Originally Posted by markeb01 (Post 6054650)

Since this is a truck enthusiast site I imagine most of the responses will be to keep the truck. And being a family heirloom would make that an easy decision for most of us, since seller’s remorse can be so much more heartbreaking.

It wouldn’t be all that difficult to add power steering and brakes while maintaining most of the originality. And since these trucks came with automatic transmissions, that could also be converted to look stock if needed.

If you really don’t like or want the truck I’d suggest selling it for top dollar and buying whatever you truly dream of owning. Unless that ultimate dream car is a Corvair, I’d be looking for something else.

Just from personal experience I would have very little interest in owning a Corvair, regardless of condition. I used to work on them back in the 60’s and I hated the things. The crankcase leaked like a sieve and as best I remember the bolts were 1/4x20 and owners snapped them off with regularity trying to stop the leaks. My job was drilling out/extracting the broken bolts which got old real fast. Riding in one left an impression of being a very cheap car. My dad had a V6 62 Buick Special and it had the same feel, along with the first generation Tempest and Olds F85.

And they had a rather unforgiving tendency to flip over, driving straight and level down the road if the tire pressures weren’t maintained properly. Corvairs were originally designed to include a rear sway bar which the bean counters removed, saving $5.00 per car. This made them dangerously unstable (again with improper air pressure in the tires). At the time the sway bar could be purchased for $35.00 retail, but few owners understood the urgency. This was one of the highlighted issues in the Ralph Nader book “Unsafe at Any Speed”. The negative publicity led to the downfall of the Corvair, and caused the introduction of most of the GM safety improvements in the late 60’s. When these were current automobiles Ernie Kovacs (a household name/comedian back then) was killed in one, which further dropped their popularity.

The bottom line on this site for every owner is you should own what you love. Unless you’ve been an avid Corvair fan all your life, I’d suggest researching the breed before deciding this is your dream ride.

Originally Posted by thunder71 (Post 6056794)

Don't do it...
Posted via Mobile Device

Originally Posted by scottveazie (Post 6191204)

I kept the truck, decided the Corvair wasn't for me. But I did find a nice Chrysler 300 2 door hard top in similar condition to my truck that I'm considering a trade for.