Sunbaked Special: 1968 Corvair
I’m a little bit of a Corvair nut, to say the least. I’ve owned four of them, and if I’m lucky, I’ll be buying a fifth very shortly. 1968 Corvairs are one of the odd years – low production combined with mid-year changeovers made for a quirky car that already had lots of quirks. Check out the full listing for this one here on eBay.
As far as I can tell, this is a 1968 500 (baseline) 110hp, automatic car. An absence of trim holes on the decklid and a 110 badge are the first giveaways of the engine and trim level. From this angle, the body looks patina’d, but not rusted heavily. I do like the look of the faded Ermine White on this car.
The second indicator of a 500 trim level is the folding front bench seat. Bench seats were only offered standard on the 500’s- 1968 Monza’s would’ve had new Chevy Astro-Buckets. Although the interior is rough, the dough you save not doing a full body restoration can be put to good use here.
The nose seems to be the worst part of the car. I’m not sure if someone god angry and drove into a tree, or beat it with a bat, but it is a little messed up. If you look closely, you can see the ’68-only adhesive-backed 500 trim badge on the fender. I also spot what appears to be factory tinted glass, which brings a good bit of money with many Corvair collectors. For a cheap enough price, this ’68 might make a great parts source or beater for someone with an interest in these unique cars.
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Comments
I love the sunbaked look! First drawback is the auto. I know the early models are easy to convert, are the second gens? Regardless that passenger B pillar is ROUGH. I think the ‘buy it now’ is a little hopeful.
If it’s solid and that is just surface rust, the BIN is worth it. I’ve got three of them now, or I’d go for it. Any one of them is easy to convert to manual trans if you have a parts car available. A lot of small stuff, that Clarks Corvair Parts doesn’t have, makes that a big help.
The 2nd gen Corvairs are much more appealing. This one could look good again.
500’s didn’t have the polished metal trim surrounding the taillights. One could probably buy a whole Corvair interior quite cheaply.
Oddly, Ralph Nadar called, and doesn’t want his Corvair back……..
Beautiful shape – they’re all coming out of the ww now – pity they are universally f$&@ed
Another interesting car that we never received Down Under. Having said that, we did see one successfully competing in a category called Sports Sedans. Built and raced by the late Frank Gardner, this Corvair was powered by a mid-mounted 6 litre Chev V8 driving through a Hewland transaxle. It was a ground-breaking car that forced major rule changes for the category due to its dominance. Enjoy the picture.
Great photo Adam, Transformed to right hand drive also.
Sure was leiniedude. The rules for the category allowed cars to be either. As the majority of our tracks at the time were predominantly running in a clock-wise direction. rhd placed the weight of the driver on the inside for most corners.
The Gardner car was famous in the States too, at least in certain circles. An astonishing (and legal, at least for a time) interpretation of the rules, which would, as you infer, just plain dominate the category in which it competed. There was also one built in the UK, which was also quite fast, and had a 7 litre engine, IIRC!
If I ever win a lotto, a dream of mine of to recreate one of those cars, and play with it in vintage racing. Extraordinary, thanks for posting the photo.
No worries Alan. When I see a link between something on this site and something similar that we’ve had Down Under, I always try to post a photo. We have quite a few hidden gems in our history here.
Have a 68 with a Kelmark conversion sitting in the garage, a project I hope to complete some day. The Porsche 930 transaxle I bought for it 15 or so years ago is now probably worth more than the complete car.
Just what, exactly, does it take for one to be considered “God Angry”? ;)
Maybe “God Angry” is one step above being “really cross”. Sorry, bad joke….but I liked it!
Arizona Car. A rot free shell to start with would cut the restoration cost in half here in the North East. Would love to have it.
One of my NY plates is VAIRNUT the other is 61 VAIR. We had over 135 Corvairs through the shop before my Dad retired and sold it all off. I learned a lot over the decades, the most important thing, when a Unibody Vair rots in the joints, door jams, shock towers it near impossible to fix them right. When it’s just sunburn.. and it’s before GM started using recycled metal (1967) there is plenty of metal left.