I have owned a couple of Corvairs, I have a soft spot for the early models. (Still looking for a cheap runner. Anyone around the IE?) But driving one of them is not like driving a front engine car. But once you have it down, you can make some people downright squeamish in the twisties. I have blown away plenty of fart can Hondas in some patches of road. Not because they were faster, but because I could toss mine around better than they could. I like old muscle, and classic iron, but there is something so out of left field about the Corvair that I can't help but dig them. And wrt to the fan belt. Most of those things flipped off from either being too loose, or too tight. It took quite a few strandings to really get the procedure down, and once I did, I never flipped another belt.
Chevrolet's original intent was a weekend car for 2 , holding 2 lmedium size suitcases in the front trunk .......... I had a 62, back in the early 90's...used to drive it with the wife to a local A&W Drive in....the rodders then, looked down at it ...not cool enough yet, back then...
Someone mentioned electric fans and such. This was the motor for my corvair 10 or so years ago. It was a strong running motor until #3 and #4 rod decided to escape and make a run for it. The fuel injection unit was a Holley Pro-jection ( pre-digital ); the HEI was setup by DUI in Tenn. The alternator was a 190 AMP Ford police unit. The electric fan thing simply does not work. I was putting more CFM through the shroud than a stock fan but the pressure which builds off the stock fan just never happened.
Very good post, My sister has a convertible Corvair. Someday I'll get one and do a radical Corvair-Rod type of build. Thanks Gary
Im realy surprised noone posted these yet! Its a few years old pic of a Drag'n'shp project, i posted it in another thread last year or 2 years agoi aint sure, i have more pics at home and i always wondered what happened to this car. Personally i love it! And BTW: ANYBODY W/ MORE PICS OF THE EARLY 70S LOWRIDER ONES? tHE ORANGE FLAKE ONE AND THE BLUE ONE ON ASTROS??? PLEASE!!!!!
The orange flaked '61 was just rescued and is now in AZ. I think a HAMBer owns it, but I'm not sure. There are a ton of pics on the Corvair board. It's called the Monkey Paw http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.php?1,220561,page=1
But guys, is it the same one that originally had the mustang rear lights? I see some similarities and some very diffrent stuff, i wonder if this is a later version, if so it was better left alone.....if its another one, i'd love to see them both back to former glory and scraping pavements.....8)
Thanx for clarifing it, and congrats! Sure you'll enjoy it..... That period was freakin mad on mods and paint jobs, if you dont have a taste for it its kinda hard to swlallow,.... bad sentence i guess Anyway, i personally love it. More lowrider/kustom 'vairs please!!!!!!
Don't have any photos of it anymore, but from about 1977 to '80, my daily driver was a mildly customized and slightly modified '68 Corvair Monza coupe. When I first bought the car in '77, it was absolutely nothing special - a low mileage and clean, but otherwise plain-jane and bone stock Corvair with a 110 hp/Powerglide. Paint was original, faded and rather ugly, sort of a 'pea green' color (yuch!) with even uglier and matching, sort of 'pea green' colored interior (double yuch!). The first upgrade I did was paint. I called in a bunch of favors and got a buddy who worked at a local GM dealer's body shop to paint the car after hours. He used factory GM colors - a '70 Cadillac "dark brown metallic Firemist" for the main body color with contrasting, painted on, "68 Z/28 Camaro style" rally stripes, done in '65 Cadillac "light gold metallic Firemist". After the paint was on, the car was wet sanded and then sprayed with three coats of clear-coat, wet sanded again between each coat and then buffed. When it was all done the paint was super smooth and looked liked it was about a foot deep! The next upgrade was the interior. For that, I put in a new black carpet and complete black interior - ie - dash pad, headliner, trim panels front buckets and folding rear seat, all scrounged from a junked 66 140 hp Corvair Corsa. I also installed the '66 Corsa's "tach, speedo & oil and temperature' guage cluster along with a factory wood-grain steering wheel from a '67 Chevelle. At the back, I installed a 'new from GM'140 hp Corsa dual exhaust system with chrome tips and a '68 Camaro Z/28 rear deck spioler. At the front. I added an aftermarket 'IECO' front spoiler and I swapped the stock headlights out for a pair of flat faced Carillo H4 Quartz-Iodine conversion lights in the low-beam holes and a pair of G.E. sealed-beam aircraft landing lights in the high beam holes! For the suspension, I lowered the car about an inch and a half all around, by cutting one coil out of each spring. Later, I also added some Koni adjustable shocks all around and a pair of swap-meet sourced super heavy-duty Addco front and rear sway bars. For wheels , I replaced the stock 13X5 wheels and 7.00-13 bias-ply tires with 14X7 '70 Chevelle SS wheels and ER60-14 front and GR60-14 rear Goodyear 'Polysteel GT radials. When everything was done, by doing most of the the work (other than the paint) myself and by calling in some favors and with lots of judicious and lucky junkyard and swap-meet parts scrounging, I probably didn't have more than $1000 or so tied up in the whole car - including the original $350 purchase price! Power-wise, it was still a slug, thanks to the stock 110 hp engine and Powerglide, but it looked cool (it at least looked 'fast as hell' and sure got lots of looks!) and would handle and out corner just about anything else on wheels -including a lot of local high-dollar exotic sports cars! The painted-on script lettering I had across the back of the rear deck spoiler didn't say "Poor Man's Porsche" for nothing you know!!! mart ==========================
Anymore on these 2 then? I'd love to see a full 6 page article on both. Anybody has scanned lowrider mag from early 70s? Thanx, Nick.
I would LOVE to find a Fiberglass Elcamino Conversion for a Corvair....Anyone know of one, let me know PLEASE...!
Without offending the purists here... has anyone made an adapter / bell housing to replace the engine with a Subaru? Gary
Here are some of my Corvairs: My 61 Convertible, with my wife. My 66 with Pontiac wheels. and Ford Probe interior. My 63 Greenbrier Van with "custom" one piece rear door. My 65 Monza Convertible and my 67 Monza Coupe
Myself and the Niagara Frontier Corvair Club restored this vintage prototype Corvair Military motor for the Corvair Preservation Society, and it is now on display at the Buffalo Transportation Museum. Here is a link to all the pictures of the motor restoration and what the motor was to be used in. http://rides.webshots.com/album/560592248tyJFOL Coming up are other Corvair motors to be displayed at the museum, including an experimental modular motor, a fuel injected, and a cut-away.
A friend of mine is currently restoring a Corvair Spyder Convertible once owned by Carl Sagan, a restoration not for the weak of heart, it's pretty bad........but he's got a lot done so far. http://rides.webshots.com/album/233356382dqYpqr He did a Corvair rampside before that was pretty far gone, now a Senior division car. http://rides.webshots.com/album/244841866UPMdVu
i love this site!! i was looking all over for some corvair pics,i juss got a 1963 2 door for free from a woman in my town .her dad bought it brand new and it went to her i was thinking of making it into a low budget kustom.
I have had several diff corvairs from 1961 to 70 when I got out of them. all that is left is a 61 monza medallion, and a corvair to chevy v/8 adapter. Great pics. keep up the good work.
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