Separated at birth?
Gary O'Neal is the proud owner of this near-twin to Kevin Thompson's rig (S108372). These two Rampsides were produced quite close together in the St. Louis FC production sequence and have the exact same trim and paint codes. Gary and Kevin are also in the same chapter, San Francisco Bay Area CORSA.Kevin shared more information about Gary's truck:
"Gary obtained his Rampside about four years ago from a one of our members. The truck was very straight and complete. The years were tough on the paint and it needed basic service. As the owner of his own body and paint shop, Gary treated the Rampside to a new paint job, leather interior and installed some Oldsmobile sport wheels. He constantly gets the thumbs-up from many on the road.
An interesting note to the story is that prior to Gary owning his truck I never knew him. Gary's shop is about five miles from my home en route to my favorite hardware store. One day while driving my Rampside I saw Gary's in front of his business. Being a good representative of the SF Bay Area Corvair Club I placed a card under his wiper to join the club. I didn't know he was already a member! At our next meeting I ran into him and we checked out each others' rigs and quickly became friends.
The story doesn't end there. Gary's truck was sold new in Santa Rosa (Northern California) in May of 1964, mine in Alhambra (Southern California) in April of 1964. Our serial numbers are 606 units apart (Greenbriers & Corvans are included in the sequencing) and both trucks were factory painted all white. They both have the chrome package, 110 HP engine (Gary's was since replaced by a 140), and 4-speed transmissions. They are nearly identical trucks! The remaining odd part is that we repainted our trucks in a similar color before knowing each other."
Looking at the registry shows that Gary's Rampside will be right after mine—how odd considering they were sold in opposite ends of the state only to wind up in the middle five miles apart! Perhaps the most comical aspect of all this is that when many of my friends say they saw me here or there when I wasn't, I know they must mean Gary. He has also told me similar stories of his friends seeing him where I was."
Thanks to Kevin for the great story and picture!
Information from the data plate
Description |
Description |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5Z60GB |
Custom equipment, red interior |
5526AA |
Off-White (aka Ivory), solid color |
5-64 |
May, 1964 (*) |
(Click on a heading in the table for more information on that item.)
(*) The dealer did not follow the prescribed format for the delivery date, which would be 05 4 for May, 1964.