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Old June 27th, 2016, 06:36 PM
David R Leifheit's Avatar
David R Leifheit David R Leifheit is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Dallas, Oregon
Truck: 1960-1966 1000-4000 series
Age: 62
Posts: 281
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David R Leifheit is a jewel in the roughDavid R Leifheit is a jewel in the roughDavid R Leifheit is a jewel in the rough
Default Re: 61 Corvair "95" Rampside.

Quote:
I remember seeing these nifty little pickups in 1961 when I was just a lad of 11. Certainly much nicer looking than the Ford Econoline trucks of the same era. But then GM Trucks (both GMC and Chevy) were always much nicer looking than Ford trucks, and I have to say that that still holds true today. In my humble opinion, Ford trucks are just plain plug ugly. Unfortunately, nice as these little trucks were, they weren't of much use on the farm since they were limited as to what you could haul with them. They probably made a nice little city delivery truck though.
Today you almost can't tell who made the vehicle until you look at the badges. Although even back then they were copying each other. As you point out Ford had a model made from their van, and so did Dodge. But that was the difference, Ford and Dodge made theirs from main line vans, while the Corvair line was separate from Chevrolet. I don't recall ever hearing of a Chevrolet version of these pickups.

Ford is a bit uglier, I think the Dodges weren't that bad though.

As for use on the farm... I don't know why not. The Corvairs would haul more load than a comparable sized "main line" vehicle. Used to have a customer who would come into the lumber yard I worked at with his Corvair van (8 door) and load it with bags of concrete. That van hauled more than most, and didn't show it.
These Corvair pickups were popular with the phone company as a spool of wire could be rolled up the ramp into the truck bed, the bed was lower than other pickups because of the rear engine design, no driveline. Just a raised area over the engine in the rear.

The two hardest to find Corvair pickup components are the camper that went in the bed (full size pickup camper, just had a door on the side to correspond with the ramp, and the floor had to match the rise in the pickup floor for the engine) and the talked about but never seen dual rampside.

I used to have a Corvair 8-door, sold it to someone who is restoring/rebuilding it.
Still have my Corvair Stationwagon. Needs a lot of help though. It is in worse shape than my GMCs... almost (they are deteriorating to match it).
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(2) 1961 1500
1962 1000
1963 2500
1963 4000
1964 2500