My 1st Vair - 1965 Corsa 140-4 hardtop

[SteveH]

I just received my card board package tray and the two observations are it came with a 2 hole speaker tray instead of a single hole speaker train and second there are no effing instructions on how to put this goofy thing together. If you didn't have an original to go by that makes it kind of a challenge. Anybody have any instructions?

[viewmaster]

Viewmaster - When initially tested it, if one side was held in place, the other side was about 5/8" "up" from where it should be. I used a metalworking technique called cross peening where you use a hammer that has a wide narrow face. since it causes more stretch in one direction than the other it causes expansion on that side. The piece is now within about 1/4" (I think a little tension may not be a bad thing in the unibody)

Great work! Where did you get the piece? It looks like it comes down the hood longer than the one in Clark's catalog.

-m

[SteveH]

All of my parts so far have come from Corvair Ranch....

"comes down the hood longer" Ok, i'll admit it, I do not know what you mean by that... lol
Jeff at the ranch said that this is the same part as the one from Clarks.

[viewmaster]

Sorry about that, in the picture, it looks as if the piece comes down over the front cowl. I am mistaken. Does Corvair Ranch make that piece themselves? If so, i may have to purchase one myself.

-m

[SteveH]

I do not believe they do. I think it is the same supplier as Clark's (or Clark's themselves)

[SteveH]

Busy weekend. Saturday I went to the Local CORSA meet-up and completely forgot to take a single picture...

I got some work done as well. Finished the passenger quarter. Only found one smallish spot of cancer in the whole thing.

Got the deck lid off and found another dirt hiding place... Took about a quart of dirt out of it by the time i had it empty.

The rear vent panel was crunched up on the pass side.

But it straightened up nice.

These vertical supports were pretty mangled and twisted. Again, this is not planned to be a show car, but I want it "fixed".

The brick you see in the previous picture is my support for tools to allow me to hammer things mostly straight using these tools

They are at least straight now. I don't currently plan to smooth these out further, but we will see how I feel once the rest of teh bodywork is done.

The butt is done!

I am saving the Driver quarter for next Saturday since it has top line damage (that I started to fix) and bottom rot.

[SteveH]

forgot to add this.

Engine stamp:

[bbodie52]

T0904RB

T = Tonawanda, New York (GM Tonawanda Engine Plant)
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/comp ... wanda.html
0904 = Engine manufacturing date of September 04 (The year is never included in this date, unfortunately)
RB = 1965-1966 140 hp Manual Transmission (Corsa Only)

[SteveH]

Cool, thanks! Now I just need to get to the Head numbers..

Is there any way to tell externally if the Diff is Posi?

[bbodie52]

I believe that if you raise the rear of the car off of the ground, place the transmission in neutral and release the parking brake, you can tell if the differential is a Positraction limited slip unit by turning one rear wheel manually. If the wheel on the opposite side rotates in the same direction, the differential is a Positraction unit. If the two wheels rotate in opposite directions, it is a standard differential.



This might help...

[viewmaster]

Looking good Steve. Keep up the good work, i am gonna be doing the same work on my Monza restore starting real soon here.

-m

[BobWitt]

I wish I had your skills and confidence working steel. Nothing mechanical or electrical on these beasts worry me, but the body stuff I do not know!

Good luck with your project - I will be watching and learning...

[SteveH]

Thanks! It is fun to share pics of the process, but I do not want to over do it and be annoying, hehe

I started to learn the art, science, and history of medieval armor making a little over 20 years ago. I have now been teaching classes in my shop two nights a week for more than a decade. It is simply time with tools and steel in your hands. I am learning the automotive side of this process as I go here. When I did this stuff in my younger days, I had no issues with just making a "bondo buggy". Nowadays, not so much.

We have a new Miller TIG welder here at work now and my boss approved me learning how to weld "thin metal" as a work skill. (I am the IT manager so this is pretty cool of him to do) I just got the settings from their expert for 22ga (about as thin as I will ever go) and I will be going to their shop at lunch for a quick lesson (I brought scrap steel to play with)

Last night I finished the rear regulators and cleaned/wire-wheeled the prop rod. Looks sweet!

[SteveH]

I could use a little advice if folks don't mind.

I bought a set of "fuzzies" from CorvairRanch and they are not the same as the originals. The originals have the outer surface smooth (topology not wear) but the new ones have big dents where the staples attach. Jeff checked the others he has and they are all like that. He feels that it should not effect the use, but he was clear that if I am not happy I can return them for a refund no problem. I would like them to be right, but this will not be a 100pt car ever... opinions? do they need to present a continuous surface to the window glass or are they just "bumpers"??

[BobWitt]

SteveH - the fuzzies that came with my car had chrome upper edges, but they seem too 'thin' - like the height of the fuzz is too short. This leaves a gap at the glass.

I would not think the 'divots' you see at the clips will not be noticeable installed, and I think these overall will cradle the glass better than mine.

Good luck with your project...

[SteveH]

Thanks for the feedback!

I picked up a nice used MIG Welder this weekend. I got a Craftsman 20511. The only think it is missing is the bottle for the CO2/Argon. Now to try to translate 20+ years of playing with Oxy/Acetylene welding into MIG/Wirefeed......