In prepping this website, I dug out the scrapbooks and went through almost 10,000 photographs - man, now there's some crazy flashbacks!  As tough as it was to narrow down the photos for this project, maybe even tougher is trying to condense 35 years of Corvairs into a single webpage and not bore you to sleep in the process.  Oh well, you clicked the link, so you must be interested, so here goes...

HOW IT ALL STARTED...Let's go back to 1969 and my freshman year at Inglewood HS in southern California.  My auto shop teacher asked the class the class if anyone knew anything about Corvairs, and I was the only one who raised my hand.  I didn't know much -  my best friend owned a '61 2-door Monza, I had 3 neighbors who owned Corvairs, and I knew that they leaked oil and threw fan belts.   No matter, that was good enough for the teacher as he designated me Inglewood HS's "official" Corvair shop mechanic, thus beginning a 4-year odyssey of fixing Corvairs for every faculty member, student, and parent who ever owned one.

MY 1ST TIME...After graduating high school in 1972 I got a job in the electronics industry, and appeared headed towards my chosen career field at that time.  But in 1973 my brother drove home in a 1967 Corvair 500.  Given Corvair's dubious reputation and sad final demise only a few years earlier, my father wasn't too happy and strongly "encouraged" him to return it.  When he realized that wasn't an option, I offered to bail him out by buying the car so I could fix it up and sell it with the help of my friend, Marty Katz, who lived nearby and owned a Corvair V8.  That 1st Corvair purchase set me back $100 plus a set of Koss Headphones - that was big money to me.  After Marty and I tuned up the engine, did a brake job, fixed the oil leak, and gave it a $45 Earl Sheib paint job, we sold the car for a profit of $700!  All of a sudden, the idea of splitting $700 for a few week's work compared to the $1.65/hr minimum wage we were getting at our day jobs seemed like a righteous way to make a living.

MARTY'S GARAGE BECOMES "CORVAIR OBSOLETE"...From there I got the bug and bought Marty's other Corvair, a 1966 Corsa 140 coupe fixer.  When I couldn't find the parts I needed at the local auto parts shop, I bought my 1st Corvair parts car - which led to 6 parts cars, all parked in my driveway.  Heck, in those days, Corvairs were so cheap that I'd buy an entire car just for 1 part.  Before long word was out that I had lots of Corvairs, which led to people showing up at my house asking if I was in the Corvair business.  It was becoming pretty apparent that there were plenty of Corvair owners out there looking for help with their cars.  That's when Marty and I decided to start selling parts.  I moved out of my parent's home (my dad was happy to get his garage back!) and Marty and I started selling parts out of his 2-car garage. That turned into a small rented building, and we got so busy that sometime around 1980 we ended up renting a 1,200 sq foot space near LAX and opened our 1st official Corvair shop - we called our business "Corvair Obsolete". 

LARRY'S CORVAIR...Marty and I ran the business together for about --- years.  We eventually split up so Marty could focus specifically on Corvair service while I concentrated on selling parts.  That worked until around 1986 when customer demand simply made the service side of the business unavoidable.  That's when I opened "Larry's Corvair".  I outgrew the LAX location after about 2 years and moved into a 7,200 sq foot building in Hawthorne.

THE RE-LO YEARS...Business was booming, but within a year I was forced to move out by my landlord.  I stayed in Hawthorne but relocated to a 6,000 sq foot shop.  Transferring so much inventory was tough, but the bigger parking lot was a welcome addition for my customers.  Demand for Corvair parts and service continued to grow, and was so great that I went from strictly selling and rebuilding parts to employing 6 full-time mechanics providing total Corvair service and restoration.

We were in this location for about 5 years until the owners sold the building, which meant, once again, Larry's Corvair needed to find a new home.  At this point the idea of re-locating was so frustrating I was about to give up, but I persevered with the help and support of some very good friends.  I found another location in Hawthorne, and John Sweet, his wife Charlotte, and I, spent countless hours restoring the property into the best Corvair facility we could possibly create. It was spotless and well-organized, and we even added a Chevy bowtie logo that was so big I eventually received a "cease and decist" call from Chevy HQ in Detroit.

Around 2000 it happened again...my landlord passed away so I had to move the business again.  This time I finally did what I'd been unable to do all the other times.  I BOUGHT my own building!  We moved to Gardena to a 6,000 sq ft. shop on Crenshaw Blvd with an 8,000 sq. ft parking lot out back.  We stayed here for the next 7 years. By 2006 I knew I needed a Corvair breather, so I sold the business outright to devote all my time to another hobby I'd been enjoying for several years, collecting & trading Rare Coins. 

The 2-year break was just what I needed to recharge the batteries and get the creative Corvair juices flowing again.  This renewed energy is what brought me to launch LS Corvair Parts.  Which brings back to the present...

Wow, 35 years sure goes by in a hurry.  These days I'm in a great relationship, I've got 2 grown kids, and I've actually got a few wild peacocks that occasionally roam thru my yard.  I'm big into ham radio (hey, they love me in Japan!), rare coin collecting, and yes, Corvairs!  If I had to pick a favorite, I'd say I like the late models best, but I haven't seen a Corvair yet that I didn't like.

So that's my story, at least for now.  There's still plenty of chapters left to live and enjoy...In the meantime, 35 years doing what I love are in the books and I'm still hanging in there...not too shabby for a Corvair guy, huh? - Larry