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The TCC Caravan that made the trip to Yocum’s Signature Hot Rods
in
Sunbury, North Carolina included 4 Corvairs: John Gilliland’s
“new” 1965
Convertible, Smitty’s “64 Wagon,” Dean Zawacki’s 1963 500 and
“Alice,”
Bill Hubbell’s 1964 Monza sedan.
In this issue: This Old Vair, Part 2
Yocum’s Signature Hot Rods Tour
February Minutes
… AND MORE!
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PAGE 2 February 2019 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE
Activities Schedule
February 28th
– TCC Social –
Olive Garden, 1631 Ring Rd., Ches. 23320.
6:30pm. (757) 424-4758.
March 9th – TCC Tech Session –
Corvair Wheel Alignment; 9:30am, Auto
Brake.
March 9th – Winter Cruise Tour –
4th
Stop—Landstown Shopping Ctr.,
Sponsored by 757 Auto Events. $16 pre-
registration 11am – 4pm. For more info or to
register:
https://757autoevents.bigcartel.com/product/4-
stop-winter-cruise-tour
March 12th
- TCC Business Meeting – 7:00pm at Rick Hendrick Chevrolet
on
Virginia Beach Boulevard in Norfolk.
We Need Your Articles!
Publication Notice: To be a full member of The Tidewater Corvair
Club (TCC), you must be a member in good standing of
the Corvair Society of America (CORSA). Annual dues are $12.00
for TCC and $45.00 for CORSA. Due to
insurance requirements, only paid member may participate in Club
Events. The Spyder’s Breath Gazette is a
monthly publication, published and distributed by TCC, Inc. This
publication is available for a donation of
$10.00 annually.
The Spyder’s Breath Gazette reserves all rights with the
following exceptions: Any material may be
reproduced or reprinted by CORSA or any CORSA Chapter only for
nonprofit purposes that benefit Corvair
Enthusiasts. Any such reproduction must credit both the author
and the Spyder’s Breath Gazette. Rights for any
other use must be requested in writing from The Tidewater
Corvair Club. Correspondence should be sent to:
Tidewater Corvair Club, Inc. Corvair Society of America
2901 Cardo Place P.O. Box 607
Virginia Beach, VA 23453 Lemont, IL 60439-0607
Officers for 2019
President: Smitty Smith (757) 468-2726 [email protected]
Vice President: Bill Hubbell (757) 567-8009
[email protected]
Activities Chairman: Dean Zawacki (757) 235-4489
[email protected]
Secretary/Treasurer: Anne Davis (757) 471-5207
[email protected]
Newsletter Editor: Dean Zawacki (757) 235-4489
[email protected]
Historian: Smitty Smith (757) 468-2726 [email protected]
Phone Committee: Helen Smith
Barbara Gilliland
CORSA/CPF Board
President Mike Hall
Vice President Dave Dewald
Secretary Bryan Blackwell
Treasurer Paul Sergeant
Eastern Division Directors
Bryan Blackwell [email protected]
Allan Lacki [email protected]
Karl Haakonsen [email protected]
John Nickel [email protected]
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PAGE 3 February 2019 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE
This Old Vair, Part 2 By Smitty Smith
You can’t remember when you first noticed
the puff of smoke as you pulled away from a
stop but it is becoming more insistent. Club
members assure you it is valve guides, and
you must plan on doing something about it.
You put it off ‘til you also notice smoke when
idling. By now the rust has started pushing the
Bondo chunks away from the body metal.
This is where reality separates the Corvair
lovers from the “flash in the pan” wannabes.
You have been stashing money in a separate
sack to prepare for an engine overhaul. You
have almost a thousand dollars put away for
the project (Going to do it right). You are
remembering putting rings in a small block
Chevy a few years back for 300 bucks and
figure you can count on an almost new
Corvair engine for a thousand dollars. You
check out potential Corvair mechanics with
Club members and find out they are few and
none. You talk to some of the real Corvair
engine builders and find they are talking
several thousand dollars for a total rebuild.
Whoa. That is what you figure the car is
worth.
You monitor Ebay for a while to verify the
car’s value and talk about maybe dumping it
for another one. Sage club member advisors
remind you that the odds of getting a totally
un-rusted body with a moderate mileage
engine will cost you twice that easily and you
still won’t really know what is under the paint.
You decide to get the engine rebuilt. You
make your wife happy about it by giving up
the 6 pack of beer every night, to put money
back in the kitty. But the bodywork still has
holes in it. Your car is back from the builder.
It sounds and runs about like it did before.
Your logic knows you have bought yourself
some pleasure for the future and maybe
prevented a total disaster, but your economic
brain only understands that the car doesn’t
seem much different, and you are out a whole
lot of money.
You begin to look at the bodywork with new
eyes. The car runs good but people at the
cruise-in don’t see that. They only see that the
car needs some TLC. You don’t even take it
anymore. Again you go on a search for some
professional help. After checking out some
body shops that promise removal and
replacement of all rusted panels, plus a fair
paint job you realize that for that kind of
money, it isn’t going to happen. The cost of a
medium-priced MIG welder is not too
excessive and learning to use it is not
expensive at the local junior college trade
school. The learning curve is pretty quick.
