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Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza
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oprn
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 5:30 am    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Jacks wrote:
So… you made $300. Ok Very Happy

Not really. At the time I was starting to correspond with the Corvair Club of America and they told me that I had the second most collectable Corvair sedan model made. Number one was the same car in a convertible. By the time I got that reply is was gone.

But you do what you need to when you have a young family to take care of... and that my friend is how others get good deals!

The unfortunate part of this story is that I saw the car on the highway the next summer in a cloud of blue smoke and hammering like a machinegun. Then a couple years later it turned up in the wreckers in the next town on the top of a pile of other cars, gutted out and headed for the crusher.
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Volktales
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 11:11 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

oprn wrote:
Jacks wrote:
So… you made $300. Ok Very Happy

Not really. At the time I was starting to correspond with the Corvair Club of America and they told me that I had the second most collectable Corvair sedan model made. Number one was the same car in a convertible. By the time I got that reply is was gone.

But you do what you need to when you have a young family to take care of... and that my friend is how others get good deals!

The unfortunate part of this story is that I saw the car on the highway the next summer in a cloud of blue smoke and hammering like a machinegun. Then a couple years later it turned up in the wreckers in the next town on the top of a pile of other cars, gutted out and headed for the crusher.



Well that is a bummer of a story. That is why I hate selling cars, even project cars. You always hope the next owner is going to fix them up nice, but that does not always happen. I once owned a 1958 Canadian Standard Beetle (in beautiful Glacier Blue) model that I acquired in a trade. A solid project car that was mostly complete, although an earlier owner decided to build a stupid "volksrod" out of it and lost interest after hacking off the aprons. The guy I got it from didn't realize how rare it was with its original parts such as the three spoke wheel still intact. Later the parameters of the "trade" kept changing so I got tired of this and gave it back to him. Unsurprisingly, he parted it out soon after...
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 14, 2021 7:26 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

KTPhil wrote:
The gen2 models' front end almost has a "Leiding nose" look to it.

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I always thought that model was one of the most beautiful and well-proportioned cars of the era. It has the same styling cues as the larger cars; but once your eye gets used to the Corvair, the other cars just look bloated and elongated.

GM really got that one right. Too bad Nadar and his ilk poisoned the well on it. That gen2 was safer yet it was already in a death spiral.


Nader didn't Kill the Corvair, GM did the killing.
Corvair had a good 10 year run, but shared almost nothing with the rest of the Chevy/GM line.
As such it was expensive for Chevy to make & sell.
The Styling of the later Corvair was groundbreaking and copied by BMW, and others.
In the early 60's the Corvair lineup was a complete car & truck range including Corvair 2 door, 4 door, 4 door wagon, van, window van, and pick up.
In the mid-60's refresh the station wagon, and Vans & pickup were stopped.
This actually made the Corvair more expensive to produce.
The great experiment to out Volkswagen, Volkswagen ended with the 69 model year.
The era of GM's Mastery of Engineering had ended, to be replaced by bean counters, and american'ts.
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Volktales
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2021 11:37 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

The above comments by ach60 are all true. Nader's book did not exactly help sales though. The first generation of Corvairs sold quite well averaging well over 280,000 units per year from 1960-1964. The restyled 1965 models sold 237,056 units which was ok, but not spectacular. You can in part thank Ford's Mustang for that. Nader's book came out in late 1965 and would have had no effect on the 1965 model year sales. However GM sold only 103,743 Corvairs in 1966, less than half of the previous year. Nader's book was well known and you have to wonder if at least some of that massive sales drop was attributed to his comments. GM already knew the Camaro was on the way and would be the real Mustang fighter. Sales free fell after this and GM made no further improvements or development to the Corvair. Realistically in the late '60's era of the muscle car and horsepower race, the six cylinder Corvair was pretty much doomed anyway. A sad end for what was always an interesting car...
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Volktales
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2022 10:27 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Soooo, a lot of things have happened since the last update for this project. This has been a rough year, as my Dad's health was failing and spent two months in the hospital before finally passing away due to heart issues (he was 83). I was really trying to get my '64 Ghia project finished this summer, then get back onto the Corvair project. Sadly I had to shelve the Ghia to deal with the family matters and forget about cars for awhile...

