My 1st Vair - 1965 Corsa 140-4 hardtop

[County98]

Nice work for sure. The metalwork under the windows is out of my league, but I'm afraid I' might have to give it a try.

[viewmaster]

Unfortunately...every Corvair owner has to deal with the windshield sil area, in one way or another. Thats the nature of the engineering of these wonderful headaches of ours.

-m

[SteveH]

Updates from this weekend.

This weekend I spent my time mostly on the drivers quarter panel.

It has a rotted out lower and some clever monkey dropped a 2x6 across the top edge leaving a beautiful flat where the crease should be.

(this pic is the only shot i got of it "as bought" it is a zoom in from the other side.

here is a pic about 1/2 way through lifting the metal

her it is at about 95% - I can do the rest with a skim of bondo, but that is not the point.......

after smoothing and a quick shot of primer

Then I stripped the rest of the quarter. I found 2 dents under bondo, one large "ding" that was so easy to literally pus h out from the inside I have no idea why the took the effort to bondo it smooth instead.

the rockers are solid and the corner rot is minimal in front of the wheel

not so much behind the wheel

The roof is cleaning up real nice and smooth

last shot, right side engine bay is cleaned and coated!

[viewmaster]

not so much behind the wheel

20150822_171044.jpg

Thats typical from battery corrosion over the years...but you already knew that.

Looking Good...

-m

[SteveH]

Actually, I diod not know that. It makes perfect sense though. Thanks

Here is the left side. above the rot. not bad actually. The plan is to wire wheel this area clean and then paint it Saturday.

[viewmaster]

If you are gonna wire wheel that...WEAR A RESPIRATOR!!!!!!! Dont breathe that crap!!!

[SteveH]

Seriously... I do not wire ANYTHING without a respirator... I'd rather not even inhale the old dirt, let alone the rust, paint, grease, battery acid, etc....

[SteveH]

These parts were at the bottom of the pile... Any ideas?

[cad-kid]

Center piece with strip is a muffler heat shield.

[SteveH]

thanks! It's labeled now. one down....

[SteveH]

this weekend I discovered the joy that is electrical rust removal.

Car battery charger
5 gal bucket
piece of scrap steel for the anode
rusty parts
30 minutes

= Part clean

[cad-kid]

Cool, I really got to try this one of these days.

[SteveH]

This is just like having Laser surgery on my eyes, my biggest complaint is that I waited so long to try it....

It really was just as easy as can be.
When I think of all of the parts that I wire wheeled by hand......

My car came with its original scissor jack but it was a solid immobile chunk. it works great now. I shot a coat of paint on it last night, just because I was so happy that it works now.

[bbodie52]

...My car came with its original scissor jack but it was a solid immobile chunk. it works great now. I shot a coat of paint on it last night, just because I was so happy that it works now.

Your mention of an ancient scissors jack brought forth a shudder, as I remembered the last time I used an original Corvair scissors jack in the early 1980's. A failed rear axle bearing in my 1965 Corsa coupe during a cross-country journey in 1981 brought about a potentially fatal experience while passing through Cheyenne, Wyoming. Although I've told this story on the Corvair Forum before, I thought that you might enjoy hearing it. If you will bear with me for a few paragraphs...

A failed rear axle bearing was the only breakdown event where I've ever been stranded with one of my Corvairs while on a long journey. My family was with me as we were traveling from Thousand Oaks, California to Incline Village, Nevada — Lake Tahoe (573 miles), and then on to a shipping port in New Jersey, near McGuire AFB. We were shipping our 1965 Corsa coupe to Germany, to drive there during our three-year tour of duty with the Air Force near Ramstein Air Base.

