I found a video online the other day that is a must see. There is a television show here in Indiana on public television called Across Indiana. In a nut shell the host travels all across the state to find interesting people and things and does a story on them. On January 30, 2007, an episode aired where they went to Gaston, IN to interview Mike McKeel. He owns a couple hundred Corvairs. He is a very nice guy and the video truly depicts how he is. Whenever I go up to Gaston to visit him, he never stops working while he talks to you, but he is always available for advice or just to talk about Corvairs. he definitely loves them.
March 3, 2009
Sweet New Link
I found a sweet link today. The website is called Classic Restorations. They have lots of information regarding restorations from classic to modern cars. Although there are no Corvairs that I have seen, it offers good insight on what it takes to do a quality resto job. Plus, it has many cool cars and their restoration process. This website is huge so I don’t want to bore you with my lame post.
February 24, 2009
Mini Corvair
Okay, so I’ve been having some serious trouble finding miniature toy cars of the ‘66 Corvair. A friend on mine has several Pinto miniatures but I can only find a few late-model Corvairs. So far I have collected (through the help of my Pinto buddy) all the ‘65 Vairy 8 Corvairs released by Hot Wheels in 2002. Although I have a ‘66 Corvair I’m not too picky about whether or not it is a ‘65 or ‘66. Really I would take a ‘67 – ‘69 too. Anyway, I have found a website that has helped a little in my search for cool Corvair memorabilia. It is a website by Doug Breithaupt. Apparently there were only a few late-model minis made. One in particular I am looking for is a ‘65 by a company by Mego. Finally there is hope in my search for Corvair minis.
February 10, 2009
New Links
I just added a few new links to the website. You can locate them on the right-hand side at the bottom. The “Corvair Underground” website is pretty cool. They have a catalog that is as extensive as Clark’s. Something to check out.
January 27, 2009
Corvair Rampside
My friend and I went junking the other day to look for some Pinto parts. I mostly went along to find any Corvairs. I knew, however, that if I found any Corvairs that they would probably be missing the parts the I need anyway, aka doors and such, but I thought it would be fun anyway. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would ever get to see one of these in real life though. I found a 1962 Corvair Rampside. Unfortunately it was the grave site of a once-beautiful car. There wasn’t enough to salvage but fond memories. Take a look.
1962 Corvair Rampside
January 21, 2009
Engine
Well, I have been getting a serious fever lately. I haven’t really gotten to work on my Corvair lately and it is killing me. It is a bit too cold for any of that. The other day the temperature was up to a whopping -17 F. So, I took the liberty of visiting CORVIEKE last night after I got off work and I took some picture of the engine, just for fun. I also started her up and I’ll be darned if she didn’t start right up without a hitch. The temperature was still only about 4 F. Anyway, I have a couple of picture of the engine. It is dusty from all the sanding that I had been doing over the past several months.
Corvair Engine
Alternator
Corvair Engine Side View
Cool Photo
January 19, 2009
CORVIEKE VIN
Today I obtained the VIN number from CORVIEKE because I was doing some research online. I found a website that decoded the VIN. Here is the CORVIEKE VIN and the detail about the number.
101376W143141
January 5, 2009
New Door
In my most recent quest to find new doors for my corvair, I have found that they are not going to be as easy as originally planned. About 2 months ago, my place of work just received a transfer from another facility. We work together mostly and I found out right off the bat that his first car was a 1966 Chevy Corvair Monza convertible. He then proceeded to tell me that his father still had a door that would fit a ‘65-66. About a week ago I finally got him to bring me that door so that I could test fit it to my car. The door was in excellent condition with just a little bit of surface rust. That could be sanded easily and the window was still in tact.
Well, I finally got to fit the door. I was going to sand it before I put it on so I just eye-balled the door hinge to see if it would fit. Unfortunately the door hinge has a different bolt pattern than my door. I don’t think it will fit but I will still see if there is some way that it can be attached. It is just too nice of a door to let got.
I have called and emailed a few junk yards about a passenger side door and I received one from Oklahoma. The guy said that he has a clean door for $185. I am going to email him back and see if he can send me some pictures.
The saga continues in search of new doors for my CORVIEKE!
December 3, 2008
95hp – 140hp
I was surfing ebay the other day and I found an intake manifold for a Corvair for sale. It was the 140hp intake with the four carburators and I wondered if I could increase the horsepower simply by replacing the two carbs with four. I decided to email the Clark’s Corvair technicians and ask them how this could be done. This was the response that I got.
My question:
“I currently own a ‘66 Chevy Corvair. I believe it is a 500 model. It has a 95 horsepower engine in it. I would like to clone it to a Monza. Is it possible to convert my 95 hp engine to 140 hp? If so, is it worth the time and money? I was wondering if it was just a matter of just changing the intake manifold and putting four carburators on it.”
“Any information that you could forward me would be greatly appreciated.”
“Thanks,
John V.”
Their response:
“The heads are fully integrated and the manifold is part of the heads. so you
would have to put 140 heads on, these are about $250 ea used and then you
would need 4 carbs and the 140 exhaust manifold logs and exhaust are larger
as well. It will run you probably $1000 or more to fully make this
conversion on your motor correctly.”
I have concluded that it would probably be much cheaper to simply replace the whole engine with a 140hp engine but I think that in the future it would be a great learning experience. Plus that project would be something that I could purchase the items over time. Nonetheless, it has eased my mind knowing the answer to that question. I thought it would be an easy fix but I think it will be fun to do in the future.
December 3, 2008
Memorabilia
I have recently bought a few items of Corvair memorabilia. I will post later the rest of the items. These are just the few that I have on my phone already.
Corvair Tie Pin
CORVIEKE Zippo Lighter
