'The key still fits'
<p>Craig Nicol prepares to put gas into his 1966 Corvair Sprint on Tuesday at his Coeur d'Alene home. After selling the exact car 43 years ago, Nicol recently purchased the Corvair after finding</p>
<p>Craig Nicol stands beside his 1966 Corvair Sprint on Tuesday at his Coeur d’Alene home. After selling the car 43 years ago, Nicol recently purchased the Corvair after finding it for sale online. He was shocked to learn it was his high school car ... just a bit older and in need of some TLC.</p>
<p>Nicol's signature is still on a tire pressure sticker in the Corvair's glovebox, 43 years later.</p>
<p>Nicol holds the original keys to the 1966 Corvair Sprint he drove in high school, when the car was 5 years old. After purchasing the exact car 43 years later, the keys still start the vehicle.</p>
<p>he 1966 Cavair Sprint in the condition Nicol last saw it 43 years ago.</p>
<p>The 1966 Cavair Sprint in the condition Nicol last saw it 43 years ago.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — In 1971, Craig Nicol bought a regal red 1966 Chevy Corvair Sprint convertible for $450.
He was a junior in high school when he saw it in a car lot and knew he had to have it.
"It was perfect," Nicol said. "I waxed it every week."
He drove the Corvair as he finished high school and through his first year of college, then he sold it to a buyer in Long Beach. That was more than 40 years ago.
Now, thanks to a chance find on eBay, Nicol and his very first car have been reunited.
"What are the chances?” he asked with a big smile. "There are three things that are amazing: it still exists, I found it, it was for sale. And it was a cool car. It wasn’t like it was some average car."
Nicol, who has enjoyed rebuilding Corvairs and Corvettes since he was a teen, heard about a sweet Corvair for bid on eBay and right away thought it looked familiar. As he learned more about the car, he realized it had some very particular customizations.
"I said, 'Threads are unraveling; that could be my car,'" Nicol said.
In a video the seller made, Nicol saw the battery and oil gauges installed on the inside of the driver's door, "which is only something a 16-year-old would do."
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"I said, ‘That’s the car. There’s no way that it’s not the car,’” he said.
Then, something in the glovebox clinched it for Nicol.
"The seller calls me all excited. He said, ‘See how it’s got that sticker in there where it tells you how much pressure to put in the tires? Guess what’s written on the sticker? Your name,'" Nicol said.
In light blue ink, in the Chevy symbol of the tire pressure sticker, "NICOL" survived the test of time to prove that indeed, Nicol's first car has returned to him.
"I couldn’t believe it," Nicol said. "It was like, ‘Holy smokes, this thing still exists 43 years later?’ I mean, it wasn’t an expensive car. The only reason it survived is because it was a red convertible of an unusual car. If it would have been something usual it wouldn’t have been saved."
Nicol's friend, Don Sausser of Coeur d'Alene, built a video story for Nicol of the day the car arrived in late September. Sausser said it's remarkable that someone could stumble onto his high school car from so many years ago.
"He’s a happy camper," Sausser said of Nicol.
To Nicol's surprise, nothing on the car was changed from when he sold it, except for its condition. In its journeys from California to Texas to Oklahoma, it suffered weather damage and neglect.
But not anymore. Nicol plans to restore the Corvair to its original state of glory. He said it really takes him back in time to be behind the wheel of the Corvair again.
He even has the original keys that came with it.
"I kept a set of keys from the day," he said, grinning. "There was this big, ‘Gee, are the keys going to fit?’ kind of thing. Well, it gets here, and the key still fits.”