm at Rick Hendrick Chevrolet on Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk. Refreshments John Gilliland Penny Chance Winners: We Need Your Articles! Publication Notice: To be a full member of The Tidewater Corvair Club (TCC), you must be a member in good standing of the Corvair Society of America (CORSA). Annual dues are $12.00 for TCC and $45.00 for CORSA. Due to insurance requirements, only paid member may participate in Club Events. The Spyder s Breath Gazette is a monthly publication, published and distributed by TCC, Inc. This publication is available for a donation of $10.00 annually. The Spyder s Breath Gazette reserves all rights with the following exceptions: Any material may be reproduced or reprinted by CORSA or any CORSA Chapter only for nonprofit purposes that benefit Corvair Enthusiasts. Any such reproduction must credit both the author and the Spyder s Breath Gazette. Rights for any other use must be requested in writing from The Tidewater Corvair Club. Correspondence should be sent to: Tidewater Corvair Club, Inc. Corvair Society of America 2901 Cardo Place P.O. Box 607 Virginia Beach, VA 23453 Lemont, IL 60439-0607
PAGE 3 Jamuary 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE 2017: The Year Ahead for TCC By Scott Cartine & Dean Zawacki A brand new year is upon us! We have some new officers leading the club, and they re some of our newest members. With new blood come new ideas and suggestions for club projects and activities. I recently spoke with Scott Cartine, 2017 Club President, to get his perspective on the New Year. I want to get as much involvement as possible from the membership, he said. When I look at the roster, I see many names I don t recognize. Why aren t these folks coming to the meetings and socials? I want to get these people interested in doing things with the club again. Scott s auto detailing supply business is built on maintaining strong relationships with suppliers, customers and the public and he wants to see the same kind of relationships formed in the club. When I bought my car from (former TCC member) Steve Thomas, he told me, The first thing you need to do is get with the Tidewater Corvair Club. They re the best people you d ever want to meet. And he was right! The guys in the club have been so helpful in keeping my car on the road. As I became involved with the club, I would see the same folks at the meetings, socials and tech sessions. It made me wonder why the other members didn t come out as much. Scott has been in contact with the Chevy Lover s Club, who informed him of some of their activities which are also open to nonmembers. They have a cruise once a month which is open to everyone, he said. Sometimes it s a mystery cruise, where only the leader knows where they re going, and they just do a 2-hour cruise to an unknown destination. Of course, they also run the Landstown Cruise-In at Landstown Shopping Center from April through October. Scott was encouraged by the participation at the recent planning meeting, but he would like to have more suggestions from the membership for destinations and activities. There are a lot of historical places we could visit right in this area, he said. And there are family destinations like the Virginia Zoo that would make a great weekend activity. He said while he would like to see some new members in the club, he would like to see the current members get more enjoyment out of it as well. We could run an ad on Craig s List promoting club membership for local Corvair owners, he said. But if there are guys already in the club who need help with their cars, we need to get them back on the road so they can join us. Scott s enthusiasm is infectious, and after a short conversation with him, it s easy to catch the vision of a great year ahead for the Corvair Club. I think it s going to be a fun year, he said. There are some great events coming up, and I hope we can get all available families with Corvairs to come out and join us!
PAGE 4 Jamuary 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE Wagon Restoration Update By Smitty Smith The holidaze are over; time to get back to getting the Vair ready for summer. That s easier said than done in this weather; there s no heat in the back garage, but at least the wind doesn t blow there. It s in the 20 s again this morning. When it got above freezing I went out to change a couple of seals on the wagon engine and prep a few more parts for blasting. Still plugging away at the wagon burn damage. I got my differential hub back from Allen Wynn s machine shop. Nothing to do with the burn damage; it s just that with the engine already out it was worthwhile to do some needed maintenance on the Diff. Recently took two big boxes of sheet metal over to Robert s garage to sand blast it. It would be much easier to be a nasty sort of guy and take it all greasy and oily but I was raised better than that, so I spent about 4 days scrubbing and cleaning the parts first. If you have ever tried to paint over sand blasted parts that have been done with grease contamination in the blasting medium, you will know what I mean. John G. spent the better part of a Saturday helping me do the parts. I left a box there to do later. Robert says; I will knock them out for you and bring them to you since I will be down that way tomorrow. That was no small thing. You two guys have no idea how much I appreciated the work. God smiled on me and gave me a day in the 60 s so I could get out and paint the parts. I still had to warm the rattle cans to get a decent job. Everything came out looking pretty nice. I ll be bolting on sheet metal as soon as I can hold a tool in my hand without getting frost bite. Fuel Pump Update By Dean Zawacki While surfing around on Facebook the other night, I came upon an interesting bit of information. There are several Facebook pages dedicated to the Corvair and Corvair owners. On one such page, a gentleman recounted his recent experience with an Airtex fuel pump he had recently purchased and decided to return. When he took it back to the retailer, he was informed he would need to return it to the manufacturer under the terms of the warranty. He did so, and after waiting a reasonable amount of time and receiving no response, he contacted the company. He was told that Airtex had been absorbed by another company, and his warranty would not be honored. After reading this, I went to the Auto Zone website. I had purchased my last Airtex fuel pump from the Auto Zone store nearby. They had one in stock. That pump is still in my car. A search for fuel pumps that fit my Corvair turned up only 2 electric fuel pumps; the Airtex #4886 was no longer available. Next, I went to the Airtex site and searched for the #4886. It still came up; if the information on the website is current, the pump is still being made. A search of Advance Auto Parts website showed they are carrying a #4886 pump under the Carquest brand. Online price of the Carquest pump: $76.99. NAPA carries
