1969 Chevy Corvair Monza

This is the story of the Yellow Bomb:

MHH and I have often talked of how convenient it would be to have a car in the US when we visit my family, and every visit seemed to reopen the discussion. After several years of circling the subject and a zillion internet searches, we finally settled on a beautiful creamy yellow, all original, 1969 Chevy Corvair Monza with just over 13,000 original miles.

We bought it sight-unseen, hoping we could trust the pictures and the word of the seller. My parents were highly skeptical, as were others, but when did that ever stop us?

We parted with our money in July 2010, and shortly thereafter the car was transported from Long Island to Idaho. Several weeks after the arrival of the car, it was determined that the title sent from New York had been lost in the mail/wrongly-addressed/mislaid by the elderly owner (we will probably never know which). It is my sage advice that you never do anything that would necessitate procuring a duplicate title, namely losing the original title, as it is a giant pain in the behind to both buyer and seller. Five months later, the duplicate title arrived and the car was officially ours.

Technically the car is mine, but that's a small detail I hardly ever mention.

Me and my yellow bomb

I first met my car when I visited the States in November 2010. My dad, whose carport it had been occupying since July, dubbed it 'the yellow bomb', a not-so-subtle reference to the car color as well as dad's opinion that we had bought an old junker. Physically it was gorgeous, but in truth it was running a bit roughly, or not really at all, so we took it over to local Corvair mechanic Rick Fobes of Fobes Automotive.  He gave me and my dad a tour of his shop, and I left my car for repair. He rebuilt the carburetor, gave it a tune-up, and had a friend and Corvair expert check it out.

Turns out that our gamble had paid off. Everything checked out as factory original--from the spare tire to the headrests and everything in between. We had acquired a very fine example of a wonderful American classic!

The rebuilt carburetor turned the little Yellow Bomb into a whole new car--I think even dad started coming around to it. Unfortunately I had to leave the US before I had a chance to try it out. After I left and the repairs were finished, the car went into a storage unit for the winter, mom and dad got their carport back, and MHH and I started planning our first road trip.

And that is the story of our Yellow Bomb.

A little help to get started

On the lift at Rick's for inspection

A shop full of cool cars

Summer 2011 road trip coming soon!