My wife and two young sons (ages 5 and almost 3) were with me in September 1981. The journey was uneventful as we drove across a lot of barren and desolate country from Lake Tahoe, across Nevada, past the Bonneville Salt Flats, and spent the night in Salt Lake City, Utah (551 miles). The next day we traveled on to F.E. Warren Air Force Base, at Cheyenne, Wyoming (436 miles). Upon our arrival, we found overnight family quarters available on base. We were leaving the base to get a meal when I heard it: a squeaking, grinding sound from the right rear wheel! The wheel bearing was failing!! In something of a growing state of panic, I grabbed a phone book and began calling local auto junk yards in the late afternoon. Believe it or not I found a junk yard where the person on the phone thought he had a late model Corvair back in the yard somewhere. Leaving my family in the transient family quarters, I grabbed a taxi to the junk yard, and anxiously followed the manager out to the Corvair. It was a stripped vehicle with no powertrain and no wheels, sitting with the body on the ground. The right side was up against an adjacent junked car. The left rear wheel bearing assembly had already been removed, but I could see that the right-side bearing assembly was still in there! I couldn't reach it, but I could see it!

The manager loaned me some tools and a flashlight (it was getting dark, and the salvage yard was closing). I jacked the body up off of the ground using a bumper jack jammed into the body opening — where the engine normally exhausted heat. With the rear up in the air, I pushed the car to the left so that it fell back on the ground — but this time a foot or so from the adjacent wrecked car. Another turn with the bumper jack produced another foot of clearance for me to work in. The bearing hub seemed to turn smoothly, so I assumed that I had a good one!! I grabbed a socket wrench and an extension and removed three of the four nuts that secured the bearing assembly to the rear suspension. But then... DISASTER! The fourth nut was not coming off! It just kept turning while the blind stud that was not supposed to move was turning! I ended up working into the evening darkness with a flashlight, chisel and hammer, desperately trying to chisel the nut to release the bearing assembly from the stud that did not want to let go. The manager of the junk yard was waiting long past closing on a Saturday night as I labored to get the bearing assembly from the junked Corvair. Finally the nut split and I was able to remove it and the bearing assembly. I paid the manager and he agreed to drive me back to the Air Force base, where I went to sleep — cold, tired and dirty. I don't believe anyone in the family ever had any dinner that evening — we just went to bed tired and hungry.

But there is more to this story! On a cold Wyoming Sunday morning I went out to the parking lot and jacked the right rear of the Corvair into the air using the old scissors jack that came with the car. I had no jack stands to hold the car in the air, so I just decided to risk working on the car with only a 16 year old factory scissors jack holding the car up. The scissors jack worm screw squeaked as I raised the car, but I ignored it. I removed the wheel, half shaft, and worked to remove the bad wheel bearing assembly and brake backing plate. It was cold and the work went slowly because my fingers didn't work well in the cold. I was laying at times under the engine with nothing holding the car up except that jack. The right wheel and brake assembly was sitting on the pavement. Finally, after some hours in the cold I finished re-installing the "new" bearing assembly.

With the rear wheel and tire back on, I began to lower the jack. I gave it about ¼ turn counter-clockwise, heard another squeak, AND THE JACK COLLAPSED!! The threads in the fixed nut that held the worm screw mechanism pulled right out of the nut!

My life had quite literally been hanging by a thread! If that jack had collapsed with me under the car, I would probably have been crushed by the heavy engine and powertrain. For much of the time when I was under the car, removing and re-attaching the half shaft between the differential and the bearing assembly, I was laying under the car with only a brake drum and my body there to support the car when it would have hit the ground.

After I quit shaking, I examined the broken jack. The worm screw moved freely back and forth through the now-stripped fixed nut, with no threads in the nut to prevent its movement. The scissors mechanism moved freely up and down.

There was an opened dumpster some distance away, and I hurled the broken jack into that dumpster — never to be seen again. I cleaned up, packed up, and we began travelling the remaining 1,743 miles to McGuire AFB, New Jersey. (I did stop at a Sears to pick up a replacement jack for the car, and I also managed to get two speeding tickets in Iowa on the next day! But otherwise there were no more significant events during our journey).

