If I were selling this very pretty 1962 Corvair convertible with a desirable manual transmission on Craigslist near Seattle, I would go into detail about the complete restoration it has undergone. But this seller is terse, just telling us that the car had “a new paint job, top, exhaust, carburetor, starter, heater, door seals, seat belts, etc.” Thanks to Curvette for this one.
What the car didn’t have during the restoration, unfortunately, is an engine rebuild. And that’s what it needs now. “Will need a new engine or rebuild the current one. Starting to use oil.” In that case, perhaps the indicated 30,000 miles is actually 130,000. There aren’t any engine photos, but the rest of the car looks pretty tidy, including an all-new red bucket seat interior. The front seat covers could fit a little better, but they still look good. There’s not much chrome on a 1962 Corvair, but what there is (the bumpers) looks shiny. Note the equally nice Rambler convertible in the background above.
I’m not going to say that replacing the engine will be cheap. I see a period 95-horsepower engine sourced from a Lakewood van for $5,000 on eBay, but I’m not sure that one would fit without modification. The Corvair Ranch was selling rebuilt long-block Corvair engines (with heads) for about $5,000, but the link no longer works.
The convertible was a mid-’62 offering. Also, that year, Corvair dropped the base wagon and the Lakewood name but added a Monza wagon. The Monza also got the cool 150-horsepower turbocharged “Spyder” option in 1962, available on the convertible. The Loadside pickup was deep-sixed at the end of 1962.
The most popular Corvair for 1962 was the Monza Coupe, with 151,738 sold out of 292,531 Corvairs. But the ragtop found a few buyers too, albeit just 2,574 (including an unknown number of Spyders).
Vintage convertibles like this tidy Corvair sell briskly and have value. Hagerty puts the 1962 Corvair Monza Spyder in good condition at $8,500, but the convertible is worth more than the hardtop. The numbers could add up, especially if you could rebuild the engine yourself.
These are not a hard engine to rebuild, may just need sealed up and the oil cooler cleaned, they are usually neglected. Engine runs hot oil thins etc..had my share of the air cooled wonder from Chevrolet. As far as interchangeable well it’s amazing what is doable. Pulled a 110 Monza engine from a 66 and made a van run great!
2574 is the number of Spyder convertibles built. There were 16,569 Monza convertibles like this one, which Hagerty values at $10,400. Not sure what the value of a 1962 Sypder coupe has to do with anything.