[V8Vairs] Parts - Availability

[Rick & Janet Norris]

   All,
I would have to agree with "The Kidd" on this. As much as I like my Crown 
conversion which has every mod to make it live it still has weak points. I 
cant just hammer it at will and not pay the price of broken parts. I do have 
enough extra Crown parts to build a complete Crown transaxle, just in case.
I do have future plans to change things to something more modern and 
reliable. I would agree that the Will's big car transmission setup is a 
better way to go and at one time I considered that. Also the big car 
Powerglide is a good deal and I suspect my next iteration of a mid-engine 
Corvair will have one. Still with all these setups you end up with the 
Corvair differential and it's tiny ring gear in a case that was never 
designed to hold the power of a 350 small block.
Ted Trevor hit his target by engineering a simple kit to put the small block 
amidships in a late model Corvair at an affordable price and installed by an 
average guy with simple hand tools in a reasonable amout of time.
I had always dreamed of someday owning a Crown conversion and after many 
years that dream came true. I'm proud to say I built a Crown.

Rick Norris
First President CORSA 1971
Email rickjanet at charter.net
Web Site http://webpages.charter.net/corvairalley
V8 Vairs Web Site http://www.v8vairs.com
> As a business person I wouldn't put any money into building Crown or 
> Kelmark
> parts.  You need to know your market.  How many corvairs are going to get
> converted to V8's per year?  10?  Of that how many would be done as a 
> crown
> considering that there are many ways to put a V8 into a vair.  Who in 
> their
> right mind would pay for a production run for that kind of market?  Even 
> if
> you find someone to build 20 that gives you two years supply assuming
> everyone in the world buys from you.  You then have to finance it, store
> them and look after them.  The fact that Ted & Cal both couldn't make a go
> of it should be an indication that this is not the market to be chasing.
>
 Subject: Re: [V8Vairs] Parts - Availability
>
> Hello all:  I don't envy the vendors like David (THE SOURCE).  The costs
> involved in getting a shop to make parts for us is a high price and I 
> don't
> blame them for not wanting to commit to this without some signal of 
> interest
> from customers.
>
> The customer that I had in the shop yesterday is wanting to build another 
> v8
> car, he already has the CORVAIR, just wanting the kit.  I told him about
> Chuck's kit but he just didn't get that excited about it due to the fact
> that it is used and 1500miles away.  I still sent him Chuck's post from 
> last
> night about the kit just in case.  I don't know whether it was because it
> was used or because of the shipping.
>
> Hopefully the v8 kits can continue to be available, we need to beat the
> bushes to get some new interest in buying the parts I guess.  It looks 
> like
> Cal won't bother to do any more CROWN parts so it is up to someone else,
> might as well be the SOURCE but all of us need to find a way to support
> David too.
>
> It may very well be the fact that the WILLS kit is available, the interest
> in starting from scratch with the CROWN kit is not as great but it leaves
> guys like Paul Strohl in a bind for parts.
>
> Regards, Steve