I've got a few old 'vair parts left over from my rear engined air-cooled GM days. I was once the proud owner of a 62 Monza 2 door with a 2 speed powerglide automatic tranny. Overall, it was not a bad car. I had the stock (80 HP?) engine with only a few thousand miles on a complete rebuild. It didn't leak oil OR sling belts and got good mileage to boot. The only real problems I had were with the brakes and starter.
I left it parked at my mom's house for 1 too many years and ended up with $200 instead of the car . . . If I had the chance, I'd buy one just like for $200. I originally gave $600 for it, but I did use it for a daily driver for about 4 years, so I guess I got my money out of it. The best thing about owning it was it did break me in to the idea that putting the engine in back and making it air-cooled wasn't an altogether bad idea . . . BUT . . .
I would never go to the trouble to put a VW engine in a 'vair. Some 'vair parts are not expensive because they are common, off the shelf, GM parts . . . the brake shoes are the same as Chevy II, hydraulic lifters are the same as a small block Chevy V8, the points, distrbutor cap and rotor button are the same as a 230 or 250 in-line 6 Chevy . . . but those "Corvair Only" parts are a different story. If you want them, you MUST get them from Clark's Corvair Parts in Mass. They have bought out all the other places that manufacture Corvair parts. Needless to say, parts are expensive . . . and they didn't build 20+ million of them over half a century. They only built them in limited numbers from 1960 - 1969 . . . it's not like you can go to the local bone yard and find a couple dozen of them to pull parts from.
If you do gather up all the parts you need, you still have to adapt the engine to the tranny and reverse either the engine or tranny, or somehow adapt the whole VW drive train to the Corvair. Then, you've lost 2 cylinders . . . you've got spend some money to the get the VW engine pumping out the HP that the 'vair engine put out at stock (by the way, a stock Corvair wasn't 'overpowered' by any stretch of the imagination . . . the FACTORY 140 Horse 4 carbed version and the 150 and 180 Horse turbocharged versions were a different story).
Just my opinion, but there is nothing "wrong" with a Corvair. If you want one, go ahead and get one. Just keep it all Corvair. It's less money and headaches and will be worth more in the long run. Keep your VW engine in a VW . . . for pretty much the same reasons.
