1968 Corvair Monza Coupe Restoration

So I brought home my '68 Monza today. This used to be my dads race car in the late 70's/early 80's. This car has been sitting for about 30 years and of course ran when parked . This car started out as a Grecian Green Monza coupe. This has a 140 with a hot cam and headers. It had a 4-speed with a 4-spider 3.89 Posi-Traction rear end.

There is a lot of work to do on this car. My dad had a few custom touches done to this car. The most obvious is the Fitch-style Vent Top Roof that is wrapped in Red Vinyl . The other is the air intakes on each rear quarter, molded splash guards on the wheel wells, and a spoiler molded into the decklid like a Yenko Stinger. The pearlescent paint is in pretty poor shape from sitting for so long.

The interior is shot, the engine compartment has seen better days, and everything sheet metal underneath the car needs to be checked out, because this car sat in a storage space that flooded for an unknown amount of time. Luckily, it only flooded up to the very bottom of the car, unfortunately, the sheet metal needs to be checked.

Anyways, here are some pics of me bringing home.

My dad's tow pig.

Got it home to my garage.

This is my crappy engine compartment.

I hope to work on it little by little when I have the time.

Your dad is cool.

That is wild.

I've never seen that roof treatment. I think I like it. Not sure about the vinyl, but the shape and lines are cool. What's it made of under the vinyl?

That roof is awesome. The whole car is awesome. You dad is awesome.

Love the flying buttresses on the roof, wrapped in red vinyl. And the 4 carburetors. This could be a sweet car, fixed up.

I think the air intakes on the rear quarters are SWEET! That is super cool.

I'm not keen on the vinyl roof, but I think an all red roof and that black would look really cool.

In reply to ultraclyde:

The Fitch Sprint was a modified Corvair made by John Fitch, the legendary driver. He actually modified Corvairs before Don Yenko. The late model Corvair Sprints had the "Vent Top" roof which was supposedly helped with the aerodynamics.

Unfortunately the one that is on my car doesn't isn't an actual Fitch roof, it's an copy that was made back in the 70s. My dad says the fitment wasn't right, so that's why it was wrapped in Vinyl. It's a fiberglass piece, so I'm going to remove it and have it redone so it will fit. It will get painted red, which is what my dad originally wanted.

I also forgot to mention that the real taillight pan is also wrapped in red vinyl. So that will be getting torn off and painted as well.

This car is staying black and red.

i love all the old iron showing up on this board....

great corvair. i dig it.

looking forward to watching it be resurrected.

This is a cool project. The roof makes it look like a Charger sort of...

You already know that I love this car, but I'll say it again: I LOVE THIS CAR.

I was talking to my 80+ year old uncle the other day, and he was reminiscing about his 1965 Corvair. Out of all the cars he had, he liked that one the best. I'll have to show him this.

Nice!

Are those side intakes functional? For brakes or for intake? I will be watching this build, love it.

In reply to GTwannaB:

Yes they are functional for extra cold air into the engine compartment.

Looks cool man

Mom had a '64 drop top 4 speed when it was new. She still misses that car.

I like the tow vehicle

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Wow--loving how unique/oddball this one is. Great project.

So I've already got a complaint from the complaint department and I've been told that the red Vent Top roof looks out of place on the black car. Suggestions were made that the car should either be two tone like the Fitch Sprints were, which means the body above the belt line would be entirely red except the rear decklid and rear cowl (use the Sprint picture I posted above for reference).

The other suggestion is that I paint it black like the rest of the car.

I like it in its color scheme now, but I can see where the Vent Top roof looks kind of gaudy with the red sticking out like a sore thumb. I think it will look different once the vinyl is off and it's actually painted.

What say ye?

i say clean it up, get it runnin/driving well, leave the paint/body the hell alone. leave the patina and your dads legacy right there for the world to see.

and then race it.

It's perfect just the way it is.

I like the all black idea

Black vinyl roof looks good on that era car. Body color of choice.

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

Full red/black 2-tone laid out just like that Fitch example or all black.

In reply to gamby:

I vote all black too