Cadillac Owners Forum banner

1964 Corvair Monza - Operation Crustbuster

27K views 168 replies 23 participants last post by  rodnok01 
#1 · (Edited)
Alright, So some of you know that I have been working on something very dangerous. Something unsafe... at any speed. Well, I figured I may as well share my progress with you guys here.

A few months back Stingroo and I were playing Forza motorsport, and an update came out which included the Corvair. I immediately was drawn to the vehicle, and playing with it from the seat of my ultra high-tech prosche simulator box, I fell in love with it. Roo recalls me asking "why do people hate these cars so much?" To which he replied "Ralph Nader." At that point I went offline.



Well, then in real life, literally less than 48 hours later. I showed up with this.



I found it in Merrit Island, just west of Cocoa beach. Rotting away on the side of the road with a bunch of stickers in the window. "1964 CORVAIR MONZA CONVERTIBLE. NEEDS CARBS CLEANED AND GAS TANK DRAINED." I spoke with the chap who owned it, he had told me it wouldn't crank over. I had brought my go-bag with all kinds of test equipment, enough to make any vehicle within reason start. I show up, and I say "I want to test it." He looked at my blankly, and said "well there's no battery." To which I replied, "I brought a jump box, let me see the key." At that point he hands me a small masterlock padlock key. I look up at him, expecting him to laugh at the joke he just made. He didn't. I said 'this is the key?" "Yes that is the only key the car came with." Much to my surprise, I put it in the ignition, attempted to turn it, and miraculously, it wouldn't do a thing! Because it is not a padlock. It is a car. It was heavily rusted in some parts, great in others. Everything was there. All I had to go on when I got the car was a title and a good feeling, so we negotiated, and I put it on a flatbed and took it home.



First thing I did was break into the car and take the locks out, then take them to an antiquities locksmith. To my great pleasure, all the cylinders matched! One key did everything. Over the next few days I found that the gas tank didn't need to be drained at all! God had taken care of that for me, through the miraculous combined efforts of corrosion and gravity! I sprayed starting fluid (I call it 'special juice') into the intake manifolds, after replacing the battery, turned the key, and it sputtered and twitched. This was a good sign. After patching the tank, and rebuilding the cars' two single barrel carburetors, re-did the fuel lines, and cranked the engine over, with a bit of prayer. It started!!!! Then stopped. I found it would stay alive at high RPM's. So I pull the vacuum advance, and it died immediately. Clearly timing was to blame. I re-timed the engine using the "old fashioned" method (left till it pings, then right a bit.) and the car ran like a top!



After that, I went to go take it for a ride. Filled up the brake fluid, let out the clutch, and she carried along fine! Then I... well... hit the brakes. Yeah... After some creative engine braking and swearing and cursing, I got the car back into my driveway. It was pissing brake fluid from all the lines. New brake lines were $200! So I said to myself, "Know what's less than that? A roll of tubing." So I spent my free time the next couple days under the car with a flaring tool and a line bender, and completely re-plumbed it. Bled it, and bam! Brakes. With some more tuning, I had the car going like a scalded cat! I was commuting with the little scamp already, and it was loving every moment of it, and getting 24MPG in the process!




However there are still issues. There is quite a bit of rust on this car. The floor pans are SHOT, and the rockers are on their last legs. This being GM's first unibody car, those are the main structural components of the vehicle, which cause things like the doors being very difficult to close, especially with the convertible top down.



I ordered some new floor panels and other bits, and drove the car over 200 miles to my body guy, who has agreed to take on the body project. (The car was a champ the whole ride, by the way. It did vapor lock after I sat in traffic for a while, though. I was too lazy to insulate fuel lines. Lesson learned.) I am planning on connecting the car's two subframes, making the body much more solid. I expect this to greatly improve handling. As of right now, the car is with my body man, who is doing the welding, patching, and metalwork. This is the latest photo I have of the progress.

 
See less See more
8
#61 · (Edited)
I had a 1965 Corvair convertible and a 1964 Spyder hardtop and several parts cars including a station wagon in the 1980s. I rebuilt the Spyder motor with all new cylinders pistons, cams clutch brakes and had to order the correct turbo heads. The sheetmetal around the engine was a puzzle to put back. I found it in a field when I was working on a drilling rig. My Corvair was the 150 HP and the next year was a 180HP. My car would get to 120 real fast but the brakes were old weak drum brakes and if you were in a sharp curve the front end was too light for the tires to grip. Corvairs also are danderous because the heater uses heat from the exhaust manifolds. Ir the exhaust manifolds leak the exhaust blows out to the inside heater with carbon monoxide. The heater was the most dangerous thing plus the weak brakes and light front end. Other than that they were neat little cars. The 1964 was the last year of the early body style and the first year of the bigger motor. 145 and 165 motors. Clarks Corvair parts had most of the parts I needed.
 
