How did you get into Corvairs?

[69corvairman]

My mother was allowing me to buy my first car, I had a budget of $5,000. I was not one that liked "normal" cars. I fell in love with a 1956 Chrysler, however it needed more than I could give it. So, I was sitting at the computer checking out eBay. I remembered stories that my mother told me about her roommate's corvair convertible. I looked it up and thought these were cool. So, we sat down and bought a 64 3spd vert out of IL. It wasn't drivable, but it was the start of a long love affair that continues today. I sold that car, bought an even worse 64 vert. I was fed up and sold that car. Then my club president frug me out to check out two cars. He said I would end up buying one, little did I know he'd be right! We checked out a very ratty 62 vert. The owner painted the engine bright orange!! Nothing worked right, and the body work was terrible. Our final stop was to look at a 69 500 that the club mechanic had sitting in his shop. It had the original 110, but it was blown. The engine blew smoke everywhere, and was running on three cylinders. We struck a deal for the car with a 65 140 transplanted, and the car had to be ready for my prom. He delivered, and I still have the car to this day! To think this all started with the phrase, "That looks cool!"

[indianalakewood1961]

My new neighbor moved in down the lane and he pulled into the lane in a 63 Monza Convertible and I fell in love with it from the minute I saw it. That was 3yrs ago... Now I own 2 myself..

[Ira]

Exactly the same way I got into Alfa Romeos....

I was given one. Fast forward 18 years and we've now owned 4 Alfas... and we're expecting an Alfetta GT this year.

So the big question is: HOW MANY CORVAIRS WILL I END UP OWNING?

To be determined.

Ira

[caraholic4life]

My dad bought a 1962 Monza Wagon new, I still recall the night he brought it home.
As I got older I looked forward to driving it but he sold it. (I later got the same car back and also sold it)

1973 I had an opportunity to buy a 1963 500 automatic coupe for $25.00 so I bought it, got it running, sold it to the shop teacher at school for $125.00. I used that to buy my first 1965 Corsa 140 Convertible. Turned out it needed more attention than I realized (early lesson learned here).
Bought another 1965 Corsa Convertible again for $125.00 and made one good car out of both then drove it for several years.
I have had over 20 of these cars over the years. Thought I had them out of my system when an opportunity to buy the one I have now was presented to me as a basket case.......here we go again

[ScottS]

I got into these little sweethearts completely by accident- driving down the road we spied a bright yellow car for sale - i pulled in and looked at the car- Had not seen one in many many years ( my Dad had one that was used to jump some ramps at the county fair in 1969 or thereabouts) . The 69 Monza with a 110 and Pg was in ok shape , but didn't run - well it ran on 5 cylinders. I sat in the car and was taken right back to my 67 Firebird - and I had to have it. I was excited about the rear engine, the flat six, the air cooled simplicity , and the fact that the car wasn't all rusty. So I drove it home.

Mow I have the 69, a 66 Monza road racing car , and a 66 shell that may become a v8 ( or a 4.3, I am watching TomZ's progress closely) .

And of course I met a great group of people , and the availability of parts and technical advice seems never-ending.

[pja1967]

My parents bought a 1966 500 coupe brand new in April of 1966. I was born in 1967, and dad took the car off the road in 1970 when he bought a new Plymouth Duster. I was 7 or 8 when I would go in the backyard and sit in the 66 and pretend I was driving. In 1976, we had moved by this time to another home in the same town. Dad decided to bring the 66 out of that barn and up to our new (3 year old house). Sitting for some 6 years, Dad and a neighbor cleaned out the carbs and added fresh gas, and I still remember hearing the engine start up for the first time that day. By 1985, when I was of driving age, the car had an engine rebuild and other necessities to make it ready for the road. Along with a '64 Monza coupe, I drove the '66 until 1990 or 1991. Unfortunately, the car is gone now, for that matter, so is the '64 coupe, in which I took my road test. Wish I had them back. These days, I have 2 1960's: a 500 sedan and a Monza. Thanks,
Phil

[Motornoggin]

My dad had one when he was younger and always talked about how well it handled and what fun it was. We have owned and restored dozens of cars over the years and the 66' Corsa Turbo I have now was "just one of the many" during that time. in 1997, a co-worker of a good friend mentioned that his daughter had finally decided to sell her deceased husband's Corvair. To make a long story short, I learned about this car and most of the history behind it's (reluctantly) being put up for sale. It had 28k and change on the odo, but had been stored outside wrapped in a tattered blue tarp since 1981. The mechanicals were sound, the interior o.k., the consumables/perishables were over and done with. Paint was trashed, but there was so much raw potential a die hard "car guys" like uscouldn't pass up the oportunity. We rescued it, we had no choice because the owner wouldn't let it go to just anyone, she knew we would take care of it. Her belief is one reason why I decided to keep it after we finished it, instead of adopting it out to a new family.

