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Topic: Was this corvair a microbus knock off?  (Read 1725 times)

Offline Smelly_Cat

Was this corvair a microbus knock off?

« on: March 14, 2009, 07:41:03 PM »
Less familiar than the corvair cars, but equally interesting are the Forward Control (FC) Corvairs, which were built 1961-1965. They came in four body styles: conventional pickup (called a Loadside), pickup with fold down side ramp (called a Rampside), panel side delivery van (Corvan) and window van (Greenbrier Sportswagon or Corvan with window option). Forward control Corvairs were produced at Flint, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri from parts manufactured and partially assembled elsewhere. The Corvair FC's were designed to compete with the Volkswagen Transporter/Microbus/Pickup type II vehicle of the time. Chevrolet did some market research and determined that those who bought the VW products did so because they had more interior volume than a pickup based sedan delivery, were smaller outside, were more economical and easier to handle in city traffic. VW owners complained about the type II's lack of power, lack of an automatic transmission, small load rating and the relative uselessness of the pickup body. The Corvair 95 Rampside pickup (model R1254) is a Loadside with a big ramp on the passenger's side where the side barn doors would mount on the van body. It was produced 1961-1964. The ramp folds down from a piano hinge at the bottom of the bed and has a rubber edging on top to save the paint when the ramp is folded down. This is probably the cleverest addition ever made to the American pickup truck: It allows you to roll or slide most any object into the bed without lifting. The Bell Telephone company bought a bunch of these because they could roll cable reels right in and out of the bed. FC engines were the same size as the Corvair car engines of that year: 145 c.i. from 1961-1963, and 164 c.i. in 1964 and 1965. In all year models they have a special oil filler/dipstick tube location: a 1" hole on the right rear of the crankcase. This allows the engine oil to be checked and adjusted on an fc without raising the rear cargo deck, which is normally screwed down and is raised only for maintainance items like changing air cleaners, synchronizing carburetors, or overly intrusive concours inspections at CORSA meets. FC's also have a special low-height version of the 1961-1963 car air cleaner system to make the drivetrain fit under the deck.

Early Corvair 95s and Greenbrier Sportswagons were only available with one engine: a heavy-duty truck rated version of the 80 hp base car engine. Compared to the car engine, the FC version had exhaust valves of tougher metal, exhaust valve rotators, reduced compression, and richer carburetor jetting. As with the cars, the 1961-62 Forward Controls came with the highly efficient "folded-fin" oil cooler.
This is a very rare truck, It needs TOTAL restoration which will include some metal work. It does not run, it has been sitting for years. The bed is in very good shape, this truck is complete minus some emblems and a taillight lense. Will Need to be trailered, no tires hold air, Same pattern as a chevy truck 5 lug though if you have something that will hold air. Again this truck needs total restoration but is something very rarely seen, So I thought it was worth saving.
$1000.00
the last picture is what it could look like

Offline Zen

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Was this corvair a microbus knock off?

« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2009, 07:57:50 AM »
I used to own a '62 Corvair Monza.  It was my daily driver for a several years in the late 80's to early 90's.  I almost bought a Rampside pickup during that time.  They were very cool cars and trucks (if ugly is cool) but parts are not very plentiful.  Some parts will exchange with other Chevy's of the day, but the Corvair only stuff is avalible from Clarks Corvair Parts in Mass.  If they don't have it, you won't find it.  Even simple breakdowns were sometimes very expensive . . . so I came to my senses and didn't buy the Rampside and parked the Monza in my mom's yard . . . she sold it for me a couple of years later 'cause she thought I wanted to sell it . . .  :cry:

Anyway, I couldn't afford to get back into Corvairs, but they had turned me on to rear engine air-cooled vehicles . . . so I got into VWs instead.  The more I learned about VWs, the more I can see where GM was trying to copy VW and improve on their designs . . . some things they "almost" got right, but most of their improvements didn't work out well.  In the end, air-cooled VWs were around for years before the Corvair and stayed in production for years after GM dropped the Corvair line (Corvair cars were built from 60-69 and trucks/vans from 61-65).  Air-cooled Beetles stayed in production until 2003 and it was just a couple of years ago that VW of Brazil changed their bay window bus over to a water-cooled engine.

Still . . . a Ramp Side Pickup would be a cool vehicle to own if you could afford the restoration and keeping it on the road when you were done.

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