'62 Corvair wagon mid engine supercharged 3800

I think I've got a fairly unique project to here. I'm trying to build and nice driving, powerful, fuel-efficient, safe, comfortable ride.

I've been working on it off and on for several years now and have worked through most of the big problems and now I'm down to details and what's left of the big problems.

I want to state my project goals so that I don't get a lot of input that I don't need. I'm not planning on racing it. I'm not going to spend a lot of time showing it at car shows. I do plan on driving it. It will be a semi-daily driver but more often used for weekend cruises, and long road trips. I do not want to alter the outward appearance of the car very much,...grill, scoops, cowling, etc. I want it to look more or less like a nicely executed resto mod with a pro touring flavor.???

The project started out as a 1962 model 700 Corvair wagon. The powertrain was donated from a 1998 Buick regal GS. Seats are out of a 1998 Dodge Intrepid. Front suspension is out of a 1966 Corvair. And the seemingly never ending amount of custom fabrication to make this all fit together.

I'm hoping that I can pull from a larger pool of knowledge as I hammer out some of these details that are very, very important to me.

All add pictures as soon as I figure out how to do it on this particular forum.

Let's see if I did this right.

You didn't.

I did! And I like it!
I think you're well on your way towards that resto + pro-touring vibe goal, not sure if you need to go any lower from the pictures I found of it as I rifled through your photobucket account.

Very cool.

Corvairjunky wrote: All add pictures as soon as I figure out how to do it on this particular forum.

On the right side of your photobucket picture, copy the HTML tag. Then just paste that into the body of your post and you're done.

As one of the handful of Corvair owners on the board, welcome!

Looks like an interesting project, so I'm interested in seeing it progress.

Are you on any of the Corvair boards?

Syntheticblinkerfluid, I frequent the Corvair Center forum.

Dang it! Woody, I was hoping I wouldn't ever have to use my photo bucket again.

I need a cameraman to follow me around and do all this crap for me.

So, do you run a Corvair recycling yard or is this hobby of yours just out of control? I take it this project is more finished that not at this point? Love to see some of the fab details if you have pics.

I like the wagon theme.

Definitely a hobby out of control.

Not even close to done. That picture is from five years ago, just before I took it completely apart for a nut and bolt resto mod wich turned into this monster project. I'm having fun, and not even close to discouraged. I realize that with my budget and time constraints I'm in this for the long-haul.

Hopefully I can get my photo bucket figured out and post some comprehensive pictures. I'm a real hands-on, jump in and do it kinda guy which doesn't always work with tech stuff since I have little interest and no background in it. Most of my photo bucket pictures are from years ago and were all done on a PC. Now I do everything with my iPhone and I don't have the options available to me for some reason. like photo editing, and rotating, and cropping, and linking them here. And for this problem I find my plasma cutter, my welder, my mill, my lathe, my hot tank, my press, and all my many other tools useless.

I have always loved the Lakewoods (Did they only call them that for one year?) and have salivated after one for many years. I want to see some more pictures!

Yes, Lakewood was for 1961 only. They came in a 500 or 700 series. For 1962, they dropped the Lakewood moniker and just went with Corvair wagon. They also drop the 500 series wagon from the line which put the 700 series as the bottom line wagon and the new monza wagon was the top model. It came with bucket seats, and was a "sports" wagon if you will.

So, was this done using one of the Kennedy Conversion kits that were used to put V8s in the backseat of the Corvair, or it is one-off effort? Do you still have a backseat?

Guessing here: It sounds like he used the transverse drivetrain from the FWD Buick which should allow for a rear seat. It might get a tad warm but I don't see why you would lose the seat like you would on a Small block longitudinal layout like the Kennedy.

Correct. I am using the L 67 powerplant with the 4T65e hd transmission.

The backseat is retained. And if my firewall insulation is executed correctly and my enhanced airflow through the engine compartment comes to fruition, I think heat transferred to the interior will be minimal.

Corvair Junkie is right

Was going to suggest there was help for you. But after seeing that picture, I will take it back. You are the Frank Gallagher of the Corvair world.

(Assuming you have watched "Shameless")