New Member, had Corvairs many years ago.

[JoeBob55]

Hello. I may be new here, but I had two Corvairs years ago. One was a '61 wagon, with a big dent in the RH rear door and quarter panel, and a '60 sedan. The '61 started out as my parents' car. By the time I took my driving test in it for my first license in 1972, it had the aforementioned dent (my mother made a left turn in front of an oncoming VW, she always swore that she had the left turn arrow), it had a rusted out front passenger floor (cowl vent leak), and leaked oil so badly that it got about 30 miles to a quart, and the back was dirty ten miles after you washed the car. But for a 16 year old, it was wheels.

For my 16th birthday, I was also gifted a '60 sedan. Body was in beautiful shape (had the same cowl vent leak, so floor was rusting out also), needed an engine overhaul and brakes. Learned a lot rebuilding that car. Also made a few mistakes, some of which I didn't realize were mistakes until years later (What? Those sleeves at the ends of the tube that goes between the intake manifolds aren't bakelite?) The car had an automatic and a bench seat, which made it nice to take to the drive in movies (made a few mistakes there also, but that's another story.

The wagon was sold in the mid '70s for $25. I junked the '60 in '78 after the transmission went out (I was getting ready to move away from the family nest, and truth be known I wanted something more modern and attractive to the ladies).

So here we are, about 50 years or so later. After rebuilding the engine on my everyday car (a 1991 Geo Metro) I got to thinking it might be fun to have another project. So I'm considering an older car. I'm fairly familiar with Corvairs, so that was my first choice. Preferably a wagon if I can find one for the right price (read "cheap"). Extra points if the serial number is 10735W211765. But if I found a nice, cheap gen II model I probably wouldn't turn it down.

Thank you for your time.

[Phil Dally]

WELCOME!!!

$25 Corvairs is how it all started for me in the sixties.

[Frank DuVal]

[Dennis66]

Welcome. Interesting backstory, similar to a lot of folks here. I was considering a Metro Convertible a few years ago myself. Ended up with a Corvair. From my experience down here (Florida), Metro parts are harder to get than Corvair parts. Dennis

[bbodie52]

Welcome back to the world of Corvairs, and...

Welcome to the Corvair Forum! Hopefully you will find this unique website to be very helpful as you begin your search for your "holy grail" to help satisfy your desire to return to the world of Corvairs!

I started my experiences with Corvairs in 1961, when I was eight years old. We had just relocated from our home in Woodland Hils, Cailfornia to a new home in San Jose, in the San Francisco Bay area. My Father was starting a new engineering job with Lockheed Missiles and Space Division in Sunnyvale. My parents decided to buy a new car, and I suppose his interests in "modern" technology inspired his purchase plans. We ended up in a brand new 1961 Corvair Monza coupe! As I began my year in the first grade, that Corvair became the center of my universe! Well, almost. We also owned a 1962 Italian-made Fiat 1500 sedan, and my father's pride and joy — a British 1958 AC Ace (the basis for the future 1963 Carroll Shelby 289 Ford-powered Cobra).



My father's British-built AC was powered by a very old design of an engine — an inline six-cylinder, single overhead cam aluminum block engine that had its roots in Great Britain. But about this time my father was drooling over Carroll Shelby's Ford V8-powered creation, and he came up with a plan to "fix" his AC... He pulled the old British inline six, transmission and radiator, and dropped a brand-new V8 crate engine into it: a 327 cubic inch solid lifter V8 Corvette engine with a matching aluminum radiator and a Muncie 4-speed transmission! I remember discovering a clue to his plans when I was nine years old and ventured out into the garage and discovered an automobile engine residing in our garage in a wooden crate! My father began several months of work on his AC upgrade — which he nicknamed a "Mongoose" (in his competition with Carroll Shelby's Cobra).

COBRA MONGOOSE

My father let his nine-year old son hang out in his garage so that I could "help" him in building his dream car.

AC Ace (Above) and the original AC Engine (below)

Brad and Sister Denise in the AC Ace, prior to the Corvette V8 engine swap.

