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Chevrolet Corvair Collector Irks Neighbors After 40 Years

Gearheads come in all shapes and sizes. Some prefer to focus their attention on one car, while other collect dozens. One man, in particular, has been hoarding Chevrolet Corvairs for the past 40 years, and now the neighbors have had enough.

A complaint has been filed in the small town of Gaston, Indiana, over Michael McKeel’s sprawling collection of Corvairs. Neighbors say the collection has become a junkyard that is polluting the area and harboring rats and other unwanted wild animals, according to The Star Press.

“It’s a guy’s hobby that’s gotten way too big,” said city-county planner Fred Daniel. Daniel also stated the collection is now too close to neighboring roads and homes. Now, McKeel has been forced to file a special-use permit to continue housing the Corvairs. It’s unclear how many Chevrolet Corvairs are present, but the report says “dozens” of them are sitting on the property.

McKeel defended himself and said the collection poses no harm and it’s his hobby. A hearing was scheduled for July 6, but the results of it haven’t been published.

Former GM Authority staff writer.

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Comments

  1. Google map this – 6600 W 850 N Rd, Gaston Indiana. You’ll see the collection using the satellite view!

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  2. Well, it’s better than a field full of Pintos!! LOL

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  3. You can see some of them from the street view too.

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  4. We are talking about rural Indiana. True, aerial images are far from accurate (except at the second they are shot), but the majority of his collection appears to be shielded by mature heavy woody vegetation. This is not a suburban community. The bit about rodents and other animals seems suspect at best. It is farmland, which typically is home to rodents, coyotes, skunks, raccoons, etc. He is sitting on six acres of land, which is roughly the crop area visible on the aerial (5.5 ac, approx.). Across the street is a guy with 107 acres.

    What I want to know is how badly does it smell when his neighbors spray manure on their cropland everyday during growing season?

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  5. I know some people foolishly think that owing lots of cars (from the same brand) should grant them a cash award from the automaker.

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  6. More people should mind what is in their own yard, not what is in someone else’s yard.

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  7. Sad times when carefree rural living is threatened by the same type of encroachment that’s de rigueur in the suburban-metropolitan Hell holes. Rural communities like Gaston might just be the last bastions of freedom in a country otherwise at war with its own founding principles, but clearly no one is safe anymore.

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  8. I suspect that if this guy would just have cleaned up the stuff in front and around the house that is visible off property no one would have said a thing.

    But he got sloppy so all of his cars are now brought into question.

    Kind of like the idiot I have across the street. He had three 56 Crown Vic Fords. One in the Garage. On behind and one in front that he did nothing with for a couple years.

    Some one called the zoning on him and he had to remove the two outside.

    The one out front is what got him in trouble. If he needed parts put it out back or get the parts off in the first year.

    To be honest dose anyone need this many junk cars? Odds are great he will never restore them and most will rot into the ground.

    Part them out to collectors that will use them.

    I have seen some waste do many cars this way that they were of no use to anyone. In the end they get scraped anyways.

    He had better pray the EPA does not get called in. They have killed some of my best old junk yards for parts.

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  9. Looks like a bigger “collection” on Bing maps.
    And I don’t think they’ll all Corvairs.

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  10. I have known Michael McKeel for at least 45 years. He is a person of high integrity who I would be happy to have for a neighbor. His property is surrounded by farm land in a rural area. Under these circumstances I hope the zoning board can cut this gentleman some slack. The vehicles on his property are of special interest with a nationwide following of enthusiasts who, like Mr. McKeel are dedicated to their preservation.

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