<VV> Bradley/Corvair project?

[Tony Underwood]

At 05:33 PM 11/20/2006, Roger Gault wrote:


Humm...




>Arjay,
>My thoughts are:
>1)  If you're worried about resale value, run away.  It will cost you many
>times what you can sell it for.


Myself, I NEVER consider what something might be worth after I finish 
with it (IF I finish it).   I don't buy anything that I only intend 
to resell.  Seems kinda pointless unless you're a marketer and I'm 
not.  I'm an enthusiast.


>2)  If you're worried about it being too much work, run away.  You can't
>imagine.....


I automatically figure I'm in for a bunch of work when I acquire 
another project.   It's the way things are.   If it didn't need work 
I wouldn't have gotten it for cheap and since I'm a cheapskate I 
don't go shopping for expensive projects.    WIth this approach, 
sometimes cheap projects come looking for YOU.


>3)  If you don't get insane giggling joy from looking a some moron previous
>owner's screwups, run away.


I have produced multitudes of giggles and cackles the likes of The 
Joker with most projects I've acquired.    One particularly good 
giggle came forth when I was stripping the '65 ragtop down after 
dragging it home (for free).    Seems one of the front vents had 
evidently at one time proved too drafty for somebody... so they'd 
plugged it with a beach towel.    The whole towel, crammed into the 
inside of the fender through the right side air vent.   It was so 
mildewed (this is after all a "wet area") that it was slimy and the 
moisture had wreaked havoc on the inside of that fender which ended 
up being replaced because it was so thin.

There have been other comedy moments.


>I passed all those tests, so I recently bought an Avenger GT-15, Corvair
>powered "project" car.  I figure 3 years to get it "finished".  If I'm
>lucky, I'll only have $10K in a $4K car that's not as much fun to drive as
>my Corsa convert.


I have a kitcar chassis (thoughtfully provided by Ryan L. from north 
of here) that uses Corvair driveline, suspension, 
steering.   Evidently it's something that Seth suggested may have 
been sold in the '70s through J.C. Whitney.   It's currently fitted 
with late model front and rear Vair suspension and driveline that 
included a dead-as-a-doornail 140hp engine (rained on far too many 
times) and 4-sp.   The transaxle seems like it might be OK, engine 
may be salvageable for the crankcase and maybe the heads...  but 
otherwise it's recycle fodder... pretty bad.     I've kicked ideas 
around of what sort of body might have been intended to go on this 
chassis, which is made of healthy steel tubing and is not flimsy by 
any definition.  The main runners are 3" in diameter.

An Avenger GT body looks like a shoe-in for this sort of 
chassis...  if the wheel base is anywhere close.   This particular 
chassis looks like it had never been finished, no road miles on it 
etc.   It doesn't even have a floor yet.   It has however been 
sitting in the weather for many years, which means it's gonna require 
some sanding to remove that patina off it.    Still, it's a solid piece.

By the way, if anybody knows a thing or three about this sort of 
chassis, I could provide some photos so as to identify it more 
positively, maybe find out more about it.


>A running VW powered Bradley with only one broken gull window recently sold
>on E-bay for just over $2K.  $900 to ship it across the country, <$1500 to
>convert it to Corvair, and you'd be way ahead if what you want is to
>own/drive one.  If you want a long hobby project, the rules are different.

This one doesn't need converting, it's there already and has been 
since Day-1.   I'd not seen much of this sort of thing that looked 
like it was specifically designed to mount Corvair 
suspension/driveline although obviously such existed in some quantity 
Back When.    In the early '70s a guy here in town had two GT-40 copy 
cars of some sort, Valkyrie kitcars maybe, which used Corvair 
components, talked to him a while one day just by stopping while 
returning to work and asking questions while he was washing the pair 
of them.    They looked bitchin' enough to have provided influence to 
how flexible Corvair stuff actually was if kitcars were exploiting it.

Never forgot that pair of 'Vair based kitcars, which was responsible 
for maintaining that 'Vair "background clutter" in my head that 
stepped forward the day I acquired my first 'Vair back in '79 or '80, 
I forget.


tony..