But later a few things happened... A local swap meet produced a few VW goodies, and nothing at all Corvair related. But I did find something cool


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My Corvair was pretty much a complete car, but was missing something to fill those two holes on the decklid. That is where the chrome dealer badge once resided when the car was new. Luckily GM of Canada kept very good records, and just like VW, you can get birth certificates from them. They are also expensive, just like VW, but that is another story. Anyway I knew exactly what dealership sold the car originally, and all I had to do was find a 57 year old badge that everyone threw away...


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But there it was. $20 and it was mine. Yes it is just like throwing some fresh paint on the Titanic, but this small thing completed the car and made me happy. But as things turned out, I was to get much happier later...
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:02 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Jacks wrote:
So… you made $300. Ok Very Happy




TRUE! While I like them, over the years I have seen three for sale, and get this, they have been in the $300.00 range. I can just see someone in 2009 offering $100 for one that I saw for sale. The owner, who was a big oaf, woulda beat his ass. Remember they are cheap for a reason, no matter how much you or I like them.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:27 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

So throughout the last three years I have been checking out the online ads for Corvairs pretty much every day. As always the vast majority are for sale in the US at US prices, which is just not viable for me. Most Canadian cars are located back east which is the main rust belt area in Canada, and are just too far away anyway. And why do I keep looking for more Corvairs anyway now that I have one???

Simply I REALLY want to have one I can actually drive. The gold car needs lots of work before it could even be slightly roadworthy, and with other commitments this could be a LONG time before this happens. So I continued to keep looking at other cars, just in case something viable came up for sale. And amazingly this is exactly what happened...


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A 1966 Monza appeared for sale in my province of BC. This is a bonus for both reasons of distance, and ease of transfer of ownership. It was still a 1000 km round trip to go and see it however. I had requested many extra pictures before going and a few issues popped up. This is not a numbers matching car as the vin/data plate does not correspond to the cars specification. This bummed me out and I did not want to pay the asking price because of this. But then the price was substantially dropped later, and I got over that and had to take a closer look...


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Yup. I could not say no and we loaded it up on a buddy's trailer and FJ. The car itself was 98% rust free, obviously garage kept its whole life, came with an absolute mountain of spare parts, and was WAAAAY cheaper then any other car I looked at... How could I resist???


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The interior, other then split front seats, is almost mint. The paint is in very good condition, as is the chrome and trim. And did I mention it is equipped with the four-carbed 140 HP engine??? The Powerglide is what I wanted as well now that I am older...


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The previous owner had built this car for himself to the spec that he wanted, using the best parts he could. This is why the numbers don't match, but I am OK with that now. Even better he was a retired mechanic, specifically a Corvair specialist back in the day. He never intended on parting with this car and died owning it. The spare parts are predominately GM NOS as well as hard to find stuff like spare 140 HP heads. Also included in the sale were mountains of manuals, catalogs, and history books. Did I also mention that the car was actually in running and driving condition???


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So the most important question was... After all these decades, would driving a Corvair live up to my expectations? The answer is a resounding YES! It really is everything I hoped it would be, and wish I bought one decades ago. As it is also only one of two drivable Corvairs in my city, it makes me very happy to go cruising in it. So I think for once I did the right thing by buying a decent car, instead of restoring a terrible one...

But don't think I am going to part with (or part-out) the previous gold car. That was still the car that kept my Corvair dream alive for all this time, and one way or another it will return to the road in the future as well. Still very excited about how this worked out, and my only regret is my Dad is not here to see the "new" car. He would have loved it...
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2022 1:21 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Very nice find!
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 05, 2022 6:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

I REALLY LIKE THAT!, well done, nice find! Cool
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2022 5:22 am    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

It is super clean and nice! I am not a fan of the color, it is so common and bland, so middle aged American housewife-ish in my mind. However it is likely the original color and period correct so it would be wrong to change it.

I feel the same way about the 2 speed slush box those cars have but that's just me personally. It is what it is and a very nice example too!
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 06, 2022 12:58 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Damn, that is a nice car!

Congrats on the find.
I looked back at the thread and the gold car looks like a pile compared to this Blue car. Smile
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 09, 2022 8:03 am    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

EverettB wrote:
Damn, that is a nice car!

Congrats on the find.
I looked back at the thread and the gold car looks like a pile compared to this Blue car. Smile


Well the gold car was FREE after all. Very Happy Going to work on the blue one today. Gotta tinker with those four carburetors. Probably going to put electronic ignition on it as well. Just like our favourite VW's, some Corvair folks like electronic, and some definitely don't.