Other than that, my grandfather bought a 62' 4 door with a powerglide and factory installed A/C when her turned 90. I fixed it up and painted it for him. He dubbed it "Torpedo" and I striped and lettered it to reflect the new nic-name. He enjoyed it until he passed at the age of 93.

[JohnnyCorvair]

I was 14 years old when one of my moms co-workers was selling his 64 500 project car for 100 bucks. It did not run but was complete and even had an extra set of 14" wheels/tires. I remember standing in the driveway waiting for the towtruck to deliver it. I labored away pulling everything that could come off the engine, painting, cleaning, rebuilding the carbs, tuning, figuring out what lead body filler was... Finally I got the thing to run. It had a bad flywheel and when it stopped on that special place, I would turn the belt by hand to a good spot then crank away. I can still remember the sound the powerglide made as it whirred into gear from Neutral. Sadly I burned up the wiring harness behind the keyswitch one day and not knowing anything about wires at that time, had to sell it off. I learned so much wrenching on that car and it set the tone for the last 18 years of my gearhead life. Now I am back though as we bought my dads next door neighbors 62 Monza coupe. I saw it a few times through the bushes when I would visit my father, and as soon as I got word he was selling it, we jumped on it. It looks great in the pics, rust free, good paint, runs and drives good, just needs some finishing touches like carpet and radio. It even comes with a spare PG trans. Looking forward to the renewed strange looks from people I drive by.

[paulcomi]

I went out with money in my pocket to buy an Austin Healey that was in the paper and my hopes were dashed when the car didn't match the description or pictures in the paper. When we got back home, we started looking through the papers again and just before giving up we saw a picture of a red 64 convertible with a new top. I was never into corvairs before but this one just looked cool to me so we went out to have a look at it. From a distance it looked neat, but as I got closer the interior was shot. My wife fell in love with the car and ended up convincing me to go ahead and buy it eventhough I had my reservations. The test drive was disappointing. The steering had a lot of play in it, the car was sagging in the back, etc but I figured it was a basic car without a lot of frills so with some effort I knew I could pull it together so I went ahead and bought it. Driving it home, people were giving me thumbs up signs and they still do every time I drive it around. The austin healey wouldn't have been a good car for us. We have 2 kids and this car can seat 5.

[Scott H]

great story Paul. happy wife = happy life
She has good taste

[Corvair.crazy]

Great topic, My story starts in the 70's. My uncle owned a '63 Spyder convertible, tuxedo black, I thought the car was the coolest. My Dad must of thought so too beacuse he bought a '65 convertible right away. My family was hooked. From there my brother owned too many too list and the ones he was selling if they were cool enough my Dad bought them. In high school I drove a '62 wagon, which incidently was the first motor i ever rebuilt, a '65 coupe with the 140 engine and a greenbrier rampside. After high school there was a long dry spell of no Corvairs until one day... A lady who lived around the corner from me showed up one day with a '62 Spyder convertible. I talked with her about it and she was excited about it. For about a month. The next thing I knew was she wanted to give it up. We worked out a trade and now I own it. I did some research on the car and it belonged to Dale Manfacturing. A company that produced bolted flywheels for these cars for decades. My wife liked the car so much she claimed for her own! Now I had to get my own. Found one 20 miles from where I live. '63 Spyder convertible. Corvairs are back in my Families life.
Check out my You tube video. "Corvair restore part 1" to see them both. Thanks again.

[Scott H]

Cool story and I posted your videos here so everyone could see them.

[emt44]

Well when I was little, my grandad had a 64 Coupe parked in his pasture field. I would always stop and drool and even climb in even though she was rotting in the ground; dodging the snakes and wasp. Well years later I went with my dad to pick up a 65 Mustang Fastback he bought. I got to talking with the old lady he bought it from and she said she had 2 Corvairs in her barn, A 63 Coupe and a 64 convertible. Well long story short, I came back the next day and hauled the convertible home. A tune up and a little TLC later She was on the road Always have loved those little cars

[cityhawk]

Hmmm, hard to say exactly what started it. But I was a real car buff in my childhood and sometime around 1974 when I was 12, I had discovered the existence of Corvairs and somehow immediately fell in love with them, particularly LM coupes and convertibles. Nobody I knew personally had one, though after falling in love with the cars, I did discover that the family of a kid in my class had a LM sedan.

There was a person in a nearby town that my folks would drive through in New Jersey who had a driveway full of Corvairs and one in my town that I used to ride my bike past, a nice-looking LM coupe. I used to fantasize that I would contact the owners when I got my driver's license and see if the cars were for sale. My family then moved away to a farm in upstate NY and by the time I got my driver's license, I drove trucks. I was really into horsepower in my late teens/early 20s and kind of forgot about the Corvair.