PAGE 5 Jamuary 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE the Airtex pump for an online price of $60. A search of the Pep Boys site turned up no mechanical fuel pump. Apparently, the days of the $40 fuel pump are in our rear-view mirrors. The main culprit behind fuel pump failure these days is the alcohol component in our modern gasoline eating away at the rubber mechanical fuel pump diaphragm. Of course, this is not good for any of the rubber parts in the carburetor or elsewhere in the engine, fuel tank and fuel lines. There are places locally where you can purchase ethanol free gas. These can be found by doing a simple Google search in your area. I haven t done enough research on this gas to know the relative cost or if it could cause other problems for our engines. This is material for a later article; I will let you know what I find out. January Birthdays 1/04 - Ron Nelson 1/06 - Stephanie Jacobsen 1/12 - Martha Mitchell 1/13 - Theresa Bryant 1/22 - Kenny Bryant New Year s Resolutions By Dean Zawacki At the end of last year, I thought it would be a great idea to poll the members of the club to find out what they wanted to accomplish on their car in the coming year. What I learned was that the frustration level in the local Corvair community was somewhat higher than I had expected. What would you like to do with your Corvair this year? I asked John McPherson. His answer was short and to the point: Drive it. He s been having issues with the car dying on him after running only a short time. At a recent meeting, it was suggested that he check the starter switch to see if that might be the cause. At any rate, if that proves not to be the case, his car will be the focus of one of the next tech sessions. There is a lot of work to be done on many of our cars, and there might be some things you need to do that other club members might benefit from; in other words, it might make a good tech session topic. I know there are some guys that don t want inexperienced fingers poking around in their engine bay, but even the chance to observe can be very helpful for some of us less experienced members. At the very least, please consider letting some of the rest of us learn from your upcoming projects and maybe get some additional help in the process. An extra pair of eyes on a problem never hurts, and may just see something you missed.
PAGE 6 Jamuary 2017 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE January Minutes Meeting of January 10, 2107 called to order at 7:05 by club incoming Club President Scott Cartine. There were 8 members in attendance; not bad considering the icy road conditions. A guest invited by Smitty didn t show, and Club Secretary Anne Davis started out for the meeting but turned back. Smitty gave an update on the restoration of the wagon. Details can be found in an article elsewhere in this newsletter. He talked about using a new formula of Krylon rattle-can paint with a built-in primer, which was impressive. That is tough stuff, he says. Keith related the saga surrounding the sale of his Corsa coupe to a gentleman in Dallas. Seems the man has a business restoring motorcycles, and caught Corvair-itis quite by accident when he bought a Corvair 95 van to haul his bikes around. He fell in love with the Corvair and decided he needed a car to go with the van. Keith says no sooner did the man take delivery when he set about doing some touch up body work and repairs to the car. The Corvair hobby has a new devotee, and Keith s Corsa found a loving home! Keith also said he still expects to move sometime around the middle of the year, although he hasn t received any orders yet. Smitty talked about the Wheels Through Time motorcycle museum near Maggie Valley and what a worthwhile place it is to visit. The owner is a one-of-a-kind sort of guy who keeps the vehicles it top running condition, and often takes his rare bikes out for a spin. It s not about turning these proud old machines into museum pieces to let them molder away in some static display. He has even offered some museum patrons the chance to ride these classic vehicles. Sure seems like a labor of love for this gentleman! The Car Club Council of Central Virginia will hold its 18th Annual Polar Bear Run on January 28th and more details will be forth coming. Next tech session will be to help Dean with the gaskets around his car doors. Currently he sees lights and feels/hears the wind whipping in the car. From the conversation, this could be a real challenge! We will be rising to the challenge on Saturday, January 21 at 9am at Auto Brake. The planning meeting for the first half of 2017 will be held at the Klemm s house, 1044 Fairhaven in Chesapeake on Saturday, January 14. The address was incorrectly listed in the last newsletter as taking place at Steve Lepkowski s house. The Newsletter Staff regrets the error (boy, do they!) and promised not to do it again. Please bring a dish to share and ideas for activities. Social choices for this month were the Olive Garden on Military Highway, Mongolian Barbecue at Military Circle, and Sonic (just to have 3 to pick from). Mongolian was chosen, and we will see everyone there on January 24 at 6:30pm. There was no 50/50 drawn tonight. Meeting adjourned at 8:17
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