My son, James Bodie, recently provided a link to this story on my Facebook page...GEE, WALLY: ACTOR TONY DOW GETS HIS 1962 CORVAIR SPYDER BACK
ENTERTAINMENT, NEWS
Posted by Craig Fitzgerald
Tony Dow is a director and a sculptor, but if you know anything about him, it’s probably his role as Wally Cleaver in the popular 1950s television series Leave It To Beaver. During the show’s run, he purchased a 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Spyder and sold it several years later. This week, he was reunited with the car, which he hopes to restore to its original specification.
Leave It To Beaver launched on CBS on October 4, 1957, where it ran for its first season. After the first season, it moved to ABC, where it would be broadcast until June 20, 1963. The show ended around the time that Jerry Mathers — who played the title character Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver — was headed off to high school. It achieved consistent ratings its entire run, but really hit its stride in syndication in the early 1980s.
The Corvair in question was Dow’s first car, purchased during the show’s original run. He drove the car for four years, until soon after the show ended. At that point, he sold the car to Alan Dadisman, who built props for Universal.
More than 50 years passed without a word about the car’s whereabouts, until the phone rang recently. “He and his wife, Lauren, received a call recently from a stranger who identified himself as Marty Tryon,” reads a piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “The caller…explained that a dear friend had recently passed away and had asked Marty to track down Dow, the Spyder’s former owner, and give him the Corvair. Dadisman thought the actor might like to have his first car back.”
Dow remembered that it was Alan Dadisman’s first car, too. “Who keeps a car for 51 years, then goes to the effort to try to find its former owner to give it back,” Dow asked.When actor Tony Dow turned 16, he bought his first car with money he earned playing Wally Cleaver, the Beav’s big brother on “Leave It To Beaver.”
That was in 1961 and he ordered a ’62 Corvair Spyder in midnight blue with black upholstery, reverse chrome wheels and all the bells and whistles of the day.
Dow faithfully drove his Corvair for four years before selling it to Alan Dadisman, who once made props for Universal Studios.
The actor never dreamed he would see that car again, much less own it. Until, that is, he and his wife, Lauren, received a call recently from a stranger who identified himself as Marty Tryon.
The caller from Jamul explained that a dear friend had recently passed away and had asked Marty to track down Dow, the Spyder’s former owner, and give him the Corvair. Dadisman thought the actor might like to have his first car back.
“At first I thought this guy was kidding,” said Dow, who lives near Malibu. “Who keeps a car for 51 years, then goes to the effort to try to find its former owner to give it back? It was Al’s first car, too,” he added.
Not knowing in what kind of shape the Corvair would be, the Dows drove down Wednesday to meet with Tryon. They had been forewarned the car, at Dadisman’s home in Alpine, hadn’t been moved for seven years when he was ill.
Turns out, Dadisman, a retired mechanical engineer and “renaissance man,” had done a ground-up restoration in 1987, applied blue lacquer paint, new wheels, an updated dash and and a beefed-up engine. “It was gorgeous,” said Dow.“I still can’t believe it.”
On Thursday, the Dows hired a tow truck driver to transport it on a flatbed to their Topanga Canyon home where Tony plans to be behind the wheel once again. The timing was perfect. It was the couple’s 36th anniversary.
Marty Tryon tracked down Tony Dow, the former "Leave It To Beaver" actor, at the request of his good friend from Alpine who wanted to return this Corvair, Dow's first car, to him. — Lauren Dow
The car hadn’t moved for seven years when Dow went to look at it, because Dadisman had been ill for quite some time. Nevertheless, aside from the 1980s-era dark blue repaint, updated wheels and 180-hp turbocharged engine, he was thrilled with its condition...
...According to the San Diego Union-Tribune http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/new ... bike-ride/, Dow ordered the car in “Midnight Blue.” Chevy never offered a “Midnight Blue” in 1962, but “Twilight Blue” is probably close to that shade...
Tony Dow gets his 1962 turbocharged Corvair Spyder
Tony Dow, who played Wally Cleaver on "Leave it to Beaver," bought his first car in 1961. He now lives in Topanga Canyon with his wife Lauren. — Courtesy of Tony Dow
http://bestride.com/news/entertainment/ ... ow-corvair
1966 Corvair Corsa Convertible
I also have a long-lost Corvair that I foolishly let go around 1995, as I was preparing for retirement from the Air Force. My father bought that car in 1965 and turned it over to me as a graduation present when I graduated from a USAF tech school at Keesler AFB, MS in 1973. My pregnant wife and I had only been married just over one year and my father traded his green 1965 Corsa convertible (started out as a light blue car) to me for our old 1962 Monza coupe (in which we were married). I painted the car red in 1980 and took it with us to Kaiserslautern Germany. I let it go in Pennsylvania before my 1996 retirement from the Air Force because I felt that I lacked the time and money to do it justice — and it was deteriorating.
I am kind of on standby, just in case the current owner ever decides to sell it. 
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