It is fun seeing how GM engineered things compared to VW. This engine features two bellows type thermostats, instead of VW's single. GM uses a series of rod linkage to push open the throttles, instead of VW's single cable to pull open the throttle. The hydraulic lifters and oil filter are a nice touch. So is the all metal fuel lines in the engine compartment. I am sure I will discover things I don't like about the design once I dig into the gold car farther...

I also am going to wax the blue paint soon. This is a close match to the original colour of Marina Blue, which was also used on other GM products in 1966. When searching for a Corvair I had certain musts I was looking for. It absolutely had to be a second generation two-door hardtop, had to be a Monza, and most importantly, had to be the right colour which evoked the 1960's feeling to me. I only wanted factory style metallic colours, and would not consider black interiors either. Picky? You betcha! I have zero interest in modern car colours of boring white/black/silver/grey. Give me some colour! Personally I love the blue on this car...
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2022 8:45 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Volktales wrote:
I have zero interest in modern car colours of boring white/black/silver/grey. Give me some colour!

^^^This 100%!^^^

For a few years there I thought I had gone color blind every time I hit the road! We made a game of it with the kids to count the colored cars. Sometimes there would only be three or four colored ones per hour of driving! Now you go past the dealerships and there is actually some colored cars for sale again. Nice treat!
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 30, 2022 10:06 am    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Oooh, that is a beauty. Well done! The blue is appropriate to the car's time.
You're far ahead of the game now, and have all the time in the world- and a nice other runner and reference- to tackle the gold one.
Or shine it on to someone who really wants it. Bueno!
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 12:02 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Soooo, time for an overdue update of what is going on with my Corvairs...


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The blue Corvair initially came with a mountain of parts, and later the previous owner found another stash in storage. Luckily a friend was passing through that area and delivered the parts to me! And there was a lot more good stuff in there, including the last missing part (hood emblem) from my original Gold '65. The only significant work accomplished on this car was getting it running properly again. The poor running last time was due to a tiny piece of grit getting caught in the float needle valve assembly, and jamming it up. Once cleaned out the car ran beautifully. Still has excessive blow-bye however, to the point that disconnecting the crankcase breather from the air filter housing raises the RPMs by several 100! Clearly engine work is required before the possibility exists of driving this car on the street...
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1970 Savannah Beige Beetle 2012-
1992 16v GTI, 100% stock 2006-
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Volktales
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 12:32 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

But what about the much better blue '66???


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Throughout the summer it was driven frequently, and improved in small steps. Had a week off, and brought it to my place of employment and gave it a nice service and inspection. The brakes were given a good service, but nothing was required in terms of parts. The oil was changed, and the transmission topped up. Having a good poke around revealed no hidden rust problems either, which was nice...


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I also finally removed that tow bar contraption that was mounted below the front bumper. Still needed to find some bumper guards to match the ones mounted on the rear bumper. Now about that engine and transmission...


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I would like to say that the car ran perfectly from the moment I bought it and cruised everywhere with iron-clad reliability. No. No it did not... In fact I had a VERY frustrating time tracking down a wide variety of issues before Corvair Nirvana was achieved. The car suffered several drivability problems, that were highly intermittent. Misfires and poor performance were common, but somedays it would run perfectly, and other days would barely even start. And you never knew what you were going to get... I always intended on converting this car to electronic ignition anyways, so that was one of my first jobs done. And it seemed to cure the running problem at first. But it was not to be.


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I am not one to throw parts at a car to fix it, but there was simply nothing visual to see wrong with the original components. As time went by I would find minor issues that MIGHT cause problems, and one by one parts were replaced and rechecked. Multiple times I thought I had the smoking gun, and then the next day it might or might not act up again. Every single aspect of the ignition system was checked/replaced/bypassed/etc. including even the ignition switch and ballast wire resistor system without improvement. At times the spark seemed fantastic; at other times weak. And still without consistency...


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Getting tired of the ignition system, could it actually be a fuel related issue? It certainly did not feel like one while driving, but getting desperate here...
Going through the extensive parts stash, revealed the remains of six different fuel pumps, all in pieces. Why? I did check for fuel flow and cleanliness to the pump, and the tank and lines were not an issue. So time to break open the fuel pump on the car... (by this time it had finally broken down and would not start).


