p.o. box 954 springfield, illinois 62705 the flat six · decatur at the corvair ... need some...
TRANSCRIPT
From John Carter via Jim Allen: Happy pups, they love riding in back after a swim.
Run right up the ramp into the back, w/level platform. Tulsa, Arkansas River, River West boat ramp.
Prairie Capital Corvair Association
P.O. Box 954Springfield, Illinois 62705
The Flat SixJanuary 2019
2019 Officers President -Brian Nicholson (217) 891-0808 Vice-President Larry Jahn (217) 283-7365Secretary-Tim Mahler (217) 793-3824 Treasurer-Glen Rittenhouse (309) 472-3882Membership-Chris Hall (217) 691-6529 Historian/InventoryFlatSix Editor Tim Mahler (217) 793-3824 Email P [email protected]
Board of DirectorsChris Hall (2019) (217) 691-6529 Allen Monts (2020) (309) 243-7477Jim Collier (2019) (217) 875-5841 Jim Allen (2019) (309) 361-5351
From the Prez
Happy New Year!
Thanks to all who showed up for the PCCA
Christmas fiesta! What a good time and its always
great to see our PCCA friends. Check out the rest of
this months newsletter for several pieces of
information about the coming year. Planning is
really starting to heat up for this year's museum
show, and a special guest speaker has been booked
to give a presentation. More info on that to come
but you absolutely don't want to miss it. Thank you
to everyone who helps keep our club going;
officers, board, and especially our newsletter editor
who keeps us in the loop. Your past and future
efforts are much appreciated going into 2019.
Without a January meeting this year I'm not sure
how to deal, but looking forward to seeing all of
you in February.
Brian
Calendar of Events - 2019Meeting Location –unless otherwise noted, PCCA meets at the Rochester Community Building located off Il
Route 29 in Rochester Illinois. The community building is on the east end of Rochester at #1 Community Drive.
PCCA Home Page may be found at http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter627
January 8, 2019 PCCA Board and Officers Meeting - Abe’s Hideout in Springfield. PCCA members
are permitted to attend if they desire. Topics will include 2019 programs, 2019 meeting
location(s) and day, time of day for those meetings and the 2019 Corvair Museum Auto
Show and Swap meet to be held in Decatur at the Museum.
Abe’s Hideout is on Dirksen Parkway and Ash street in Springfield IL just down the road from the 2016
convention location (Crowne Plaza). Take exit 96B (the same exit, 96A, as for the Rochester location) into
Springfield, Turn LEFT at the first intersection, Dirksen Parkway. Abe’s Hideout is on the right hand side.
Note: the Stevenson drive exit works too, drive past the Crowne Plaza and Abe’s Hideout will be on your left.
January 12, 2019 – NO PCCA General Meeting. See special Board meeting above. The none meeting was
decided upon at the October PCCA meeting.
February 9, 2019 PCCA General Meeting Rochester Community Building 2-4:30pm
March 09, 2019 PCCA General Meeting Rochester Community Building 2-4:30pm
April 13, 2019 PCCA General Meeting Rochester Community Building 2-4:30pm
May 24-25, 2019 Annual CPF Corvair museum Auto Show and Swap Meet. Decatur at the Corvair
Museum and Chevrolet Hall of Fame Museum. The current thought is to invite all
classic cars as well as Corvairs to the show and swap meet. Details to be determined. If
you want to help on determining those details, Contact Mike Hall or Brian Nicholson.
June 9, 2019 PCCA will meet at the Tremont Turkey Festival in Tremont Illinois.
Take the exit for IL 9 off interstate 155 to get to Tremont.
9:00 - 11:30 a.m. Sign-in for Car Show (Parking lot of Camden Chiropractic)
11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Car Show (Parking lot of Camden Chiropractic)
June 22-23, 2019 Corvair Car Show at Mid-Ohio - Vintage Car show at Mid-Ohio road course Lexington
Ohio - Corvair is the featured marque. Car show is “free” with general admission pass to
the vintage races. There MAY be Corvairs running on the course
that weekend too.
July 23-27,2019 2019 CORSA International Convention, hosted by Chicago
Corvair Enthusiasts - Pheasant Run Resort, 4051 E Main
Street St. Charles, IL
PCCA July through December to be determined
For more Corvair Events Check the calendar on the CORSA Web site: www.corvair.org
PCCA Christmas PartyParty, party, ice cream party. Wait. I didn’t see any ice cream
and I usually know when ice cream is about. But there was cake and a
party and good food and even better comradery. My apologies to the
English teachers reading this paragraph. But the kid in me took over. It
is Christmas time after all.
