Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

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4speedoverdrive
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Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:18 pm

Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by 4speedoverdrive »

Purchased a 66 Corsa Convertible a month or so ago. Just checking in because I'm sure I will have some questions on down the road.

So this happened to me today. I was getting into the Corvair at the local boat dealer. I had gone in there looking for snaps to fix the tonneau on the Corvair. A young man came up and said, what year is this? Answer a 66. He said nice looking car, it's a Chevy Corsa? I said yes a Chevy Corvair Corsa. He then said, it have a 350. I said no it has a flat six. He gets this puzzled look on his face. I said would you like to see the engine and he said yes. He moved to the front of the car and I got out of the car and went around back and opened the hood. He came around to the back and said the engines in the back? We talked about the Corvair for a bit, and as of today he knows that Chevrolet made an air cooled rear engineed car in the 60's.

And yes the Corvair has a full tonneau cover. Here is a picture with the cover over the back seats.
Attachments
corvair cockpit.jpg
funvairs
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Re: Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by funvairs »

:welcome2:
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Jerry Whitt
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Re: Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by Jerry Whitt »

Welcome to the forum.

One of the fun items with the Corvair is the number of people coming around and asking questions, or some relaying funny stories.
Jerry Whitt
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65 Monza, purchased new
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SteveH
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Re: Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by SteveH »

:welcome:

Welcome to the board!

Thanks for taking the time to teach!

Steve
CORSA Member #034095
65 Corvair Corsa "Field Find" 140-4, 4 speed, Hardtop, Telescoping wheel. Rear Speaker
65 Corvair Corsa Automatic 140-4, Coupe
66vairguy
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Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2010 3:44 pm

Re: Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by 66vairguy »

Welcome

Reminds me of a show I was at and a fellow had a Corvair with the engine lid open. A small kid looked in and said "Dad, Dad, you have to see this - the engines in the BACK!"

Amazing how many young folks DO know what a Corvair is, but then you get "Did you say Corvette".

Wait till you run into the "Those were banned because they rolled over" characters - LOL.
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bbodie52
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Re: Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by bbodie52 »

:welcome2: :wave: Welcome to the Corvair Forum!
1966 Corsa with Tonneau Cover.jpg
Your convertible with the tonneau cover brings back a lot of memories. Our first family Corvair was a new 1961 Monza coupe that my parents acquired when I was eight years old. In 1965 my parents traded the '61 for a new 1965 Corvair Corsa convertible — and one of the first things my father did was to fit it with a tonneau cover! I remember all of the extra snaps and fittings that appeared along the padded dash and along the sides of the doors and body to secure the tonneau cover, but it seemed normal enough and — as it does on your Corvair — the tonneau cover gives the car a unique, elegant and sporty appearance.

(It also appears that your Corsa is fitted with a rare AM/FM factory radio. They are hard to find and usually at high asking prices if they appear on eBay! Our 1965 Corsa also had that same AM/FM factory radio option).

My father also drove a 1958 British AC Ace (the basis for the Shelby Cobra) that he had fitted with a 327 CI Corvette V8 engine, and it also sported a tonneau cover. I'm sure that was where the tonneau cover idea for his Corvair convertible came from!

Image

Image

Your tonneau cover-equipped Corsa has inspired me to consider having one made for our current 1966 Corsa convertible. I bought our '66 in 2012 to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, and like many Corvair owners I'm always looking for some way to make it stand out in a pack of Corvairs (a rare occurrence). We had purchased a blue Corsa convertible to remind us of the 1965 Corsa convertible we drove for many years and had had in the family since 1965, and fitting it with a tonneau cover would make it somewhat unique, as well as honor the memory of what my father did to the '65 so many years ago!

I hope you will post additional photos of your Corsa from all angles. The website links posted below may be useful to you...


Common and Useful Corvair Websites

Corvair Forum :link: viewtopic.php?f=225&t=6007

:dontknow: I would like to encourage you to expand on your initial post and tell us more about yourself, your Corvair, and your goals for your Corvair. If you can describe your personal assessment of your mechanical skills and abilities, that would help a lot. Members of the Corvair Forum love to be helpful in assisting other Corvair owners with technical support and advice, but it helps a lot if we have some understanding of your technical background and mechanical abilities, Corvair-related knowledge, etc. Helping us to know more about you and your Corvair will help us to write comments to you that are tailored to your needs and experience. Pictures are great too, because pictures of your Corvair will help us to visualize where you are with your Corvair and its condition at the present time. Knowing your location is also useful, because knowing where you live can sometimes suggest possibilities to resolve some issues or problems.

:welcome:
Brad Bodie
Lake Chatuge, North Carolina
Image 1966 Corvair Corsa Convertible
4speedoverdrive
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Re: Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by 4speedoverdrive »

Brad, what a nice reply. Hopefully I have also made some future memories today. My 15 year old Grandson was over today and we gave the Corvair a real workout. He has his learners permit and all his family has is automatics. So the Corvair got put into service teaching the Grandson to drive a manual transmission. He did pretty well, just killed it 3 or 4 times and then pretty much got the hang of it. These kids learn fast. So like I said maybe sometime down the road when the issue of a manual transmission comes up, he can say my Grandpa taught me to drive a manual in a Corvair.

Good catch on the AM/FM and tonneau. I've been told the Corvair has some unique options in addition to the AM/FM. It has an adjustable steering column and the parking brake warning light. By the way the AM/FM works good.

In general the car is in real nice shape. I've been cleaning and touching up some things. I know the clock and the windshield washer are inop. I can work on those. The carpet will need to be changed in the near future. I touched it up with fabric paint and it doesn't look to bad. I was told that one of the damper thermostats is bad, and needs to be replaced. I couldn't find any rust, but I haven't been under the car yet, other than to look at it from ground level. The car is painted silver, but I think the original color is black, can someone help me here the plate paint color is listed as: 750-Z ____ A-2.

The car is in Western Wisconsin, and my goals for it are to have a car to putz with and take to some local car shows. I was looking for something unique and fits my tastes. I tend to be more of a sports car fan and not a American muscle person. The Corvair is probably as close as you can come to a European sports car from that era. It handles well and had enough power to make it fun. Some of the cars I've owned include a MGB (first car), a Sunbeam Alpine, a Karmann Ghia, an Austin America, a Volvo 145 wagon, a Datsun 280ZX, a Mazda Miata, a Porsche Boxster and a couple of Corvettes. So you can see I'm not very loyal to any particular brand. I'm pretty handy with a wrench. There isn't much I won't attempt. The only issue is that I don't have to tools to do major rebuilds of engines, transmissions or major body work. plus I prefer to have something I can drive between working on it.

Enclosed are a couple of additional pictures, one includes my other silver Chevy.
Attachments
Corvair Pass side.jpg
Corvair Driver Rear.jpg
Corvair Front Pass.jpg
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cad-kid
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Re: Old guy with new 66 Corvair.

Post by cad-kid »

Welcome to the forum! I had a great time hanging with you at the Chippewa show. :goodpost:

You may want to fill out the signature line on your profile - most people usually put the year and model car they have. I have a bit more on mine (it shows up at the bottom of each post) :my02:
Jeremy (cad-kid)
Kronenwetter, WI (Central Wisconsin)
SOLD 9-2016 65 Monza 4spd/140
My 65 Monza thread
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