Career Project...

Non-Traditionally Powered Corvairs
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Rick Calcitrant
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Location: Jacksonville, OR

Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

The "career project" is now a project for a new owner. As of this morning she's got a new home.

Thanks to all the Forum members for the kind and supportive comments over the coarse of my sharing. For those of you who may be interested in following the build progress, I'll put in a good word for posting on the Forum as I'd like to follow along too.

It won't be as I would've done it but that's as it should be for the new owner to make her his own.

Cheers,

Ted Shaffer
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ncwitte
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Re: Career Project...

Post by ncwitte »

Ted, thanks for making us a part of the story so far. I hope we will get to see the ending. I'm sure this was a tough day for you. I think you did very well by the car and I hope your work provides the foundation for something very special.
Norm Witte
Lansing, Michigan
'65 Corsas: 140 coupe and 180 convertible
http://www.wittelaw.com/personal
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=4208
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hrm2k
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Re: Career Project...

Post by hrm2k »

I'm not sure how to feel about you selling your car. I, for one, have been blown away by your craftsmanship and talent required to undertake a project of this caliber. This is one of the most extreme projects I have seen being attempted by a guy who doesn't do this kind of thing for a living. This has been a very impressive build.
I know people who go through cars and projects without even taking time to enjoy them. I fall in love with my projects. Selling one would require some pretty outrageous circumstances. Reading your previous posts, I believe you love what you have created and therefore I understand how heavy your heart must be to sell it.

Thank you for allowing the board to follow your labor of love on the coupe. I appreciate it !!!!

John Dayton
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ncwitte
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Re: Career Project...

Post by ncwitte »

hrm2k wrote:I'm not sure how to feel about you selling your car. I, for one, have been blown away by your craftsmanship and talent required to undertake a project of this caliber. This is one of the most extreme projects I have seen being attempted by a guy who doesn't do this kind of thing for a living. This has been a very impressive build.
I know people who go through cars and projects without even taking time to enjoy them. I fall in love with my projects. Selling one would require some pretty outrageous circumstances. Reading your previous posts, I believe you love what you have created and therefore I understand how heavy your heart must be to sell it.

Thank you for allowing the board to follow your labor of love on the coupe. I appreciate it !!!!
Very well said.
Norm Witte
Lansing, Michigan
'65 Corsas: 140 coupe and 180 convertible
http://www.wittelaw.com/personal
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=4208
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Rick Calcitrant
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Location: Jacksonville, OR

Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

John, you've pretty well hit the mark with your assessment. Like you, I fall in love with everything I build. Oddly enough though, once they're done, the urge to move on to another "I've always wanted to build one of those" moments comes along and the old project makes way for the new one. However, I can proudly say that before this project, I always completed everything and enjoyed it for a period of time before the next one came along. The 'vair was to be the last one for me and I intended (I say that now) to keep it...period.

I have to say, in the brief time I've had to get to know him, I really like the guy that bought the car and I think he'll provide a worthy conclusion to what I started.

That said, it turns out he's commissioned me to prep the body surfaces, gaps, and primer before he takes delivery. That allows some weening slowly off the car for me, some additional income doing what I truly love to do, all on a car that I feel strongly about.

I'll continue posting pictures of the progress.

Thank you all, again, for your supportive comments. John and Norm, I've been watching your projects and I have to say your ideas, workmanship, and execution are first class and an inspiration to me too.

Cheers,
Ted Shaffer
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Rick Calcitrant
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Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

Prior to delivery of the car to it's new owner, I'm surfacing the body and gaping and flushing all of the panels and putting it all in primer.

Another area of attention is the front wheelwells. Due to the wide rubber, the tires made contact with the inner wheelwells and the outer wheelwell lips on turn-in. To solve the problem, the wheelwells were split at the pinchweld, from the vertical center to the base at the front. The metal was then separated and an insert welded in to open up the volume. The wheelwell lip was then trimmed on the inside.
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The panel gaps were the worst at the passenger door. When adjusted for an 1/8" gap at the rear of the door, the front gap was 1/4". The solution was to weld in a 1/8' dia. mild steel welding rod to the trailing edge of the front fender. Once the gaps were equal front and rear, the door and its surrounding panels were made level to one another with body filler.

Passenger door before.
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The magnet was used to bring the welding rod flush to the surrounding surfaces and the 1/8" drill bit maintained the proper gap while welding.
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Passenger door after gaping and flushing.
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The hood and front cowl didn't require the addition of material to even-up the gaps but flushing to adjacent surfaces did.
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This is the new prop to support the engine cover. Its a stainless steel, double action catch and release that catches when the cover is lifted open and then releases when the cover is lifted slightly again. Very convenient, very light weight, and rust proof. There are 2 more at the front to support the hood.
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Cheers,
Ted
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hrm2k
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Re: Career Project...

Post by hrm2k »

craftsman !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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ncwitte
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Re: Career Project...

Post by ncwitte »

Fabulous work. I love the attention to detail.
Norm Witte
Lansing, Michigan
'65 Corsas: 140 coupe and 180 convertible
http://www.wittelaw.com/personal
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=4208
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Rick Calcitrant
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Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

Body work has been coming along nicely since the last post. There's been a lot more surfacing than I had anticipated as I haven't found a single straight panel on the car yet. The misery doesn't make itself apparent until blocking out the primer with guide coat. Also, the carbon fiber panels have been very labor intensive because I chose early on to smooth the back of the outer skin. It'll look very much like the stock pieces from underneath but, in hindsight, I think it was a big mistake to obscure that the panels are carbon.