Brad with Dad's 1958 AC "Mongoose". All aluminum body with tubular frame, the British-made AC Ace was the basis for the Ford-powered 289 CI Shelby Cobra, built by Carroll Shelby. Dad's home-built custom utilized a 327 CI Corvette engine with solid lifters, Borg and Beck clutch, Muncie T10 transmission with modified Hurst shifter, Italian Borrani wire wheels (rear only) Goodyear Blue Streak tires, and custom hand-rubbed lacquer paint. Unlike the Shelby Cobra, this car retained oversized, finned aluminum drum brakes on all four wheels. Standard AC differential was retained. The car weighed about 2000 pounds with a full tank and did very well at local autocross events.

I guess his AC Mongoose project and his interest in Corvairs became the basis for my future interest in Corvairs and learning how to work on them — which ultimately led to my first Corvair engine rebuild at age 16, during my Junior year in High School during the summer vacation in 1969.

One point I would like to make with all of this biographical information is that we may be able to post useful information that may be helpful to you in the future if we know more about you. Can you tell us more about your location, what type of Corvair you are interested in owning, and a little more about your technical knowledge and DIY mechanical abilities?


Warren Bodie and son Brad at Edwards AFB Air Show in 1965 with our new 1965 Corvair Corsa convertible (140HP)

At age 71, these are the two Corvairs I currently own in North Carolina.

I wrote this some time ago for prospective owners who are new to Corvairs. It might be useful to you...

Please look over the following comments that I wrote some time ago, and see if they might help you with learning about owning a Corvair. You may have already seen these comments and suggestions, but if not, I hope they are helpful...

As a new owner of a Corvair, I will try to answer a few of your questions directly, and will also provide some material that I wrote in the past to others who were also considering purchasing their first Corvair. My family purchased our first Corvair in 1961 when I was eight years old. My parents bought a brand-new 1961 Corvair Monza four-speed manual transmission coupe. In 1965 they sold the first Corvair and purchased a new 1965 Corvair Corsa convertible (140 hp 4×1 carburetor engine with four-speed transmission). At age 66, it must be painfully obvious that I like these cars, since my wife and I continue to drive a 1966 Corvair Corsa convertible with the same engine and transmission that my parents had in their 1965 Corvair many decades ago.

I have driven Corvairs all over the United States and in Europe as well. During my 24 year career in the Air Force I took two Corvairs with me when we were transferred to an assignment near Ramstein Air Base, in Kaiserslautern, West Germany. These Corvairs easily transported my wife and two children along with me to assignments all over the United States. They were our primary transportation for most of the 24 years that I was in the Air Force. They also did quite well on the German autobahn during my three year assignment in Europe.

To give you some idea of my confidence in driving Corvairs, I purchased our current 1966 Corvair Corsa convertible from a classic car dealer in Lakeland Florida. My wife and I purchased this car in 2012 for our 40th wedding anniversary. I spotted the car on eBay and negotiated the purchase over the phone. Trusting that the car would have no problems with a return trip, I purchased a bus ticket from Atlanta to Lakeland Florida, completed the transaction, and drove the car 565 miles back to our home in North Carolina. The Corvair attracted a lot of attention at practically every gas stop and fast food restaurant that I stopped at on the return trip. I was also the recipient of many smiles and thumbs-up signs at intersections while I waited for the light to change! People seem to like Corvairs, and my new convertible always seemed to attract attention in the parking lot as a crowd of curiosity lookers would gather around the car while asking many questions and telling me stories about their memories of having a family Corvair in their younger days. I can't guarantee that you will always be able to drive a Corvair over long distances without mechanical problems. These Corvairs are more than 50 years old, after all. But if you take the time to learn to maintain your Corvair properly and develop the DIY skills needed to take care of your Corvair, you can probably count on some pretty good results.

I wrote the following material some years ago to answer similar questions from other potential new Corvair owners...

Thanks. I hope my previous comments were helpful. Your comments seem to reflect interest but also uncertainty. I have worked with a number of first-time Corvair buyers in Europe who were considering a purchase of a car from USA sources (to provide a greater range of cars to consider), while knowing that such a effort would make it impossible for them to test drive or personally evaluate the car before purchasing and shipping it. Your circumstances are somewhat similar. They contacted local experienced Corvair owners and aficionados through this Corvair Forum and through local CORSA clubs, and they often found sympathetic club members who were willing to help as local "third party" volunteer assistants.

