For Sale: 1960 Chevrolet Corvair coupe, BARN FIND - VERY RARE - $2,800 - Dover, DE - Project - Not Mine

[58L-Y8]

For Sale: 1960 Chevrolet Corvair coupe, BARN FIND - VERY RARE - $2,800 - Dover, DE - Project

BARN FIND - VERY RARE - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle... (craigslist.org)

Barn Find Very Rare,  First Year Car,  1960 Corvair 700, Exceptionally Fun Car,  Rare Fender Skirts, As You Would Expect it To Be For It’s Age, It Will Need Restoration, 38,641 Original Miles / Automatic,  Very Nice Interior,  Clean Title in Hand, These cars are extremely valuable.   Parts are Well Worth the Price.   Put (59) in subject line of email, Include your name and phone number,  CASH ONLY, Twenty Eight Hundred Dollars,  Also have a very nice 64 Monza Club Coupe - Automatic / recently inspected / tagged and ready to enjoy.   Show by appointment only.

Contact:  no phone listed.
Copy and paste in your email:  fe31e5e4e74e3c62bbaa42e8d2ed385b@sale.craigslist.org

I have no personal interest or stake in the eventual sale of this 1960 Chevrolet Corvair coupe - Project

[JRHaelig]

That's actually a nifty little car!

Talk about "that'll buff out ok..."

Other than the bumpers, it looks like all bright work is stainless or aluminum.

 

I bet just about any part is available, too.

 

How about that ashtray being the focus of attention in that (unpadded) dash!

[TAKerry]

Kinda thought the same thing. I have never owned a Corvair but have always thought they were very stylish cars. Never seen one with fender skirts, gives it a 'Jetsons' look. Not sure about the "extremely valuable" part though.

[The 55er]

A long, long time ago I was in high school and a friend of mine had a red 1960 Corvair. I can remember sitting in the back seat and cruising around town in it. The only other thing I recall is looking down through what was left of the rear floor and watching the road go by underneath. It was very handy however to quickly get rid of unwanted items like trash and cigarette butts. I'm looking at the pictures of this VERY RARE (over 36,000 of this model were made in 1960) overhyped treasure with the rust around the right headlight, lower back window, and especially in the rear tailpan area under the rear bumper and my Corvair experiences of nearly fifty years ago immediately came to mind. This one has been off the road for a very long time and I'm thinking that all the exceptional fun that comes with owning one of these would quickly be gone once I crawled underneath and inspected it. 

[58L-Y8]

Corvairs can be a crap shot here in the Northeast when it comes to rust damage.  Most have some in the floor pans and that under bumper panel.  That said, this car bears investigation because Delaware is far enough south so they don't have long-lasting winter weather.    The relatively lower mileage and what appears to be original interior upholstery may indicate this is a better survivor.   As a first project for a young budding enthusiast, this car could be ideal.

 

As far as the "These cars are extremely valuable."  then why is he offering such a potential 'gold mine' for such a low price?

[mike6024]

If the rear window channel is rusted, that is a huge amount of work. And then the windshield channel would probably be rusted too. Cutting, grinding, fabricating, welding in replacement metal.

Very nice looking car though. bench seats, fender skirts, etc

[The 55er]

 If this car's as extremely valuable as the seller says it is why doesn't he restore the car himself? Answer: it's probably too rusty. I live 100 miles north of Dover, DE and I'm definitely in the salt belt here. Dover is 5 miles inland from the Delaware Bay which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. The winters may be slightly milder down there but there's salt air year round. My point is if anyone reading this is a potential buyer for this Corvair please check it out for corrosion damage thoroughly before purchasing it. 

[BHWINCVAP]

I think they meant Yard Find,  the top half of that car sure looks to have a few seasons worth of tree sap and dirt stained into it..

[The 55er]

30 minutes ago, BHWINCVAP said:

I think they meant Yard Find,  the top half of that car sure looks to have a few seasons worth of tree sap and dirt stained into it..

Good point, I agree it's most likely a Yard Find from under a tree instead of a Barn Find where most of the dust can be washed off. One way to tell is to look at the bumpers. If it's a Barn Find, the chrome will turn green from storage, the shiny finish is gone and really can't be polished. On a Yard Find, the chrome will just be covered in crud and might come back with a good scrubbing. Everyone knows though a Barn Find is worth at least four times more than a Yard Find, a Field Find or a Woods Find and that's the way to describe it if you want to maximize your profits. A good (or actually a bad) seller will represent it that way. A Junkyard Find though is a really tough sell. I've seen a few of those around here but nobody ever mentions the J word when a vehicle's for sale. 