President Brian Nicholson was the emcee for the afternoon
late lunch. Brian stopped by a local bakery to get a small cake with
four flavors including german chocolate, red velvet, double chocolate
and carrot cake. The purpose was to celibrate Mike Hall’s younger
day, aka, Mike’s birthday. Mike turned a day older than he was on
Friday.
Before the grouped ordered lunch, Brian invited Bill and
Shelby Berta to share their story on the December Tornado that
damaged 400 buildings in Taylorville. The Berta’s have property in
Taylorville and store 3 Corvairs and at least one other vintage vehicle
there. Bill was gracious enough to write a story of the damage and
recovery efforts, to date so I won’t repeat it all here. The vehicles will
need some repair but mostly to the paint. It seems the tornado did what
tornados do, blew the roof off the garage and then went to the next
building. Thankfully, no lives were lost on a very scary day.
Lunch was great. The food is good although some may
indicate the menu is limited. I enjoyed my sandwich and fries which is
all I wanted for a late lunch. Will investigate dinner in January at the
board meeting.
After everyone had finished eating, the birthday boy cut his
birthday cake so everyone had desert. The resturant staff were kind
enough to bring clean plates and forks as well as a knife to cut the
cake. I had a piece of carrot cake arguing it was heathy because it was
made with vegetables, carrots. OK, not exactly healthy but it was
good.
Emcee Brian then tried to determine the PCCA enthusiast of
the year. It was a close contest between James Collier and Mike Hall
but Mike won by a hood ornament.
Brian also discussed the PCCA meeting time and place but I
was distracted. I do know the board and officers will meet at Abe’s
Hideout January 8th at 6pm to try and finalize this discussion. At the
board meeting, the upcoming Museum show and swap meet will also
be discussed. Larry Jahn will be contacting Circle City to determine
how CCC handled the Corvair People’s Choice show the last two
years. PCCA may be able to borrow some of the signs CCC has used
in the past.
BTW: I understand that the Hoosier Show will not take place in 2019. The show was a nice combination
of show and tour to a museum. This is something the CPF Museum show may try to do this year. Details to be
determined at the Jan board meeting. Dang that is going to be a busy meeting.
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Back to the party, it was time to draw numbers for the gift
exchange. Brian and Tim hastily wrote numbers on paper and place them
in a box. Everyone participating drew a number and we were set. Time
was called. Instead of number 1 picking first, the highest number was
allowed to go first. The ole Z to A alphabet trick. Being middle of the
alphabet, this rarely changed my position and reversing the numbers didn’t
either.
I was lucky enough (unlucky?) To pick a gift that contain 1 bottle
of Headlight Fluid. This is the stuff for those “not so bright car owners” to
use with their headlights. The instructions and other notes on the (empty)
bottle are hilarious. Brian read them to everyone. I believe Joan and John
Cavagna were the pair that found this funny gag gift from wittyYeti.com
PCCA also collected over 20 toys for the Marines Toys-for-Tots
program. These were delivered to the collection box at Washington
Botanical gardens where I get to see the poinsettia display. I have not
been able to find an Marine staffed collection event the last couple of
years making the gardens a nice second choice.
Hope everyone had a Marry Christmas and may 2019 be a
vairy happy year.
Remember when?
See the trophy at the Corvair Museum. Post from PCCA
president Brian Nicholson to the CPF facebook page.
So yesterday, while cleaning oil spots on the floor at the CPF
museum in Decatur IL. I got the chance to spot the CPF award
trophy with previous winners names
engraved on it. How cool it was to find
my father's 1960 on it from the Lexington
convention. I think I see something new
there each time I go. Make sure you make
the CPF Corvair museum a trip
destination at some point.
Editor notes: The 60 was found in storage
in Springfield. The Nicholson’s were a
little hesitant to clean too much or it may
have scored higher. It is a well preserved
Corvair now residing in England.
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the collapsed garage.
Photo showing garage at end of driveway --white blob is collapsed garage.
Photo showing 15 foot rafter driven throughback of garage into rafters -- not Corvairgarage --. It dislodged a hubcap which thenscratched a car.
The Tornado and Three CorvairsA tornado in Illinois during December is a rare
event, but on December 1, 2018 several tornadoes travelled
through central Illinois. Taylorville suffered considerable
damage to residences, businesses, and many trees.
Taylorville is significant to Shelby and I because we have
property there, including a garage containing our three 1964
Corvairs.
We had followed the path of the tornadoes on TV
and decided we should see if any damage had occurred at
our property. A phone call from a friend in Taylorville
prompted us to check the aftermath of the storm the next
day.
Upon arriving we saw just what had happened the
evening before. Along with damage to the rear of the
house and several large trees being down, the garage
containing the Corvairs had collapsed with the cars inside.
