- '65 Corsa in my driveway with '92 Corvette in the background
- Me with my '65 Corsa
II'm a 61 yr ole, 10 yr USAF Veteran, disabled/retired Computer Software Engineer that bought a '65 Corsa Conv, 140 hp, 4 x 1bbls, 4 speed, black on black, and white top back in Oct 2015. 2 owners back this Corvair was owned by Jonathan Rintels, the writer of the book LIFEMOBILE, which was about him and his son restoring a Monza, which is fiction, but it kinda happened with this Corsa. https://jonathanrintels.com/.
This car appeared in Hemmings and the seller, a retired Navy pilot, lived about 8 mi from me ! I am not new to Corvairs as a lad of 19 yrs back in 1973, I bought a '66 Corsa Coupe for $250. It had primer spots on the body and had a 180 emblem on the rear hood. Apparently it was originally a Turbo, but had a 110 engine when I got it. It ran like a top in the 18 mos I owned it as I bought it from a mechanic. All I did was change oil. I angered my Father as he did not speak to me for 2 mos as he was a hard core Ford man, and despised all GM products as being a Master Mechanic for the county truck garage and always brought up the distributor residing in the rear being as a poor and inconvenient design. Finally as the tin worm took over, all my windows came off the tracks, and my heater was putting out generous amounts of CO, carbon monoxide. But, It was really a cool car ! It was a cream/yellowish color enhanced by red primer spots, and had a white interior with OEM headrests. That was an option.
Back to 2015. When I went to see the Corsa last fall, the owner had it all warmed up and I didn't notice any smoke. But after I got it, it smoked substantially until it warmed up ! I've had to put in 2 qts of Castol GTX high mileage 10w-30 in about 700 mi. My current mechanic told me the reason for the smoke, but I can't remember what he said, but it wasn't the rings. My memory is not so hot as in the past 2 years, I've broke my back in 10 places, from 5 falls, broke my hip requiring 2 surgeries and a replacement alloy hip and rod. I was also in stage 4 end liver disease, cirrhosis from 40 yrs of hard drinking daily( I now am up to 7 yrs sober now and if anyone wants to know how I did it please send me a private message or not !), and the liver docs sentenced me to Hospice a year ago. I did not obey that order and made it to August 2015 when I got a liver transplant. That made me feel 20 years younger, but I still have back and hip pain. I say no more surgeries as I just can't take more of that, unless it stops death.
Back to the Corsa. I had an early problem with the engine stopping while driving. I'd let it sit for 15 mins or so and it would start right up. Autozone tested my Voltage regulator and said it was bad so I put new one in, about $25 bolted right in. That didn't fix it so I suspected the coil and took the gas cap off. So I was on my way to a doc appt and it stopped. The gas gauge showed 1/4 tank, so it looked like I had 3.5 gal. Wrong ! I used my Haggarity RA service and had it flat bed towed to my usual mechanics. Turned out I was outta gas ! The gauge didn't go below 1/4. Then they put some gas in it and the clutch cable broke ! So I called Clark's and got a cable for $40 which added another $18 shipping UPS ground as it was 40 " long. They said all 4 carbs were leaking gas and stopped the leaks that meant tightening the rubber hoses. They put on a new coil and condenser, to stop the radio noise. They fixed a few minor things and I was out the door for $280 which was Ok as I now found a Mechanic about my age has worked on these air/oil cooled RWD'ers.
On that Haggerty insurance, I have the Corsa insured for $10K, Road Side Assistance, and up to 150mi towing paying $180 yr. More facts about the H-6", it has one speed wipers, may be a Saginaw trans, most weren't till '66 from most reading sources. I have license plates I believe were from Clark's as they have "1965" and a number. They are permanent historic plates that allows me to bypass state inspections and the annual tag fee. All I pay is $5 personal property tax per year. That's as cheap as you can find and in case we have EMP(ElectroMagneticPulse) I'm ready ! What there is a transistor in the Alternator ?
I have a light scratch on the glove box door. The tires nearly new, now BF Goodrich Touring P-205/70 x 14 factory red/white/blue Buick mags including the spare, although not original but look good in my pics attached. I checked the Speedo with the GPS on my I-phone and with the tire size upgrade shows 10 mph slow as 60 is actually 70 mph.
This is getting long but I have some things to note. Other than that $3K 5 speed trans Clark's had (too much $$'s and they only had 10) my Corsa with (assumed) 3.55 rear gears howls at 4000 rpm running 70 mph. It should be running at half the rpm ! I read a posting saying that you don't want to "lug" the rpm's as it will make the "Load" higher resulting in more engine heat. But it could pull 70 mph at 2000 rpm, don't ya'll think ?
What happened with the 2 speed "Columbia" axles from the 30's and 40's. Why did the demise of "overdrive" in the 70's happen when they needed to save gas ? So is it hard to change the gearing to say, 2.55 ?
I'm only getting about 20 mpg with 3.55's. Sure it accelerates almost as fast as the 289/302 V-8 Mustangs I had, but I should get near 30 on the hiway. I also have a '92 Corvette that is not running, that got 32mpg on a trip from Atlanta to Richmond on I-85 at 70mph. It does about 1500 rpm at 60mph. This Corsa cranks up to 3700 rpm at 65 mph. way
Finally I want to mention a/c. This was almost a deal breaker. I swore I would never buy a car without it, and I did anyway. I looked at Vintage Air and its still at least near $3000 with labor. So I'll be resigned to driving my Corsa during off hours, top down in the summer. I've developed a new problem. If I'm accelerating hard from 2nd and 3rd gear it seems to cut out a little bit. It was ok right after I bought
In closing I'll say that I found 93 octane gas with NO ETHANOL about 30 mins from here. It works out as my Sister and step daughter both live 15 more miles from the "real gas" station.
So I thank all the "alternative car lovers" here for allowing me to participate in this forum. I hope to join the Fredricksburg chapter, just north of here. And I need to buy a spare engine belt and learn how to put it on as sooner or later I will throw the belt. I still can't get over that people unfamiliar with the belt say its impossible for the belt to operate that way, LOL. My future intentions are to further restore the Corsa as its about 80% right now. 73's as my HAM call sign is WD5HIH. as I got my General Class license in 1977 in Tx.
Ok, so it says in FAQ's that a pic has to be on a public server and that I have to have permission to post them. HALP ! I want to post pics from my HP Notebook that are in good taste, no sexy Corvair here, or Corvairs are actually sexy IMHO !
Well, I see from the FAQ's I have to see a ADD FILES link which never appears so I'm going to post my text anyway.
Welcome to the Corvair Forum!
With a medical history like that... and being a survivor you may be one of the few who knows what it is like to BE a Corvair survivair. If you can survive all of those medical obstacles you can probably overcome almost any Corvair-based obstacle!
1966 Corvair Corsa Convertible
Search CorvairForum
Corvair Vendors
Calendar
Birthdays
Newest members