[alsancle]

Why is it 50% of the early 60s Chevy  barn finds are that crappy green blue?

[mikewest]

When you get all done the car isnt woudnt be worth the cost of a great paint job. Sad ...

[John_S_in_Penna]

Is that front "grille" an added aftermarket item?

I saw a Corvair with a similar grille not long ago

and know that is not the original factory style.

 

6 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

 

[The 55er]

15 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Is that front "grille" an added aftermarket item?

I saw a Corvair with a similar grille not long ago

and know that is not the original factory style.

 

 

I saw a similar Corvair grille on Ebay, it was an aftermarket item. The front of a 1960 Corvair was smooth with just the horizontal winged Chevrolet emblem on there. 

[TAKerry]

15 hours ago, The 55er said:

 If this car's as extremely valuable as the seller says it is why doesn't he restore the car himself? Answer: it's probably too rusty. I live 100 miles north of Dover, DE and I'm definitely in the salt belt here. Dover is 5 miles inland from the Delaware Bay which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. The winters may be slightly milder down there but there's salt air year round. My point is if anyone reading this is a potential buyer for this Corvair please check it out for corrosion damage thoroughly before purchasing it. 

Agree. Im 45 min north of Dover. Our winters are def worse, but Dover will get there share as well. Def salty roads possible in the winter. Lots of salt marshes in the area but not sure of that effect on things like the floors. Maybe surface rust. 

Again, neat little car but there are only about 100 others on my 'wish' list before I would consider owning one. I did read maybe in Hemmings in an article about corvairs, that there actually is a desirable early model. I think it was a first year, very early production car that had some kind of holes in the lower facia below the headlights.... maybe?

[George Smolinski]

They'll put skirts on anything.

[63RedBrier]

I am a diehard Corvair guy!  I was just in Dover yesterday and saw the ad this morning...  Next time I'm there, if it is still available, I will go take a look.  Anyway, I recently sold a low mileage moredoor version of this car to a adjacent Corvair club member who was specifically looking for a moredoor so he could easily take family and friends without people being crammed into the rear seat!  He was able to drive it home a little over a hour for about the same price.  Here is what I see in the coupe pictured above:

 

The factory color is Cascade Green.

It is a mid-line 700 model, the 500's were the base model and the 900/Monza's (which came out late in the 1960 production year) are the most desirable '60 models.

It is a PowerGlide (2 speed automatic), the 3 speed manual would have been the standard trans and for me would be more desirable (although the PG's are pretty stout and reliable).

The upholstery and door panels are NOT stock, nor is the carpeting (it would originally have had a rubber mat for floor covering)

The rear bumper guards are in the wrong place.  They should be in between the taillights.

It has definitely been stored OUTSIDE, although some of that scum may compound/polish out.

The front "grill" and skirts are not stock and are aftermarket items.

The steering wheel looks to be installed upside down.

1960 Corvairs all had gas heaters if they were built for colder climates.  

The 80hp engines in these Corvairs will surprise you with how peppy they are if they are tuned well.

There are a LOT of unique things about 1st year Corvairs!  The fuel tanks for example are a one year item only, but there will be a run of these reproduced soon by one of the biggest Corvair parts suppliers.

 

[The 55er]

Don't worry, I'm pretty sure it will still be available.

[mike6024]

The first car I bought, the trunk would fill with water when it rained.

After accepting that for a while, and summer time came, no more rain, I removed the rear glass. Did no welding. Got a drill with smallish grinding wheel bits of different types. and ground out the rust in the channel where the rear glass fits. And I could see the holes where it rusted through. Bought a quart of good automotive primer that had lead in it and brush painted this channel. Then filled the holes with bondo, and could see from the backside by looking in the trunk, some blobs of bondo coming through the holes. Then ground off the bondo in the channel reasonably flat. Then gave it about 4 more coats of the primer. The reinstalled the rear glass using some "rope" caulking I was able to buy at a glass place that also did automobiles. It sticks very well. Place it around in the channel. Then set the glass onto it. Push down all around and it sets and sticks well. Put the chrome trim back around the glass. Though amateur, it worked very well, no more rain going into the trunk.