Shaun McGarvey is a Corvair enthusiast from Vancouver, British Columbia, on Canada's west coast. His early model Corvair 500 Club Coupe sports a transparent engine deck-lid, enabling passers-by to inspect its 164 cubic inch engine.

Shaun's Story:

"I bought the car nearly 10 years ago, from a 92 year old doctor who was sent a letter telling him his driver's license was being revoked due to his age. Actually it was his wife's emergency car, purchased purely for utility purposes. She was a little younger than he, but when he got the letter, he said 'If I'm too old then she's too old!', and both of their cars went up for sale. His was a '69 Lincoln Continental 2-door (not a Mark III) and it was sold before I arrived. It was gorgeous too (if you can call mustard yellow/orange gorgeous). The 'vair had only 13,000 miles on it and included the original tires (Dominion Royal instead of U.S.Royal) plus two Dominion Royal snow tires. The original paint was excellent when shined up, but exhibited some heat induced chalkiness around the engine lid that went away with a polishing, but soon came back.

On my wedding night in 1989 some of our 'friends' found the car in the 'secure' underground parking facility at our hotel and toilet papered it along with such witty slogans as 'hubba hubba' and 'looovvvee' written in shaving cream. The old laquer didn't take kindly to this and turned purple, necessitating a complete repaint. This gave me the chance to fix a couple of small dents in the front pan as well as some door nicks that were hidden by a white 1" vinyl K-Mart side trim down each side. I wasn't completely satisfied with the repaint (the body shop owner got a 15 year old to block sand it and one door looks a little like a fat lady's thigh). He said he would repaint the car but couldn't do it right away (too busy). I was okay with that but eventually decided to let him off the hook (it didn't look all that bad, I guess).

The see-thru hood was purchased from a local collector who bought it at the Portland swap meet from the parts manager of a Portland Chev dealer who was cleaning out his bins. His price was $50 U.S. My price was $300 Canadian. That's pretty close to the going exchange rate, eh?

The car came with only two options, the 110 HP/Powerglide combo and a fold-down rear seat. I've added a radio, rear mount antenna, day/night mirror, and gas door chrome trim."