A closer inspection revealed that the roof was gone,
apparently lifted away by the tornado (we never did find
it). The remaining garage walls settled in on the cars -- not
a pleasant sight. Through a series of circumstances only a
tornado can produce, when the walls and the fiber glass
garage door were removed, there was no body or glass
damage to any of the Corvairs. When the Corvairs were
later examined by an auto body professional it was
determined that the paint suffered the major damage.
The cars are currently stored at a friend's machine
shed until spring when they will receive the necessary paint
repairs by a local body shop.
The house received damage to one room and roof
damage. We are waiting for a contractor to do repairs. The
EF-3 tornado was the strongest storm to hit the town since
1950. The result was damage to more than 500 structures
with winds of around 150 mph. While there were 20
injured, no one was killed which is something to be grateful
for.
We along with everyone else appreciated all the great
help that was extended to those who suffered losses.
This was certainly a December that will be long
remembered.
Bill Berta
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side wall removed, with back garage wall still standingheavy equipment lifting wall from Corvairs
cars being trailered to storage
More Photos and an Editor’s note of the Taylorville Tornado, December 1, 2018.
Editor Notes: The official tally for December 1, 2018 was 29
tornadoes. It had first been tallied at 30, then revised down to 28.
Number 29 was added a week later – it was in a remote area with
only 2 or 3 buildings being damaged but it was confirmed. The 29
tornadoes was the most for December in Illlinois since such statistics
have been kept. It is the third most in a single day. The largest
outbreak in Illinois was reported on April 19, 1996, with 39
tornadoes. The next-worst involved 36 confirmed tornadoes on April
2, 2006.
Corvair Car Show at Mid-OhioHello,
My name is Nolan Podmore with Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. On June 22nd and 23rd 2019, we
are hosting a few vintage car shows during our Vintage Grand Prix weekend and we would love to invite you and your club
out to join us. It is free to participate in the shows with purchase of a general admission ticket to the event. Car show
participants will have the opportunity to participate in parade laps around the race track and door prizes will be awarded at the
end of each day. While we do encourage all makes and models to join us on both days, our featured marque this year is the
Corvair so we would really love to have as many Corvairs at the event as possible.
Nolan Podmore, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, The Mid-Ohio School, [email protected] Ph:330-631-3969
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Note: the editor is back to borrowing tech tips from Mike Dawson. This article appeared in the March 2018 issue
of the VairCor - the famed newsletter of the Heart of America Corvair Owners Association. I pulled the
newsletter from the equally well done HACOA web site. Mike’s articles are always useful, and the timing, in the
VairCor is usually spot on.
The Preventive Maintenance Series Mike Dawson
Battery Drain
Finding a battery drain can be really easy or really difficult. To begin diagnosis, be sure you have
everything turned off. Unplug anything with a parasitic draw, such as any non-stock radios, players or
anything with a memory, including any clocks wired to the car battery, and the internal voltage regulator
plug on the alternator (if equipped).
Remove the negative cable and tap the cable end
on the post to draw out any residual voltage before
making your check.
Two ways to track your progress:
1 . Remove the negative battery cable and in the
dark, scratch the cable end repeatedly against the
post looking for small sparks. Cover your head
with a blanket (as long as nobody can see you).
2 . Connect a voltmeter between the negative
battery post and its cable end (black to battery
post or you get a negative reading which is irrelevant on a digital). If you get full battery voltage there
may be a big enough drain to run the battery down. Normal voltage with this check is 0.50v or less. The
setup above for checking potential shows 0.25v.
Over the years I have found a couple of batteries that must have had an internal draw of some
kind, A quick battery change cured the draw so if you don’t find the problem quickly, try swapping
batteries before going to the following procedure.
1. Now install a voltmeter as noted above and begin to disconnect the various systems (leave them
disconnected) while checking the voltmeter. Most likely offenders in the order that I have observed them
are:
2. Failure to follow all of the instructions in paragraph 1 above.
3. Cigarette lighter socket; the base corrodes badly from the ash and shorts.
4. Glove box, engine compartment or trunk light adjustment.
5. Heater hose touching the battery cable end on the back of the starter solenoid. Usually early
models but could happen to any.
6. Horn relay. Usually early models because they got wet from seal leaks and corroded internally.
However, it could happen to any model and it has power all the time. It is unfused and will burn the
wiring all the way to the battery if it shorts.
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7. Dimmer switch. It has power all the time and corrodes from getting wet over all the years.
Sometimes coincides with loss of headlights when you use the switch.
