Under new management
In June 2018, Ryan Wood, of Gibsonville, NC, purchased this Greenbrier on eBay from Jason Bedillion. He had apparently purchased it at some point from John Ryon Lucke, who apparently had purchased it from Tony Underwood and Linda Baugher in approximately June 2014.
In March, 2020, Ryan shared the following:
"The van is being kept at a different address, in Elon, since my wife said I couldn't keep it at the house! Too ugly I guess? Aside from the brakes being disconnected before I got it due to them locking up, the van appears to be in the same shape that is described in Tony's story [below], just a little worse for wear. All of the glass is intact, and most of the Bondo flew off when it was pressure-washed.
The front floorboards are rotten, the door sills are gone, and the vinyl upholstery is baked and crunchy although, at first glance, it appears decent. I would say that this sat in the woods for several years without attention or cover, possibly with a door that was not completely shut.
Before I knew exactly how bad the rotting was, I had planned to just clean it up a bit and drive as-is. But with all the holes in the lower body and rotten vinyl seats, I am going to pull all the upholstery out and probably just recover the seats and door panels, and get the major holes fixed in the body. Perhaps then some rough body work and a simple solid matte body color paint job to hide small imperfections and keep the rust away.
I don't plan to go all out because this is Corvair #2 for me. I was told by the boss that she'd be happier with it if it were a camper... We'll see. Between the spare parts from my '62 Monza and the extra engine that I bought with the van, I'm hopeful it won't take much to get it running and driving."
Ryan sent some photos in March, 2020 as well:
Tony and Linda first advertised the van for sale in April, 2010, and shared the following at that time:
"Too many projects and not enough time, so Linda wants to turn it over to someone who will fix it. The fact that it's a '65 with its original intact and functional driveline (was driven across town to where it's now parked and it seemed to run pretty well) that seemed to be in decent shape is worth consideration if nothing else. It's surely going to need carburetor kits after having sat for over four years now without being started. The van was stored inside until two years ago, whereupon it was pulled out of the barn and parked behind the same barn, since I needed some storage space for my shop equipment and the Greenbrier was in my way. It's been outside in the weather ever since.
It's rough but restorable. I know, 'restorable' is a buzzword... to somebody in desert country it's likely scrap but in the rust belt it's likely a candidate for serious attention. It has a clear/open title, no liens etc. It deserves better than what it's been getting, of late.
Linda is asking $500 for it... I figure the driveline is likely worth that simply because it has the right parts and numbers on it. Glass is good, interior up front is 'usable', meaning you can sit on it without it falling apart underneath you, although a bit stiff to brittle, depending on one's opinion..."
When Linda first registered the van, Tony described it in detail:
The previous owner bought it used, from some dealership, off their used car lot after it had been involved in some sort of accident and repaired/repainted. So, the truck had been dinged up a bit. He used it a while, camping and touring, etc. and when the enamel repaint began fading (metallic green/white stripe, same as the original color) he had it repainted white w/green stripe.
He ran the truck all over for a number of years after that, towing a camping trailer along with it. Finally he got a bit long of tooth and bought a pickup and started staying at home taking it easy. The 'brier sat for years bleaching in the sun, until he decided to finally sell it to someone who would refurbish the old 'brier instead of letting it go to seed. That's where Bill came in.
The previous owner didn't really mention a lot about how the dented roof came to be... although it appears that perhaps the truck had maybe been upside-down at one time in its life.
Some attempted repairs to said dents had been done after the last repaint (Bondo over top of the paint) which would suggest that whatever happened to the roof occurred after he had owned the vehicle.
The dents are hardly noticeable for all the surface rust and peeling paint and flaking Bondo covering several previous dents, which wouldn't have been very difficult to straighten at all; instead the "repairman" filled the dents with Bondo and today it's all flaking off in chunks.
Underneath the Bondo is mostly decent, although dented, sheet metal although the truck does have typical rusted front 'doglegs' below the doors and some rust holes through the rear lower quarters. Door jambs are pretty decent, inside floors are good. Front floors were rusted but repaired nicely with all new sheet metal. I had to look twice to see that they'd been repaired. The truck has had a front nose panel replaced, likely part of the fender-bender it experienced before the previous owner bought it. I found some rivets here and there along with a bit of welding, under peeling Bondo of course.
Looks as if it may have been dealer-repaired because the job was done nicely, all seams match and it's straight. Likely if the materials technology had been better, the filler wouldn't be flaking today.
It won't be a problem cutting the 29-year-old body filler out and taking time to re-do. Likewise, the other flaking Bondo areas which evidently were done later on by someone else than who did the nose (far different repair quality) seeing as how that Bondo was applied over top of the first repaint... far as I can tell. The old man who owned the FC didn't talk much about the dings, etc. and I didn't really press him on it, although I'd really have liked to have known if the truck has indeed been on it's roof sometime along the way, and how it came to be in such a position.
The scratches and dents on the roof are obviously events that happened after the last repaint which the previous owner said was applied several years after he bought the truck... so he likely did it but he wouldn't say, one way or another. They appear, according to what I can tell, to be what one would expect to result if the truck had maybe run off the edge of some road with a fairly steep shoulder and in an attempt to steer back up onto the road, the truck rolled over and ended up in the ditch on its roof... sliding to a halt leaving somewhat diagonal scratches on top as well as a variety of strategically located dents here and there. There is evidence of some dents on the driver side door and mid-ways sheet metal as well, although the over-all appearance of the truck is straight, once you look past the massive paint-peeling.
In my humble opinion, the truck can be made decent with a little work, and nice with a fairly large quantity of work (most of it to un-dent the roof), and perhaps excellent if someone were to make it a labor of love and have deep pockets. It won't ever be Concours, but it can become a fairly nice driver with some work."
(Time passes...)
"I went to play 'musical FCs' and swap the 'brier around behind the Corvan, and then the 'brier started it shook, rattled, sputtered, wouldn't idle... all the hallmarks of a valve seat having fallen out. Further inspections reveal 0 compression on #1 cylinder...
And I'd just finished sing praises of how well the 'brier ran. Anyway, another cylinder head is on-hand and will get swapped soon as practical/convenient. Then cosmetic improvements can begin... I'd rather do the work to get it running well first before making it pretty."
Information from the data plate
Description |
Description |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5Z60KB |
Custom equipment, Turquoise interior |
5540AB |
Turquoise, two-tone |
11 4 |
November, 1964 |
(Click on a heading in the table for more information on that item.)
This truck was built very close to the end of September, as shown by the monthly production totals. I'm not sure why it wasn't sold by the dealer until November—perhaps it was ordered for stock and took some time to meet a buyer, or perhaps the strike delayed its shipment.