I had a real hassle with the hood seal causing the hood to sit proud of the fenders and cowl. I've read several different Web posts confirming similar experiences with other Corvair owners. The general consensus has been that, in time, the seals compress such that everything lines up again. However, since the hood on this car is nowhere near as heavy as the original, I felt the seal would take too long to compress or not compress at all. Commensurately, I trimmed a considerable amount from the back of the seal to get it to fit more deeply into its channel. That did the trick but I suspect that the seal will no longer be watertight. In this case allowing water to enter the space isn't a problem. Conversely, the deck lid seal is the same profile but it fits much better and will not be trimmed in the same manner. Go figure.

To get the hood, deck lid and front and rear cowls to be flush to one another, spacers were required to shim the front and rear hinges and the trailing edge of the rear cowl. I suspect that the carbon panels, being different that the OE pieces in thickness, contributed substantially to the misalignment.

The headlight buckets and trims fit pretty badly too. The fix for that was to straighten the buckets to a fair degree while they were out of the car, install them, and then mount the headlight trims to check for the inevitable gaps between the trims and the body. No disappointment there so I taped up the back edges of the trims and did a body filler "squeeze" behind them to fill in the misery. Some smoothing and blending and Presto! Problem fixed.
Hood hinge spacers.
Hood hinge spacers.
Rear cowl spacers.
Rear cowl spacers.
Front suspension box rear cross member to Corvair unibody frame joint.
Front suspension box rear cross member to Corvair unibody frame joint.
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Widened front wheel house.
Widened front wheel house.
Filled headlight surround, Rt.
Filled headlight surround, Rt.
Filled headlight surround, Lft.
Filled headlight surround, Lft.
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Rick Calcitrant
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Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

The hood and deck lid are now complete and in primer. I got curious about the weight of each as I'd never gotten around to weighing the OE and carbon pieces to compare the difference. Unfortunately, the originals are long gone but now that the carbon parts are surfaced and primed I grabbed the trusty bathroom scale to satisfy my curiosity to at least find out what they weigh before they go away with the car to the the new owner. Turns out the hood comes in at 24 lbs. while the deck lid is 12.5 lbs. If anybody out there has some OE pieces disassembled and the inclination to weigh them I'd sure like to know what they are. Thanks.
Cheers,
Ted
Deck Lid
Deck Lid
Hood
Hood
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Rick Calcitrant
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Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

I haven't posted in a while because all my current efforts have been focused on body work and I figured most folks would find that kinda' boring as I'm sure the topic has been covered plenty in the past. However, one of the time savers I learned as an industrial designer provides a quick way to confirm that a panel is smooth and straight or needs more work. The procedure is to take a black 50 gal. leaf bag and cut one side and the bottom to allow it to be spread flat. Then take a spray bottle loaded with water and wet the surface of the panel you want to check and then lay the leaf bag against the panel. I then use a lightly dampened cloth to smooth out the bubbles and wrinkles. Viola, the panel appears as though it has a semi-gloss coating on it which can be used to view the highlights and reflections from the panel. In this case, the right rear quarter panel had warped in several places due to an engine compartment fire sometime in its past. The warped panel had distorted the horizontal character line on that panel so it was a bear to straighten it out and then verify it. Note the little squiggle highlight above and to the front of the wheel arch in photo 2. The squiggle indicates a bit more attention is required in that area.
You can also tell the bag I used was wrinkled pretty badly but I'm accustomed to looking for what the highlights are supposed to look like so it wasn't a problem. Just know that the smoother, darker, and glossier the plastic film is, the easier it will be to see any misery.
If you have access to a spray booth with horizontally arranged fluorescent lights along the side, that works great because the reflections from the panel should track straight or with a smooth arch on a contoured panel.
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Rick Calcitrant
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Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

I never would've guessed it would take 4 months to straighten out the body and get it in primer. Sheeeeez. Granted, there was a bit more to it than that and the cold weather contributed to some very long drying times on everything chemical but alas, its finally done and this Saturday I'm delivering it to the new owner in Las Vegas. So, onward and upward. Good luck to all you lucky Corvair drivers out there. I've enjoyed and appreciated the feedback that a few of you have offered during my sharing, so a special thanks to you. Cheers!
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hrm2k
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Re: Career Project...

Post by hrm2k »

breath taking..........glad you got it finished to this......sorry to see such a piece of art go to someone else
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azdave
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Re: Career Project...

Post by azdave »

Incredible project to this point. I seriously throught about buying this but knew I did not have the resources to pull off the completion. Let's hope we see this on the road (and track) in the not too distant future.
Dave W. from Gilbert, AZ

66 Corsa 140/4 Yenko Stinger Tribute
66 Corsa 140 Coupe w/factory A/C
65 Monza 4DR 140/PG w/factory A/C
65 Monza 4DR EJ20T/5
64 Greenbrier 110/PG, Standard 6-Door
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Rick Calcitrant
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Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

Hopefully the new owner will post to the Forum so we can all follow along...
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Rick Calcitrant
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Re: Career Project...

Post by Rick Calcitrant »

I recently contacted the new owner of "career project" to learn its current status. He was kind enough to forward some pics and his permission to post them on the forum as there were several forum members that expressed an interest in the car's development.
I'm very impressed with the way the car has turned out and applaud the new owner's taste and execution. In the coming months I hope to learn more about the details of the car and if anyone's interested, again with his permission, I'll post what I learn. This car has meant more to me than any other project vehicle I've taken on over the years and to see it appreciated, so superbly finished, and cared for, does my heart good.
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