'62 Monza convertible "Ralphie"

[Dennis66]

The "easy" adjustment plan didn't work out. As I was preparing it, I decided I'd better have a good look at the carbs while they were off. Found and extracted messed up main jets, one accelerator pump plunger had come apart, neither pump had return springs, one carb had the float too low, and the other one had the float hitting the gasket (too high). Time for another Clark's order. Then it occurred to me that I would have to put the generator mount, generator, and all of that on th engine, run it, and take it all back off to put the engine back in the car (with transaxle still in the car). The earlies just won't clear the oil filter and oil fill. So Last Friday I went ahead and put the engine in. Saturday my Clark's order came in so I went through the carbs, then I was under it installing boots on the throttle and shifter at the tunnel when I found BOTH of those shafts bent and rubbing against the tops of the openings. Pulled all of that, straightened it all, adjusted the shifter, and buttoned up the tunnel cover finished "stapling" the front tin yesterday (the staples don't look as good as factory from UNDERNEATH, but no one really sees that (we're not going Concours here). It works and looks good from the top. The front tin is a bear to line everything up because of all the curves. You're trying to maintain the line up of the rubber strip, the anchor channel, the tin, and then line up all the staple holes. But I got it all done. I had tried making a stapler from an old pair of channel locks and welding a couple of blocks that I dimpled to curve the bottom of the staples. Didn't work too well as channel locks don't close straight, the close at kind of an angle. may have to do something with straight pliers before I do mine. You have to have long jaws to clear the rubber flap that sticks out.
This afternoon I put oil in it, removed the distributor, and primed the oil system with a drill. Still have to hook up the fuel line (it came with a fuel filter and two rubber hoses in the engine compartment. Going back to filter behind L/R wheel where it is supposed to be and a new metal fuel line. Also Have to straighten out the engine wiring where some genius wired in a resistor block and disconnected the original resistor wire. Expect I'll be driving it this weekend. Can't wait to get it back to the owner and get back to work on MINE. Dennis

[Dennis66]

Latest update: So when we last reported I had just finished (most) stuff on the '64 and returned it to it's owner. Then I took a vacation up to Michigan for a family wedding. We returned late Monday night to the news that there was a hurricane rapidly approaching (my boss says "the next hurricane is always 14 days away"). I had Tuesday to secure my house, Wednesday to go to work and prep and evacuate vehicles and equipment, Thursday to hunker down during the storm (lost power), and been working 8-10 hour shifts since and until further notice. FWIW, most of the island was under 3 or more feet of water (including out shop). I've spent most of my time in a CAT loader removing debris and swamped vehicles (BMW convertible, 3 Mercedes, about 8 other vehicles), docks, a small barge, trees.
The good thing, my family is all okay, the Corvair stayed safe in my workshop (although a 20 foot branch from my neighbor's tree is lying next to the shop). So far we've seen a minimal loss of life in the area, but MUCH loss of property. Eventually, I will get back to "normal" or whatever abnormal looks like.
This was some of today's pickings:

Roast Tesla

Dennis

[Dennis66]

Wow! I've made no updates on my '62 since June. SIX whole months. Way too much stuff going on. I've been "picking" at the car a little here and there for about the last month. Still a lot of the other distractions, but I need a little "me time" here and there. Biggest was scoring a set of 13'' Maxis whitewalls. That led to breaking down the existing tires (one at a time) mounting the first tire on my spare rim, and then sandblasting, cleaning, and painting the rims that came on the car. I used the Duplicolor DE1635 engine paint (same as used on my tins) for the outside of the rims, and regular Rustoleum black engine paint for the insides (I already had a few cans and it is less expensive than the Duplicolor with negligible difference). FWIW, anyone that goes into much detail painting the inside of their original rims is wasting time and energy. GM did a sloppy job with the original paint with bubbles, runs, and flaws on all the insides I painted.
After mounting the tires, I initially left the lug nuts finger tight for other work coming up. That work was replacing all the rubber brake lines, I had bought them back in June before the bottom fell out of my world. Because I would be bleeding the system (again) anyway, now was a good time to remove the master cylinder, clean it, and repaint it. It was apparently new and never painted when the car went into storage, but the Florida humidity made the outside look like crap.
While wheels, brake lines, and bleeding was in progress, I decided to remove the front hubs / drums and drill out the rivets so I can inspect the brakes any time I want without messing with cotter pins and wheel bearings. Yes, GM riveted them because of possible brake noise, and if I experience any effects, I will tap the holes and install screws like my more modern drum equipped vehicles have.
Also installed my Sethracer plug wires that had been purchase in June as well. Since it hadn't been cranked since May, it was "wake up" time. Got it started right up with a little flooding that went away with a light tap to each carb. After idling for a few minutes, the lifters got happy and it purred nicely (I do have the Clark's "ball" float valves.
Then I got back to the Spyder instrument panel project. First gen instrument panel and behind the panel work is NOT FUN. My '62 did not come with an instrument panel plug, so after running wires as necessary for the extra gauges and bulbs, I added a plug so it could be easily (take that with a grain of salt) removed if needed in the future. I did have to pull it back out as the tach wasn't working, that turned out to be a wire that wasn't hooked up under the rear.
I'm currently waiting on my Ted Brown in-tank fuel pump. When I powered up my Facet pump, mounted up near the tank, the noise level was unacceptable so I removed it. That's it for now until the fuel pump arrives.