Now you can see why I stress safety when working on a car, and I ALWAYS secure the car with jack stands before I work under it! I was foolish that day, working unsafely out of necessity. Obviously, the risk was not worth it.

I had another bearing fail on my 1965 Convertible in the middle of winter when I was stationed near Ramstein Air Base, near Kaiserslautern, Germany (1980-1983).

In that case there was no possibility of obtaining a replacement in an auto junk yard, so I had my father ship a used assembly and brake backing plate through the U.S. Postal Service, and the car had to remain parked at Kapaun Air Station for a couple of weeks while I waited for the part.

As previously mentioned, these rear bearing assemblies are difficult to service or check, are often neglected for decades, and can fail without warning. The entire assembly is not difficult to swap out (if you can get the replacement assembly). Finding one in a Cheyenne, Wyoming junk yard in 1981 was a possibility — although something of a long shot in 1981. In 2015 Corvairs are even more a rarity than they were in 1981, so carrying a serviceable used spare in the trunk might be a good idea on a long journey. Otherwise, a credit card and a phone call to Clark's might get a replacement to you via FedEx Overnight Delivery (at a high price) to get your Corvair back on the road after a couple of down days. Anyone who has driven through Nevada or past the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah has an idea of the long distances and the remote nature of the highways there. If you enjoy traveling long distances in a classic 50+ year old Corvair, the risks are a part of that lifestyle!

HOWEVER... never trust a jack to hold your car in the air while you work beneath it... PARTICULARLY A FIFTY YEAR OLD, FORMERLY RUST-ENCRUSTED SCISSORS JACK! Grease that worm drive well, and it may be OK, but use caution. The condition of the metal threads hidden within that fixed nut is uncertain, and possibly weakened over the years of use and decay with rust. Personally, I carry a new hydraulic bottle jack, a pair of wheel chocks, and a pair of jack stands with me in the trunk. I was 28 years old that year in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I've made it to age 62, and I'm lookin' forward to a few more!




I recommend a few safety items that can be useful if you have to work under the car or have a roadside breakdown at night. Here are a few examples...

Compact jack stands. Never trust only a scissors or hydraulic jack if you intend to crawl under the car. Also, unlike modern cars most Corvairs lack emergency flashers. Wheel chocks are a useful safety item that I first discovered bundled with my jack and lug wrench when I owned a Datsun 240Z. I always felt that was a thoughtful idea. Here are some examples...

Torin T43004 3 Ton Aluminum Jack Stands (Sold in Pairs)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007X ... PDKIKX0DER


Valterra A10-0908 Red Wheel Chock
http://www.amazon.com/Valterra-A10-0908 ... 654&sr=1-1


3 FlareAlert 9.1.1 LED Emergency Beacon Flares with Storage Bag
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LQ ... UTF8&psc=1

[SteveH]

LOLOLOL... Great story, thanks. I would only use the scissor jack if I had NO other choice, and no, I would not willingly get under the car held up by one alone. hehe

I was happy because that means that the car is that much more "complete". Although it is interesting, the jack handle does nto have a hole in it for the stud with wingnut.... odd

I appreciate the leads, but I already have 4 HD jack stands. I only use solid rubber chocks. My past experience rebuilding cars was all on big old heavy 60's Mopars and my 90 Jeeps. I ONLY use a floor jack and jack stands.

[SteveH]

I have a question that I hope some folks here can help with:

I now have three shifters, all corvair, all different. Can anyone help ID what they go to?

This came as an extra in my car

I just got this free with the shifter ball I actually wanted
(the one in my Corsa looks like this but has flat sides.

Also, I just got a cool deal on these, unfortunately, when they arrived i read the sticker which says "Corvair Underground - U-2758 for NON-140 cars"

So, these are for 110's and 95's that want dual exhaust? drat... I assume that they are smaller in diameter that the 140's?