My 62 Corvair Monza:

The hood (actually luggage compartment lid) flew off on the freeway and sailed neatly through the passenger side of the windshield of a moving van behind me. A few feet to the left and the driver would have been decapitated.

The front end would start shaking uncontrollably for no apparent reason and I'd have to hit the brakes hard.

The steering would come loose from the steering box and I could spin the steering wheel with the car going in a straight line.

All the wiring in the car caught on fire.

I had to take off the distributor cap and sand the points before I could start it up in the morning.

I went through about 15 batteries.

The brakes failed in an intersection and I T-boned a camper with two really old people in it, knocking it on its side. All their clothes, dishes, etc. flew out the back and into the street, only to get run over by heavy traffic.

I fried several clutches.

The mount holding the driver's seat broke, for no apparent reason, and It fell into the back seat on the freeway.

The engine caught on fire twice because the carburetors were flooding with gas.

A wheel came off three times for no apparent reason.

The distributor wires were forever popping off the spark plugs.

This doesn't count any of the stupid things I did to it as a kid, like spinning it out down a hill in the rain and into the mud, driving through the garage door drunk (twice), getting chased by the cops after a drag race and getting caught hiding under a pile of magazines.

Or the things that weren't my or its fault, like a lady losing control of her car and crashing into me in the rain, a motorcycle rear ending me and throwing the rider over my roof and hood (he wasn't seriously injured), a bus backing into me, a bag of cement getting dropped on the roof from the third floor of a construction project (fortunately it was parked).

 

in my search for another ride I've come across a few RB
interesting to see them close up

 

Mom-

DON'T DO IT! Trust me.

 

I din't even consider one for a second after your stories I just said I've seen a few up close

 

They are a pain to work on. It's been a lot of years since I rebuilt one so 'm sure I'm forgetting lots things. Instead of a normal engine you have a block, 2 heads, 6 piston jugs, 12 pushrod tubes, and a ton of sheet metal all around the engine. If the engine gets too hot, even just a little, all the pushrod tubes o-rings are ruined and it start leaking oil. The most common repair I made was replacing all the pushrod tube o-rings with viton seals. If you cornered too hard on the early models 60-64 you'd get oversteer and the inside rear wheel would start to roll under. The early ones also had 4 bolt rims, it was impossible to get any cool wheels for it.

The later models 65-69 actually were a huge update but by then all the damage was done and they were on their way out. You could also get a turbo (180hp) in the later models. If you really want one try to find a late model Yenko Stinger. Yup, same Yenko that did the muscle cars that are bring 100's of thousands now. You can get the covair version much much cheaper.

 

There is an episode of Jay Lenos Garage on a Yenko Stinger Corvair that just popped up in my recommended videos a couple of weeks ago

I really liked the concept of the car, but yeah, tons of headaches. And when you say "if they get too hot" that means if someone walks by and says "I wonder if the cooling fan belt may break" the engine is too hot :P

In this case, VW certainly did a LOT better job with the aircooled platform than GM did in terms of reliability. I probably see more of them nowadays with V8 swaps than stock engines

The one I had was one that my ex wifes dad bought "us" (this was in the mid 90's) cause he found it for very cheap with very few miles on it (mainly had been in storage with very little driving since new). When we split up, I of course gave her the car since her dad bought it and she needed a car. Diff went out two weeks later on her and the dipshit she was running around with I mean ... its been a long time and I am not a bitter person, but she was basically Satans daughter in terms of a human being so I cant help but smile when I think of that part. Last I heard they kept having to dump money into repairs and her dad was as useless as an asshole on an elbow when it came to working on cars, so I think they sold it off at some point.

 

My mom had a new 64 coupe. When she was done with it and got a new car my dad and I put it in the garage and cut it in half with a air chisel and hacksaw. We cut out from the front seats to near the back seats then put it back to together and welded it. The doors ended up about 2 feet long so we cut them and welded them shut and finished over the seams. We ended up with a 2 seat roadster with no doors and no roof. The back seat was now the front seat and you just jumped over the side. It was fun to drive but a lot of oversteer if you went into a corner too hot since it was so short. It was also a pain in the rain since it had no top.

Speaking of v8 ones, I still have a 65 sitting the back of my barn with a 350 behind the front seats. I started it when I was in college and got it to the point about being able to drive it then bought a vette and it's been sitting every since.

 

Hey Mom. We had a bronze gold colour Convair when I was little

 

Hey stranger, nice to see you remembered how to

h0pe all is well with the family

 

Yes, all is well! Tim and I were sitting in a pub last night and some guy came in with a t-shirt with the Santa Cruz screaming hand logo and we were debating who that avatar belonged to many years ago.