Nickshu's 1964 Spyder Restoration Thread

[happydaze]

Nick- Bench building my rear end tomorrow. thoughts on how the rear axles should be prepped in regards to the u-joint? I took them off wrong. Undid the horseshoes and figured they would drop out... Some tactful spinning and love taps from a hammer finally brought em out.

Will the splines go into the Diff with a fully assembled axle/u-joint=completely mated? Or maybe since I don't have the engine installed just yet. maybe I install the rear as you have it - without U-joint hardware and wait til I install the motor and use the ability to move the whole motor/trans/diff into an angle where the axles will stab in?

If you don't mind sharing the right way to do this before I struggle and do something out of order.

[Nickshu]

To get the spines into the diff with the u-joints assembled you'll have to detach the axle at the wheel bearing (behind the brake drum) to slide it out, then slide the output shafts into the diff. Or you can take apart the u-joints, press them into the diff output shafts, then install the engine and attach to the half shafts via the horseshoe bolts.

[Nickshu]

Got the engine up on the stand. Lifted right up thanks to Davemoto's engine cradle!





-Sent from my Galaxy s5 using Tapatalk

[Nickshu]

Here's an update. Went to see the donor body at the sandblaster yesterday. It is literally 99% rust free. Just needs front floor plans, a battery box, and the front panel. Thanks to someone on CCF I picked up the NOS front panel that will work nicely. I started taking parts off the engine too. I also disassembled my extra suspensions and boxed up the parts for storage in my basement. Note my "ingenious" spring compressor for the rear...Ha!!!

[terribleted]

Nice...glad to hear about the basically solid body

[Nickshu]

Got the heads off today. Noted a couple bent fins on the right cyl head, broken fins on a couple of the cylinders, and a bit of a step in the cyl at the top of ring travel. Cylinders and pistons are original. Heads have been redone by PO. At that time cylinders were honed and new rings installed. Before disassembly I had leakdown blowby the rings on cyl #1 and 5 and low vacuum at idle. Here's some pics:

[BobWitt]

Thanks for the photos - each of these detailed posts helps others of us to learn more...

Are you involved with Cub or Boy Scouts? I noticed the 18 Pack Unbelievable Butter box catching some drips from your engine!

You are going to have a beautiful vehicle there when you are done. I thought of doing the same, but decided to try to scope my work so that I can drive in March or April 2015, not 2016! Sometimes I question how much of the work I'm doing now will need to be done again when I decide to do the exterior paint... Oh well...

Keep up the great posts.

[Nickshu]

Hi Guys, Here's a few pics from this morning's visit to my sandblaster/metal fab guy. The car will be finished there this week and going to the painter. The painter will fit the NOS front panel, shape the rear panel and fab the turbo exhaust cutout, and do any additional metal fab that requires fitting of the doors/hood/trunk, etc. Also included a photo of the original body, out to pasture.

[Nickshu]

Future wall ornament for my garage (serving as a template for the exhaust cutout until then), representative of how rusty the entire original body was under all that bondo:

[KILLERCORVAIR]

Nick, awesome job. The time you are putting into this resto is amazing. I do have a question. Not for the sake of argument, put more of your thoughts on whether the car now is still #435 or is it really the donor car? I realize you can change the vin number over but what about the stamped codes? Are you worried about the legalities? I'm in the same boat but I really don't know what direction to take. I need a good body for my 63 rag spyder, but im thinking of maybe just using the panels from the donor car. Thoughts??????
thanks,
Jim Weppelman

[Nickshu]

Nick, awesome job. The time you are putting into this resto is amazing. I do have a question. Not for the sake of argument, put more of your thoughts on whether the car now is still #435 or is it really the donor car? I realize you can change the vin number over but what about the stamped codes? Are you worried about the legalities? I'm in the same boat but I really don't know what direction to take. I need a good body for my 63 rag spyder, but im thinking of maybe just using the panels from the donor car. Thoughts??????
thanks,
Jim Weppelman

Well Jim this is a philosophical question that there is not a right or wrong answer for. To repair my original body I was looking at about $25,000 in metal fabrication (at $45/hour which is cheap!) and when it was done it very well could have had more replacement steel than original steel....so it would really not be the "original" body at all. Just a custom-fabbed body that used an original core. For example many of us followed the Sagan Spyder restoration which the entire body was basically re-fabricated. Was it even the same car when done? Was there any Sagan DNA left in it after all that new sheet metal? Maybe not. Not to take anything away from that project, it was truly awesome, but it does beg your question.

When the car is stripped to the bare body the body is just another part of the car, like the suspension, engine, etc. Is a Corvair that has had a driveline transplant still "original" in the same way? I would say not. VIN swaps are done all the time in classic auto restorations (right or wrong), especially when you get into the really old stuff, 30's and 40's cars. Yes I feel it does devalue the car somewhat, but I had to work with the cards I was dealt on this one. Our legal system views the body as the part of the car that is associated with the VIN, so from our Government's perspective (if I were doing a VIN swap) it's not truly car #435 anymore. If I were doing this, I am not intending to defraud anyone and I have no plans of selling the car when it's done. If I were to do a swap and I were to sell it I would disclose 100% what was done. I have over 1000 photos so far of this restoration and I have no secrets. Ultimately, It's been a practicality question and a financial decision.

[cad-kid]

Thanks for the update

[TikiRalf]

Wow looks great! keep on going! :D

[Nickshu]

Sorry guys I've been updating over on CCF, will catch you up in the next few posts. Body back on the rotisserie ready to go on to the next step. Thanks to Ken Hand I was able to get an NOS rear panel which will help reduce my metal fab costs.

[Nickshu]

The body left the sandblaster/metal fab guy's shop today and headed to the body shop to finish any metal fab that affects door/hood/trunk alignment, then paint time!

[Nickshu]

Some primer already!