Corvair Forum

Hey what is the car in front of your corvair?

Ed Stevenson

There are 5 cars in the garage. The one you ask about is a 1962 Impala SS hardtop........also a radical custom 51 Chevy FLeetline, a very low mileage 64 Coupe deVille and a 1917 Roadster pickup and of course, The Corvair

space is a little tight............


51 chevy



62 Impala



64 Caddy



1917 roadster pickup

Very nice. Back in high school in the late 70's I had a 62 impala SS that came stock with a 6 cyl. It was chick yellow with yellow interior. Loved that car. My dad had many of them it was one of his favorites.

Ed Stevenson

My best friend in high school had a 64 Impala 4 door. Former police car, equipped with a 409 rated at 425+ horsepower, with dual quadrajets, and a powerglide automatic. Scary fast. We used to joke that when you floored it, you could watch the speedometer and gas gauge meet.

This 62 is a real nice 20 feet / 20 MPH looker. It belongs to a friend. I am doing a new electrical system in it for him. It is a 327 powerglide........just a real nice cruiser. The rest however, are mine..........The Caddy is a driver and just turned 40,000 first time miles. It belonged to my aunt and uncle in Birmingham AL. When they passed away, it became mine.

I have been waiting for my fuel cell to get here which makes only a few things I can do . I knew I had to do this but wasn't looking forward to cutting into the car ( like that has mattered before ). I changed all that today. I made my initial cuts and a bunch of secondary cuts..........for the most part, I gave the vair a nose job . Check out these nostrils



started to address the rough cuts in the support bar............still needs attention.

I still have some more trimming to do but should start adding in metal for the sides of the radiator



we are getting spring weather for the next couple of days so more changes are coming

I'm sure you will make it all look professional but changing the looks of the front of a late model pains me. That is why I have put up with my mid-mount radiator for almost 10 years.

The last 455 Corvair I got still needs the front radiator install cleaned up. Photos below shown what NOT to do.

Dave, I'm not sure what to say .......... but I feel sure that has been said about my car as well. I'm sure you will get that fixed quickly

I lost power at the garage this morning so I didn't get as much done as I wanted....................there is a trail of trimmed Corvair metal as long as my car .
Someone on Facebook posted a concept design of a late model coupe............and I like it a lot. I got the area between the parking lights cut out completely. I removed all the metal from behind the bumper all the way down up to and including the pinched lip where the body ended



so here we go

this is sort of the overhead shot...........imagine carpeting and a spare

The 2 1x1 pieces tacked together provide a crossmember of sorts. I'm still opening the notches in the one tube but getting much closer. The radiator actually sits on a vertical and a horizontal piece of 5/8 inch seal like door seal. The radiator is bolted to stand at the top.







I probably should have thought about this before cutting into the body.........I got a new 220V MIG . We had been using a 110V mig for years and loved doing sheet metal with it. So I drag out the new MIG.....go to make my first sheetmetal tack........looks like Grand Canyon..............blew right through. Turned it all the way down with barely any wire feed.............all this to explain some of the very crappy welds that are shown.
I'm headed back down Sunday morning so hopefully there will be more progress to show

My fuel cell finally showed up. It fits the opening so well, I can hardly believe my luck.






While I should be happy about how things are turning out ( and I am ) This fuel cell has shown me what type individual I have become. Please allow me to explain. When I was at the point of ordering the new fuel cell, I drug out the Summit Racing and Jegs Catalogs. After looking and reading, I chose one the Jeg's units and placed my order. The fuel cell from jeg's was $289. Probably more than I wanted to spend but it was what I wanted...........And then my wife asked, " Did you check Amazon ? ". I had not so I jumped on Amazon and there it was, a very similar 16 gallon aluminum fuel cell with black powder coating for $140.00..........Amazon Prime, no shipping. I called Jegs to cancel my order. One of their inside sales people tried very hard to keep the order open but I insisted on a cancellation. One of the last things the salesman said was " Our fuel cell was made in America ". The company that made the unit for Amazon was a Cleveland Ohio based Company so I thought nothing of it. When the new fuel cell showed up, I picked up the box and carried it to my car. There on the bottom of the box........... " Made In China ".
I am so upset with myself about this entire transaction. I know I would have spent the extra money for the American made product had I known. From this point forward, price of product will become second to the country of origin. Made in the USA was always important. It should remain important.

If anyone reading this is an out of work aluminum welder, Please accept my apology and know that from this point forward, I will buy American Made products when available

Hey thanks for that consideration. I am not an aluminum welder but I work at an aluminum foundry. (Arconic, formerly Alcoa). It is amazing how much goes into just making a sheet of aluminum.

Ed Stevenson

now that the pieces are all in place, I can begin putting stuff back into the car. The front air intake shape has been on my mind. I have decided to have a blade shaped bottom on the front. Here is the beginning





I'm not too concerned about the wavy panel coming off the bottom of the bar. I will be adding another panel off the top of the bar and connecting to the bottom panel. I will be using some round tubing for both panels to attach to..............at least that is the plan

more to follow

The plan sort of works...............I used some .080 wall 3/8 tubing for the radiator attachment at the top............I figured it would work from the bottom pan on the air intake. After cutting a correct length piece of tubing and clamping the whole mess together, I tacked the bottom piece of metal to the tubing. Using the same template as the bottom piece of metal, I cut the piece to become the top. I got it all clamped in place on the tubing and started tack welding. As much as I love my new welder, it is one hot burning unit. I knew this was going to be a ground weld finished looking piece...........my welder ( or my welding ) added extra metal to be sacrificed.



I still need to finish grinding and shaping the leading edge. I am pretty pleased with the overall strength of the bottom lip / radiator support. There is still another piece to be made for on top of the radiator support. It will be a small piece that is right angle..........probably .125 wall. This will support the 5/8 ball clip on seal that will stop the radiator from impacting the cross member. There is padding on the mount that the radiator sits on.

I guess the other thing is this bottom lip allows me to put a small Camaro style spoiler under the front. I am thinking some small mesh expanded metal to cover the opening.............painted body color or black

more to follow

Bottom air exit , good choice you will be pleased with it.
What size is your fuel cell?


Sent from my iPad using Corvair Forum mobile app

fuel cell is a 16 gallon unit that I bought off Amazon for $140. Jegs has an American made unit....16 gallons $289.........should have bought the Jegs unit

I got the mounting bracket for the fuel cell done.........almost..........today.



It is still not welded to the frame. I need to level out the bracket. I moved the fuel cell a little more to the passengers side of the car. That gives me plenty of room to run the radiator hoses up to the radiator on the driver's side.

With the fuel cell in place, it looks a lot like this



There is going to be a few day delay in any more information. Thursday morning, I am heading out for Bowling Green KY for the Performance Corvair Group meeting / bullshit session............it should be fun. I am looking forward to it

More to follow next week. Stuff should start happening much faster

Best laid plans..........I don't think so.

I have started to think through all the other work that has to be done before I can mount the fuel cell bracket. I still to run my water lines, along with brake lines in the front and back for that matter......fuel lines etc. I raised the car up another foot off the ground and got to work. I have the tunnel cover off, the fuel lines out and started looking at my water lines.........and to move some things I wont be using, I had to move other things out of the way.................WHAT A MESS



On the bright side, I did figure out how to cover the front of the doghouse..................it is going to be cool


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