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Well that is a smoking gun for sure! The left part is the one that came of the car and shows that one of the one-way valves is upside down! The one on the right is the correct way. So it appears the stupid valve was loose and randomly bouncing around, finally managing to flip itself upside down. What a pain in the ass! Of course once this was done, the car started right up. I also rechecked the distributor again, as I had reinstated the points again during testing. And this revealed the formerly checked and working vacuum advance canister, had now packed it in as well. Are we having fun yet???


Also the transmission is being a bit grumpy too. If you drive the car with authority, and accelerate briskly, the transmission shifts into high range just fine. If you drive like grandma, the shift is slow and will flair up as well. But not consistently of course. This was not apparent on my brief test drive before buying it. Oh well, a job for future Volktales...

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So FINALLY the car was running decent, but now the cold weather was creeping in. This revealed the chokes were not working that well, and it was time to call it a season on the Corvair, and it went into the garage for winter storage. Before it comes out to play next year, it will be the recipient of more new parts including chokes, and overhauling of the carburetors (just in case). And then reinstating the electronic ignition if the running problems are truly over. I also tried to buy new tires for the Corvair but currently the needed 185/80 13" versions with a thin whitewall are just not available in Canada. Bummer, but a solution to this may soon be at hand...


Continued...
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1974 "Restfalia" Camper 2000 cc EFI 2001-
1970 Beetle first car, rotten, yard art 1985-
1966 Sunroof Beetle, restored 1998-
1964 Ghia, ongoing project 2007-
1962 Beetle Beryl,original paint survivor 2012-
1970 Savannah Beige Beetle 2012-
1992 16v GTI, 100% stock 2006-
1991 "Terseo", wife's old daily 1995-
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1965 Gold Corvair Monza 2021-
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Volktales
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2022 1:39 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Soooo, now what? Another Samba member (&Dan) is also a Corvair owner and had some advice for me. Corvairs are even more addicting then Volkswagens, and don't be THAT guy who has to keep acquiring more. That is a good point and I had no intention of buying more. After all, I have a good one, and a project one. Isn't that enough??? Ummm...


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Ok, I absolutely did NOT go looking for this car. My Dad's best friend called me up and stated that his brother was thinking of selling up some of his project cars he had lying around his property. And one of them turned out to be a Corvair that he owned for years, but no longer uses it. And he wants it gone. Cheap. Well if you are a true car guy, you know you just have to go take a look...


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And look I did. Corvairs of any description are very rare in my area, and this one looked to be reasonably decent...


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And it had Chevy Rallys on it! My all time favourite Chevy wheel. These were never installed by the factory on Corvairs, but were a common mod back in the day and they still look great. And they would look fantastic on my "good" blue Corvair. The hook was firmly in place and I was being reeled in...


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Interior was less inviting as it was covered in mold due to poor storage conditions. But did you notice how good the seats are? This car has a genuine 63,000 miles on it, and the interior is near mint under the filth. You can probably smell it through you computer screen however...

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More things that show the low mileage is the original glass windshield washer fluid bottle under the hood, with the GM Canada sticker still fully intact. Yup. I am a sucker for details like this..


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The engine compartment was not quite as original, as a previous owner had some fun in there. The non-original filters and ugly blue paint were the only mods however. And the car came with the original filter housing in great shape. And yet another mountain of other spares including the original tires, rims, and hubcaps, all in useable condition. Nice.


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So by now I was scheming on how to buy this and possibly justify the purchase of yet another car I don't REALLY need. I did have enough sense to tell the owner that I would take it, contingent on hearing it run and actually go into gear. He was a bit reluctant as the car had not been on the road in nine years by that point. He changed his mind when I told him I would be the one who would get it up and running. No problem with that...


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Bad weather delayed the rescue for awhile, but finally things went ahead. I removed the sparkplugs, put some Marvel down the bores, cranked over by hand, rigged up an alternate fuel supply, and hooked up a battery. The car had electronic ignition already installed, and it fired up without issue. Lots of smoke at first, and a noisy hydraulic lifter, but I expected that. Went into gear no problem. Only issue was a faulty ignition switch which meant I needed a temporary jumper wire to the coil to keep it running. So lets load her up on a buddies trailer...


