Just joined up. I'm on the H. A. M. B. a lot, recognize a few names from there. I have a '62 Corvair with a 2"x3" tube frame and solid front and rear axles. Got an early Hemi and a 6-71 on the shelf as well. I can put up some pictures if anyone is interested.
New from Texas City
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Welcome! I'd love to see a Corvair with a gasser look! Bring on the pictures!
$400 with shiny paint. I robbed the front axle setup and rear leaves from a '48-'54 Chevy truck for $50; stuck a $50 S-10 axle out back to roll it around on. My buddy gave me the hubs and brakes from an early 50s Chevy car for the five bolt pattern and they bolted right on. The 3 1/2" slots are in the back seat. The frame was built from 2"x3" rectangle tubing and bolts to several of the existing holes in the unibody. I pretty much fitted the pieces, made mounts that matched existing holes, bolted them in place, and welded it together as I went, working alone. I will pull the body and reinforce all welds with fishplates. Some health problems have kept me from working on it for about a year and a half, but I'm better now.
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I agree.... the Corvair is going to make one attention-getter at the car cruises, shows and drag strip. Especially with that engine in the front.
Welcome to the forum.
Welcome to the forum.
Actually, the engine is a small block Chevy plastic mockup from P-Ayr. It's not a six pack, which would be three 2 bbls, but SIX 2bbls(12pack?). I have several vintage engines; a few Chevies, a couple flatheads, a Y-Block, and the Hemi. The Hemi is locked up and has been sitting with ATF in the cylinders(I just topped it off this weekend) for over a year. I'll probably stick a 327 or 283 in there just to get her going as I have the parts to do it handy. I got a Panhead chopper and a 40 Ford pickup recently; they have been sucking on the old bank account! I'll start a new thread when I get back to work on this thing. I have been studying up on B&M Hydrosticks(that's how I found this site). Yet another rare and expensive undertaking...Maybe a stout Torqueflite backing the Hemi would be wiser?
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Sometimes ya have to do what ya gotta do.
Compromise is part of what backyard hot rod builders have done for a long time..... Especially since I became a senior citizen with a somewhat "fixed" income.
Most people hardly notice most (many) things on cars that are not quite the way they should be. Case in point....A friend of ours drove his '62 Biscayne 409 tribute car from Weirton, WVA to the Sunday night cruise. It was the first time he had been to our area with the car so people were all over it checking it out. Only ONE person noticed it was not a real 409.
I would not think twice about using a torqueflight and placing a couple of B&M Hydrostick decals in the back window and let the "talk" begin!!!! LoL
After all it is a "car show" ..... with all of the "illusion type" of products on the market today why NOT?????
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Looks great! I agree with John; it's OK to do anything you like with a gasser type car. And putting a torqueflite in any car is a good idea! They've got a long history in racing, and proven to hold up well under a lot of high HP engines.
I'm running a TH350 in my gasser with B&M rachet shifter, but I've got the old B&M Hydrostick decals on the lower body just for fun.
I'm running a TH350 in my gasser with B&M rachet shifter, but I've got the old B&M Hydrostick decals on the lower body just for fun.
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2,322 Posts
Yes, our first Corvair. Lots of people don't realize how cool they can be. If you started a thread on the H.A.M.B. then I think I saw it. Although I'm a died in the wool Pontiac motor man I would love to run a hemi. Early or late would not matter. Mickey Thompsom made Hemi heads for the Pontiac motor way way back. Several new Pontiac heads have come out and there is a rumor that someone might reproduce the Mickey Hemi heads or upgraded versions of them to bolt on the Pontiac Block. There are new Ram Air V heads coming now and there are canted valve heads as well already out there. So the Hemi heads would not be out of the question. Anywho. Get that thing built and run that hemi. Put it in the firewall and sit in the back seat. Start a thead on your build and bring us along with you. A big welcome and we are glad to have you as a part of our GasserHood. MArk L
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Oops! My mistake. I'm not a Mopar or Vette guy so a six-pak to me is six carbs.
I agree about getting it running. Maybe some kind of universal motor cradle so you can put the Hemi in after you get the chassis figured out with the Chebby!
I am so jonesin' to get mine running. They are more fun on the road.I'm trying to convince my brother of that with his '69 Road Runner. He's had it for more than 20 years and probably put 500 miles on it. It needs help, but he has ideas of a crate hemi and 6 speed and and and... but he doesn't have the cubic dollars it would take to do that. So I told him to rebuild the engine and manual trans, upgrade the brakes and steering and go have fun.
If you see any old car like these on the road you soak it in, right?
Nice bunch of toys you have there, too.
Mike
Yep, three deuces=six pack. Six deuces=too much! Haha looks cool though. Yes, I have a lot of toys, can't seem to say no. Most are broken! Got ’87 and ’77 short bed Chevy trucks, ’65 Riviera (only old car I have that runs), ’77 and ’55 Harley Davidsons, ’40 Ford Truck, ’27 Ford T Roadster, half a dozen or more various engines plus a mill and several lathes and other various tool “projects”, and dragging more old junk home all the time. It’s a sickness, I tell ya
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Wow, that corvair looks awesome! My friend was looking for either a mustang or corvair for his first classic. There is a guy in town with a nicely restored corvair. Your car is going to be a beast when it is done. I am doing a similar compromise for my Falcon. I have a healthy 460, but I needed to buy too many parts to make it work at this time so I threw a 351C 2V I had and even that has taken more time and money than I thought.
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