The Story of Dixie-- Dixie is a 1964 Azure Aqua Monza 4-door built 2nd week of June, 1964 in Willow Run, Michigan. It was purchased August 1, 1964 at Thomas Chevrolet in Bedford, Pennsylvania, by a 56-year-old retiree, and included a lot of dealer-installed accessories. The original owners wife, a schoolteacher in Cambria County, drove the car primarily until her husbands death in 1976. Afterwards, the car was purchased by their son, who lived in suburban Atlanta in the late 70s. The exhaust manifolds were replaced around this time, and a dual exhaust was put on the car. It was used as a second car or grocery getter until their oldest son moved to college in South Carolina. After a few years, it passed back to his sister in Georgia, before being used as a trade-in on a new car in 1983. By 1989 (according to the earliest insurance card left in the glove box), the car passed to a man in Albany, Georgia who owned a Phillips 66 service station and wrecker service. During this time, the car was repainted and some work was done on the interior. The transaxle and engine were also entirely rebuilt while in Albany. The car was sold again around 2002 to a retired veteran living in Lake City, Florida. The man used the car primarily for shows and parades until about 2008, when poor health caused him to let the car sit. In early 2014, it was purchased as part of a package deal along with a 65 Monza coupe (with A/C) and some motorcycle parts by a gentleman in White Springs, FL, who purchased the lot only for the motorcycle parts. In May 2014, he listed the car on eBay, and I purchased it from him. Dixie got her nickname on the drive home from White Springs after I got her. Recent flooding in the area caused the Suwanee River (made famous by the song) to flood its banks and the road we needed to turn down to pick up the car. So she quite literally went way down upon the Suwanee River...over the river and through the woods on my first trip with her. Having found the car in the heart of the Deep South, and having found so much of its pedigree being from Georgia, I figured that it would be a neat nickname. And so it stuck. Over the past 4 months, Ive nursed Dixie back to health. The engine was in relatively good shape (only 1,000 miles on it since the rebuild, according to the man I bought it from). The carburetors, however, needed to be completely rebuilt. The car needed a headliner, which I found from Clarks and installed last week. Ive been painting interior parts and working on the electric system, cleaning old corrosion off the parts so they work and look like new. Yesterday, I took it on a nice long drive in the country east of Orlando, and she didnt so much as hiccup once. Its my first running Corvair, and I couldnt be happier. Maybe if Im lucky, Ill have her another 50 years.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 22:37:17 +0000