There is much to consider, and the material below is something I wrote some years ago to try to help the first-time Corvair buyer. Corvairs can be found from sources throughout the United States and Canada. I hope you will find these comments to be useful...

The Corvairs are vintage 1960s technology and design — easy to learn and easy to maintain. I would say that learning to work on a Corvair is analogous to an experienced home DIY "shade tree" car mechanic learning to work on a motorcycle. The concepts and procedures are very similar, but the details and the way it is put together is a little different. With the Corvair engine (like a motorcycle) you are dealing with a lot of aluminum. The metal is soft when compared to steel and cast iron, so the use of a torque wrench, anti-seize compound and carefully avoiding cross-threading becomes more important. Also, (like some motorcycles) you are dealing with multiple carburetors so tuning procedures are a little different. The use of Corvair shop manuals and supplements, other technical guides, and information sources like the Corvair Forum, and perhaps joining a CORSA (Corvair Society of America) club chapter can help you to quickly learn about Corvairs. Information resources, like good Corvair parts suppliers, are plentiful if you know where to look. Suppliers like Clark's Corvair Parts have been well-respected and extremely supportive since 1973, and suppliers like that make Corvair ownership more practical and much-more possible. I taught myself how to remove a Corvair powertrain, overhaul the engine, and rebuild the Powerglide transmission during my summer vacation in 1969, when I was sixteen years old. I was working alone (my father had been transferred by Lockheed from northern California to southern California, and we had not yet moved to join him). I had a shop manual and a garage full of tools. There was no Internet, no Corvair Forum, no CORSA club — I was pretty-much on my own. Yet I learned and was successful (in 1972 that engine carried me and my new bride on our wedding day and on our honeymoon).

So you should be able to master working on Corvairs without too much trouble — except watch out for rust and body rot! The Corvair is of unibody construction, so most body repair involves cutting and welding. The doors, trunk lid (in the front) , and engine compartment lid (in the back) and maybe the gas filler door are the only bolt-on body components. Everything else is cut and weld, and the body serves as the main chassis frame. So unless you are a master body repair technician, you need to select your Corvair carefully and avoid excessive hidden rust or a "Bondo bucket". The door frame areas, fenders, floor pan, the bottom of the trunk, lower windshield and battery area often rust and rot.

What follows is an attempt at introducing new prospective Corvair Owners to Corvairs and some of the issues involved. Food for thought, before you take the plunge. This is a copy of something I wrote earlier, but I think it may be helpful in your quest for the "right" Corvair...

I will try to provide a quick summary of the 1960-1969 Corvair lineup, and will also try to provide some answers regarding the use of a Corvair as a "daily driver".

EARLY MODEL: 1960 - 1964 Corvairs were the first generation. Their body style emulated other Chevrolet body styles from the early 1960s. The rear suspension was a swing-axle design that was similar to the Volkswagen "Beetle". The 1960 model year was the only year with a 140 cubic inch engine, and there were some characteristics that were unique to that model year only. A number of refinements were implemented in the following year, including some restyling of the front end and an increase in displacement to 145 cubic inches (CI). A manual choke was used in 1961, and this was changed to an automatic choke design in 1962 that remained with the car through 1969. A turbocharged 150 hp Spyder was introduced in 1962, and the Spyder name remained with the turbocharged engine through 1964. In 1964 the engine displacement in all Corvair engines increased from 145 CI to 164 CI. There were also some suspension refinements, including a front anti-sway bar and a rear transverse leaf spring to improve handling in all 1964 Corvairs. Here are a few pictures of Early Model (EM) 1960-1964 Corvairs...

1964 Monza Convertible


1964 Corvair Engine Compartment

1963 Monza Coupe

1963 Monza Interior

1962 Lakewood Station Wagon

Corvair Rampside Truck

Corvair Greenbrier Van

Van/Truck Interior

LATE MODEL:The 1965 Corvair introduced a completely new body style, that was also seen later in similar styles in the Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. The drum brake size was increased, and the swing-axle rear suspension design used in EM Corvairs was abandoned. The new rear suspension was a design lifted from the Corvette Stingray.

