Featured Projects Pacific Pearl

My daughter turned 15 this past Saturday. She wanted a VW, but she got the American version. A61 Corvair w/powerglide. She named it the Pacific Pearl (loves to surf), and is already practicing in empty parking lots. The deal was too good, and the car is quite nice.

 

She parked it herself between the lines on her first try. Pray for this little car so it doesn’t smack parking blocks ‍

 

Guessing that Clark's Covair will be in your future.
Clark's Corvair Parts - Clark's Corvair - Clarks Corvair Parts

 

Good for her, too bad not a station wagon for carrying her surfboard

 

I don't know much about gun laws in California but with a 15 year old surfer girl daughter I would have the shotgun loaded and handy. Nice Corvair.

Teach her to drive it well, dad. My daughter totaled the first two cars I bought for her. She told me later that I should have bought her crap to learn in and not cool cars that she still wished she had kept.

 

I could trust her in a wagon. My son, not so much. My first car was a 57 sedan delivery, I dated my wife in it. Now we have two kids

 

Californians purchase more guns than any other state! Luckily, she plays varsity and club waterpolo and is dual enrolled at high school and the local JC. She has no time for boys (although she wishes she did)

She started trying to use the steering wheel like bike handle bars. “It won’t turn!”
“Rotate the wheel!!!!” (Me grabbing the wheel)

 

While we were practicing in the lot, another kid was practicing with his mom in her tesla. I pointed out that he was only looking at the screen and not the road.
“Don’t marry that dork.” I said

 

Is this Marky? How are you feeling, brother?

 

Oh yeah. The Mopar message boards will take a backseat for a while

 

Now the only problem is that Mom’s Tigerlily Dart is less shiny than the Pearl, so she wants it painted

 

I was in HS when the van craze first hit. Many girls weren't allowed to date a guy who drove a van. Luckily I had a '65 Falcon 2 door wagon. No issues with parents and plenty of room with the rear seat folded down.

 

Your 61 has the redesigned rear suspension. It won’t roll like a VW or 1960 Corvair. Good job Dad !!!
I paid someone to build my youngest daughter a car for her 16 th Birthday. Exactly like she wanted. She lost it 6 months later for good. This photo was in Rod and Custom readers rides and the cover of the Communique.
Now a different color with the V8 in the back seat

 

It's a cool car and congratulations to her. I'm at the grandfather stage but I'd rather a new driver have a heavier,safer car--like three point belts and airbags, lane warnings , variable wipers and disc brakes. But that's just MHO. Oh, and 15 year olds don't need shotguns in their cars,either.

 

Everyone I know who learns to operate machines with lane warnings, cameras, and certain modern brake systems can’t drive worth a crap when thrown a curve ball.
Those features are nice, but driving is a skill most modern drivers do not possess.

 

Buy your daughter a station wagon, Have you gone mad, or never had a daughter.

 

It takes a lot of skill and courage unknown
To catch the last wave and ride it in alone

I'm sure she can do this so driving a cool Corvair will be a piece of cake.

source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/beach_boys/ride_the_wild_surf/video

 

I'm not arguing against that at all. Skill is very important but takes time to learn-and that's your job. But I'm a careful, experienced driver with 50+ years of driving and it wasn't skill that left me with only 2 fractured vertebrae and seven broken ribs when a big F150 was "distracted" and never slowed for a construction zone. It was a brand new SUV with lots of air bags and collapsing crash zones. I wish your daughter safe travels.

 

They'll find you for talking about guns out there ..
Nice corvair , too bad the American motorist wasn't equipped for a car that needed to be maintained !

 

My dad gave me the family wagon for my first car, 68 country squire. He said I couldn't get into trouble with a wagon! I loved my dad dearly, but he didn't always think things through.

 

That is a pretty sweet ride. She will have skills once she conquers that technology.

 

I thought the suspension was redesigned in '65.

 

Corvairs had "Swing Axles" through '64. The "true" IRS didn't appear until the 1965 model year.

I should know; I lost it once in a 1961 Corvair and wiped out the right side of the car by hitting a tree on the left side of the road. To the car's credit, I was seriously violating the laws of physics at the time.

