Has anyone had any experience using a corvair front suspension under a street road? I aquired a 65 four door and a 68 two door and am not sure if I should do something with them or part them out. They aren't in real bad shape I had always thought of building a front engine corvair or a 4x4 corvair but if I put those at the bottom of my list of dream projects I will never get to it. If these suspensions will work, I would probobly use one under my 50 chev suburban and one under this 54 chev panal that I have my eye on. Thanks Don

Years ago rodders put the Corvair front end under Model As and other light cars. "Light" is the operative word here. It is not strong enough to carry a full sized sedan or pickup. The steering gears are still used on T Buckets. Total Performance will buy yours. But the gear will fail under heavy load. If the cars are good I would not part them out. There is a lot of interest in them and you should be able to sell them for more than you would get for the components. Enough, perhaps, to get a properly engineered Mustang II or Jim Meyers GM based front end.
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An Old California Rodder
Hiding Out in the Ozarks

keep them as they are..putting them under a street rod of some kind requires a lot of maching and misc brackets...just my 2 cents....good luck......pat

When I started building my pickup 10 years ago I had two low mileage corvair fronts in the barn and used one. I converted it to rear steer rack & pinion. It was easy and cheap which is how I built my truck. It drives very well and doesn't wear tires. BUT...if I was doing it again today I wouldn't use one. Especially in something as heavy as what you are talking about. I still have a complete frontend in the barn which will probably never get used.

You can contact Clark's Corvair http://www.corvair.com/index.html and they will buy a lot of the parts if they're in decent shape. They're not worth much tho.

I agree with the rest, don't use the Corvair. I had a 32 Chevy sedan with Corvair crossmember and all the parts. I spent years trying to get it to steer both ways, not shimmy, and hold its adjustment once it was aligned. I never succeeded at any of those problems. After I wrecked it (not caused by the suspension) I was glad to be rid of all of the "Corvair" problems.

bjb
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There's a world of difference between "good" and "good enough".

Hi have worked on a few streetrods with corvair frond ends under them. The one 1936 Chevy had a rearsteer rack and pinion box and heavy duty shocks really rode and drove good. These front ends were real good before the Mustang 2 Crossmembers were available. If you are building a new street rod use the mustang you will like your car much better and when time comes to sell you will get a lot more for it. Just my opinion. HonestFrank
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"VEO DINDICE"

I have had a 33 Dodge coupe for quite awhile. I had a 350 chev in it and now a 454 BBC doing much street and highway cruising and drag strip bracket racing.
I have a 66 Corvair front sub bolt in. The only mods I made were a top brace from tower to frame to stabilize the flex upon bumps and strut rod support to firm up. I have a 72 pinto rack'n pinion for steering.
The car rides straight & true with a best 10.7 & 125 mph. I placed nylon control arm bushings from Clarks Corvair and HD GM ball joints. Hope this helps you out. My car is 3400 lbs.
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Top Rod

Top Rod, I'd be interested in what ball joints you used and what you had to do to install them. I broke a stock ball joint on my 67 Corvair front end in Victorville California just after a 85 mph run across the desert. Since I'm from Michigan it was a big hassle and if it had happened when I was going across the desert at those speeds I'd probably be dead. I think it was a faulty part based on the way the break looked, but I'm still a little gun-shy since I drive a lot and race my truck too. Mine only runs in the high 12s tho.

George - the last couple Corvairs fronts I did I switched to mid-60's -'70's Chevelle/clone ball joints and used same spindles and dics brakes. Required welding donor lower ball joint rings into the 'Vair a-arms. They worked fine. The biggest problem with using a Corvair was that there didn't seem to be a r&p that had the right width between the inner tie rod attachments - close but not right on. Today there are more choices, but as you know finding a Corvair crossmember around here with all its steel is pretty hard. I suspect that a Vega crosssteer with an idler arm could be made to work too. However, control arm bushings and the like are also getting dearer.

Charlie
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da chopper sez so

You may not want to give up on that future project idea. There are still conversations for mid engine car for Corvair. Transaxle turned around chg of I/O shafts small block chevy / huge brakes and Katy bar the door.

I had a 37 Chevy 4 door with 62 or 63 Tempest front end -- basically the same as a Corvair. Put a Ford manual rack on it and it road fine. Only problem I had was turning radius. A buddy has a 35 Chevy sedan that had a Corvair under it. He suffered from "bump steer" so we put a Fatman in and now it's like a late model to drive. I'd keep the "Vairs together. They will be street rods themselves one day.