1964 Corvair Monza Spyder Convertible

[NailheadBob]

Today I went to Farm and Fleet in Montgomery, IL. to do some shopping, when I came out here was this beautiful Corvair in the parking lot and the front license plate was a specialty license plate with picture of Corvair on it, issued to the Frankfort Car Club show each year, and the rear license late was pretty cool also "SPIDY 64" 1964 Illinois license plate, the first person I thought of was @Marty Roth , and the second person was Larry Claypool of the Vair shop in Frankfort, IL. The Vair Shop proudly served Corvair owners worldwide from 1972-2014., and last was my father (I should not have put him last in that order lol) reminded me of my dad had a 1963 Corvair convertible, and one Chicago cold winter morning it would not start, so he took another car to work, and I got the car running no big deal, but later that day my sister came over with here 2 year old son, my dad was outside with the Corvair running the car, and let his 2 year old grandson stand on the front seat, while my dad was cleaning off the snow from the windows, his grand son reached over and turn the ignition key on while the car was already running, WOW the noise it made before my dad reached in and turned the car off. Now some of the  teeth missing on the flywheel and starter drive gear. So I had to remove the engine, starter, and torque converter, as the ring gear was part of the torque converter, so new torque converter, I worked for a Chevrolet dealer at the time, so I received a discount for being a employee.

 

Memories  from just seeing this car today, good stuff for me.

 

Bob

 

EDIT: another tid bit to the story, lots of snow on the ground, my friend and I tried to push/pull car out of snow to get into garage with no luck, my friend said he just put new cleats on his snowmobile and we could pull car with chain attached to snowmobile, the cleats on the track would help a lot, so we did and the car just barely moved, so he backed snowmobile up, full throttle and chain popped off snowmobile flew up in the air and went into the back window (which was clear plastic) now in many broken pieces, I was in deep DOO DOO with my dad for that mess up.

 

Bob

Edited June 26, 2022 by NailheadBob
update (see edit history)

[plymouthcranbrook]

I once owned a Turbo 64 Corvair.   Fun car.

[TAKerry]

Good story, nice that something as simple as seeing an old car in a parking can bring back so many good memories.

[mcdarrunt]

We specialized in Corvairs at my old big shop. We had a template to cut a three sided hole in the panel behind the rear seat to r&r starters. About a half hour job. The factory starters had cast aluminum snouts and cracking was frequent. The folded down flap was put back in place and tacked then dum-dum used to seal. Steel replacement snouts stopped the problem.

[Frank DuVal]

Funny, I just take off the left rear wheel and reach in.    Half hour at most. I've changed several in parking lots, one on a sidewalk over the years for friends.

 

Snout cracking typical of out of round flywheel from loose rivets, or worn spot on torque converter. On flywheel (manual transmission) ones listen for slight rod knock noise at idle without foot on clutch pedal. If the noise goes away when pressing the clutch, time to get a bolted or hot riveted flywheel. The rods/bearings are fine.

 

I've never seen a steel snout. Cast iron/steel generator endbells, yes.

[Marty Roth]

On 6/26/2022 at 4:44 PM, NailheadBob said:

  the rear license late was pretty cool also "SPIDY 64" 1964 Illinois license plate, the first person I thought of was @Marty Roth , and the second person was Larry Claypool of the Vair shop in Frankfort, IL. The Vair Shop proudly served Corvair owners worldwide from 1972-2014., and last was my father (I should not have put him last in that order lol) reminded me of my dad had a 1963 Corvair convertible,  

 

Bob 

Hi Bob, and thanks for thinking of me - maybe because of the Personalized Antique "MONZA" Louisiana- issued license plate(?) on our 1965 convertible -

Especially interesting is the tie-in to Larry Claypool. I bought the 'Vair from the 2nd owner, Kelly McClain in Woodstock, IL who had bought it for his wife as a duplicate to the one her parents bought her as a college graduation gift. Before driving it home from Denver, CO, he had Larry perform extensive maintenance on the '65 convertible, and I still have the receipts. I also dealt with Larry several times, including during our drive home to New Orleans from Woodstock which is on the Illinois-Wisconsin border, just inland from Lake Michigan. We still enjoy the metallic blue convertible, and have since replaced the tires, white top, all rubber body gaskets and hoses, brake cylinders, rear hubs and U-Joints, mostly as a matter of maintenance and driving pleasure. The note of your Dad is also memorable since my Dad bought our first Corvair, a lightly used 1960 Power-Glide sedan which served extremely well in all conditions, at least it had to swerve to avoid a collision one Christmas Eve on New York City's Long Island Expressway. My younger brother Jerry may have been driving, returning from a cousin's wedding at Leonard's of Great Neck. The '60 became hopelessly buried in a snow drift. We all went back the next day to retrieve the Corvair, only to find that it had been sliced almost in half by a snowplow - a sad loss, indeed. many years later I bought the next three Corvairs, a pair of Corsas - a '65 convertible and a '66 coupe, as well as a '66 Convertible 110 hp with Powerglide and Positraction, all of which later went to the sons of younger AACA members. Ultimately they spent weeks, and were lost to, the salty flood waters of Hurricane Katrina outside of the levee protection, downriver from New Orleans. Our current 4-speed 110 hp '65 Monza is likely the best of them all, having barely 17,xxx miles when we got it, and slightly more than 23,xxx now.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Marty Roth (see edit history)