 

Good Times, Nice to be a hero.
I presented my daughter a 4 door on her 16th.
Two years later she gave it back in one piece as I had found her a sporty little coupe that she adored. After college she returned that, since she could buy her own new car.
The coupe wound up with my sister ( mid life-crisis #3 `) she still tries to repay me.
Anyway getting the first one back unharmed was unreal.
Certainly not the way my dad had it.

Thanks for sharing

 

A classmate and friend of mine had a 57 Chevy two door wagon in school that may have been a handme down from his parents and we would razz him about driving a wagon but he had the last laugh on us after somone figured out that they had turned the back of the wagon into a bed that they covered up with some clutter stuff for when people looked in it. They were married for close to 50 years before he passed.

 

Can't add anything to the peanut gallery here, besides, I don't have a daughter.
I did wonder about the name and checked your albums. Nice T-Buckets!

 

And now I had to go and check out @InstantT profile page, lol
Well done on getting your daughter a cool car, looks awesome. Funny about what you are saying about these modern cars with all the doo dads on them, and you are 100% correct. I see it everyday down here with me being a truck driver.
I bought my daughter a VW beetle when she was in high school and when the starter crapped out, she figured out how to clutch start it. Wrenched on it after school and became a mechanic in a local hot rod shop. Still has it to this day, only now it souped up. May your little girl have as much fun learning old cars as much as mine has. Cheers

 

Hello,

Well, shades of 1963. My wife also bought her first car as a senior in H.S. and it was a used 1962 Corvair. It was a nice car for her. It drove well on flat roads, struggled on slopes to the local mountains, Big Bear, Arrowhead Lakes, etc. The stock 6 had flatland power, but the slope angles and tight curves were a little shaky.

Overall, it was a good car for her in her senior year of high school. I met my wife in college a few years later and when I rode in the 62 Corvair, it was a fun car. It was not a typical single girl car, but it got her to the night time job and back to school the next day. It was reliable and never spent time in a repair garage until we got married and by then, it was 6 years later and 1000s of miles of So Cal driving.

She (we) drove it separately as the need arose. But when she wanted to go to a meeting or interview, she drove my (our) 1965 Red El Camino. So, no problems with the motor, other than the normal Corvair oil leaks and splatters in the motor area/rear bumper. We got that fixed and when it finally conked out in East Los Angeles after an interview for a different job, we, again, got it fixed and gave it away to a needy uncle for his daily driver.

Jnaki

I liked driving the Corvair. It was simple and fun. The Corvair had an automatic transmission and the sound of the flat 6 accelerating from the stop light was different than 90% of the other cars. But, it got good gas mileage and when my wife drove it after college, she got some looks as it was interesting to see a young woman driving around in such an unusual car. The “American Porsche…” as some writers labeled it. Ha! That was a good one.

Note:

How interesting seeing the mini flames on the hood/trunk lid and behind the headlights. My granddaughter in college, has asked me if I could draw a mini-flame next to her door handle of her OT little sedan. She is getting into strange artwork and likes the old flame patterns. She saw what I have been drawing since she was a toddler and chuckled at the flames I drew. YRMV

We used to go to a restaurant with paper table covers. The waiters came over and drew their names on the paper table cover and gave our granddaughter a set of crayons and said… go to town. That meant everyone at the table, my wife, granddaughter and me to start drawing while the order was being processed. She drew horses and princesses. My wife drew abstract shapes and colors. I drew flames with multiple reds/oranges and blue tips. It was a chuckle for everyone at our table. And drew stares from the other patrons as being weird. Ha!

Kudos to your daughter, her car, and her flames… (Watch the oil leaks, fumes, water incursions when it is raining and there are puddles.)

 

Lane warnings, cameras, cruise, and other driver aids may make for increased vehicle safety (or at least less serious accidents), but they don't help the beginner driver learn good skills. When we're talking about an impressionable new driver, it's the opposite in that they don't learn vehicle control without the aids and don't learn the attention needed for good driving.

In some large cities you might need them, but I'm for kids learning to drive with limited driving aids to make them better future drivers.

 

Very cool car for a new driver, awesome!