Junkyard Gem: 1962 Chevrolet Corvair 700 4-Door Sedan

Just lately, we took a take a look at a strong late-production Chevy Corvair coupe in a Denver junkyard, and a few readers could not consider that anyone would throw away such a uncommon basic. Maintain onto your hats, Corvair followers, as a result of eight Corvairs simply confirmed up within the stock of a yard in Colorado Springs. As a result of we simply noticed a coupe from the ultimate couple of years of Corvair manufacturing, I’ve chosen an early four-door sedan from the eightsome to observe it in this sequence.

U-Pull-&-Pay acquired the mannequin years mistaken for many of those automobiles of their system, in all probability as a result of deciphering serial numbers and construct tags from the pre-17-digit-VIN period requires manufacturer-specific data. All eight of those Corvairs are coupes and publish sedans; none are hardtop sedans, wagons, pickups, convertibles or vans.

Corvair manufacturing got here to about 2 million from the 1960 by 1969 mannequin years, and there are nonetheless loads of challenge Corvairs sitting in garages and driveways, so they don’t seem to be notably laborious to search out in American wrecking yards these days. I will run throughout two or three per yr throughout my junkyard explorations, however discovering this many directly at a U-Pull facility is a brand new expertise for me.

The U-Pull-&-Pay staff I requested about these automobiles informed me {that a} man introduced all of them in directly and informed them that he had fairly a number of extra Corvairs. I am guessing that that is the results of a Corvair fanatic with a storage lot purging unneeded components automobiles.

The Corvair, with an air-cooled rear-mounted engine, was a radical design by the Detroit requirements of its period and stays probably the most controversial American automotive ever made. Gross sales peaked within the 1961 and 1962 mannequin years, started a gradual decline after that, then collapsed in 1966. Manufacturing continued by 1969, however by then hardly anybody was paying consideration. Maybe you blame Ralph Nader, or GM’s clumsy makes an attempt to squash Ralph Nader, or the federal government rules impressed by Ralph Nader, or the comfortingly conventional Chevy II/Nova, and even the Renault Caravelle.

I like to recommend that you simply learn Aaron Severson’s exhaustively researched and annotated Corvair historical past — which begins with the event of a small-car idea at GM throughout World Battle II — with a view to get the total story.

This automotive was constructed throughout at the Oakland Meeting plant in California, the place manufacturing of the Chevrolet 4-Ninety kicked off in 1916. Oakland Meeting shut down in 1963, to get replaced by Fremont Meeting (which grew to become NUMMI in 1984 and is now the Tesla Manufacturing unit) about 25 miles to the southeast. The positioning of Oakland Meeting is  Eastmont City Heart right this moment.

The engine is a 145-cubic-inch (2.4-liter) air-cooled pushrod boxer-six with twin carburetors and the distinctive “around-the-corner” fan belt system that appeared funky however labored nicely. Horsepower was 80 if you happen to acquired the three- or four-speed guide transmission and 84 on automobiles geared up with the two-speed Powerglide automated transmission.

This automotive does have the Powerglide, which was shifted through somewhat lever underneath the sprint, to the left of the radio.

The non-compulsory AM-only radio was a $57 possibility, which involves about $596 in 2024 {dollars} (and was price it with a view to take heed to the highest hits of 1962 on a scratchy mono sprint speaker). Notice the scary triangle-in-a-circle Civil Protection symbols at 640 and 1240 kHz; these indicated the CONELRAD stations that might give directions in case Tupolev Tu-95s have been on their method bearing thermonuclear bombs.

Under the AM radio is a Tempo CB-143 23-channel CB radio of mid-Seventies classic. This unit was offered across the time that C.W. McCall’s CB-centric tune “Convoy” was #1 within the music charts. By the best way, you possibly can obtain free MP3s of C.W.’s recommendation to truckers crossing the Rockies on Interstate 70 — referred to as out through mile marker — through his web site.

It seems that about three many years have handed since this automotive final noticed common use, primarily based on this 1992 West Coast Gasoline magnetic sprint calendar. Simply by likelihood, the 1992 and 2024 calendars are the identical, together with the leap day in February, so a junkyard shopper who will get this one would discover its remaining months related for present use.

The 700 was the mid-grade Corvair in 1962, sandwiched between the bottom 500 and the sporty Monza 900. The MSRP for right this moment’s Junkyard Gem with automated transmission would have been $2,268, or about $23,704 after inflation. A 1963 Ford Falcon Futura sedan with two-speed Ford-O-Matic automated began at $2,377 ($24,843 in right this moment’s cash), however it was an even bigger automotive with an actual coolant-fed heater.

In some unspecified time in the future, the proprietor of this automotive proudly belonged to each the Pikes Peak Corvair Membership and the Corvair Society of America.

This “VAIRFIGNEWTEN” sticker have to be some Corvair Society inside joke from many years previous.

Value restoring? There’s little or no rust-through plus you’d discover plenty of components donors close by, however I believe it will take at the very least $20,000 to show this into a $15,000 automotive.

Claws at trails by the glue-like ooze of Withlacoochie Swamp! Do you assume the Falcon (or Valiant) might have dealt with that?