New sneakers

Spyder panel in MY car

[kmart356]

Looking good fellow FL man Corvair nut

[Gasman63]

Love the dash. I got the same one in my 63 vert.
I out an oil pressure gauge in place of the turbo gauge.

[Dennis66]

I'd love to see a picture and model / make of your gauge. I considered it. Same plumbing, just slightly different route.

[Gasman63]

Mine was just a 2" gauge, electric meaning a sensor in the oil port plumbed in where the oil pressure sensor is and just wires running to the dash. Dad had put in an oil line all the way to the dash but that scared me. I leaking tube under pressure?

Amazon gauge. Nothing special. I have added a resistor to the LED but its still not making me happy. I have the brightness turned down but the color is next ..

[Dennis66]

Finally some worthwhile progress with pictures. Did wiring and hooked up electrical to the fuel pump, and installed thermistor and adapter and hooked it up to the gauge. The fuel pump is running off the #4 terminal of the GM external voltage regulator (Dave Motohead modification IRC - thanks Dave). I ran it from the terminal, through a 10 amp fuse, and will eventually add a Ford type inertia switch for safety purposes.
The thermistor, I wired using some fiberglass sheathed wire salvaged from an old EM oil pressure / temperature sender harness because of the heat in the exhaust / shroud area. I ran the wire up and over the pushrod tube to keep it as far from the exhaust manifold as possible. All connections were soldered and heat shrink sealed. After installation, I ran it about 15 minutes to allow temperature gauge to com up. Eventually with driving, I will establish a benchmark "normal operating temperature". We're getting close to tag and driving time.

Thermistor and adapter in left head

Temp gauge after warm up

[Gasman63]

Hopefully you fid a crimp connection before the solder. I thought about solder when i did mine then was worried about the heat melting the solder. Looks clean! Nice job.

[Dennis66]

The loop terminal for the thermistor was the ONLY one that I crimped. Didn't trust solder there. I ran the fuel pump power from the #4 terminal on the (alternator upgrade) external voltage regulator. I believe this was originally a Dave Motohead modification. I also have a primer button just to the left of my wiper / lighter pod. When I first start the car, the generator light stays on. I momentarily push the primer and the light goes out and stays out.
Drove it around the block yesterday and it needed the clutch adjusted and pulled hard to the right with occasional lockup of the right front. Today I adjusted the clutch, pulled both front wheels (I had previously drilled out my drum rivets so I don't have to pull the hubs). I pulled the drums and inspected the shoes and drums and didn't see anything out of whack. I backed off the adjustment on the R/F a little and I swapped the R/F drum to the L/F in case maybe the drum is out of round. Second test drive and it still pulls to the right, nit as bad, but not acceptable. Next, I will go ahead and pull the drums and shoes, double check the front wheel cylinders, and maybe swap shoes to the other side. While there is no sponginess, I will also double check the brake bleed (I had previously replaced all brake hoses with good quality new hoses. The car had also pulled a little during braking BEFORE the hose replacement. I have an idea up my sleeve to check drums for out of round although I don't think they are. There is NO ridge in either drum.

[Dennis66]

Not really a “Ralphie” update, but I was doing more work on the ‘64. Put rebuilt carbs on it, the rare CORRECT muffler hanger, finished up the rear perimeter seal, and installed a passenger side mirror. Drove the car a bit, but it wasn’t accelerating as smoothly as I wanted. The rebuilt carbs were marked as having .049 jets, and my carb book said a ‘64 110 should have .051 - to.053, so I ordered a set of 52s and put them in last night and drove it a bit. Much better. Drove it to work today and took it back to its owner tonight using the interstate. First time driving a Corvair to work in 44 years (man, have cars come a long way),
And first time driving a Corvair on the interstate in 12 years (if a Greenbrier counts).

[Dennis66]

And a "Ralphie" update. She's home at her new home in South Carolina. A REAL garage. I trailered it up there on Friday. For the day the Corvair "identified" as a 1992 Chevy CAVALIER convertible (U haul Imperial rules). I backed it on the trailer rear end forward (for tongue weight purposes - although I probably had enough parts in the trunk to balance that out anyway). Because it's a convertible, I tarped the whole car using a billboard tarp. Trip up was uneventful, and while the UH trailer says "55 MPH", we hit a little over 70 a few times. Got there, unloaded, put the top down and made a quick trip around the block (brakes are still grabbing on R/F badly (new shoes and cylinders are in the trunk). Put it in the garage, unloaded the rest of my garage stuff and headed back home the next day.

[Dennis66]

So we're moved up here (kind of, house in Florida hasn't sold yet and the majority of my tools and equipment are still down there). After a few days of unpacking and organizing, with several more still to come, I decided to see if the Corvair would start after sitting since March. I hooke the battery back up and the courtesy lights came on (good sign). After switching it on, pushing my primer button and listening to the fuel pump, it cranked right up, albeit the starter was a bit slow in cranking. I let it run about 10 minutes and to my surprise, the radio suddenly came on (it's never worked before). I managed to get a couple of AM stations. There is some kind of box in the trunk that I have yet to figure out what it is, but maybe I'll play with t now (well, after the unpacking and organizing are settled and my next trip up with the rest of my stuff)