Corvair Underground, Inc.
The History of Corvair Underground
By Lon Wall

For the past Thirty years, Corvair Underground has been supplying Corvair owners with the best parts and services available anywhere. The Corvair Book (our catalog) has an exhaustive list of new, NOS, reproduced and used Corvair parts along with guaranteed rebuilding services for everything from steering boxes to transmissions. But, just listing parts isn't enough - we have hundreds of diagrams, drawings and pictures to help you figure out just what's what! Also included are hundreds of tech tips and articles to help you out with common (and not-so-common) Corvair problems.

 All we drive and own are Corvairs, so we can bring over thirty years of Corvair ownership experience to our customers. Which brings us to the history of Corvair Underground...



1967

I get my drivers license in a Corvair (never owned anything but a Corvair).
1974 The business begins as a hobby pursuit.
1976 Despite no plans on my part to become a large national mail order business, I put out our first mail order catalog on an old hand crank mimeo.
1977 I open our first store in Forest Grove, Oregon.
1980 I quit my day job and pursue this full-time!
1983 Linda and I get married and we work together to build Corvair Underground into the West's largest supplier of Corvair parts, as well as becoming a major manufacturer and contractor for reproductions of Corvair parts.
1995 We incorporate with Lon as President and Linda as Secretary-Treasurer.
1996 We debut on the World Wide Web.
1998 We offer on-line ordering from The CORVAIR BOOK.
1999 We celebrate 25 years.
2000 Looking forward to the next 25 years. We go online with the Corvair News at www.corvairnews.com
2001 www.govair.com is online.

2003

 Rottler automatic boring/honing machine changes the way cylinders are done
2005   We are proud to attend the International Corvair Society of America convention put on by our own local club, Corsa Oregon. Great job guys!
2006   With the upsurge in online auction activities we begin to see the need for downsizing and eliminate 14 tons of good used Corvair parts!
2009   Time and the economy changes! We eliminate 95% of the rest of our used parts and phase out our large 300 page print catalog. Online is where it's at!
2010   2010 sees a smaller, leaner Corvair Underground ready to continue providing the new and remanufactured parts our 37 years of Corvair customers have asked for!

 

COMMITTED TO LOW PRICES AND QUALITY PARTS
We have strived to maintain the lowest published prices of any Corvair parts vendor - without sacrificing service or the quality of what we sell. It isn't easy and it requires a combination of smart buying and volume selling. We have grown to the size where we have access to sources that smaller companies do not and we do our best to pass these savings on to you. Compare before you buy and you'll see why so many Corvair owners have been loyal Underground customers. We plan to be around for a long time providing you with parts and service for your treasured Corvair!

ARE PARTS BETTER OR WORSE THAN THEY USED TO BE?
After 30+ years in this business I would say that not much fundamentally changes. There are good manufacturers and bad ones. We do our best to avoid the bad ones but even the good ones get lazy sometimes.

DO CORVAIRS HAVE A FUTURE?
Yes, we believe so or we wouldn't continue to invest in Corvair parts at the rate we do. There has been a lot of talk about "banning" old cars for environmental reasons. We do not believe this will happen...when we say we're planning for another 30 years we really mean it!