Fast forward to 1990 and I was living in the city, married and expecting my first child.... a friend had a 1962 Falcon that he used as his daily transportation and I thought it was pretty cool and much more practical than driving a gas-guzzling muscle car on a regular basis. I thought about my childhood love of Corvairs and decided to go on a quest to find one. I found my present car, a 1966 Monza convertible 110/PG and bought it with the notion that it would be a project car. Well, my marriage fell apart in 1991 and in the years that followed, I was trying to put together a new life and the car ceased to be relevant to me, not to mention my being destitute in the first few years after my marriage ended (which would have been a great time to do the resto, but I was broke).

So the car sat in my dirt driveway in my home in Boston. I bought a new cover (the evolution 4 or whatever it's called) from Clarks for it every few years when the old ones got too ratty to try to preserve the car as best I could. Every so often I would consider selling the car, but something kept me from doing it. Periodically I had thought of plans to resurrect its restoration but those too would fade. So there it sat for twenty years.

I remarried in the intervening years and four years later (2010), we were expecting our second child and had been talking about the possibility of a minivan in our future. Not being a big fan of minivans, I thought about the Corvair Greenbrier and started giving serious thought to seeking one out and doing a resto-mod of it to make it into the family minivan. At last, a cool minivan! My wife even seemed to like the idea. Once I started taking seriously the notion of looking for a Greenbrier to restore, I started thinking about the Corvair I already had sitting in the driveway that I had been neglecting for 20 years. I started thinking that if I do any Corvair restoration I needed to either A) get rid of my existing Corvair before starting on a new project, or B) restore the Monza convertible first before thinking about doing another project. Once I committed to restarting my restoration project (plan B), I have been giddy with excitement about it. It has consumed much of my thoughts and daydreams. I guess I've finally reconnected with a long lost/dormant part of myself... for lack of a better term, my "inner child."

I haven't been able to do too much with the car just yet given the presence of a three month old baby and a 17 month old toddler at home, but I did manage to get the engine out and it is sitting in my basement awaiting overhaul. Amazingly enough, the engine is not seized after 20 years of sitting around with no attempt made to store it properly. The body needs a fair amount of work too, but I am committed to getting it done and am really excited about it. My mother-in-law will be staying with us starting the end of January for an extended period to help with the kids, and the extra pair of hands will allow me to have a day a week or so to devote to the project.

My hope is to get the car done-ish (drivable, mostly restored mechanically and major bodywork/paint job) in two years so I can drive it to the 2012 Corsa Convention in Sturbridge, Mass (a little over an hour from my house) and to the biennial Fall Classic at Clark's, also in 2012 (about 2 hours from my house)

[fjp912]

As promised, here's my Corvair story. The first one is one of those "ones that got away" tales. When I got my driver's license in Bethlehem, PA in 1975, Corvairs were just used cars, and there were a lot of them around. Including a gorgeous light blue '65 Monza convertible with about 50-60K miles, on a VW dealer's used car lot for (brace yourselves) a mere $850. However, my dad would not lend me a couple hundred bucks to close the gap between that and my bank balance, preferring instead to hand his Maverick down to me when he got a new car that summer. Ugh.

So, skip forward about 8-9 years, I'm now married and have a (sorta) real job, and I find this '62 beauty:


Looks great doesn't it? Well, except for that big black stain under the bumper that is. True confession time -- I was such a rookie, I had no idea that a car could have perfectly gorgeous and rust free sheet metal topside and be NOTHING BUT RUST underneath. It looked nice to me and so I didn't check the underside carefully at all. And that big black blotch means what you think it means, it was a rolling Superfund site. And there were other issues, although it started, ran, shifted, steered and stopped quite well, as long as you poured oil in faster than it was coming out.

By the time I figured out what all it needed, I had found this '66:

And it was cheaper to buy the '66 than it was to fix up the '62, so I did. The '66 had been restored and repainted once, but then it was a daily driver first in New England and then in Philly, so all the rust came back quickly. You can see it on the front fender and the rocker in the photo. I kept this one for about 2 years or so and got a fair amount of enjoyment out of it, although it stranded me a couple of times, once when the harmonic balancer separated, and once when the starter would not engage due to stripped flywheel gear teeth.

Having had one of each, my preference is for the early models, especially the early coupes. That '62 was cute, which is why I really want to get another early coupe. With floors and a cross member this time!

[Scott H]

My friend has a beautiful 64 coupe for sale right now. It's currently on eBay. I have driven it. It's a nice one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevrole ... sQ5fTrucks