I'm a fan of Corvairs. There's a decent looking 64 for sale in Fredericton. It ticks all the boxes for what I'd want (2 door, 4 speed, southern car etc). The 64 had camber compensators on the rear suspension. Here's a few pics:
I love the rear end styling on the early Corvairs
Now the only thing holding me back is the seller states the engine backfires "sometimes". Could something serious like a bad valve cause an intermittent backfire or would it backfire all the time? If it's something like a carb or timing issue than I may make an offer. I'm not really looking for a car where I have to start pulling the heads..
Nice car. Watch the video Todd, there appears to a slight "dent" in the middle/front of the front located trunklid.
__________________
Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
It be many basic things electrical or fuel related. Half the battle is that the engine does run.
If your google "engine miss-fire Corvair" does any Corvair-only related stuff come to light? I don't know their engines too well and their idiosyncrasies.
__________________
Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
Corvairs are neat. Seeing as they have multiple carbs & a throttle cable to control them, sometimes it might be a carb sync or linkage issue (I'm guessing).
1964 was the last year for the swing axle 1st generation Corvair. It was also the year they upped the displacement from 145 cubes to 164, and the horsepower went up from 80 & 102 to 95, 110 & 140. Then there were the turbocharged Spyder models which went up from 150 to 180 horsepower.
Whenever I see a Chevy HHR from the rear I am somehow reminded of the Corvair Lakewood wagons
__________________
67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
Don't shoot me but I would steer clear of Corvairs. They're a whole different breed and it's like doing classic GM's all your life, then switching to Mercedes...
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Agree that Corvairs are unique beasts. That said, there are also people out there who specialize in them, so there should be resources to work out whatever issues you may have.
Here's a link to some tech articles I found on the net. I'm sure there's more out there:
The Corvair engine is basically a horizontally opposed , air cooled aircraft engine, similar to a VW. However,they only have one set of sparkplugs and don't run on a magneto. First engine I was given to tear down and re- assemble when I took mechanic training [ way back in the bronze age] was a Corvair. Worst part of working on them is you have to remove the shrouding/ air ducting on them before you can access most everything. It's all held together wit screws - many screws. [ had a few left over when finished] Also, the one I worked on had two carbs and balancing those was real fun.
The Hopped-up ones made at the factory, which I believe were called a "Spyder", were quite the hot rod at the time.
Unique ride but, don't think I would want one simply because of the complexity and difficulty of access to the engine. But, what do I know - just my 2 cents.
Todd, do not be discouraged about getting that sweet little Vair. You are a gear head like most of us on here, so what ever you do not know you can learn.
__________________
1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan restored 261 six
1974 Chevrolet Caprice Estate wagon low mileage original 400 V-8
Todd, do not be discouraged about getting that sweet little Vair. You are a gear head like most of us on here, so what ever you do not know you can learn.
.......what George said........people who own these love them.
And if you take it for a spin and it drives funny check the tire pressures. The first thing we found back
in the day when we got a customer complaint of a poor driving Corvair was the tire pressures were wonky.
If I remember they should be 18 front and 26 back......many grease rack monkees automatically put 26 all around
and the poor little Corvair felt like it had no steering........almost bought a 64 red rag top for the wife but she got a
67 Beaumont instead.
__________________
......big block, 4 speed, bench seat, it doesn't get much better
I had one briefly about 7 years ago. It had a powerglide though and I only bought it to fix and sell. I drove well.
I really like the roofline and rear end of early Corvairs. I watched a video on Youtube where a guy showed how to drop the motor/subframe out from under the car in about an hour. As for balancing the carbs isn't there some sort of tool you buy that uses some sort of ball and a hose that runs between the two carbs- I think it works off vacuum?
I'm a fan of Corvairs myself, and almost bought one a number of years ago. For some reason I'm drawn to the early 4-doors with that canopy and big wrap-around window, but of course 2 doors are always cool.
I had one of those Corgi Corvairs when I was a kid, so maybe that did it...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/409-powered-1960-corvair.614530/ You could do a slight mod to it. Marv in ON did these 2, the 409 has 2 carbs and Mercruiser valve covers.
__________________
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
The link at the top of the pics has a bunch of posts about the 409 build. If you google "409 in a Corvair" there may be some posts by the same guy on other sites about this build.
__________________
63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
