My 1960 Chevrolet Corvair restoration

[Richard1]

In January of last year I bought a 1960 Corvair (here in Bolivia)that had been abandoned for 17 years. Over the course of these 14+ months I've been spending some of my spare time working on it. At the moment it is at the body shop, the bumpers are on the way to the re-chroming shop, and the seat frames are at the upholsterer. When it is painted I'll start re-wiring.

Click on the link below to see my step by step progress

[Steve Braverman]

Wow Richard,

Fantastic web site. I have owned many Corvairs. You will love it. It's good to see that our hobby is doing well in South America.

Good luck.

[Richard1]

I just realized I never updated what I was doing. All 30 months of work are posted, as well as links to the two cars I'm working on now.

I drive this Corvair daily when I'm in Tarija working unless I'm working on one of the others.

[wjguthrie]

Richard. thanks for sharing your cars and your website with us. You have taken a lot of time to document your restorations and the web site is very well organized. I love it. I also like the mini truck. I hope that you get the engine from Chile.

[dei]

Richard,

WOW! After viewing your posing of your '60 couldn't resist posting a few pictures and a story about the dependability of this Corvair.

What you see, while not my car, is my sister's that she bought as an every day driver in 1973 from a little old lady (privately) that we actually knew.

I don't have the VIN number but remember that we checked and it had a production date sometime in 1959 making it an "early" 1960 car.

We all know the synonymous name for Covair (R...h N...r) and what was reported to be a totally unsafe car? This story might prove otherwise.

After graduating High School my sister decided to go to Arizona State University. Being the only car she had she decided to drive it to Arizona. See, we live in Canada across the river from Detroit, Michigan and a one way trip is approximately 2,200 miles! Dad had the car totally checked out mechanically and with low original miles off they went. Dad & Mom drove their '65 Olds 88 to help bring her belongings and be there "just in case".

Surprisingly there was nothing to report other than a slipped fan belt (somewhat common - always carry a spare) and after a checkup on a hoist, an oil change, grease and filter she was on her own. During the three years she was there she made the trip home in the car once and back again and finally graduated on November 30th of 1978. Time to come home for good!

Being the good older brother (open to some opinion ha ha) I drove (by myself) Dad's 1968 Meteor station wagon there to load up three years of her possessions. That is another story but........ back to the Corvair. We loaded both cars to the max with her car filled so high that she could barely see out the back with the rear view mirror. This was because the wagon was in the same situation also!

The only issued we had was, after leaving the relatively warm desert in Phoenix, once we hit Flagstaff, there had been an ice storm. I guess being so loaded down, going about 20 miles an hour, somehow we hugged the road and after two hours of this went on without a hitch.

One more thing. My now wife and I flew down March Break one year for a visit. While there we drove the Corvair (three of us) from Phoenix to Lake Havasu (on the Arizona/California Border) and back without any problems. Two days later we drove from Phoenix to Nogales, New Mexico and back too!

So...... if you do a quick calculation;

round trip from Canada to Phoenix twice that is 8,800 miles plus two sight seeing trips plus.... local driving over three years..........

Not bad for a 450 dollar car that was labeled as unsafe !!!

The pics are taken spring of 2008 when Kathy came up to Canada and bring her baby home to Tennessee where she hopes to bring it back to road worthy shape after sitting in storage for 12 years.

Sorry if I hi jacked your thread but was fascinated to see you have a similar Corvair and thought you might be interested in what this car can and will do.

Hope you get to enjoy many trouble free miles, Doug.

[Richard1]

Very nice story and I hope she gets it back in shape. The corvaircenter.com forum is wonderful for understanding these cars, finding parts and tips.

[Richard1]

I have put up a page consolidating the major Before and After pictures.

Before and After

[plymouthcranbrook]

Very Nice!!!

[r1lark]

Richard, great presentation on the before and after pictures!

[Landman]

Richard, I'd be interested in doing something similar. How did you do that?

[Richard1]

Richard, I'd be interested in doing something similar. How did you do that?

The full size pictures are warehoused (uploaded) to a folder on my site. The smaller version is on that page with a link to the larger one. Captions are just text boxes. Same as I used on the monthly pages, just that the thumbnails are 150px wide on the other pages and 300 px on the comparison page. Full images are 640X480, and set to open in lightboxes rather than separate pages.

I use Rapidweaver for the sites (on my MacBook).

[Landman]

Oh Boy! Thanks Richard.