"what had happened was...."
someone bought this car to replace their crashed '66, painted it yellow, and swapped over their interior and powertrain. that's how you got a 140 engine and '66-style factory air in a '65 turbo body. '65 body with '66 frunklid explains the lack of "Corvair" script on nose of car. that said, i've never seen a factory turbo car without the tailpipe cutout.
In reply to AngryCorvair :
I think that you are probably close to right. Someone had to paint it to match a car they used to have. It does seem to be a mish mash of 65 and 66. I'm fine with it as I just want a nice driver, not a concours collectible. It also has the 66 front air dam. The lack of tail pipe cutout is a puzzle.
Or someone switched body tags, which is not uncommon. You have to look for the hidden VIN to truly know if it has been or not.
I like the yellow too.
I bet you a beer it's had a VIN swap......
Occams Razor suggests as much.
Found this one. At least the rivets look correct.
Dammit said:Occams Razor suggests as much.
Actually, I'm more of a Norelco guy.. Choosing the answer that requires the least assumptions would make sense if the VIN plate was from a 66. It's from a 65 so why do that and have a bunch of 66 stuff on the car? You would have swapped a 66 VIN tag.
SkinnyG said:I like the yellow too.
I bet you a beer it's had a VIN swap......
OK, I'll take a Stella. I climbed under the right front fender and cleaned out the frame rail behind the spring tower. The last six of the VIN are supposed to be stamped there. VIN plate:
The frame VIN stamp. First of all the frame is red which matches the body tag. Really hard to get your face back in there to see, much less to photograph. I could only see the last three digits but they are "901".
So, mercifully, I do not have a VIN switch car. The mystery of the exhaust cutout still remains though.
Well then you can definitely cross that mystery off the list.
It honestly looks like someone actually went through the trouble to make it a non-Turbo Corsa. I’d get under the right rear corner and see if there is any visible bodywork where the turbo exhaust is supposed to be. Not that it makes a difference at this point with your plans for the car, just to see out of curiosity.
Holy carp.
You know, while I was messing around out in the garage, I realized that I have the Trifecta parked in there: Rear engine, Mid engine, Front engine:
Nice!
Not like it Matters But in 65 the Fasteners that hold the Axle (universal joint) strap to the trans are Smaller than 66. Maybe 5/16 vs. 7/16 or 7/16 vs1/2 Sorry it's been Many miles ago.
The engine block is a YC code which is a 64 block. Not used in 65 and on. The heads are correct 140 heads. So the engine in this car is a collection of different year parts as well.
This is the back of my car. No turbo exhaust cut out on the right side. There is a small push up dent on the engine grill panel near the right side.
This is what the rear of a Corsa turbo should look like:
However, I did find this car online. I don't know it's history and the tailpipe isn't chrome, which I think all turbos were.
Yes, all Corsa Turbos had a cutout and a chrome tailpipe.
With the extensive amount of work that the person who did all the converting this over from a Regal Red/White Top/Red Interior Turbo Corsa to a Crocus Yellow/Black top/Black Interior 140 Corsa with A/C, I wouldn't put it past them to have filled in the Turbo exhaust cutout.
Argo1 said:You know, while I was messing around out in the garage, I realized that I have the Trifecta parked in there: Rear engine, Mid engine, Front engine:
Rear engine, mid engine, Ferrari engine...
The 0823 engine build date jives with the mid-September vehicle build date. I'm guessing there may have been some mixup or late release of revised engine codes that led to an 0823 engine being stamped YC. Perhaps your car *never* had a turbo engine, and the trim tag was stamped incorrectly. Does your car have a fuel return line from engine compartment to a nipple on the fuel filler neck? Because that is a turbo-only feature.
another note: Chevy built about 250k Corvairs for the '65 model year. So about 20k per month. They began serial numbers with 100000, so your VIN is the 13,901st Corvair built for MY65, which also jives with an 09B body build date.
In reply to AngryCorvair :
I don't believe that it has a return line. I will verify that. That would answer some questions.
You Corvair guys are killing me! This is my roundtuit project.
I'd like to sell the '65 140 and all the spare parts we have, and use that cash to find a turbo motor for the '64 Spyder. And paint, etc...
In reply to Kramer :
Tell me about the '65...
AngryCorvair said:The 0823 engine build date jives with the mid-September vehicle build date. I'm guessing there may have been some mixup or late release of revised engine codes that led to an 0823 engine being stamped YC. Perhaps your car *never* had a turbo engine, and the trim tag was stamped incorrectly. Does your car have a fuel return line from engine compartment to a nipple on the fuel filler neck? Because that is a turbo-only feature.
another note: Chevy built about 250k Corvairs for the '65 model year. So about 20k per month. They began serial numbers with 100000, so your VIN is the 13,901st Corvair built for MY65, which also jives with an 09B body build date.
Looked up where the return fuel line should be and....
it isn't there and no evidence that it ever was. You may be right. This may never have been a turbo car at all. The block and date code being only a month before the production date of the car may mean that this is the original engine for the car. That would explain the body not having a turbo cut out (or repair). Possibly the string of digits in the option code means different than what I thought. There doesn't seem to be a definitive source to decode all the option codes. Anyone know of one? Care to take a crack at the bottom option line?
In reply to Kramer :
The 0627 on the body tag says that you have an original Spyder Turbo Coupe. The 64's are the best year. I had a 63 and a 62 Sypder. I hope that you can get going on your project!
In reply to Argo1 :
W - Tinted Windshield
2L - RPO M20 4-Speed
3C - Padded Dash
4PUO - (P) Convenience Group - 2 Speed Wipers, Day/Night inside mirror, (U) Spare Tire Lock, (O) RPO L87 Turbo Engine
In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid :
Looking at the tag, the last digit may be a zero rather than an "O". I wonder if that is a different option?
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