8. Dome light could be on all the time because of damaged door jamb switch.
9. On early model cars and FC vehicles the primary feed wire at the multi-connector in the left
side of the engine compartment can melt, corrode and cause a small short to adjacent wires. It also can
suddenly break contact and you lose all power. Build a bypass with soldered wire.
10. Late model cars had a service bulletin released correcting the rear fuel line and battery cable
grommet in the left sheet metal. The grommet was soft and allowed the battery cable and fuel line to
push through the slit and rub on the sharp sides. Also, those before you may have removed the grommet
or it may have been broken.
11. Another service bulletin addressed the wiring harness in the early production manual ’65
models. The harness in the tunnel pans was not supported correctly at the factory and the clutch cable
sawed into the wiring. This could happen to any late model if the harness is moved from its original
(corrected) position. I had this happen to a ’65 Corsa that I bought new. My wife was driving it and
every time she pushed in on the clutch the engine died.
If no culprit has been found by this time, the next step is
isolating the harness sections to zero in. Start anywhere
but pull the four harness connectors apart one at a time
starting from the ends until you find the one that stops
the short.
Editor’s Note: over the years, Mike Dawson has written many
tech articles for HACOA which I have been able to re-print
here for PCCA. Mike also sells some parts, the ad is from the
HACOA newsletter but may be difficult for some to read –
the on-line newsletter has better clarity. The ad has 63amp
internally regulated alternators $85 w/exchange; Rebuilt
harmonic balancer $90 w/exchange; Rebuilt Starter with
Solenoid (non 60) $90 w/exchange. And end-plates for your
oil cooler - 8 or 12 plate - $10 each.
CPF has items for sale – to benefit the Corvair Museum
The CPF has numerous NOS and other parts that will be offered for sale, now or in the near future.
Check the CPF facebook and Website for additional information – or pester Mike Hall or Brian Nicholson.
The CPF also will have a Corvair or two available soon too. All proceeds, over expenses, will support the CPF
Corvair Museum located in Decatur Illinois next to the Chevrolet Hall of Fame Museum. The two museums are
housed in the same building in adjoining large rooms. One entry fee gets you into both museums. How cool is
that?
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Prairie Capital Corvair Association (PCCA) Membership Form
March 1, 2018 thru February 28, 2019Type of Membership Individual ___ $17
Family ___ $20 (2 adults at one address plus children under 18)
___ Apply a $5 discount for receiving the electronic version of the newsletter and other correspondence.
If joining after August 31, dues are: Individual $8.50, Family $10.00. If applicable, the discount is $2.50.
Name _______________________________ Spouse/ 2nd Adult _______________________________
Street Address ________________________________________________________________________
City, ST ZIP _________________________________________________________________________
Home Phone ____________________________ CORSA Membership ID _______________________
Cell Phone(s) ____________________________ Spouse/ 2nd Adult ____________________________
e-Mail Address(es) __________________________ Spouse/ 2nd Adult ___________________________
Cars, Corvair and other _________________________________________________________________
Other interests ________________________________________________________________________
PCCA strongly encourages membership in CORSA. Do you want/need information about CORSA? Y / N
Return the completed form and dues to:Glen Rittenhouse, PCCA Treasurer 1804 Columbus Dr, Pekin IL 61554
OR to PCCA Treasurer P.O. Box 954 Springfield, IL 62705
MINUTES OF MEETING - PRAIRIE CAPITAL CORVAIR ASSOCIATION Saturday Nov 10, 2018
There was not an official meeting at the December Christmas get-together. January general meeting was
deferred. The next general meeting will be February 9th at the Rochester Community building at 2pm. The Board
and Officers will meet January 8th at 6pm at Abe’s Hideout in Springfield. This is a Tuesday evening. The board
meeting has several purposes including transition of officers, 2019 programs, the 2019 CPF Museum Show and
Swap meet and the conituning discussion on PCCA meeting day, time and location.
Convention Registration Help – From Lyle Rigdon
Would you add to next months newsletter (and/or the next meeting agenda) that Lonny and I are again
heading up registration for the convention next summer in St. Charles. If anyone from PCCA would be willing to
put in a few hours in the registration booth, we would greatly appreciate it. I have heard from a couple of people,
but we could certainly use more help as the registration booth tends to be a busy place, especially during the first
day or two. Again, any help would be appreciated. Take care,Lyle
Editor Notes: Just glanced at the Chicago Corvair Enthusiasts Newsletter “the Airhorn” . Help with the Econ0ny
run event and hospitality room were also being requested. The hospitality room is a good way to meet and chat
with other enthusiasts and their other halves. Plus you get first choice of some of the snacks (hee hee).
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Prairie Capital
Corvair Association
P.O. Box 954
Springfield, IL 62705