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So like the other car, this one was dropped off at the shop to see what I really bought. And the answer was pretty decent. Shown here with another friend's bus that he is actually living in. Crazy "vanlifers"! You can watch him at Brent's VanLife on YouTube if you like that sort of thing. I changed the oil in the car, fixed the faulty ignition switch, hooked up the original fuel tank, and added fresh fuel to the nine year old stuff (which smelled just fine). Gently serviced the brakes as well, although bleeding out the old fluid was not entirely successful. Also fixed all the lights that were out, and then it was deemed time for a real test drive. And it drove just fine, other than the square tires from sitting all those years...


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And I drove it home from the shop without issue. Then time for a good cleanup...


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And I was pleased with how well it actually cleaned up. There is some rust in the usual Corvair spots, but in general it presents well.


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I am quite pleased with it actually. Compared to other cars I have seen online for way more $$$, this one is quite decent.


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Interior was quite disgusting at first. But I tried using the internet recommend vinegar treatment and was pleasantly surprised.


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The interior really did cleanup to almost new condition. The vinegar even removed some light corrosion from the interior fittings and everything looks fantastic. Will have to repaint part of the dashboard, but that is about it... All glass and chrome is nice shape too.


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So what it the future of this car then? Well, this one is going to be the new summer daily driver, and I know I am going to enjoy that very much! I still want to put the Rally wheels on my other car, but my buddies all want me to keep them on this one. Hmmm. Was happy to find out those rims are original GM, and not reproductions as well...

And to make things even better, check out one of the many parts that came with this car!


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Yup. A spare bumper with the missing guards I need for the blue car! Unlike our VW's, these guards were optional, and most Corvairs did not have them. You can buy restored versions from Clark's Corvair, but they would be close to $500 Canadian by the time they were in my hands. This bumper is trash, but the guards are good shape and have already been removed and waiting for me to install them on the blue car. Happy times.

To make this whole deal doable, I did have to part with one of my VWs. After a bit of thinking, it was time to let one of them go...


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My Fastback has been basically untouched for seven years now (where did THAT time go?), and a couple of friends have always been interested. One of them was immediately over with cash in hand, as he has wanted this car for years. He has already commenced with the tricky welding repairs which is what forced me to stop working on it. Should be back on the road in the spring which makes me happy. And even better, the sale of this car was pretty much the same amount as what I paid for the Corvair, and there is a spot inside the garage for it as well. A win on all counts for sure. More updates will come in the future...
_________________
1974 "Restfalia" Camper 2000 cc EFI 2001-
1970 Beetle first car, rotten, yard art 1985-
1966 Sunroof Beetle, restored 1998-
1964 Ghia, ongoing project 2007-
1962 Beetle Beryl,original paint survivor 2012-
1970 Savannah Beige Beetle 2012-
1992 16v GTI, 100% stock 2006-
1991 "Terseo", wife's old daily 1995-
1969 Chevrolet CST/10 (family owned since new)
1965 Gold Corvair Monza 2021-
1966 and 1965 Monza 2022-
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oprn
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2022 3:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

Carry on, I am following with a mild case of envy! Now if one of those cars was a stick instead of a slush box... I would be seriously thinking of helping you thin the fleet!
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We had the stone age, the bronze age, the industrial age and now we are in the age of mass deception and mind control for corporate profit. (The mass media age)
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Volktales
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Joined: June 21, 2013
Posts: 545
Location: Nanaimo, B.C. CANADA
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 10:04 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

So here we are about eight months later... What has been accomplished???

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This is what it looked like before starting. Much work was done since last time, most of it cosmetic improvements. Over the winter I decided to install the replacement front bumper and guards, and reinstate the missing "Corvair" emblem on the front panel. Once things were disassembled, as usual I got carried away...


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Before this though, the first thing was reconditioning the Rally wheels from the other Corvair. These were blasted, and then repainted a close match to the original silver colour. New tires were purchased and were the same style as what was there before...


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And the center caps were all disassembled and cleaned and repainted. All these parts were original GM, and so were the trim rings.


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Of course all the wheel wells were refinished with new seam sealer where necessary, and fresh painting and undercoating. Not particularly fun, but certainly the way to go.


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Ooooh, that is getting better!


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Then back onto the front of the car. Pretty soon I had everything stripped off the front. Why?


