Kuzano wrote:
We called them "roadoilers", my friend "Tonto Jablonski" owned one. He could track them by the single oil track they left on the highway. He filled up the radiator on one that came in the Arco service station he worked in. This was before he bought one himself. After gassing it, he opened the hood and found the radiator cap. The owner had gone in the rest room. Lawrence (Tonto) had the water hose in the radiator cap, when the owner observed this activity. OOOOPS! What- No Radiator? They rolled the corvair in into the service bay... remember this was when gas stations had a back room and did major service repairs, and then sold your old parts as new to the next customer. Yes, cynthia, scamming did exist long before the internet. In gas stations it was mostly on women customers.
Two full oil changes before the customer drove, befuddled but happy, out the door.
I loved corvairs. I had a 1955 Chevy Bel Air and they were almost the only car I could beat at the Midnight Drags, out on an old section of closed highway near Lava Butte South of Band Oregon. I had a six cylinder 235 Cu inch three speed with overdrive. The early corvairs were just not that fast, but I began losing to Monza's and Corsa's.
Interestingly the military bought a few million dollars worth of Ford jeep replacements, while I was a motor sargeant. They came with a film tape of how easy they were to turn over due to the swing axle rear suspension. In service they were killing more soldiers than the enemy was. I know that when they arrived in Germany, we pulled the tires off and stacked them in cyclone fenced enclosures and continued to use the Willy jeeps - M38-A1.
The new Ford jeeps were the M151 "death by sharp turn" model. The MFD by Ford model had an aluminum body shell. Turnover was a slow roll to the inside of a tight circle at any speed 35mph AND UP.
Where was Ralph when taxpayer money was being used to kill US Solders and Ford was the beneficiary.
We called them "roadoilers", my friend &... (
show quote)
If you were really in the Military you would know how to spell "Sergeant" ... Just Sayin'