1965 Corvair Corsa
 

Here is the latest addition to my collection, this one makes three.

Gregb

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...7&d=1474247017

Three Corvairs? Gee, you must have a really oily driveway! :D

Good One! Only under the new one, the others are leak tight.

Gregb

Nice! is it a 140 with 4 carborators?

jr

It is JR

Gregb

I was just teasing a bit, it's a very nice looking car!

That's OK Eric, maybe only a Corvair guy would see the humor in your comment and without a doubt I get it!
It is a pretty sweet little ride and has lots of get up and go.

Gregb

So what's the fix? different material for the pushrod tube o-rings? Silicone sealer everywhere? or just good luck?
Back in the day, I referred to my Corvairs affectionately as "Bow-legged road oilers" :D

jr

Viton is the best for the O-rings, they don't turn to stone like the originals did. Aluminum oil pans to replace the flimsy tin oil pan. My 62 does not leak a drop ever! The 65 leaks like it was shot with a shotgun but I am working on that.
The big gag at the Corvair shows is to cut a piece of black plastic to look like an oil puddle and toss it under buddies engine and sit back and watch the reactions!

Gregb

Nice little cars that Ralph Nader effectively put an end to.

Lol!

At least with those engines you'll never have to fix coolant leaks....I blew a heater hose on my lincoln a while back and the leak quest afterwards lead my to spending this weekend changing a rather leaky frost plug in a one of the most tricky places they put one (it just has to be the hardest one to reach that fails).

Ah yes I remember it well...my first car was a '65 Corvair Corsa (with the 140 HP 4 carb engine, a buddy at the time had the 180 turbo which was troublesome.) The memories... laying under the rear end, replacing those leaky push rod tube O-rings and valve cover gaskets so I wouldn't get smoked out using the heater!

Nice one btw Gregb! :thmbsp:

Thanks Ed!

That Ralph Nader is a douchebag! He never drove a car in his life, but could condemn a car. I fail to realize the logic!
He wrote a book on what he read or heard. Real experience in an area, like in our hobby is all that counts. Hands on experience. :thmbsp:

If Nader ever had to drive a car in deep snow he might have changed his mind...My dad tells the story of how during one of the more epic blizzards in Chicago in the late 60's-early 70's when not even the trains were moving due to deep snow his parent's Corvair was able to drive to the L-train station pick up folks and get them where they needed to be.

The "Early" Corvairs were sort of troublesome. But by '65 & the 2nd series, they'd got pretty much all the bad bugs out of 'em. There was an old guy in my church who drove a 'second series" 4 door til he died in the mid '80s... Another problem w/Corvairs, & this is likely what REALLY killed 'em, was that they were sort of "Dead Ends", virtually nothing on them could be used on more mainstream GM cars, & vice versa.

I still have owning one of these beauties on my bucket list! Congrats, Greg. :)

All the weight was in the back end, so it made sense that it would be good in the snow.
The design was a good cencept, but GM messed up, with very poor quality. They were in the market to compete with VW, but they were more expensive and a lot less reliable. :sigh:

Thanks Tom! Start looking for one, you will get tons-O-fun from it. We love our 62 and have driven it many miles, the furthest being Ventura California. Now to get to know the 65, found the major oil leak last night. It was missing one of the seals in the oil cooler, that sure explains the volume of oil it was using.


Gregb

GM-Well, ALL the Big 3- had a massive redesign of their "Standard size" Car lines for '65. In GM's case, it kicked off the look that sort of looked like a partially inflated bodyshell over a wire skeleton, which more or less lasted til the end of the traditional "Big" cars in 1977. It must have cost a fortune, but by the mid sixties, America's economy was generally doing VERY well, & the Big 3 sold about every one they could cram out the door. IMHO,the Corvairs looked especially nice, the 2 doors being rather light & "Airy" looking, & the 4 doors had a strong resemblance to their big brother Cadillacs..

I remember, either hearing or reading about one of the GM big-shots stating that they weren't crazy about building small economy cars, as there was little profit in them, compared to the larger cars. He also claimed that the labor cost was about the same. :scratch2:
You can't really argue with a bean-counter. :thumbsdn:

My brother bought a brand-new 62 Corvair in early 1962. Extremely poor fit-and-finish. The thing, leaked like a sieve in a hard rain. Before he could drive it, he had to bail out the front floor pan, there was that much water in it!
In the front hood compartment, he had to carry a three pound coffee can and a spare fan belt, with wrenches to change it, as it failed every 6 to 9 months.
One of the good things about it, is it did get 30MPG, premium fuel, as it had a high compression engine and a 4 speed.

The fan belt issue has been resolved as well as all of the oil leak issues. I have not had any trouble with the 62 since I went through it some 40k miles ago. Very reliable, starts and runs great and isn't to bad on fuel if I don't push it to hard. They did have growing pains for sure but time and technology have solve all the problems.

Gregb

Greg, a question, if I may? Since Corvairs were built before 1971, what do you use for fuel, since the valves and valve seats are not hardened in order to compensate for unleaded gasoline? Have you updated the valves and/or seats on yours? Or do you just take it easy when driving and don't put unduly excessive loads on the engines? Just curious!

I remember buying Super Shell for 28.9¢ a gal when I had my Corvair, '69-70. It needed high octane. That Shell station had a blue pump to the side by itself "Shell of the Future" unleaded gas.

Fan belt.. used to buy Gates steel cord reinforced belts at an industrial supply house. Never had a problem with one.

