Corvair Corsa 140/4spd
 

Well....we did it.
After the longest week in my recent life, I finally got her home today!
1965 Corsa 140/4 speed. Not running but as they always say in the ad, "It ran when it was parked 20 years ago." Uh huh.... We'll see.

Overall it's pretty straight. It's pretty loaded. AM/FM radio with rear speaker option, and other tidbits.

Really looking forward to this project... I'll keep it updated. First things first. Carb rebuild kits and get the thing re-keyed. No keys came with it. Still couldn't pass it up. No rust.

Me jelly.

Looky what Mrs. 2LZ found!

My uncle had one of those in 1965. He lifted the trunk, and I remember seeing that belt getting turned 90 degrees on those two pulleys. I thought it was a flat six, but I guess it's a V6? Mrs. 2LZ can hold the flashlight while you tinker on it.

Nope, a flat 6. Somehow, I can't picture Mrs.2LZ putting up with the 'Dad Yell' from Mr.2LZ in regards to aiming of said flashlight.

So it IS a flat six. Ford was using a water cooled V6 car for some smaller midsized models (British Ford), and they were conventional front engine RWD. Up until Chevy's Corvair, the Porsche 911 was the go to RWD flat 6 sports car.

Ralph Nader may have killed the Corvair. Maybe Chevy could have widened it and limited suspension travel to make it a little more stable, but the damage was done. "unsafe at any speed" was a rather blatant exaggeration. I rode in my uncles Corvair and he pushed it into some curves, and got some 4 wheel drift for me. Serious sideway G-forces- I was about 9 years old. That was FUN!

LOL! Hilarious! Oh no....she'd beat me with said flashlight.

That would be a hoot for a 9 year old!

Actually, Chevy came out with their Flat Six in the Corvair three years before Porsche came out with theirs in 1963.

Regarding Ralph Nader, the Corvair community now has fun with him. It wasn't he who killed the Corvair, it was the Nova, Camaro and Mustang that brought about the end of the Corvair in 1969. They were selling those cars by the bucketful. The Corvair's time was about done.

A little history on Corvair handling and Ralphy Boy....

"NHTSA went on to contract an independent advisory panel of engineers to review the tests. This review panel concluded that 'the 1960–63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests. The handling and stability performance of the 1960–63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic.' "

"Journalist David E. Davis, in a 2009 article in Automobile Magazine, noted that despite Nader's claim that swing-axle rear suspension were dangerous, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Tatra, and Volkswagen all used similar swing-axle concepts during that era. Some contend that Nader's lack of an automotive engineering degree or a driver's license at the time he wrote Unsafe at Any Speed, disqualifies him as a critic of automotive safety. In response to Nader's book, Mechanix Illustrated reviewer Tom McCahill tried to get a 1963 Corvair to flip, at one point sliding sideways into a street curb, but could not turn over the vehicle."

Sooooo..... I had to take out a door lock and the trunk lock yesterday to get the lock numbers, since I have no keys! Fortunately, there are guys on the Corvair forums that can cut keys by the lock numbers.

Long story short, I had to take out a headlight and bucket, reach in with a 7/16" wrench and undo the lock loop bolts to get the trunk open. I wasn't sure what to expect or what I'd find in there. The trunk is usually a rust prone area due to salt, etc....getting tossed on the underneath side. Many are rotted through especially in the mid west and back east. I was very please to see this when the lid went up.

Wow!!!!!!

Good old 'crabass' Tom McCahill of Mechanix Illustrated. The guy never held back on his opinions. I just read a piece by him in the April 1952 issue regarding the new Ford 215 six cylinder.

Being that this thing is going to be a driver and not a full-on resto, I really have to think about where to draw the line at cost. I wish I had gotten a better pic but the right rear was punked in at one time. The trim was hammered and paint on the fender was missing. There are also other substantial chips in the paint on other areas.

I spoke with an auto body buddy and he says, "A quality repaint at our shop would flip this thing so far upside down, you'd never get your money out of it. You'd have to do it for love."

Sooooo....my young buddy came over and we went after it in budget fashion. I custom carved a wire brush handle on the grinder and he drove the hammer part of the process, while I aimed the small piece of lumber. We got the dent out to an acceptable level and then he went around the car with some Testors gloss black and a set of brushes. I sat back and drank a few beers. I think it turned out more than acceptable. The pot metal coving I was able to straighten and paint, and the stainless trim piece is on order. Total repair cost? 63 bucks. I'll take it.

The best part of the day? Spending time with my 26 year old buddy. He loves his "funcle". He's a firefighter on "Helattack" and doesn't get home often. I'm glad he chose to spend the day with me.

Quick update. Got the new keys in and they worked awesome!
I did a bunch of touch-up paint today, since it made it all the way to 48'. If done "correctly", it would be a repaint/resto, but it's going to be a driver. I decided to do a test panel of the old black to see if it would come out ok. There are scars, scuffs, etc....for it's paint age, but I think it turned out more than acceptable for a driver. This was after a machine buff of Maguires Ultimate Compound and two machine buffs of Maguires Ultimate Polish. No wax yet. I think this will work.

After multiple days of buffing and waxing, I finished today. Much like me, it still looks like crap up close, but does ok from a distance. ;-)

Again, this is going to be a driver, not a resto. After I got all the paint touched up and buffed, I decided a killer, period correct, racing stripe to help cover the crazed section on the roof was the ticket. Here's the start of the stripe project. I think it's going to work.

She's looking good! :tup: