All About Corvairs

ghulet

Let's just stick to the Corvairs. I didn't ask my parents any sordid details about my conception, I was kinda mortified that my mom even offered the information.

I wonder where their Corvair wagon is now, that's kind of a cool car. I do wonder, since the engine was under the wagon floor, if you had to be careful about what you put on that floor (heat).

storyteller

The Corvair was a horrible winter car. Well, I'm in Minnesota, so we're talking extremes. The front end was so light it would float over a fresh snow, which made turns exciting. In cold weather the turbo-engine model usually refused to start. I learned that spraying ether in the air cleaner would solve that problem. Every day when it was cold I would open the engine, spray it with ether, close it all up and drive off. Running out of ether was as bad as running out of gas.

The heater and defroster were inadequate. Snow would slide down the windshield and gather in the air chamber for the defroster. It would melt there as the car warmed up. Then when you turned on the defroster, steamy air hit the windshield, and suddenly it was like the whole windshield had been painted white. Total whiteout. Very exciting.

Mr_Shiftright

The early Corvairs had these special gas heaters in the front trunk space. They were fed gasoline through the normal fuel supply and were fired by an ignition coil.

I remember being scared just looking at one, but I bet if they didn't blow up they would certainly throw a lot of heat into the passenger compartment. I think VW busses had a similar system as an option.

slummyj

There is a Corvair club, Corvair Minnesota. It meets the 2nd Tuesday on each month at the Officer's Club at Ft. Snelling. If you are still interested in Corvairs, they would love to have you come to a meeting.

speedshift

My '60 had the gas-fired heater and I think I remember it being toasty. This was 31 years ago so I'm a little sketchy on this.

I do remember that the heater never blew up, even when I ran into another car hard enough for someone's head to dent the metal dash. I say "someone's head" because neither I or my date could remember hitting the dash at all, let alone hard enough to put a sizeable dent in it.

If it was my head that explains the last 31 years.

storyteller

Thanks, slummyj. I live within sight of Fort Snelling. It would be fun to drop by.

kinley

were always the first one out of the parking lot due to the instant hot gasoline heater. I never scrapped the windshield. Start the engine, turn on the defroster, load the skis, change out of the boots and by that time the W/S was clear and the interior was toasty. Then children and we eventually switched to a 67 Ford Country Sedan, but that little Corvair was great for over 7 years and 100,000 miles. Balancing the two carbs with a Unisyn helped the performance and with Powerglide!

spellbound

Back in the 70's my dad bought a used 1969 Corvair Monza convertable. I think he was the 2nd owner and I learned how to drive a stick shift on this car. I think there were only 521 '69 convertables made. Anyway my dad turned into a Corvair fanatic and bought and sold many however he ruinded this car in my opinion. First he had it painted a metalic lime green (ick) rather than the original dark metalic forest green. The he decided to hop it up so he had the motor rebuilt but he had this crazy idea about intake and carburation so he had the intake manifolds on the heads cut and turned into a box for a plenum chamber. I guess he was going to put two two barrels on it? The motor was put back in the car but the heads were never finished and it's never run since. It has been towed from Denver to here, then sat in his parking lot for a year or two until I asked him if he was going to do anything with it, otherwise I'd like to have it.

Of course I've never done anything with it either and it has sat in my garages of three different residences for around 20 years. I don't think I'll ever do anything with it either as my interests have changed. Does anyone have any idea of what value if any this car has?

It's a 1969 140HP Monza Convertable and had the hd suspension, quick steering, AM/FM and power top options. While it was originaly an Illinois car, it hasn't been there in years and rust is minimal, a little surface rust in places. The dash is from a Corsa with the Tach. It would be a great car once restored. I wonder what restoration costs would be?

Mr_Shiftright

It doesn't sound like it is worth restoring, but it may be worth selling to someone who doesn't know that, or who might want a hobby and has the skills to do lots and lots of labor for free.

This would be a perfect car to sell on Ebay, with lots of photos. I bet you could get $2,500 for it if all the pieces were there and it was too much of a mess. If it's really deplorable and needs everything, it might be worth considerably less. I doubt a non-running Corvair would be worth more, unless it were a turbo ragtop perhaps.

spellbound

I'm not expecting it to be worth much, Corvairs have never been popular :-) But I would like to have my garage back.

Mr_Shiftright

ON Ebay you can instantly reach all the1 5 people who restore these cars!

