My New to Me 65 Vert / Project tracker

[DT-VAIR]

Well after about 8 months of on and off again searching I finally found a car. My original wants were a 64 or newer, manual and convertible. I got 2 of the 3 with this one. First PG I've had and I actually like it. Car seems a little slow with it - but it's been great so far. Bought this one based on the lack of rust. Floors are great, rockers look great and bondo seems minimal (normal windshield area). There are some odd things that I've been finding - but to be expected I believe. Sorry this is so late getting up - just been busy with life!

So my story with it. Found the car in Iowa in Cedar Rapids about 3 weeks ago. Drove out with my wife and decided to buy it after driving around and seeing what issues I had with it. We were both up though from 3AM and apparently I missed some things as shown below. After adjusting the tire pressure to the correct settings (PO had all 4 set at 32/33) we drove home with minimal issues. Lost the speedometer cable about 30 minutes into the drive (thankfully found a GPS speedometer app that has been working great) and lost a tailpipe extension. 208 miles later we were home. Pretty happy overall with how it drove. Since I've had it I've driven about 400 miles on it.

The car has a very old restoration on it - I'd say at least 15-20 years. The PO had it for 13 years. He bought it from a guy in MN who drove it supposedly just in parades. I can believe it based on the condition. The MN guy bought it from Arizona - the tag states it's an L.A. car so that seems to match up. The guy I bought it from was not mechanically inclined and also let his kids drive it a bit in high school so there are some dings and paint chips unfortunately in the paint. Top is pretty good - two small holes from the kids not doing something right and a brand new boot. Interior is nice - custom pretty much but looks similar to original and much more 'supple' than the stamped vinyl.


Issues that I have, and have found, with the car so far:

1.) Speedometer - ordered and should be going on this week.
2.) Wheel is 90 degrees off. PO said he had taken it off and didn’t' put it on right. So I have to deal with that. Just got a puller from the neighbor so hopefully will add that to my list this week.
3.) Front of trunk seems to be a little high when shut - maybe 1/8 of an inch. I have to figure out how to adjust that.
4.) Some 'expert' when working on the brakes apparently decided the passenger front line was bad and didn't want to drop the tank so he ran the brake line under the dash, into the trunk and then down through the wheel well - you'll see it in the pics. Guess I'll be dropping the tank sometime which will probably be a good thing to do anyway.
5.) Steering might have a little play - not sure if it's just typical of the age or if it needs attention.
6.) The oil dipstick tube comes loose and can pull out - that's not good I know. I have to figure out how to get that back in correctly.
7.) Blower doesn't work. PO claimed it had been worked on - I forgot to try it before we left as it was 80 something degrees out. It slipped my mind. The fuse was blown so I replaced it recently but still doesn't really work. I haven't checked the hoses yet for holes.
8.) Bellows are both bad
9.) Springs are missing from both lower hinges on the doors. I stared at the hinge areas for rust - but never seemed to notice the hinges themselves. So the doors do not stay open and swing around more than they should.

More minor issues are some emblems are missing:
The seat needs a bit firming up (and I have to check the seat travel - it seems a little close compared to my other one), and other minor things missing (bumpers on engine lid, etc). I ordered some of the minor things to clean it up. The rear grill needs painting. I'd like to swap it for a corsa grill - so if anyone has an inexpensive one they'd like to sell PM me please! It does not have the courtesy lights for some reason so I have to get those in also so it's not totally dark at night. Also, while it has the washer pump and reservoir installed - it doesn’t' have the spray nozzles it looks. Not a big deal there though. I ordered a set of vent window handles as one is missing and the other looks bad. Hopefully getting the other handle on will help with whistling when the top is up (which I haven't had up since we got it home!)

Future plans, once everything else is addressed, is to put the Corsa dash in maybe and paint the rear cove the argent silver as well as put the corsa grill on it. I think with the color it is that would look sharp. I have no idea what color it is though so I'll have to stop by a body show and see if they can match the color. I'm not a huge fan of the wheels so I'll probably sell those soon and put a set of rally wheels on. When and if I get some extra cash of course!