1965 and 1966 Corvairs were nearly identical. In 1967-69 the top of the line Corsa was dropped, leaving the Monza and economy 500 until production was discontinued in the spring of 1969. During the 1967-69 production period, there were minor safety changes, such as a dual master brake cylinder in place of the single unit used in 1960-1966. Interior seats and trim changed somewhat, paralleling the items used in Camaros and some other GM products during that period.

All 1965-66 Corsas came with a standard 4-carburetor 140 hp engine, and an optional 180 hp turbocharged engine. The 140 hp engine remained optional in the rest of the lineup. Other engine options in the Monza and 500 were 110 hp and 95 hp dual carburetor engines. All engines could be had with a manual 4-speed or 3-speed transmission, or with a 2-speed Powerglide automatic (with the exception of the 1965-66 turbocharged 180 hp engine, which was available with the Corsa only, and only with a 4-speed manual transmission).

Air conditioning was a rare option, but can be found in the 1965-1967 lineup, and some of the EM Corvairs as well. The following link will provide you with some air conditioned Corvair background and history...
http://www.corvair.org/chapters/airvairs/

The brakes, front and rear suspension, transaxle and body were essentially identical in the Corsa, Monza, and 500. The primary differences in the cars were the instrument panel (the Corsa had more gauges), trim details, and the engine option.

The late model Corvairs were available in a 2-door Coupe, 2-door Convertible, and 4-door Sedan. In 1968, the four-door hardtop was discontinued, leaving three models—the 500 and Monza Hardtop Coupes and the Monza Convertible. Air conditioning was dropped as an option. The weight of the cars was very similar in all configurations.


1965 Corvair Corsa Coupe




1965 Corvair Corsa Convertible


1965 Corvair Monza 4-Door Sedan


Corsa Interior (Top) / Monza Interior (Bottom)


140 hp 164 CI 4x1 Carburetor Engine (1965-1969)





Corvairs can suffer from rust and body rot problems, especially in areas that use a lot of road salt in the wintertime. While you may be able to learn and successfully attack most mechanical issues as a DIY effort, body decay can be much-more difficult, time-consuming, intimidating, and expensive to correct. So look for hidden rust or rot problems that may have been covered up with plastic filler, and be cautious in your Corvair selection.

A Corvair can serve well as a daily driver. But I would recommend a backup car or other alternatives, since ANY breakdown can put the car out of service for days until replacement parts can be obtained (if needed). If you have the skills and ability to work on the car yourself, repairs can often be completed fairly quickly. But if you have to rely on professional mechanics, downtime can be long and possibly expensive — if you can find a good mechanic to do the work for you.

Here is something I wrote over a year ago — Brad's Admonition, or some words of advice — based on over 50 years of exposure to Corvair ownership — that I wrote to try to give new Corvair buyers some idea of the issues involved. I'm sure you have some idea already, but I also think this is worth considering...

Since you are new to Corvairs, I want to give you some information that I have written to other new prospective first-time Corvair owners. I have been involved with Corvairs since I was eight years old, when my parents bought our first Corvair – a brand new 1961 Monza 2-door coupe, white on red with a 4-speed transmission. I now own Corvair number ten, which I purchased in June 2012. (If you want to read a brief personal biography that outlines my family background and our experiences with Corvairs, go to CORVAIR FORUM > Introductions > New from Lake Chatuge North Carolina. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4032 ) I want to encourage your enthusiasm in developing your plans to buy your first Corvair, but at the same time I want to help you to think through just what you are getting into. So please read and consider these comments below...

I have listened to many potential Corvair first-time owners. Many have no prior experience with owning any classic car, and many have never driven a Corvair at all, or have not driven one in decades. Some are motivated by childhood memories of a family Corvair. They typically describe the desire to locate a perfect, restored, ultra-clean example, and look to the Corvair Forum Corvair enthusiasts and aficionados to tell them what to do.