Another way that might be less hassle is to contact the Corvair club and ask for a free ad in their newsletter or website.

speedshift

Also maybe an ad in Hemmings or the national Auto Trader. Hemmings is expensive and not for anyone who's in a hurry (lots of lead time before the ad appears) but if there's any serious market for the car it probably reads both publications.

My limited experience with club ads is that they make you join the club and pay a year's dues before they run your ad, and then no one calls. The club members I met seemed to know value too well and in fact were usually looking for a deal. But it might be a good idea to just show up at a local club meet.

I had a '65 Corsa Turbo from 1970 to around 1986 and for most of those years it just sat because I was tired of it but was sure it would be worth big money some day. Many cars take up valuable garage space because of this thinking.

I paid $450 for it and was lucky to sell it 16 years later for around $750 to a local buyer, a retired engineer who tinkered with Corvairs and was apparently not a free spender. That's the problem with off brands--they're not "must have" cars so buyers don't get emotional over them.

The fact that you've got a convertible makes things a little better since they have more universal appeal, especially when the weather is good. If you can get it running fairly cheaply I definitely would. That expands the pool of potential buyers exponentially.

Mr_Shiftright

No, Hemmings is not expensive at all! You must be thinking of something else there.

speedshift

Hemmings is certainly cheaper and more effective than running a classified ad in a large newspaper for a month but I gave up on the classifieds early on. When I advertised in Hemmings in the early to mid '80s it was way more expensive than what I'd been using before, the Auto Trader and Wheels 'n Deals. I could be wrong but it was something like $25 for the Trader and $100 for a basic Hemmings ad with no boldface or any of the other trimmings.

I do think Hemmings is worth the difference for the right car even when it gets you calls from mostly local buyers you theoretically could have reached with the Trader. Hemmings seemed to be a better way to sell a genuinely collectible car while the Trader was better for selling marginal collectibles/used cars. Put another way, Hemmings was no way to sell marginal collectibles, although I certainly tried.

Of course that was a long time ago and things may have changed, especially with the Internet.

Mr_Shiftright

No, you must be thinking of maybe a large photo ad or something. Hemmings ads cost about $12 for 4-5 lines of text for one month.

boxtrooper

Hi,

I have a garage full of old corvair parts. Some are NOS some are used. Some are interesting like a pair of rebuildable quad carb 140 heads that I traded a large freezer for back in the early 80's and never got around to using. There's a case of NOS secondary carbs to go with it. I think there is a 4 speed transmission only used for training, fully assembled. Much more, lots of odds and ends. One body part NOS the lower body panel I don't remember if its front or rear but it is early model. There should be enough parts to assemble 3 or 4 engines with lots more spares.

The garage will be cleaned out soon. I would hate to throw all that stuff away. I could probably make some money with it on Ebay, but would prefer a batch sale to save time and packaging effort.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of this stuff so that someone will use it? It would be nice to get a little money for it, but it will be a major bargain for the buyer.

Thank You
BoxTrooper
Previous owner of 61 corvair coupe with factory air conditioning.
Previous owner of white with red stripe 1964 Eight Door Corvair Greenbriar Deluxe.
Wish I still had the 1964 Eight Door Corvair Greenbriar Deluxe, only 1200 made.
Previous owner of 63 yellow Corvair van.
Family members owned about 4 other Corvairs all early models.

isellhondas

Wow...talk about a rare option.

I saw a '63 Monza once with factory A/C. I remember looking at the engine for a long time wondering out how they did it.

storyteller

Saw this movie last night. It features a Corvair. Early in the movie the protagonist, a teacher, drives a Corvair. His principal jeers at him for driving an unsafe car. He replies that this is all he can afford on his salary unless Ralph Nader wants to buy him something better. The Corvair comes back at the end of the film as a "classic" being proudly driven by his son.

Anyone else know of films featuring Corvairs?

isellhondas

Ernie Kovacs got killed in one.

Rumor was he was lighting up a cigar and lost control. I remember the photo. I think it was a wagon.

farnsworthy

I used to drive that piece of Sunset Blvd where Kovacs was killed, on my daily trip to UCLA. He may have been lighting a cigar, but there was oil on the road from a previous accident as well, according to the Times. I remember this because I did my daily drive in a '62 Corvair and couldn't help but take heed to the implicit warning.

Mr_Shiftright

I still miss Ernie. He was a genius among a lot of mediocres,and way way ahead of his time.

But I don't blame the Corvair. You've got to respect whatever you are driving and know the car's limitations.