Corvair-Powered Pickup: 1963 Volkswagen Single Cab

A few years ago, an unrestored Volkswagen Type 2 of any variety would trigger a possible feeding frenzy among air-cooled VW enthusiasts. These days, the response seems far more muted. Personally, I’ve always thought the Type 2 pickup would be a blast to own as a quirky in-town hauler, but unless you live somewhere that has low speed limits or within an island-type community where no one is cruising above 40 miles per hour, it gets harder and harder to want to pilot a truck like this in daily traffic. Still, they are enormously cool when finished, and this 1963 example here on eBay is offered with an opening bid of $2,400 and a reserve.

So, what’s the point of owning an archaic pickup like this one? Well, you can approach it from a few different angles: if you’re a vintage Bus fan, it’s an absolute home run. You might have a camper or panel van in your collection, but it’s missing a single cab pickup. In addition, some folks feel the double cab pickup doesn’t have the best proportions, whereas the single cab is just about perfect. In addition, if you need a killer shop truck, it doesn’t get much better than this, especially if your shop specializes in European hardware. The seller notes that the original VW drivetrain is gone with a Corvair powerplant and transmission dropped in.

The seller doesn’t provide us with a ton of information, so there’s some guesswork involved in determining exactly what you’re getting. It looks reasonably clean inside with no signs of major rust/rot. The floors appear solid and the same goes for the doors. The general vibe I get from this pickup is that it was a stalled restoration project before the seller got their hands on it. That’s either good news or bad news depending on where you sit; good news is the hard work has been done, but the bad news is you don’t have much of a roadmap for whatever else it needs. The seller mentions he has the desirable fold-down bedsides available but he’s not including those with the auction, sadly.

When you look at recent auction results, turnkey single cab pickups tend to max out around $40,000. That’s for a truck you can drive right now and that looks pretty darn good. In my opinion, we’ll see that number start to drop to the point that you can find a driver for $25,000 or so, and that means a truck with light cosmetic issues and tidy mechanicals. This rig, with its Corvair powerplant that has simply been dropped in – more or less for display purposes only – will need an easy $10,000 or more in labor just to get it to operational condition, and that’s before you touch the paint job. Hopefully, the reserve sits at a reasonable number.