Shorty Chevy Corvair—with 2 Doors and 4 Handles—Is Junkyard Treasure

When you spend much time in the Ewe Pullets of this land, as I do, you'll encounter many examples of innovative backyard engineering.

Wild art cars, sedans converted into pickups, Sawzall convertibles, field-expedient repairs and, of course, vehicles that have been sectioned and shortened. Here's an example of the latter type, found last month in a Northern California self-service car graveyard.

The easiest vehicles to shorten are ones in which the entire powertrain assembly and drive wheels are at one end or the other. An air-cooled engine can simplify the project, and so many Volkswagen Beetles and Transporters have been shortenized (shortenated? shortified?) over the decades.

I had the use of the shorty Transporter in the above photo as a Judgemobile while working at a 24 Hours of Lemons race, and it was cool and terrifying in equal measure.

Front-wheel-drive cars make good candidates for the shorty treatment; I found this discarded 1998 Honda Accord sedan with a comically huge section sliced out of its middle a few years back. It would have been fairly quick with such a weight reduction, with character-building handling and braking as an added bonus.

Today's Junkyard Treasure began life as a fairly ordinary 1962 Corvair Monza four-door sedan. I still find plenty of Corvairs in car graveyards, and they were even more plentiful back when this project was built.

The Corvair was built for the 1960 through 1969 model years and has been the subject of much controversy over the decades. What makes it a great shorty candidate is its boxer-six engine—both air-cooled and located in the rear.

It's hard to say whether this was a quick-and-dirty fun project meant to get a two-seat Corvair on the road in a hurry or an unfinished attempt to make a properly finished head-turner for the car shows. If it was the latter, then at some point the vestigial rear door handles and gaps would have been removed and all the openings filled in.

The interior is much cozier with a few feet of body removed.

The mid-1970s-vintage Realistic 8-track player with FM receiver suggests the car was cut-and-pasted nearly 50 years ago. According to the 1976 Radio Shack catalog, this unit had a list price of $99.95, or about $565 in 2024 dollars.

The engine lid latch was rusted solid, so I couldn't get photos of the engine. If original, it is a 145-cubic-inch air-cooled boxer-six.

The project seems to have been unfinished.

The homemade wheel flares would have been ideal for some fat Laramie Equalizers on cheap slot mags, circa 1980.

There were old wallet photos inside, made surreal by the elements.

A foam-rubber-rim J.C. Whitney steering wheel gives the interior a sporty look.

The transmission is a floor-shift manual, either the base three-speed or the optional four-speed.

The wildlife poop inside, the result of decades of outdoor storage, made the interior biohazardous. I held my breath while shooting interior photographs.

There's an ancient Radio Shack 8-track player under the dash. This unit sold for $99.95 in 1976, which comes to about $564.78 in 2024 dollars.