[kings32]

Working on 1964 Corvair Conv in the shop trying to get the engine SORTED OUT . 4 carbs lots of fun .Kings32

[John348]

9 hours ago, Marty Roth said:

returning from a cousin's wedding at Leonard's of Great Neck.

Great story Marty! Ironically I drove past Leonard's today on my to a doctors appointment. 

[Marty Roth]

4 hours ago, kings32 said:

Working on 1964 Corvair Conv in the shop trying to get the engine SORTED OUT . 4 carbs lots of fun .Kings32

Howard,

 

Hopefully you have the use of a Uni-Syn to balance air flow drawn by the carburetors.

Essentially, as I recall, is was a vacuum cup elevating a pith ball within a glass tube.

I used mine many, many years ago when working on multi-carbureted British cars with S-U carbs,

but also on other types like my brother's '64 GTO convertible with three deuces after we changed it from progressive linkage to have all of them functional at the same time. 

[Marty Roth]

3 minutes ago, John348 said:

Great story Marty! Ironically I drove past Leonard's today on my to a doctors appointment. 

Hi John,

 

Wow ! I,m pleased, and a bit surprised to know they're still there. 

Almost all of our family's weddings and anniversary celebrations were held there over the years, at least back in the late 1950s and well into the '60s and 'early 70s - before many of us moved to other areas. The older folks - my parents' generation mostly moved to Ft.Lauderdale/Plantation/Sunrise, Florida, and some to Mesa/Casa Grande, Arizona, or to Hollywood/Malibu/ Los Angeles, California. I'm the outlier, having been transferred from Poughkeepsie and then the Time & Life Building and Wall Street area to Louisiana, Indiana, Virginia, and back here to my wife's beloved New Orleans.

 

My band was one of Leonards' house bands. They had several ballrooms, and there were always multiple events there. What a fantastic place for the era-

 

As Bob Hope sang - Thanks for the memories !

[Frank DuVal]

5 hours ago, kings32 said:

Working on 1964 Corvair Conv in the shop trying to get the engine SORTED OUT . 4 carbs lots of fun .Kings32

FRESH GAS! Close the secondaries and get the primaries working first. Then follow the factory linkage adjustments. Only use one of the Corvair suppliers if you are needing someone else to rebuild the carburetors. Easy to do it yourself, though. Get Bob Helt's book on Rochester HVs*. It explains ALL the differences between years and horsepower. They are NOT all the same and many hands have been in most of them over the years. Those rebuilt carburetors people bought over the counter at the FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store) were typically mixtures of several years of parts changes. I never bought them like my friends did, as they would be exchanging them many times over to get the engine to run right, as right as they knew, HA!

 

Some people run primaries as secondary carburetors. If they are on there now, it is probably OK. You can tell because there will be idle mixture screws. Steve Goodman has knowledge of how to set them up. Rear Engine Specialists in Golden CO, he takes calls. He knows those turbo YHs also.

 

So what engine might be in that car, since 1964 did not have the 140 option (4 carburetors), that came out in the 1965 model year and (as an RPO in early 1967) lasted through 1969 model year.

 

If you give up on the stock linkage, Roger Parent has made a new version, great reviews on the forum.

 

http://www.corvairs.org/RogerParentCatalog08-22-20.pdf

 

 *   https://www.amazon.com/Identify-Rebuild-Corvair-Rochester-Carburetors/dp/1412093015/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1656644709&refinements=p_27%3ABob+Helt&s=books&sr=1-2

 

What else can I help you with? I've been involved with them since 1976. And you are very close to the Corvair Ranch, Bon Ox Road Gettysburg.

[Larry Schramm]

My wife's first car was a RED '64 Corvair Monza 4-speed. 

 

Great car with radials.  Handled great and was a lot of fun in the winter because it would go anywhere.

[kings32]

My sister bought 46 conv new , and yes that would go anywhere . I would use when my new car would need service . I would that her back to base in va Was stationed there after my tour in Nam and see get my car servied .I had that corvair over 100 many times .Kings32

[Frank DuVal]

11 hours ago, Larry Schramm said:

Handled great and was a lot of fun in the winter because it would go anywhere.

And that's what happened to them, salt rust....😡

 

  But they sure are fun in the snow!👍

 

I've been told studded tires and they were great on ice too. They were not legal in our area most of the time.

Edited July 2, 2022 by Frank DuVal (see edit history)