For now though I'm just driving and enjoying it! I've had it at 3 shows so far and it's been received well - even with the chipped paint! I'll keep this post going with updates to the car - seems to be the way to go lately on the boards. Hopefully she gives me many more good years of service.


Pictures below are from the PO mainly and then a few from me at the shows. I'll try to get the Fisher tag up soon. Killing some time at work right now so I don't have a lot of pictures on me!

Driver Front.jpg (44.18 KiB) Viewed 2251 times

Pass - Front.jpg (43.38 KiB) Viewed 2251 times

Rear.jpg (39.68 KiB) Viewed 2251 times

Interior.jpg (41.25 KiB) Viewed 2251 times

engine.jpg (48.04 KiB) Viewed 2251 times

Wheel.jpg (40.84 KiB) Viewed 2251 times

[azdave]

Looks like a good find even with some mechanicsal issues you noted. All repairable as you have time/funds. Rust-through is what I hate to deal with.

[DT-VAIR]

Tag info - I had some of it decoded but now can't find the sheet. Thing I needed help with was original colors.

[Jerry Whitt]

Looks really nice! Those wheels just jump out as beautiful.

Do you know what kind of wheels they are?

[bbodie52]

I will decode the body tag for you...

Here is a breakdown of the information on the body tag you provided...
BODY TAG INFO:

12B
Body Build Date: 12 = December, B = Second Week
The first two digits are numbers 01 through 12, indicating the month of manufacture. The letter is A-E, indicating the week of the month. If the letter is an "B" it indicates the second week of the month.

STyle 65-10567 LOS 484 BODY
65 = 1965
Model 10567: Chevrolet (1) Monza (05), Convertible (67), LOS = Los Angeles (Van Nuys) California,
Production Sequence No: 484
1965 Corvair Monza 2-Door Convertible - 4 Passenger, Total Production: 26,466



TRim 798- White (Carpet and Instrument Panel are Black)
This 3 digit codes represents the interior color and seat type.

P-1 PAINT= Orchid (Evening Orchid Poly)
-1 = WHITE (Convertible Top Color)

P = Orchid - "Evening Orchid Poly" Lucite No. 4632L, Rinshed-Mason No. A1722, Ditzler No. DDL 50693



ACC: WO2MP3C4PU5W
The Letters are listed in groups. Letters following a number are in that group.
1st Group
W = RPO A02 Glass - Tinted Windshield
O = RPO C05 Top, Convertible Folding (Manual)

2nd Group
M = RPO M35 Powerglide Automatic
P = RPO Z01 (LOS cars only) 2 speed wipers (LOS listed this separately from the CC group)

3rd Group
C = RPO B70 Pad, Instrument Panel

4th Group
P = RPO Z01 convenience group (2 speed wipers, washers, day/night inside mirror)
U = RPO P19 Spare tire lock

5th Group
W = RPO A49 Deluxe Seat Belts (Chrome Buckles) with Retractors

[DT-VAIR]

Thanks Brad! I do like the Orchid color almost wish they'd kept it that color when they did their resot - but I think I'd probably stick with the blue if and when I repaint. But who knows tastes change over time right? Good to know most of the stuff is still there- minus the belts though. I want to find the correct buckles and retractors some day - not a high priority though right now.

Jerry - the wheels are player wheels. They sell a similar set on thier website right now.

