64 corvair 4x4 (CT) NMNA

I came across this awesome looking beast (not mine, no affiliation) and thought that it could be completely right for someone here!

  -- Pete

"64 corvair spyder on a 96 jimmy 4x4"

64 corvair 4x4

There was a newspaper article about that car in the Waterbury Republican American a few weeks ago.

https://wheels.rep-am.com/2021/03/my-ride-playing-dr-frankenstein-with-his-chevy-corvair/

BY BUD WILKINSON | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

It was last June that Eric Taylor of Torrington came upon an automotive relic that turned into a COVID-19 pandemic winter project. At the time, he was behind the wheel of a 1965 Chevrolet Corvair that he then owned but has since sold.

“I was driving around and I was up in Colebrook one day,” he said, recalling that a resident “chased me down and said, ‘I got a Corvair in my backyard that needs a home.’ So, I went to go see it.”

There wasn’t much to see.

“It was a stripped out body. There wasn’t a single screw in it. There was no motor, no wheels, no seats, no nothing and I took it home,” he said of what he learned was a solid shell of a 1964 Corvair Monza Spyder.

Taylor’s initial inclination was to try and flip it.

“I offered it to all kinds of Corvair groups and Corvair guys and they all said, ‘Aw, that’s awesome’ but nobody came for it, so it sat here.”

As the body sat, he got to pondering its potential.

“I had this idea – put it on a four-wheel-drive frame, and it took me about a month to find a worthy Jimmy.”

The project began in summer, and picked up momentum in the fall. Taylor set it aside for the month of January to search for parts before resuming work. He got it on the road recently.

Beneath the reworked Corvair body is a 1996 GMC Jimmy. In performing the marriage, the body went on and off 12 times before everything fit.

“There’s a lot of things you got to think of ahead of time,” he said.

The biggest hurdle was making the engine and drive train of front-engine SUV meld with what was once a rear-engine compact car. The engine had to go where the Corvair had its “frunk” (or front trunk).

“Basically, you cut the firewall completely out, you cut a trench up the middle of the car, and you set the body down on the frame and you see what needs clearance; transmission, bell housing, drive shaft, transfer case,” Taylor explained. “The distributor was the big thing against the firewall because if I left the original firewall, the motor would have fit but you would have never got the distributor cap off without removing the body.”

The firewall got moved back an inch. The floor was rebuilt to accommodate the drivetrain.

“There’s probably a finger’s worth of clearance between the two. It’s all mounted on NHL hockey pucks in eight different points,” he said, reporting that holes were drilled in the pucks to allow bolts to go through them to connect to the frame and body.

Taylor installed bucket seats in the front of the passenger compartment but a cross-member from the Jimmy’s frame prevented him from putting in a rear seat. The design also forced him to flip-flop the locations of the accelerator and brake pedals. The gas pedal is on the left and the brake pedal on the right.

“It took about a day to get used to. I’ve been driving it around for about 500 miles so far already and I notice no difference,” he said. “I drive the car normally. I hit the brake pedal when I need to. I hit the gas when I need to. I never notice the difference, but I am going to put it in the traditional pattern because that’s what everybody expects.”

Taylor has been swamped with attention since getting the Corvair on the road.

“It’s unbelievable; the reactions in traffic. People are wowed. People are confused. People are following me from gas stations to home because they want to ask me questions about it,” he said, adding that when he goes to the grocery store in it, he inevitably comes out to find folks taking pictures.

What’s also amazing about the Corvair is the shape of the body.

While the dark blue paint scheme is faded and shows a good deal of patina, the metal is sound. Taylor said the shell rested in a barn for years. He suspects the rest of the Corvair was cannibalized with the parts going to another Corvair and “what was left just sat there.”

The Corvair remains a bit rough. There are no interior door panels and there is no carpeting. But Taylor isn’t finished unless he gets an offer for it.

“Just keep poking at it,” he replied when asked his plans for the car. “Is it for sale? Everything’s got its price. I’d like to see the car more complete before it leaves, but if someone wants to give it a home, then I’m all for giving it a home.”

Search YouTube for Matts Oddroad Recovery. He just finished up an amazing CorvairX4

Reversed pedals, yikes.  Wonder how much else got hacked

Is it still unsafe at any speed?

Lmao .. just some fyi the car was quickly sold

New owner flew to ct with his 10yr old son 

And drove it home 2000+ miles to colorado problem free

More fun at any speed .. or terrain

No room for a peddle between brake and tunnel , 

Built in a shop not a backyard and a long list of new parts including a jasper engine

So pffft to the haters

In reply to PeteD :

All I'm getting from the link is "Page not Found".

In reply to 914Driver :

That was from 5 months ago. I think Ledfoot built it then got defensive months later when they found this thread.