I use premium in the 62 and the 65 because they need it and I don't take it easy on them. They have aluminum heads with a hardened stainless valve seats so no lead is no problem.

Gregb

PS: I have in stock at least 2 corvair engine gasket sets - NOS GM.

I haven't studied nader's work even tho i would if i had the time but...
 

I drove a very charming 63 corvair spyder turbo convertable a very little but. If only for being so small it seemed scary unsafe to me just like the vw bugaboo.
I would not want someone i know driving one but in the most safe road conditions of minimal traffic.
It is very difficult to argue against doing all to protect anybody's safety.
My mark v makes me feel like i am as safe as in a rolls royce. I guess i am spoiled:no: in my mind. Ha ha!

I personally strongly dislike that mentality that others should not be allowed to take risk. Even if a car is not safe by someone's standards, that does not mean someone else should not be allowed to take a calculated risk.

I drive a Mark V regular in the summers, and while it feels a good bit better than many others I've driven it ain't perfect either....I've hydroplaned and fishtailed in it many times. I've also taken calculated risks in/with that car...For a while I was having braking problems that I eventually traced to a leaky master cylinder, but while I was trying to figure it out there were a few months where the first press of the pedal might not do anything every 3-5th time...I drove it such that I could deal with that quirk till I fixed it.

I personally dislike small zippy cars like corvettes, preludes, and the like, as I feel they temp drivers to bring out their worst habits, and often offer poor safety in a crash relative to a larger car...Would I tell someone not to own one, no, but I would probably not ever have one of my own.

U misread my mentality... i am just a little mental
 

:D
I understand everybody should do whatever they want like... let it all hang out baby yeah!
However, those of us that study reality over fantasies have an obligation to warn everybody for the hope of helping others to protect themselves. My wife and children and anybody that wants my advice will not be put at such risk. Really, multitudes of little cars are just as dangerous.
If you ever see someone you care about misled into harm you will adjust your thinking.
No offense intended as i am merely some sirt of loose nana i suppose:banana:

After thought... i would drive my wife and kids in one
 

Because they are totally cool. I just wouldnt take it in dangerous traffic like nyc. Recently i got all shook up going to manhattan. I am singing with niel diamond 8track, perfect sunny like fla, sunroof open: "i feel like the only rooster in the henhouse and i guess it shows"(not my kinda song but the mood fit)until the moment i entered the lincoln tunnel and like a switch flipped in my head to total fright like omg! As the tunnel lights were out, my headlights stuck on hibeam with outer bulbs un]lugged. I dont remember seeing lane lines, nobody to follow looked total dark. Cars behind me a huge bus to my right seemed to not want to pass me as i think i only did 10mph in a 35 zone. I still cant believe i got thru without scuffin my precious whitewalls.
Freaks me out to remember that reality . Makes me want a selfdriving car so i can smoke and make out instead of having all the crap scared outta me. I kept expecting crazy blaring horns but none, very strange for me.
Did i properly represent a typical floridian in my fashionable markv with palm beach tag?
That was my first time driving into mabhattan and just like on tv the peep show neon sign reminded me of what kinda place i was in. Actually the bigger clue was all the poor desperates asking for money. I seriously would love to give cash to anybody so sad but i am not rich yet. So, the mood i get there had me respond like an idiot: do i look like i have money to give! I truly almost got punched or killed several times. Between those desperates and a few nyc cops behaving like on tv i got really turned off to nyc. I will leave it for the elites:D

Well, remember, the Corvair is 'unsafe at any speed.'

lul

He he... even 0mph? Seriously i recognize how great corvairs are and i just should have thought more about how what i wrote could be percieved.
Elvis gave one to pricilla... how much more proof of cool do you need?
This almost got me all shook up uh ha huh yay yay i'm all shook up!

The person that quoted that, never drove a car. I, personally can't see anyone that has any wealth at all, not owning a car, barring physical or vision imparements. :thumbsdn:

I was jokingly quoting someone from the past.

Yeah, Ralph Nader who was famously quoted as saying that the Chrysler 300s were too dangerous because of their "sharp" tailfins... :sigh: :scratch2:

Yeah, lets just say that Nader's book "Dangerous at any Speed" did NOT make the New York Times Best selling list, in fact I believe that book was an absolute flop for him, I wonder why? :scratch2:

"Dangerous...?" Actually "Unsafe At Any Speed" was a non-fiction best seller in 1966.

As a reminder and why I am still tracking this thread, my 1st car I paid for was a '65 Corvair Corsa I bought in '68 for $450 off a used car lot. Drove it for a year and a half and lived to tell about it!

Well either way that book didn't make the New York Times Best Selling List, which is what makes a book a true best selling book, so technically its still a flop because if I remember right the book never broke the 10 million copies mark which is what makes a book a true "best seller" besides the aforementioned New York Times List, which is also the reason why you're hard pressed to find any copies of that book anymore because it was a load of crap that was written by someone that the U.S. government actually considered a communist sympathizer under the McCarthy Act.

Au contraire :D The book made it to NYT bestsellers #8 for two weeks in July '66...


http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1488848404

Back then the Time's best sellers list may have been a good ranking of best sellers, but it has not been recently...They've taken to ignoring best selling books that don't jibe with their political leanings...
Fair and accurate news reporting is hard to come by. They all lean hard in some direction, and don't do the leg work of confirming their sources information...As soon as one finds some juicy 'hear say' BS they all 're-tweet it' over their news feeds as fact, like trained parrots. Disgraceful.