[cad-kid]

I'm happy you found another Vair

[DT-VAIR]

So I've had the cars at a few shows and the trunk is bothering me with its condition. I know I could just leave it sit but then I miss all the kids asking where the engine went! Right now it has some sort of paint that is cracking in places. Other places have a black coating of some sort (rustoleum maybe?). I started scraping and wire wheeling the loose stuff off and any surface rust I've found. Still have a little ways to go but how far should I strip this down? Is it safe to get the loose off and start repainting? This will probably be redone in a few years again when I reroute the brake line - I'd just prefer it look a little nicer. Even figuring out if I'd want the trunk patch that a po put in cleaned up probably factors in. Just writing this I'm wondering if I should even bother with spatter painting it right now and instead just use a a gray paint to give everything a nice uniform coat. I saw azdaves's trunk from a few years back and it looked great and it's what I'd love to have but I think that's going to be a little ways off.

Any suggestions?

[Corossa]

So I've had the cars at a few shows and the trunk is bothering me with its condition. I know I could just leave it shit but then I miss all the kids asking where the engine went! Right now it has some sort of paint that is cracking in places. Other places have a black coating of some sort (rustoleum maybe?). I started scraping and wire wheeling the loose stuff off and any surface rust I've found. Still have a little ways to go but how far should I strip this down? Is it safe to get the loose off and start repainting? This will probably be redone in a few years again when I reroute the brake line - I'd just prefer it look a little nicer. Even figuring out if I'd want the trunk patch that a po put in cleaned up probably factors in. Just writing this I'm wondering if I should even bother with spatter painting it right now and instead just use a a gray paint to give everything a nice uniform coat. I saw azdaves's trunk from a few years back and it looked great and it's what I'd love to have but I think that's going to be a little ways off.

Any suggestions?

DT Vair,
Your car looks pretty nice overall and I think you are on the right track, so if you plan on rerouting brake line later and repainting trunk then I would suggest that as you have already done get after all the boogers, cracks and what not, prime the rust spots(rattle can) after wirewheeling. Use lots of Prep-Sol to make sure you get all the grease and oils off the old paint. Tape off the trunk from the body and remove the hood. They make spatter paints that comes in spray cans (rattle cans). I would pick a color close to stock and respray the whole trunk giving it an overall single color coat (however many coats it takes!) once its blended like that then you'll like it much better, it will reduce your angst to do everything else and allow you to stage refinishing as is really necessary.
Seems to me this is one of the easier, most cost effective ways to really clean up a big chunk of the car. Even if you choose to change the overall color of the trunk to better go with the dark blue of the body, that's cool. Later if you repair the hole from the brake line, a quick touch up is all that you need if you don't need to change the overall color back. All the other things will pale in comparison. This can be cheap, easy, only a little time consuming but ever so satisfying!
Its all in the prep and you're not covering or trying to lay down a 7K -7 layer custom paint job with color sanding and all that razz ma tazz . GM hit with a simple single coat and walked away after and it lasted forever except where people let water sit.
Good Luck
Ross

[SfcColts]

Potential future project

Nice ride. You said something about changing out the dash for a Corsa dash but your car is an automatic. I like the look of Corsa dash and picked up a one for a future project. Do you know if there is a way to modify the Corsa Dash and put the automatic selector switch on it? Or are you thinking of modifying it in some other way?

[DT-VAIR]

Well a quick update - finally got some time to try and fix the dipstick - happy to say me 1 - dipstick 0. Ended up needing to drop the pan but that was needing to be done anyway. Hopefully I can get it all back together this weekend and finally put this behind me. Now to scrape off the old gasket, make sure the pan holes are good and get moving. Figured I'd share some progress. Have a good night!

[cad-kid]

Progress is good

[DT-VAIR]

Finally think I found the reason I don't have any air coming out of the vents - appears there is a split along that seam as shown below. Any suggestions? Is that section separate or do I have to replace the entire duct front to back? Any way to patch it maybe? Doubtful I would think. Anyway - just figured I'd get some opinions. Pic is from corvaircenter - glad I found something to use!

[cad-kid]

I wonder if that split is enough to keep all the heat out of the front. You can run the car while safely secured on jackstands to check that you have heat at the duct opening.

Perhaps a high temp silicone or super glue with a backer piece could be used.