San Francisco Street Sighting - 1969 Chevrolet Corvair Monza

Some of my readers by now might be getting sick of Corvairs. Honestly, I've seen a lot of them in San Francisco, and the vast majority to date have been the higher-spec Monza edition. Most have been convertibles, primarily second-generation models made after 1965. So it makes me very happy to see something different. In this case it's a Monza coupe, but not just any coupe. It's a 1969 model. Only 6,000 Corvairs were built in the final year of production, of which 2,717 were Monza coupes.

The 1969 Corvair was something of a relic in its own time. As the more conventional Nova became more popular with buyers, the Corvair was denied modern features. Oddly enough, some of those features were items previously included on the Corvair. In 1968 the Corvair lost its air conditioning and "multiplex" stereo system, and the four-door sedan was dropped. The car did, however, receive side markers and shoulder belts, and a smog pump for emissions control. In 1968 and '69, advertising was almost nonexistent and the lack of conveniences didn't help.
Now, this certainly isn't the cleanest example of a '69 Corvair out there, but it's hardly a junker. The body is reasonably straight with no visible rust, and the paint is even in fairly good shape aside from that primer patch on the left quarter panel. This one rolls on Chevy Rally wheels that either need to be chromed or get some center caps. The white-letter tires are a nice touch. I love the metallic medium blue color with blue interior. This has a lot of potential to be a beautiful budget muscle car.