First Corvair, a '60 Coupe, Piecing it together.
Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 3:48 pm
My first Corvair, that is.
Time to get this thing on the hump!
Started with the driver's 'floor'. I'm going one at a time to keep some semblance of order. Cut away the bad-news parts and and chiseled away the material from the existing floor supports/frame spars which were in decent shape.
Kinda hard to make out what's what here, but floor gone and that's some cardboard on the ground beneath the vehicle.
I should take a moment to point out one great thing about Corvairs- the control cables, throttle linkage, fuel line and such that run through the tunnel on VWs and are accessible only with can openers and Dynamite are easy to get to thanks to a couple access panels below and one above. Everything just hangs out waiting to be easily fixed. Way to go, Mister Corvair! Also, no throttle cable but instead aluminum tubing with a bellcrank. Kinda neat. But boy, was that accelerator pedal rusted stuck...yeesh. Real mess.
The new floor panel fitted, holes drilled to plug-weld to the floor supports and the surrounding decent floor metal. Maytag, nice and thick from an old machine. NEVER THROW AWAY ANYTHING- that is my motto. This is approximately a 1 1/2 washing-machine floor repair, or one fridge. A coupla sheetmetal screws to hold 'er in place and to suck the sheet down to the floor supports which are later removed and welded up.
I considered rolling a few beads in it but honestly there is only a small unsupported portion and with so many nice hammer dents it's pretty doggone stiff anyway.
Weld, hammer, weld, hammer, make everything fit, you know the drill. Man, I am not a very talented welder, like, AT ALL.
It's far from pretty but it's solid and sound. One down, three to go. The weather is about to take a turn for the crappy for the better part of this week so I'll not be cutting/beating/welding in favor of rebuilding the carburetors.
One-Eyeless In Gaza. Had to gouge out one of its peepers to get into the trunk.
I believe I will 86 the front Chevy doo-dad- it makes the vehicle look like it has a small self-satisfied smirk and I can't have that, so will probably weld up those holes.
That is all for now.
Time to get this thing on the hump!
Started with the driver's 'floor'. I'm going one at a time to keep some semblance of order. Cut away the bad-news parts and and chiseled away the material from the existing floor supports/frame spars which were in decent shape.
Kinda hard to make out what's what here, but floor gone and that's some cardboard on the ground beneath the vehicle.
I should take a moment to point out one great thing about Corvairs- the control cables, throttle linkage, fuel line and such that run through the tunnel on VWs and are accessible only with can openers and Dynamite are easy to get to thanks to a couple access panels below and one above. Everything just hangs out waiting to be easily fixed. Way to go, Mister Corvair! Also, no throttle cable but instead aluminum tubing with a bellcrank. Kinda neat. But boy, was that accelerator pedal rusted stuck...yeesh. Real mess.
The new floor panel fitted, holes drilled to plug-weld to the floor supports and the surrounding decent floor metal. Maytag, nice and thick from an old machine. NEVER THROW AWAY ANYTHING- that is my motto. This is approximately a 1 1/2 washing-machine floor repair, or one fridge. A coupla sheetmetal screws to hold 'er in place and to suck the sheet down to the floor supports which are later removed and welded up.
I considered rolling a few beads in it but honestly there is only a small unsupported portion and with so many nice hammer dents it's pretty doggone stiff anyway.
Weld, hammer, weld, hammer, make everything fit, you know the drill. Man, I am not a very talented welder, like, AT ALL.
It's far from pretty but it's solid and sound. One down, three to go. The weather is about to take a turn for the crappy for the better part of this week so I'll not be cutting/beating/welding in favor of rebuilding the carburetors.
One-Eyeless In Gaza. Had to gouge out one of its peepers to get into the trunk.
I believe I will 86 the front Chevy doo-dad- it makes the vehicle look like it has a small self-satisfied smirk and I can't have that, so will probably weld up those holes.
That is all for now.
