64 Corvair caught on fire bigtime! What do I do now?

[Crazy George]

YEAH I MUST AGREE WITH MAMAVAIR , this Corvair Forum must be thee BEST in support of each other, might I add fun too!!!!! I just got off the phone with ED and he is cleaning , painting the engine cover while waiting for things to arrive. This will keep him busy and not to worry . We all as a team will get this young man going back on the road. Crazy George

[Mountain Pilot]

I am still trying to chase down the proper carb set for him and I do have an intake filter assembly I can send him if he needs it.
The engine harness is going to be hard for me, I thought the '61 harness was similar but it is totally different. Will keep looking for these items.

[64CorvairEd]

Ok, I think you guys will like this. This is from the weekend of the Los Angeles trip / Corvair negotiation and purchase / desert fire.

I caught a ride to Los Angeles with a friend of mine from France who was staying in Phoenix for a couple months. He wanted to visit Los Angeles and I wanted to go check out this Corvair so we set out together on a very tight budget, sleeping in the car he had rented our first night in Santa Monica and a hostel the following night.

We left Phoenix after I got out of work on the Thursday night around 11pm, got to Santa Monica around 5am, parked in a beach parking lot and caught a couple of hours of sleep in the car. The next morning we met with Jacob Ocampo and saw the car for the first time. After 30 hours of negotiating and Jay accepting my final offer I hit the road immediately in my new love 1964 Corvair convertible. I had to get back to Phoenix because I had work on the Sunday afternoon and predicted a long ride home. My friend Ben decided to stay in Los Angeles for a couple more days. Top down, smile ear to ear for the first 4 hours, and then another couple of hours with the top. You guys know how the next part of the story goes.

I called Ben about an hour after the fire. He looked up directions to Quartzsite Arizona on Google maps and this is what he saw. His navigation was in French. He saved the image on his phone and just sent it to me.

[Crazy George]

DID YOU CHECK TO SEE IF YOU MADE THE NEWS PAPERS? THAT WOULD BE NEAT TO HAVE & MAKE COPIES AND I AND OTHERs CAN HAVE YOU AUTOGRAPH THE ARTICLES. Now we can talk about your adventure and go keep that smile , it will be better , its like a little coffee that overflowed the cup. George

[64CorvairEd]

Got an awesome care package in the mail from George via Rafee (who added a few goodies)!

Thanks so much guys! I'm going to get to work on this immediately. Bill said he may stop by later to give me some pointers. I'm not sure at all how this harness goes on but the carb kits came with really good instructions from Rafee. I hope the right carb is fixable. The left one is definitely toast. I cleaned and painted the turkey pan and it looks pretty good.

I took the right carb, put it in a bucket a sprayed a bunch of carb cleaner on it. Can I get away with cleaning it this way or do you guys really recommend a soak type bucket (which I don't have)....?

Also, should I get a new air filter to put in the housing or should I look into the individual filters like on Rafee's pictures?

[64CorvairEd]

Little porch painting setup! It's always beautiful here by the way.

[TikiRalf]

DAMMMMmmm mist this topic, that sow :-(

but seems you can fix it :-) !!!! keep on going and check everything take some time, but you have a cool RED HOT car again :-)

Good Luck Ralf

[64CorvairEd]

More pics from today. I'm not exactly sure where the piece of foam goes....
The picture of the back of the car shows it laid across the back just above the license plate
LOVE the AZ historic plates. I liked the California ones too and I was worried the new ones would not look as nice but these are great.

[Crazy George]

Gee must be like X-mas , don't go teary eye on me..

Got to clean off mama's table but quick

You will find a poor mans marvel oiler for the top bearing , Alternator and support bracket. Alternator was tested this morning and putting out 14.5 volts. I cleaned her up and zinc coated the outside , should slow down the oxcydation some. Corvair jack and handle, and another taller sissor jack from a venture van ( my son in law wrecked ) hacksaw & handle , Penn timing lite and tack & dewll meter, voltage tester. Now here comes the bad news. I forgot to put in the Hershey bars, reese's peanut butter cups tootie roll's and pops . But don't worry I have been taking real good care of them . They pretty good to say. Sorry Scott got to break our diet once in a while. Give UPS about a week and the regulator is coming from Vegas and a letter for you and Kelly any day. If you don't know how to use the timing lite , Kelly will show you Crazy George

[flat6_musik]

After 30 hours of negotiating and Jay accepting my final offer I hit the road immediately in my new love 1964 Corvair convertible.

I hope that's a typo, or you drive a HAAARRDD bargain! LOL

[Crazy George]

The cover looks really good. But like I said , don't do the painting on your porch, use the neighbors Nice job , looks almost like a match to the car. Crazy George Hi Kelly

[64CorvairEd]

Bill found a body and starter harness for me. He stopped by this afternoon and helped guide me along. He pulled up in a beautiful 64' four door. Thanks so much Bill! He also has a 1963 hood for me. (Awesome)

A huge thanks again to George and Rafee. I spoke to Rafee this morning and he was very nice. Bill and I put the new distributor cap on. I need to clean between all the fins of the cylinders. Bill said you need to be able to see through them to the ground under the car. On mine you can't see anything.

[terribleted]

Pretty sure that weatherstrip if used in the rear mounts to the rear lid. There is supposed to be a section like that on top of the body, mounted across the front center of the engine compartment in the weatherstrip groove.

[UNSAFE]

Bill said you need to be able to see through them to the ground under the car. On mine you can't see anything.

If the lower shrouds and cylinder baffles are in place you won't be able to see the ground (or anything) thru the fins

If you've already cleaned and vacuumed the top of the motor I wouldn't worry much more about it - at least for now.

[64CorvairEd]

Thanks Kevin! That's a very cool diagram.

[64CorvairEd]

I have two questions about the next steps....

1. Should I get a big tub of carb cleaner and let the carbs soak in that before rebuilding or should I spray can them thoroughly and clean with a brush (less expensive)?

2. Should I get a pair of Rafee style individual washable air filters or a new air filter / gaskets / clamps for the original air filter housing? It seems like the cost will be about the same so does it become about esthetics or does one system work better than the other?

Thanks!