[Alpines] OFF TOPIC SNOW.....

[Jan Eyerman]

Gary,

Back in the "day" gas heaters were not uncommon.  There were several
different
brands, the most famous being "South Wind".  In addition to VW, Corvairs had
one that was prone to explode so it was dropped after a year or so.  My Dad's
first Hillman (a Mark IV Minx-1951) came from Canada and had a British or
Canadian made gas fired heater (it was a BIG brown boxlike affair under the
center of the dash).  It worked all too well in a car as small as a Minx and
we often had to open the windows on even cold days to cool down the inside of
the car.  Probably the funniest thing to happen with that Minx was one day in
winter when my father pulled into a gas station to get gas for it (at
something like 25 cents a gallon), he got out of the car.  He was a BIG man,
formerly a semi-pro football player ( a CENTER!) and was wearing a big winter
coat... the gas attendent said when he got out of the car, "aren't you cold
without it on?".  Both Pop and I roared with laughter (he also had a big
sense
of humor).

Probably my worst Hillman experience in winter was when my wife and I drove
from Albany to Rochester (New York) in mid winter in a 1960 Minx Series IIIA
and the heater stopped working.  We had to stop at every rest area on the NY
Thruway to warm up! Fortunately the Hillman-Sunbeam dealer in Rochester was
able to fix it (I think the control cable had broken).

Jan Eyerman
1959 Hillman Minx Series III Special (solid black with a working heater)
1962 Hillman Minx Series IIIC Convertible ("Moonstone" and also with a
working
heater)


------ Original Message ------
Received: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:13:10 PM EST
From: "Gary" <gstrom99 at joimail.com>
To: "jim williams" <sportsix63 at yahoo.com>,	<lehtinen.lauri at kolumbus.fi>,
<alpines at autox.team.net>,	<jacranwell at aol.com>,	"Tony Somebody"
<achd73 at yahoo.com>,	"Jan Eyerman" <jan.eyerman at usa.net>
Subject: Re: [Alpines] OFF TOPIC SNOW.....

Anyone else remember the "gas heaters" the VW's had?  We had to fix them at
the dealerships...  Man, those were scary.

Gary