Projects Fly in, Drive home in my late Dads car. Attempting 2000 miles

I'm assuming that the lower seat cushion of the Corvair's bucket seats are pretty close to the floor (not elevated like bucket seats in a pickup truck tend to be). You might give your lower back some relief by rolling up a towel and placing it at the front of the seat cushion just behind your knees. Raising your knees a bit may realign your lower back enough to provide some relief.

A lot of the better designed bucket seats will have an adjustable bolster in this same area for his very reason. Also. if you're driving with a wallet in your hip pocket, try removing when driving.

 

You look quite tall in the pictures. Any chance you could toss the front bucket on top of the other front bucket and drive from the back seat ... would certainly give you a lot of room to stretch out

 

Love that teeter totter!

 

You must have driven every street in Johnstown several times if you drove around for an hour and a half, Johnstown isn't that big! Edit: It was probably 50 years ago since I've been in Johnstown and the population then was less than 100 and I doubt that it has grown over the years. There was a saloon in the village back then, but it closed at 6:00 PM!

 

Icy Hot is too new, this is a traditional hot rod forum!

 

You mentioned wanting to reinstall the turbo set-up later on. I have a complete Corvair Turbo engine that I am planning to part with. I sold a salvage airplane to a guy and while he was here he wanted some other things I had... but he didn't have any more money. Seemed like an honest guy, so he told me he had this running complete Turbo engine he would swap. At the time I was thinking about building an airplane and using a Corvair engine. Didn't happen. so the engine is still sitting on the pallet with the wrapping on it. Never even opened it. If you have trouble locating what you need, this one is going to be available.

Glad to see your trip has turned into the adventure you wanted and been basically trouble free..............

 

I didn't realize you had your dad's ashes with you. What a wonderful trip, and tribute. Thank you for taking us along. Almost home!

 

With all this talk about the bad bucketbseats in the Corvair, surprises me. My only connection with a Corvair is me putting a set of Corvair bucket seats in my 1955 Ford Fairlane back in 1968. I thought they were very comfortable……but I never drove that car across country! Lol






Bones

 

Corvair buckets are perfectly fine for the first three hours. Long hauling in them can get pretty tough.

My daily beaters always ended up with off-topic late model buckets of some sort in them. The last set was a leather set from a Conquest. They were much easier to do an all day trip in, and easier to stay in during an autocross event.

 

I think theyre good, comfortable seats except for when they get to be 60 years old and the foam is dried out and crumbled out of it. This seat sagged in the middle more than it is supposed to. Otherwise pretty good. I think they can be fixed with new foam without messing up the upholstery

 

Being a geezer, I understand. Maybe you can tune in Dave Dudley's Rolaids, Doan's Pills & Preparation H on the AM radio.

 

I think you are going to drive up the value of Corvairs. It's been fun riding along, even if we did have to set in the back seat.

 

My brother got the seats in his Corvair redone, after we took the long trip in it. They're fine now.

 

Oh! I forgot about the age factor! I was 17 when my butt was in the approximately three/ five year old Corvair seats! Lol , probably makes a lot of difference!






Bones

 

Cool trip, Sioux Falls, you must have been just 5 miles from me at one point.

 

I thought it was "Rolaids, doughnuts and Preparation H"...

 

Joel, I'm following your adventure daily. My DAD passed about 10 years ago, it's a tough row to hoe. Anyways he bought my MOM a red 60 vair coupe sometime in the late 60s, she would drive my bro and me everywhere in it. She recalls that everytime she'd leave a stop light would be in huge cloud of black smoke. She said it was from the gas heater. I remember that every rust spot was covered with a BIG flower sticker, haha. The back seat folded down and my brother and I would lay back there when she was driving. It was a cool car. I'm envious that you are doing this in remembrance of you Father, mine was really into cars before me and my brother came along. Later, just firearms and that's not the same. Safe travels, enjoy every second, it's a shame your son couldn't join you that would be unforgettable. Mitch

 

Are you home yet Hemi?

 

Loved being on this ride with you. Brings back memories of 2018 and the 6000 mile trip across USA from Oakland to Detroit(via many other stops) and back to California in the Hudson. We had a couple of minor issues but overcame them.

 

I made it home this afternoon. It's good to be home and get reacquainted with the wife and have a good home cooked meal after being gone for so long.
The Corvair did awesome!
1,890 mi on the trip itself, plus 114 mi in my pre-trip testing for a total of 2004 miles in the Corvair. After the first couple hundred miles it never used enough oil to add any.

I didn't have to do any work on it at all on the trip, other than pouring a little cold water on the fuel pump every now and then. And that vapor lock problem completely disappeared once I got out of the high elevations.
Getting the car ready to go, spending the time at Dad's place, driving his car back home, hauling his ashes back, was all very good for me. The thought did occur to me while I was driving, why it didn't I go down there and do this while he was still up and around?
I never felt like I was alone on the trip home, I felt like I had all you hambers with me. The response that you guys provided, the stories, the anecdotes, the advice, and some of you waiting for the next installment, it all is very meaningful. And I was always looking forward to the opportunity to update the post. We're all in this thing together, as Red Green would say.

I thought about a lot of things while I was driving. I recalled how I've made so many trips in the last several years driving my camper, pulling a trailer, towing cars all over the place. And I remembered on the way home from Drag Week, driving the truck with the trailer behind and the hot rod inside, how I was thinking I should be driving old cars cross-country more and driving a truck and trailer a whole lot less. And now here I was doing it! I even thought, maybe I should sell the camper and just drive old cars everywhere and stay in motels. If an old car is well prepared, there's no reason you can't drive it everywhere.
We live in a big beautiful, amazing world. There's so much to see. I urge everybody to get out more in their old cars and make some cross country trips. You'll never regret it.


No trip West would be complete without a stop at the world's largest ball of twine in Darwin Minnesota, so I stopped there for a couple of pictures on the way home.
So the adventures over for now. I suppose I'll write something more in-depth later but tonight is not a good time for that. And then I'll be catching up at work for the next few days and getting caught up at home too.
So thanks to all you guys for the well wishes and the condolences and the advice and the support! I'll close this out for now with some pictures, and then probably add more pictures later as I have time to go through them.
Bye for now, Hemi Joel

 

Neat trip Joel….

 

Thanks for taking all of us on your homeward journey. Have you decided which one you'll drive back next?

 

Thanks for taking us along for the ride!

 

What a great trip! Thanks again for taking the time to document it so we could ride along!

And, pretty sure I should have waited to sell my 63 convertible until after your trip since I think value just went up with all the followers here.

 

@Hemi Joel

Thnx for the trip and pix, Looked forward to reading each day.. Let us know when you come back down this way would like to meet up eye ball to eye ball.. And might have a interest in one of the yard art you still have at dads house.. Glad you made it home you look quite happy...

 

You got that right!

I'm getting ready head out to California for another one in a week, the car is old, but not quite old enough for here.

Thanks again for taking us along for the ride, Joel

 

Squirrel, redo the seats before the trip!

 

Glad it was an uneventful trip home. Just time to think and remember good times. We should all have one of these trips in our lifetimes. Sure your dad was there in spirit. Damn now I want a Corvair.

 

What a great thread. The thrash, then the road pics..All good.
I kept on thinking about the stuck, then the unstuck valve.Sounds like something I would do.
Let me know when you assess the inventory in Az.