1965 Chevrolet Corvair 500 Sedan

These are the first pictures of our new 1965 Corvair 500 Sedan. The car was purchased from fellow MCCA club member, Terry Kalp. This car has not been actively driven for several years, so some work is required to make it a reliable, safe daily driver. Yes, that's right, I'm going to use this 40+ year old car as my daily driver. The car will also under go a "driving restoration." The first projects include cleaning the gas tank and replacing the brakes.

Just a few before and after pictures of the engine. Still needs some cleaning and detailing but it's much better than it was.

While removing the brakes lines and fuel tank we noticed that the front passenger floor has quite a bit of rust. The rubber floor mat (aka rust maker) was removed to fine more rust than floor. Fortunately, Terry offered the floors from a few parts cars. Upon further review, one of the cars had nearly new aftermarket floor pans that were held in by screws around the edges. Terry didn’t know about these floors and still offered them for use in the sedan. Man, I’m lucky to have found those panels and to have such a generous friend like Terry.

Phase I complete, the car is ready for the road. New gas tank, all new brakes and some cleaning has been completed. Still have lots of work to do, but I can enjoy driving it now.

These are some detailed shots of the sedan before taking it to get painted. I wanted to document how much body work would be needed.

These are pictures of the sedan at Sam Valdez' shop. Sam has done the paint work on several Corvairs in our club and does a great job for a great Corvair price.

Pictures of the sedan with fresh paint. I'm very pleased with how the car turned out. I was never worried about the work but a bit worried about the color. After seeing the car in color, I only had to worry about the first scratch.