One of the club members may even loan you a
MIG setup. Maybe a couple of guys from the
club can get you started.
So, armed with a pair of aviation snips and an
electric cut-off tool from Harbor Freight you
dive in head first. Every day you will have to
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PAGE 4 February 2019 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE
make decisions on how far you should go into
the rabbit hole. You know the farther you go,
the longer it will be before it comes back to
haunt you. With use you gain confidence and
find yourself doing things you never thought
possible. After a few weeks or months you
take the car back to the body shop for a
finishing and painting estimate. You may have
even Bondo-ed, rough sanded the patches and
primed to keep moisture off of the bare metal.
The happy time comes when you get the new
estimate because you have done all the hole-
patching and smoothing with body filler. The
paint job will be considerably less. Don’t be
surprised if the contract has a “no
responsibility” clause on the durability of the
paint job. The shop has no idea of what you
have buried under the Bondo or how clean the
metal surface was when you applied it. Let’s
hope you took the car around and got several
estimates. When you do settle on a shop, let’s
hope both you and the manager signed a
printed contract. Put everything in writing. For
instance, I commissioned MAACO to do a job
for me. I had sanded the lower part of the
rocker panels and scrubbed them down with
scotch bright for good paint adhesion. That
area would be covered by bright trim anyway.
I had mounted several small body parts and
trim pieces on a cardboard panel to be painted.
I noted on the contract: “The rocker panels
are part of the exterior of the car-------PAINT
THEM.” I also noted: “Several body-colored
parts are mounted on cardboard on the rear
seat--------- PAINT THEM WITH CAR.”
The manager was somewhat upset when he
had to have his guy mix a new batch of paint
and take care of business properly. On the
other hand I failed when I did not note that I
required the engine and compartment to be
masked off when the car was primed and
painted. I ended up removing and stripping the
sheet metal from the engine and engine
compartment to cover that case of neglect on
my part. No detail is too small to contract.
Finally you have the car home again. The road
from derelict to show car has been long and
expensive. You think of it as virtually a new
car. With a little prodding from members you
make it to a local Corvair show or convention
and register the car for the concourse. You
polish and clean and vacuum and put the car
on the show field, eyeballing all the other cars
in your class. The judges are not having a
good day, and are picky, picky, picky. You
begin to doubt your decision to show in
concourse. At awards tome you are blown
away by scoring a 4th place in your class.
Looking at the judging sheets you realize you
could have scored a second at least, by
cleaning paint overspray off the window
moldings and polishing the brightwork where
the painter scratched it. Your pride has been
injured. You are going to go home and work
on the details and show them all up next year.
The concourse bug has bit you.
By now the wife’s new car is in the driveway
and the Corvair is in the garage. You now
have a TV and small refrigerator in the garage.
You tell the wife the refrigerator is to keep
automotive chemicals in so they won’t spoil.
As time goes by you find you have
mechanical skills you never realized before.
At 140 thousand miles you find parts like ball
joints, tie rods, U-joints are failing with
regularity. Must be the shoddy materials they
were made of. You have long since given up
on keeping records of expenses for the
Corvair. You know you are going to keep it
anyway. Your faith in doing so is reinforced
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PAGE 5 February 2019 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE
every time you go to a cruise-in or a shine-
and-show.
You are always on the lookout for someone
that shows an interest in owning a Corvair.
Maybe you can mentor him, and as an “Old
Head” in the game, keep him from making the
mistake of buying one already restored, and
miss half the fun of ownership.
Yocum’s showroom contains the body of a 1917
Studebaker, this 1966 Mustang rebuilt from the
ground up, and a Toyota MR2 project.
Yocum’s Signature Hot Rods
Tour
By Dean Zawacki
February 2, 2019 was a crisp, cool cloudless
day—a perfect day for a road trip. At 9:15 a
caravan of the Tidewater Corvair Club
(including 4 Corvairs) left the parking lot of
Greenbrier Mall in Chesapeake and headed for
the tiny hamlet of Sunbury, North Carolina, on
the bottom tip of the Great Dismal Swamp and
the home of Yocum’s Signature Hot Rods on
Rt. 158.
Located in a building that originally contained
the town’s Ford Dealership, Yocum’s
Signature Hot Rods is a place where rusty,
twisted hulks are turned into stately classics,
and where dreams literally come true.
Upon our arrival, we were to be met in the
parking lot by Kyle Yocum, the proprietor and
chief visionary behind YSHR. A slight young
man in a beard and glasses came toward us to
shake our hands. Surely his dad must be
waiting inside, I thought. Noticing the
exchange between the young man and Bill
Hubbell, I realized that this 29 year-old guy is
Kyle himself! His young, unassuming
appearance belies a surprising depth of talent
and experience, and a look at some of the
work in progress within the shop gives one
some idea of the dreams being brought to life.
Kyle Yocum (right) points out the work done to a 1929
Dodge Phaeton, the last example of its kind.
