[SCG] eBay Motors (item 230449142879 end time Mar-2

[Dave Newell]

Bill,
This is a nice car indeed, but if you look closely you'll see it's a 65-66 Corvair AM/FM radio that someone shoehorned in. Note that the dealer order worksheet lists only a "PB Radio" which the car probably came with from Willow Run. Either the dealer or someone else put the 65-66 radio in it so it could indeed be "dealer installed". Notice how the die cast chrome dial housing is angled out at the top compared to the bottom, and that it also has a gap at the top that would normally be covered by the face plate when the radio was installed in a late model, which it was made for. 
Bill, I think you should look at the 64 AM/FM question the other way around. There is absolutely no mention of an AM/FM radio in any known Chevrolet literature as a factory installed option or as a dealer installed accessory in 64. Not in consumer lit, not in dealer materials, not in factory internal documents, nothing. Now, I'm not saying a few couldn't have been installed in Engineering cars or as test cars in the field, and I never say never. But there is no record that's ever been found of any such installation.
So, I think the proper way to phrase the question is "To my knowledge, it has never been proved that an AM/FM radio was ever available on '64 Corvairs." 
And putting a 65-6 AM/FM in a 64 doesn't count.
Also, there's no way that the owner could know the car was built on May 4,1964. There's also nothing on the Fisher Body plate that indicates which shift the body was built in. The "E" means the fifth week, not the shift. Since there's no photo of the body plate in the listing, we can't see the complete Fisher build date (which only shows month and week). So I went to the Chevrolet production records and they show that this VIN 253383 was built the last week of April 1964 (4E) rather than the first week of May as the seller states.
It's a beautiful car and it should bring a good price. It could always be put back to the 64 AM PB radio...no harm done there.
Dave 

---------- Original Message ----------
From: Wrsssatty at aol.com
To: chevrobilia at juno.com
Subject: Check out Chevrolet : Corvair : eBay Motors (item 230449142879 end time Mar-2
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:54:27 EDT


Click here: Chevrolet : Corvair : eBay Motors (item 230449142879 end time Mar-20-10 15:35:32 PDT)  To my knowledge, a definitive answer has yet to be given as to whether an AM/FM radio was ever available on '64 Corvairs (I think the consensus has been probably not).  This car, is claimed to sport an AM/FM radio installed by the dealer.  What do you think? ~Bill