The first thing I think that needs to be done is to try to set-aside the usual emotion-based enthusiasm that any car buyer might feel when visiting a dealer and gazing with emotional eagerness at the vast array of new cars displayed in the showroom, on the car lot, and in factory brochures and advertisements. There is an extreme difference between owning a 50+ year-old Chevrolet that was likely engineered, designed and built with pre-planned obsolescence in mind — a car that GM only envisioned having a life-span of ten years or so. Many of the potential Corvair buyers are captivated with the exciting idea of owning something different — something not normally seen on the road — something that your neighbor will not buy! Certainly that is the case with a Corvair, but owning a Corvair and enjoying that ownership demands a certain dose of reality before you "buy-in". Many are unprepared for the maintenance and upkeep demands of a Corvair. "Where can I find a good Corvair mechanic?" is a common question — often displaying an inability or unwillingness to do some mechanical work and maintain that car yourself. Yet qualified Corvair mechanics can be distant, expensive, inconvenient, and all-too rare. At a time when finding even a spark plug, fan belt, or oil filter for a Corvair often means an Internet or mail-order purchase, finding local support may be unlikely or impossible. Even searching automobile junk yards will often not help, because these cars are so rare and infrequently found that they have all but disappeared from the scrap yards too. Even locating and buying a used part is a mail-order proposition. And even if you spend $15,000-$20,000 for a fully-restored Corvair in mint condition, it still comes "as-is", with no warranty and little in the way of a local support system — far different than what most car buyers are used to expecting! These are the realities of owning an older classic car.

Corvairs are popular and affordable classic cars, and enjoy a good infrastructure of maintenance supporters, owner's clubs, and parts suppliers — and that REALLY helps! But I suspect that most happy Corvair owners are something of "shade-tree mechanics" and hobbyists who are prepared to deal with the risks and problems related to Corvair ownership. It requires a long-term commitment and a dose of reality to happily own a classic Corvair. The "first date" infatuation with the attractiveness and uniqueness of a Corvair will not sustain you in a long-term relationship with a Corvair. It is far-better to have a realistic idea of just what you are getting into before you "take the plunge" and buy your dream car.

A cautious, knowledgeable and educated search for your dream Corvair is a great start, and a careful and realistic analysis of your own mechanical talents, skills and abilities is also useful. If you plan to have a mechanic do most of the work for you, the availability of a Corvair-skilled mechanic and the associated costs involved must be taken into account in your financial planning to own a Corvair.

I try to not be too negative, but I have worked with others who came to realize that Corvair ownership was more than they could handle. I just feel that new prospective Corvair owners come here to this forum to learn from others who have more experience, and we are not doing them any favors by "candy coating" the issues involved. If they pass the "sanity check" and still want to pursue buying a Corvair, then GREAT! This Forum and perhaps some local Corvair club members can potentially help them pursue that dream. But it should be a realistic dream, and not a frustrating "nightmare" experience. Better to make a clear-headed, informed decision early in the game!

I hope that these comments are useful to you. I know I get "long-winded", but I also know you are trying to make an important decision, and I hope all of these comments will help you.

A Corvair can serve well as a daily driver. But I would recommend a backup car or other alternatives, since ANY breakdown can put the car out of service for days until replacement parts can be obtained (if needed). If you have the skills and ability to work on the car yourself, repairs can often be completed fairly quickly. But if you have to rely on professional mechanics, downtime can be long and possibly expensive — if you can find a good mechanic to do the work for you.

If you wish to consider some price comparisons for drivable, complete Corvairs, here are several "Corvair For Sale" websites that may be useful...

eBay is one possibility...


CORVAIRS FOR SALE
https://ssl.corvair.com/user-cgi/pages. ... =buyorsell


Just Listed!
https://www.corvair.org/go-shopping


Chevrolet Corvair for Sale
http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/car ... et/corvair


Classifieds for Classic Chevrolet Corvair
http://classiccars.com/listings/find/al ... et/corvair


http://www.oldride.com/classic_cars/che ... rvair.html

Corvairs for Sale
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Corvairs ... 7975069947



https://www.gatewayclassiccars.com/

Even a for "Corvairs for Sale" will produce many leads.