Her Vair

[jtvairs]

1965 Monza 140hp 4 speed Purchased in Texas early this year, this is my baby. Runs and drives like a new car, it's just what I was looking for. Short story: I had a pretty red 65. A 110hp pg, power top, wood tele wheel. A nice car. But, it needed quite a bit of love. Got an offer, so John sold it. He replaced it with a gorgeous black 65 vert, but as much as I liked it, I wanted a red one. This car had the original regal red interior that we replaced with a custom silver from Clark's. They reproduce Riviera interior, and this is a '65 Riviera color. It's very bright, you seriously need sunglasses, but the seats are more like white, you don't get burned in the summer. We added 18" Irocs that are customized with Monza centers on the wheels. We LOVE the look and the 18" wheels ride great.
We drove the car on our honeymoon trip the first week of October, starting in Des Moines, going to St Louis and following old route 66 to Edmund, OK for the Corvair Roundup Oct 7th.
Is it really HER VAIR? not really, it's OUR vair!

[bbodie52]

Hello, and welcome to the Corvair Forum! I absolutely love these pictures of your gorgeous red convertible! Even the Corvair-customized trailer is nicely detailed and a perfect match! This car, these pictures, and your story definitely deserve to be entered in theCorvair of the Month competition in January! I would love to see this car on the annual Corvair Forum calendar, and this beauty would definitely be a strong candidate as Corvair of the Year 2013. Could you possibly post some detail shots of the interior, trunk, and engine compartment?

I have been involved with Corvairs since 1961, when I was nine years old and my father and mother purchased our first Corvair – a 1961 Monza coupe, white on red with four-speed transmission. Our second family Corvair was a new 1965 Corsa convertible, Mist Blue, black interior, four-speed transmission and 140 hp engine. I learned to drive in that car and also got my first driver's license in that Corsa. I dated my future bride in a 1965 Corsa turbocharged coupe (also got my first speeding ticket in that car), and in 1972 we were married and celebrated our honeymoon in a 1962 Monza coupe. The 1965 Corsa convertible was painted dark green, and my parents gave it to us as a graduation present when I finished tech school with the USAF. We drove that car from Southern California to Warner Robins Georgia, which was our first assignment in the Air Force. Corvairs continued to be very much a part of our lives throughout my Air Force career, and we drove them all over the United States and in West Germany during that period. After 40 years of marriage we continue to drive a Corvair – our current car being a 1966 Corsa convertible, 140 hp, blue on black with a four-speed transmission – very much like the first 1965 Corsa that my dad purchased decades ago. So you can see we are very much a Corvair family, and it sounds like you are also on a similar path.

The pictures below briefly document some of my family Corvair history over five decades.

The Corvair Forum is a great website for exchanging Corvair information and socializing with other Corvair enthusiasts. I hope that you will continue to frequent the Corvair Forum. Corvair Forum members are friendly and helpful. Please keep in touch, post lots of pictures, and let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with your Corvair hobby.

Please consider entering your Corvair in the Corvair of the Month competition in January, as I suggested. Also, if you have not yet voted in the Corvair of the Year competition, I would like to encourage you to do so. Just click on the red banner at the top of the screen. Look over the 10 contestants and vote for your favorite. The voting has been going on all month, and so far there are 95 votes cast. Voting ends this afternoon, so if you plan to vote, please do it quickly. Again, welcome to the Corvair Forum! And thank you for posting those excellent pictures of a great Corvair convertible.

[Crazy George]

Hello, that car is down right lovely awsome!!!!!!!! I love my baby very much as you do yours but I do believe , that I would not want you in the running against me in the Corvair of the Year..... I would really like for you to show us some more pictures of your inside and engine , just more...really nice conv... and a trailer to boot. I love the wheels... how do you like the ride??? I have 18 MKW's and I find them here in maine rough riding even with kyb shocks.. I have two sets of tires and wheels... Your wheel do knock them dead...Congratuation's Crazy George

[bbodie52]

Okay, I've done my homework – I've seen your website – and I think I have a better understanding now!

OK: at this time, we have two IDs on the forum. Rolling/Miller and JTVairs. Married in September, we've formally merged our ID and will probably go forward as JTVairs. We'll leave up the Rolling/Miller unless there's a way to merge the two. If not, we'll pull the black Corsa project over to JTVairs. Sorry out there for any confusion. We're just messed up!
anyway, thanks for tuning in! We'll try to do better getting our projects and rides up here. Our forum is generally the streets and our website http://www.jtvairs.com/
Teresa Miller

Congratulations to the newlyweds! You both make quite a Corvair family!! I guess I should modify my original welcome to the Corvair Forum, and change it to "welcome to the newlyweds, and your newly-merged Corvair family!"