Among the cars currently under restoration are
2 one-of-a-kind vehicles: the 1929 Dodge
Phaeton pictured above, and a 1917
Studebaker, each documented as the last
existing example of their kind. The Dodge is
well on its way, with the engine nearing
completion and the body work progressing
nicely.
The building is a work in progress as well, and
Kyle is renovating and restoring the various
rooms as he continues to turn out projects for
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PAGE 6 February 2019 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE
his customers. While he works to get the
Paint Booth ready for use, he uses an adjacent
room to prep the vehicles for paint.
This “Vair on a spit” is being done to a turn, as Bill
Hubbell points out some of the ongoing work on the
Glenn car to Scott Cartine.
That is the room where we found Bill
Hubbell’s 1964 John Glenn car, on a rotisserie
and in the midst of the blocking process. With
the car mounted in this way, it could be
moved around the room and set to any level or
angle for easy access to tight spaces.
But the thing that attracts car owners to Kyle’s
shop is his expertise in the area of
metalworking. Throughout the main shop can
be seen wooden forms and old metal
fabricating machines. Kyle learned this dying
art form on his own. He is one of an ever-
shrinking group of artisans who still cultivate
a passion for shaping their creations the old
way; the right way, keeping the art of
coachbuilding alive by countless, well-aimed
taps. It is this all but lost art that brings car
owners to Sunbury, North Carolina to seek out
Kyle and his shop, to bring their classic car
vision to life. This shop was well worth the
trip.
Thoughts from the Prez
By Smitty Smith
We made the trip to Yocum’s to see the work
being done on Bill's car. Not to brag but I can
relate to the quality of work being done in that
shop by the fact I did the same thing on the
Wagon. They have the advantage of having
slip rolls and beading rolls and other tools to
do what I had to do with a big hammer and
wood blocks. Next time the Wagon is on a
lift, take a look at the forward floor pans and
other sections with the ribs in their places just
like the originals. In any event, they do
fabulous work and I very much enjoyed the
tour.
These events don't just happen. They are the
result of efforts on the part of others who see
an opportunity for entertainment and
education. It is fairly obvious that most of
you don't care if the club lives or dies by your
lack of attendance at the meetings.
Don't forget: the club is you. You don't care
about the club and one day you will wake up
and it will be gone. I and other core members
have talked about this possibility, and what we
might do if it comes to that. The 5 or 6 of us
agree that we won't change much. We will
still have each other's phone numbers and
email addresses and will still swap parts and
skills.
I have stated to others that if we lose our
charter because of minimum membership that
I will have a long memory of the people who
didn't care. Those folks would find me very
tight jawed if they dared to ask me for help in
any way concerning their Corvairs. Every
once in a while I get a call from someone who
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PAGE 7 February 2019 THE SPYDERS BREATH GAZETTE
has drifted away, wanting help in selling their
car. I always give them the help they deserve.
Next group event will be the trip to Courtland
to visit the Heritage display there. We will be
going as a closed group and the gates will be
closed to all but us. We will have our own
walk through curator to explain things to
us. That is proposed for April 13th. As an
added attraction we will be touring
the Mahone’s Tavern Civil War
Museum. More on this at the
meetings. Another point of interest, not yet
voted on, will be a trip to Ft Eustis to the
Army Transportation Museum. The primary
objective for me would me to see the last of
the war trucks hand-crafted by soldiers to
protect themselves when escorting convoys of
supplies in Viet Nam.
You see, we are trying. ARE YOU?
Angie McPherson, the 2018 TCC Chili Cook-Off
winner, hands the trophy to this year’s winner, Johnny
Davis. The Chili Cook-Off was held January 19
before the annual Planning Meeting. Johnny’s chili
was chosen from among 5 entries.
February Minutes
Meeting of February 12th was called to order
by our President, Smitty Smith at 7:02pm.
Show and Tell: Those attending shared stories
of their Valve Cover Race Cars and the various
examples brought were very interesting. Tech
session is planned for John Gilliland’s house on
Saturday, the 16th, at 9:00am. If you wish to
build your own car, come out and see what
others have done and ideas exchanged to make
them better and faster. Maybe the reigning
champion of Valve Cover Racing, Ms. Helen,
will be there and tell you how it’s done.
Bill Hubbell was in attendance with more
parts from his car to do a “Name this Part”
contest. Can’t wait to see this car finished and
on the road!
John Gilliland shared the adventures of
traveling in his new car attending and
participating in the 20th Annual Polar Bear Run.
Departure time for the run was 8:15am and if
you weren't there you would be left behind.
Smitty followed in his wagon and was
monitoring John’s speed with his GPS. Smitty
would fall back and then so would John. Only
after they arrived at the Run was Smitty able to
tell John he was exceeding the speed limit. John
said there might be some calibration to his
speedometer in the near future. There was a visit
to a huge collection of most anything you could
imagine. Many rooms some even containing
cars. Speaking of cars, an estimated 50+
participated in the run.
With only 6 in attendance it was decided to go
to Olive Garden in front of Greenbrier Mall for
our social on the 28th. Meeting there at 6:30pm
Meeting adjourned at 8:17pm.
