1964 500 coupe - rusting in the u.k

[guru_1071]

this is the yellow Monza coupe I bought of ebay in the hope that I would get all the body cuts I needed for my blue one. as it turned out I got zero panel work as it was terminally rotten or had already been cut out - C'est la vie.......

it would appear that a previous owner had tried to fit another engine and had made some modifications, though judging by the amount of stuff removed, I'm not sure how long the engine was........



I did manage to get a set of undamaged instruments, which was a small bonus



standard (in my experience...) corvair floor



one massive hole! as I bought this car just to get the rear bulkhead and seat pan out of, it was a massive blow when I looked through the window and saw this, although the rest of the car was so rotten I think it would have been unusable anyway



more rot



I hacked the wings off and dragged it onto my trailer and took it to the local scrappers. ive known the owner for years and he has a few classic yanks, he was really pleased with it, not that it has any value...



he very carefully lifted it up and away with his crane (for extra points spot the (fairly) rare Peugeot 205 cti in the background



and plonked it on the top of a van, so its out the way and he is keeping it as a 'mascot' that he can look at when he is having a cup of tea!



it will stay there for years!

[cad-kid]

Thanks for the photos. I looked at them and said WOW!

[guru_1071]

I'm so sick of welding that I decided to pull the front suspension out and have a look at that.

in doing so I discovered that the steering box is utterly shagged, so the one I got off the white car I broke may save the day....



I also discovered that the poorly fitted shockers (mini ones) that had been 'welded' to the top arms were not doing much on one side.......

yep, the weld has failed and the shock has just been hung from the equally poor bracket that's just been welded to the inner wheel well - I'm goning make a far better job of that arrangement - obviously they cannot go back in the original place as that's where the ram is for the hydraulics.




oh, and speaking of hydraulics. this is the clutter that's in the front.



all the tufty blue stuff is the remains of the household carpet that had been fitted under it all, so its impossible to remove it and dry it out. amazingly the bottom isn't rusty

[toytron]

Wow so was that a U.K. Low rider?

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[guru_1071]

Wow so was that a U.K. Low rider?

Sent from my SM-N910V using Corvair Forum mobile app

yes, but I don't think there is much of a lowrider 'scene' over here. most cars over here have it (normally air I guess) just have it so that they can slump to the floor, the 'dancing' car side of it doesn't attract any (or much) attention over here.

I'm going to alter the stuff on this one so that is can just go from a driving height to 'slump'. I have absolutely zero interest in the ability to make it hop around.

I would convert it back to standard, but I don't have all the parts to do it, plus it does look rather good when its snoozing on the floor

[lostboy]

Surprised it even has shocks. A lot of low rider hydraulics don't. I'm interested to see more of the suspension.

[guru_1071]

the rams have little 4" long coil springs on the ends, so there is a element of 'springing' when its driven, the previous owner said that the car drove miles better once it was all fitted. (and it was mega expensive in 1997)

I will refit the shocks as I aim to use the hydraulic system more like a citroen - i.e the hydraulics will be just to fine tune the height.

I'm used to minis, where the handling is sublime, I don't expect anything as much from the corvair, I'm just going to be happy to be able to chug around in it

[lostboy]

the rams have little 4" long coil springs on the ends, so there is a element of 'springing' when its driven, the previous owner said that the car drove miles better once it was all fitted. (and it was mega expensive in 1997)

I will refit the shocks as I aim to use the hydraulic system more like a citroen - i.e the hydraulics will be just to fine tune the height.

I'm used to minis, where the handling is sublime, I don't expect anything as much from the corvair, I'm just going to be happy to be able to chug around in it

VERY COOL!

[toytron]

Yes the low ride look is nice.

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[guru_1071]

another week, more rusts...

r/h/s rear chassis leg. rotten



cut the leg out to remake it



all remade, with all the skirt panels and infill parts. just the whole lot to do again on the other side....

[mart]

great fab work, I could have done with you around five years ago when I started mine

[guru_1071]

great fab work, I could have done with you around five years ago when I started mine

cheers mart!

I think the difference with my project to yours is that it hadn't been bodged up, so its 'just' straight forward rust repairs, its not unpicking someone else's mess and trying to make good someone else's idea of a satisfactory repair.

[guru_1071]

another week passes and the car is now a bare, stripped down hulk (bar the rear suspension) and is waiting for a slot at my blasting man to be soda blasted.

found this little plastic badge melted into the little heating coil that's in the passenger side demister vent - I bet the owner wondered what the faint smell of burning plastic was!!!!




I wonder if there was a cash prize for 'car of the month' and if I can still claim it?

[guru_1071]

well, the car is now a bare shell waiting to be blasted..

then its a case of making a wish list of body cuts for jeff at the corvair ranch


only good news is that I have scored a pair of beautiful rot free doors that where removed from a car in a breakers in Arizona years ago. the seller removed the doors, bonnet and boot and shipped them over here with a load of VW stuff. unfortunately the bonnet has gone missing from his unit - which was a shame, and I don't need the perfect bootlid that he had.

they are now the best part of my corvair!

[Corvair88]

Very impressive work so far! Hows the build coming along?

[guru_1071]

Very impressive work so far! Hows the build coming along?

slowly

all the floor & bulkhead is done, all the suspension is done, most of it is refitted, it will probably be back on its wheels in a month or so

still needs all the repair work around the pillers - though i have bought some parts from america to help with this

once its back on its wheel sits getting sold on as a project though, for the simple reason that a) i just dont have the time, and b) ive bought a 1962 spyder from the states thats in a useable condition, so ive been using that one, its needed front floors (dont they all!) and a suspension rebuild etc, but was a solid arizona body