I enjoyed looking over your website. It was very impressive. If you want to read a brief personal biography that outlines my family background and our experiences with Corvairs, go to CORVAIR FORUM > Introductions > New from Lake Chatuge North Carolina. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4032

Wishing you both a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season in your Christmas-red Monza convertible.

[jtvairs]

Thanks for the compliments. Currently, we have 10 Corvairs (I think) and earlier this year we were up to 14. No parts cars. If you check our website, the cars on the home page are current, the last page "Corvairs we have known" is a pictoral of the past 4 years, ones we've had and adopted out. They aren't really sales, they are adoptions because if John doesn't think the person has the abilities and desire to preserve and enjoy it, he won't sell them.
John has been into Corvairs since he saw his first as a child. He's pretty much always had at least one around. We went to school together, didn't see each other for 35 years. I am a reformed Mustang/Ford owner. Grew up in a garage in small town IA. I could rebuild a starter before I could cook. Now, I didn't do car repairs for years and I'm definitely limited, but a good help in the shop and with diagnosis of issues and problems. I do maintenance work, and some body work. Definitely a detail and clean up partner and keep the photo and video, websites and paperwork end of the hobby. We enjoy our KC, Wichita and OK Corvair friends and I'm the webmaster for ICE here in Iowa. Have considered opening another chapter in the Mid IA area, as the current club is in the Eastern edge of the state. Nothing set for sure at this time.
We love Autocrossing, particularly at Marshalltown's Go Cart Track. Attended 3 events last year with our stinger clone. Modified 110, it keeps up pretty well with the 'real' racers for what we have invested. Could use a set of good tires!
We have a cute set of 61s. Red/white rampsides and lakewood wagons. A beautiful 65 4 door and others. Our forum is generally the streets, we drive 'em. Our ears are always open for another 'find', we enjoy saving them from the crusher or the slashers (modified crowd) Some cars are good candidates for that if nothing else can be done, but we like to cruise the streets of DM and meet our friends out on the town in a corvair that we put back on the road! Currently, there are about 12 that we've helped or we have owned, formerly.
anyway, that's us.

[jtvairs]

Thanks! and our 61s decked out for the holidays. Need to take better pics of them decorated but you get the idea.... The red vert is clean and safely tucked away under a cover in the storage building......

[bbodie52]

It's an absolute pleasure to hear your story, see your website, and see all that you have accomplished with your Corvairs. You have made my day! Thank you for the update.

[flat6_musik]

Welcome to the forum, JTvairs! It's always nice to see more vair-philes show up on here, especially with lots of treasures to view. Well, after seeing your collection, it appears I'm gonna hafta "UP MY GAME"!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Maybe when I can go pick up my old '62, I'll be able to work on my second one, an EM. I'm in the mood to build another motor anyway. And BTW, congrats on the nuptials! Sharing, caring and VAIR-ING! Yee-haww

[jtvairs]

ah, we've been around, just not as visible. We watch the forums and the VV under different identities. Not generally looking for attention, but I had some time, we currently have some gorgeous cars and thought, "why not"....
Thanks for the hearty welcome everyone, we may be 'newbies' to some, but we're seriously old school.

[TikiRalf]

But good old school :-)
Still let the camera shooting the pictures, I LIKE THEM

talk to you soon Ralf

[jtvairs]

Hi Ralf! John found a surf board for on top my wagon! we haven't bought it yet, but we might! Looking forward to seeing you next year for the convention! Hope you WIN, we love the other cars, but we voted for you! don't tell anyone, ok?

[TikiRalf]

Cool Teresa go for the board! it will look awesome on the lakewood :-) !! and it will be fun driving around with a board and no coastline in de next 600miles hhahahaha, real surfer girl !!

and sorry i didn't win :-( But thnaks for the vote , i did my best but CG was to strong. So we need another good excuse to have a drink or going out for dinner (with john offcourse to hahaha) when i'm over mmmh let me think..... hahahaha

and yes looking forward to, will be a great roadtrip and i'm exiting about the convention :-) thanks already !

[bbodie52]

Can you surf in Lake Michigan? The Atlantic Ocean is 1100 miles from you. Would a canoe be a suitable substitute??

Well, maybe not...


The surfboard looks way more cool, as does a Corvair Lakewood!

Love it

[cdyoung]

absolutely beautiful