#65 ·
I have bad news. After getting the car to my other, (competent) body guy, the consensus is that the car is non-salvagable. There is too much rust and not enough steel to re-weld the entire rockers and floor pan and have a sturdy enough car to be road worthy. I am now faced with the decision of either finding a good solid corvair with no engine from one of the states where cars don't seem to rust, and dropping all my good running gear into it, or dismantling my car and selling the parts. I am in talks with a guy who has a farm with about 20 corvairs, and am seeing what kind of deal we can work out, but I'm not really sure what direction to go in. This whole thing is very saddening, especially because the moron tackwelded my $400 of new steel to the car, I'm going to hope I can cut it back out clean enough to be able to re-use or re-sell those new panels.

What do you guys think? Part it out and walk away? Try to find a new body? Or part it out and find a whole different car?
 
#66 ·
Having owned 3 of these cars from brand new, with that amount of rust damage, my take is "Part it and walk". Bummer. Corvairs are NOT that much of a resto darling - there has to be a '64 Monza or Spyder out there somewhere - for dirt cheap.
 
#68 ·
Unless you have something really special in the way of modified part to transfer or recently rebuilt stuff, pull what you can sell easily and sell the rest to the farm. They made so many of those there have to be better ones to put time into! Sorry for your loss:(.

If you are rounding up a group of "like minded enthusiasts" to pay a visit to body guy one for a "motivational/instructional" visit, put me on the list.:bouncer:
 
#69 ·
Thanks, Dave. I've been searching Arizona craigslist ads, I see quite a few rust free cars for cheap that I think would be better to put my time into. I've actually sent out a couple emails already. I think I'm going to sell what I can from this car and have the rest go to scrap steel. It will be worth the money to have a rust-free car transported from AZ where I can just resurrect the engine down here than spending bajillions trying to fight car cancer. I definitely have corvair fever though. I loved driving around with the top down in that '64 so much. Myself and a couple others have their eyes open looking for rust free, 4 speed, early model convertibles. My only two requirements for the replacement car: 4 speed, convertible. I'll keep you guys up to date. I'm hoping to find one with no rust, but not running so I can get a bargain.
 
#70 ·
Actually, unless you are totally enamored with the looks of the first generation Corvair, the second generation Corvairs were much better cars. I remember driving a new '66 Corvair convertible back when they were "new" on the dealer floor and to be honest it was the best handling American car I had ever driven up to that point in time. Certainly better tan the European rear engined cars available at the time! Just as the 911/912 was a leap forward for Porsche, the second generation Corvair was a vastly better car than the first generation. In the 1980's a guy I knew had a high performance version of the second generation Corvair Spyder and it was one great car!
 
#71 ·
I am definitely WAY more into the first gen appearance. But if I find a great deal on a late model, whatever. As long as its four on the floor, and a convertible, I'll go for it. I'm not really into this car for the performance... It's the experience of driving it.
 
#74 ·
Corvairs will never be worth much. I have owned a few because they were so cheap to buy. They are also very dangerous because of the light front end the understeer of the wheels and if the exhaust manifolds leak the heater will fill the car with carbon monoxide. They are cool little cars but were really dangerous.
 
#75 ·
All vintage cars are dangerous compared to modern cars to some extent. The Corvair is no exception, nor is it any worse than most vintage cars. Good information to know so you can make sure the heat exchangers are in good condition. After all any car is dangerous if you don't keep them in proper running order. They will never be very valuable because of the large numbers produce, and because of the infamous ending they suffered by smear campaign from a headline seeking writer with a book to sell. After that lots of people held onto them figuring they would be collectible. The flip side of that is they are cheap to buy and maintain.
 
#77 ·
talismandave said:
All vintage cars are dangerous compared to modern cars to some extent. The Corvair is no exception, nor is it any worse than most vintage cars. Good information to know so you can make sure the heat exchangers are in good condition. After all any car is dangerous if you don't keep them in proper running order. They will never be very valuable because of the large numbers produce, and because of the infamous ending they suffered by smear campaign from a headline seeking writer with a book to sell. After that lots of people held onto them figuring they would be collectible. The flip side of that is they are cheap to buy and maintain.
Yup
Although, nader wrote his book in 63 or 64, and the corvair lived on until 1969 (and the problem with the rear end suspension he wrote about was corrected in 64). He did kill sales though. I believe they were essentially cut in half each year after his book and the surrounding controversy came out, but I'm sure the introduction of the nova and camaro (small sporty cars that took the corvairs market) also took large bites out of corvair sales.
 
#82 ·
I think if it is straight and ready to go jump on it. Those cars are stone simple as far as swapping stuff. Simple construction and not a lot of parts! You will still be able to sell the floor pans and a few other parts to make the purchase price on the new one. Even the glass has to be of value to someone. The good thing is being a turbo shell you could always upgrade to that if you want.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top