not a tractor but,,,

there were a lot of these around when I grew up,several friends had them,,I remember them,saw a few last night at the town cruz night car show this one had this in the window

those were the thing when I was 20 but I had to choose for economy so I bought a Corvair and drove it a 100k . It was a
great car .

Rslph Nader did a number on those,,,they really wernt as -bad as he hammerd them?

Nice Catalina. I always had a fondness for the 63 Grand Prix. Beautiful lines and you could get it with a 389 and 3 twos. I would probably choose one over a GTO, which didn't come out until the following year.

From all of the stories you hear it was bias tires that did them in and not running radials. They had a nice size "trunk" up front so the local breeders outfit bought a bunch of them to hold the nitrogen tank with the bull seamen. Here is where it gets sticky. They wanted them bolted down so they drilled through the bottom of the floor and bolted them down. Yup they drilled right through the gas tank. Had to replace every one when the drivers filled them up and started to complain about gas all over the place. Still think that on a lot of stuff Nader is a bozo.

Early 70s I worked on a lot of Corvairs, They leaked oil like a screen door in a submarine, push rod seals, lot of valve jobs, blower bearings. Some of the later ones were nice cars.

We had one of those. I was going around a corner once, just a bit fast (really - I was no daredevil), next thing I knew the back of the car was stuck on the rock ledge on the other side of the road. It happened so fast I didn't know it was happening. Lucky for me there was no one coming in the other lane. And, it was a rock cut in the side of what we euphemistically called the "Hamilton Mountain" - the same geological feature that Niagara Falls falls over. I guess another hundred feet and I would have been sailing over the cliff backwards. As far as I'm concerned I was lucky and he was right.

phil n

yep-BTDT- worked for sears as a young man--installed underdash add-on air conditioner units. was a booming business back then. they had a kit for corvair. we always used air punch for the evap. drain lines, drills damaged the carpet. customer picked up car, went to gas pumps. came back on wrecker. darn lucky no fire. we had installed an extra fuel tank vent line, thru carpet,floor,& tank-right to underdash a/c unit !!!

1965 Catalina and a 67 GTO judging by the valve covers, indicates a 400 engine vs. the 389.

Ben

(quoted from post at 22:19:08 05/30/15) yep-BTDT- worked for sears as a young man--installed underdash add-on air conditioner units. was a booming business back then. they had a kit for corvair. we always used air punch for the evap. drain lines, drills damaged the carpet. customer picked up car, went to gas pumps. came back on wrecker. darn lucky no fire. we had installed an extra fuel tank vent line, thru carpet,floor,& tank-right to underdash a/c unit !!!

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That would hardly be the cars fault or the designers fault either would it?.....more like someone not knowing what they were dealing with when doing an install I would think.

Similar to black one in first photo. In April of 1965 I bought a Brand New Pontiac Cherry Red Catalina 2 Door Hardtop. I ordered it with the Ventura Trim option (little nicer black vinyl interior), mid size V-8, 3 speed on column, saf-t-track rear end, handlng & ride package, aluminum wheels, AM radio with rear speakers, from Dealer in Dekalb, IL. Out the door, no trade-in, tax and all $3027.00. I still have the original window sticker with all info on it, and bill of sale. Sold it the next year when I graduated Bradley Univ. and went to work for State Farm and got a company car. Wish I would have kept the Pontiac.

(quoted from post at 17:12:51 05/30/15) Rslph Nader did a number on those,,,they really wernt as -bad as he hammerd them?

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They were bad enough on one account - The early ones had a 'swing-axle' rear suspension. The rear wheels were limited in their downward arc by a [i:60aafded0d]nylon[/i:60aafded0d] :shock: strap that resembled a seatbelt. If you went though a dip in the road at a speed that unloaded the rear suspension on the rebound and the belt broke, the wheel and tire would tuck under the car, parallel to the road :shock:which meant a [b:60aafded0d]BIG[/b:60aafded0d] WRECK! The age of the nylon plus worn shocks, etc. all contributed to this event. (A guy that went to school with me in '65 had this happen and it took him a good long time to recover from his injuries; he was lucky to survive )
After Nader beat them down GM went to a fully independent rear suspension with 2 u-joints per side in the rear, BUT it was too late, the Corvair never recovered from the bad image that it had acquired. VW also switched from the swing axle design though it was mechanically unnecessary as their swing axle travel was limited by stops on the frame that engaged the torsion bar trailing arms at full rebound but they (VW) didn't want to risk being 'Nader-ized' as GM had been. 8)

Bought a new 61 corvair and never had any problem other than the pushrod cover seals. When it was about a month old I was getting a puddle of oil in the rear engine mount. Took it back to the dealer and their (expert) said that was the way they all were. Asked him if he thought GM designed cars with built in oil leaks and told him to call me the next time the GM rep was in. Rep looked at the puddle in the engine mount and told the dealer to fix the leak. Found out that a nut, probably the drain plug, was missing a gasket.

Another problem was that most drivers didn't realize that it had quick steering and could easily cause over steering.

Came to a T intersection and had it in a four wheel drift. Nothing drastic happened. Another time I turned right at and intersection and a lady coming from the opposite direction turned left behind me. She started blowing her horn and waving at me. Stopped and she informed that my rear wheels nearly fell off. Informed her that because of the dip in the road and the independent rear suspension the wheels did look like they were falling off because the arch the wheel took when it moved up.<
p>Sold the Corvair with 80k miles on the odometer.

Bought a 65 chevelle with a 327 engine. All that power nearly got away from me for a while.

You are right Hot Wrench, but to cover our b77ts, we told Ralph Nader that we felt the fuel tanks were built too close to the floor---chomp on that a while--lol

The Goat NOT built by Pontiac. LOL

Regarding the Corvairs.....
First thing: Nader attacked GM in lieu of attacking VW who he was REALLY after. Corvair was modeled after the Porsche 356 and the VW beetle. The real defect that he was after was the steering column in the VW that would become a straight back spear in a front end collision. Since Corvair was only a small part of GM versus VW was a whole company, it was easier to attack GM. BTW, Nader was just a big blowhard that specialized in sticking his nose into things that were not his concern.
Second thing: GM was scheduled to drop the Corvair at the end of the 1966 model year due to the high cost of manufacture. They continued into the 1969 model year just to prove that they did not take orders from Nader. I gog this directly from a GM exec.
Third thing: Driven within reason, there was no problem with the early swing axle suspension. BUT, if you were a complete lunatic behind the wheel, you could manage to turn one over in a high speed turn. Also, there was more than a "nylon strap" holding the rear suspension from over travelling. The shock absorber comes to mind. I had a 1963 model myself, which had the early suspension in it. I drove it pretty hard, and never had a problem with the suspension.
Fourth thing: The fully independent suspension that started in 1965 was a direct carbon copy of the Corvette rear suspension but with smaller parts. Same half-shaft axles, same strut rods, same anti-sway bar. Just smaller.

As for Nader, I totally cannot understand why GM (and others) didn't sue him so hard that his grandchildren would have been living in cardboard boxes.