My 68 convertible's facelift

[coleslaw31]

Havent posted on here in awhile, figured I would hop on and get caught up to show what I been up to. The 66 corsa I have is now being put on hold while I work on my convertible. Just needed more work than I could do right now, while the convertible needs a lot less. Anyways my 68 is a 110 PG car but will be converted to a 140 4spd with a/c. All parts are coming from a rotted out 69 coupe and a/c from a wrecked 65 sedan. Been fitting the a/c vents into the dash panels and will be getting the center vent in the car when i get time to work on it (currently stored at my parent's place). Then comes the fun part of cutting out the trunk to fit the airbox. I know they sell a sleek more modern unit you can put in, but heck what's the fun in that I may as well just cruise my kia ! I like the big clunky unit its kinda cool how it all works and the air box does give you fresh air vents in the dash when your not using the a/c. Also I tore the front end down from the 69 coupe (Got that 68-69 correct protect o' gas tank panel even) and will be rebuilding with disc brake and cut a spring coil off to give that little stance! Busy busy now to just get the dang thing on the road.

Fits like a glove! The metal this panel is made of was a bear to cut into...

Big thanks to Mike Corbin who is the man when it comes to a/c parts for Corvairs! Had these babies rechromed and ready to go

Got new vent balls and felts compliments of ebay

I can rest easy knowing a paper thin panel is going to keep my gas tank from rupturing! (68-69's had that flat metal welded to them for head on collision safety)

Man taking a front suspension apart really tests your patience

front hubs heading to be machined for disc brake

local guy makes kits I will be using

disc2.JPG (33.08 KiB) Viewed 1519 times

[bbodie52]

Unfortunately the pictures you are attempting to post are not visible. This may be due to the nature of the host website. If it is a secure website that requires a password to access the content, and if the display of these pictures is not in the public domain, sharing the URL address of each photograph may not be successful on the Corvair Forum.

To display your pictures, you may have to post them by uploading each picture as an attachment.

[coleslaw31]

Sorry about that hope I fixed it. Thanks for the heads up.

Unfortunately the pictures you are attempting to post are not visible. This may be due to the nature of the host website. If it is a secure website that requires a password to access the content, and if the display of these pictures is not in the public domain, sharing the URL address of each photograph may not be successful on the Corvair Forum.

To display your pictures, you may have to post them by uploading each picture as an attachment.

[bbodie52]

Alles Klar! The pictures are now OK. Thank you for the progress report and please keep the pictures coming!

[coleslaw31]

Prepping parts for converting the PG into a 4spd. So far everything is looking good with minimal need for replacing other than the norm, had to do some emergency repair on the clutch shaft dust shield. Also cleaning out the heating duct and applying new foam tape to help make it more efficient! Slow but positive work being done.

What the dust cover looked like

And after some persuasion from a socket and hammer as well as cleaner

clean sanded and paint for the shift tunnel

heater duct all cleaned and metal painted

A little foam tape to help get the heat proper

[coleslaw31]

Been digging into the front suspension rebuild, I have most of it painted and prepping for a disc brake conversion along with a drop on the springs. Got the clutch cross shaft rebuilt, it was some nasty grease in that thing. Next step is to clean and reseal the transaxle, concerned about its condition because I noticed a lot of excessive wear on a lot of the brackets when pulling it from my parts car also the transmission crossmember had two stripped bolts and one stabilizer bar had replaced bolts. Also the engine had been rebuilt in the past due to a crankshaft failure (I got receipts with the car) which makes me believe that the trans may of been sagging at some point and caused stress on the rest of the drive train. I am wondering what to look out for on the trans in case it was damaged as well.

cross shaft looks good as new

brushed on some oil based paint

whoops lost a loop!

redneck paint booth!

Dirty dirty. Any ideas on paint to use?

[coleslaw31]

Been really cracking down on the ol convertible. Have the dash cut for factory a/c and my transaxle is cleaned sealed and ready to be mated with the engine! Will start bolting in the shift parts hopefully next week and make this thing look like a car again!

ac box in

it took a lot of words and time to get this bad boy cleaned

Lovely nesting and rotten insulation

Well that would cause a problem

New cables going in power top

[cad-kid]

Good update

[Corsa bill]

Coleslaw thanks for the pictures. I'm pulling my ft. End now, to paint it. What are you doing on the underside of the body? Paint, or a under coating?
If your under coating what are you using? And how are you prepping?


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[coleslaw31]

The car was undercoated heavily by the PO, nasty stuff but it kept the underside of the car solid for sure. I plan to leave what's under the car except in the wheel wells. Get them stripped and paint black and call it good like I did with the crossmember. Car should be running by mid year but not sure when Ill be taking it to shows.

[terribleted]

The factory generally undercoated the wheel wells. It is a good place to have a coating of good undercoating in the wheel opening to keep rocks from slinging up and chipping paint causing rust not to mention a good coat of rubberized undercoating in the wheel openings cuts down on road noise. I would clean them out address any issues and recoat them with a high quality undercoat.