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It was looking a bit too crusty for me in the frunk. Initially I was going to apply fresh spatter-tone paint like what was there, but this was a complete failure.


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It looked OK at first, but dried very blotchy in places, and would not dry at all in others. Extremely disappointed by this.


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Stripped all that horrible mess out and applied some fresh rock-guard. And then painted it matching blue like I should have done in the first place. American built cars were factory spatter-toned, but Canadian built cars featured body colour paint. This is an Oshawa Ontario built car, so things are now back the way they should be...


Continued...
_________________
1974 "Restfalia" Camper 2000 cc EFI 2001-
1970 Beetle first car, rotten, yard art 1985-
1966 Sunroof Beetle, restored 1998-
1964 Ghia, ongoing project 2007-
1962 Beetle Beryl,original paint survivor 2012-
1970 Savannah Beige Beetle 2012-
1992 16v GTI, 100% stock 2006-
1991 "Terseo", wife's old daily 1995-
1969 Chevrolet CST/10 (family owned since new)
1965 Gold Corvair Monza 2021-
1966 and 1965 Monza 2022-
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Volktales
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Joined: June 21, 2013
Posts: 545
Location: Nanaimo, B.C. CANADA
Volktales is offline 

PostPosted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 10:30 pm    Post subject: Re: Volktales' special 1965 Corvair Monza Reply with quote

[img]https://i.imgur.com/PZgMN6Yh.jpg?1[/img]


While the frunk was drying, I also found a used horn button and transferred the centre over to a NOS 1966 spec one...


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Then installed it on the sweet correct steering wheel I had located for the car to replace the Camaro? wheel that was on it. Unfortunately the column has been swapped out for a later one in the car and this wheel will not fit. Cried a little bit to myself...


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Treated the car to a reproduction trunk mat as well. And replaced ALL the various missing grommets and clips throughout the frunk.


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Completely rebuilt all the light units, as it was the right thing to do. Nice to be able to get all these parts from one source (Clark's Corvair).


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I ended up getting different headlight bezels, and refinished the black lines later. These were used parts as reproductions are not currently available.


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Things looking better again with new sealed beams, replaced bezels, used bumper guards, NOS emblem, and the main "grill" bar replaced with a better used one from my parts stash.

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Also did some fun stuff like swapping out the incorrect window winders, installing new armrest assemblies to replace the worn and cracked originals.


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A new master cylinder and reproduction washer concentrate bottle was installed as well.


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And yes I even replaced the incorrect black door lock knobs with the proper blue ones. Just because.


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The Clark's catalogue is like crack. Decided I needed reproduction floor mats as well. Again, just because...


Anyway there were a lot of other things done too, but you get the idea... Very happy with the way things have progressed this year. I did have to attend to a couple of other mechanical issues though. One thing that was inadvertently discovered, was a faulty fuel cap. Corvairs from this era should have vented caps that vent in BOTH directions. The repro cap on it looked nice, but in fact only allowed air to enter, and not exit. This meant the tank would pressurize quite spectacularly, and I wondered why the car would smell gassy at times. This went on for awhile as the car was not started at all for months while in the shop. Finally I opened the cap after at least two months of inactivity and it let out an almighty WHOOOSH!


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Fortunately this was easy to correct by leaving out a few pieces before reassembly. No more smells and once driving season resumed again, no more running issues! I have replace both chokes this year, and adjusted the transmission band to improve the shift, but otherwise it has ran beautifully this season. Can't tell you how happy I have been about this...


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For the rest of the summer I will continue to cruise and enjoy it. This winter I will be stripping out the engine compartment for a full detail and repaint in there. And new insulation and weather-stripping and all the other usual stuff I will get carried away with. Going to be fun!!!
_________________
1974 "Restfalia" Camper 2000 cc EFI 2001-
1970 Beetle first car, rotten, yard art 1985-
1966 Sunroof Beetle, restored 1998-
1964 Ghia, ongoing project 2007-
1962 Beetle Beryl,original paint survivor 2012-
1970 Savannah Beige Beetle 2012-
1992 16v GTI, 100% stock 2006-
1991 "Terseo", wife's old daily 1995-
1969 Chevrolet CST/10 (family owned since new)
1965 Gold Corvair Monza 2021-
1966 and 1965 Monza 2022-
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View user's profile Send private message Gallery Classifieds Feedback
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