Keeping in Touch

“Sold the Corvair today. Thanks for all the help with questions we've had. The experience of owning it was one I won't forget.” I received this text from one of the guys that bought Lucy from me about a year ago. Out of the seven Corvairs I’ve sold to other people, I’ve only been contacted after the fact by three of them. Wilma’s buyer and I met up at the 2012 Corvair convention; YellowVert came by and bought some seats from me about a year after buying the car, and Lucy’s buyers texted me a handful of times asking for help with a few easy issues. When I sold Heidi, I was given the new owner’s name and address. I really should get in contact with her and see how things are going. Other than Heidi, I’m fine not knowing the current status of any of the other ‘vairs that have passed through the fleet.

Twenty-five days until the NECC time trial event at NJMP. While there are four weekends within that span, two are already booked. That leaves me quite the challenge to get Glinda To-Do list whittled down to nothing. Here’s what’s left.

Play musical cars with Glinda ending up in the garage on jackstands
Get the flywheel/pressure plate assembly balanced at House of Balance
Get the leaking front tire fixed
Fix the busted gas gauge (I’m hoping it’s just a short)
Drop the drivetrain
Swap PG/differential for 4-speed/diff including new pilot and throw-out bearings
Swap the clutch and shifter linkage parts including the new tunnel pivot
Reinstall the drivetrain and top off the fluids
Adjust and install the racing carb with the new linkage
Swap the bench seat out for the racing seat
Install the racing harness
Get a helmet

I estimated I’ve still got at least 25 hours left of work. An hour a day. That’s not asking too much, is it?

There is an issue with devoting time to cars, and it’s illustrated by the photo to the left. This void in one of our bathrooms was recently created by yanking out the tub. There's a similar void where the sink and vanity used to reside. By the end of this weekend, radiator and toilet removal will add a third and fourth void. These voids in my house will certainly cause voids in the spare time I have to work on a car.

And Then There Were Four

That’s right, Heidi has been sold. I closed the deal last evening and then fought back the tears as she was driven away. There are a lot of memories tied up in that car. Most good; a few not so good. Fortunately, my blogging has created a written history of the last eleven years and Heidi’s impact on our family – especially Brianna and me.

To quote from my blog, milestones included:


4/13/02: Trailered the car to our house. What a job getting it onto the trailer.
10/28/02: We hooked a battery up and tried to turn the engine with the starter. Only clicks, no motion.
5/15/04: The car finally got moved to its new home in Baltimore, MD
10/31/04: Paint stripping complete.
7/10/05: Sprayed three coats of paint (Glacier Gray).

10/2/05: Work completed included installation of the new top.
10/9/05: Spent Saturday taking the drivetrain out of his '63 Corvair sedan and Sunday putting it into the car. By Sunday night I was able to drive it out of the garage.
11/27/05: Everything checked out, so back to school Brianna went, but this time driving her Corvair.
5/19/07: It's been a while, and the Corvair's been, for the most part, behaving. Today, we drove it to the local Corvair club's tech session. While there, some Corvair-savvy guys did a compression check and found that one of the cylinders was way down on pressure.
6/5/07: As Brianna was driving down Rt. 40 a tree fell onto the road. The car in the next lane ran into her.

7/14/07: Engine overhaul’s finally complete and the Corvair got put back on the road.
9/14/07: Still going through oil like crazy. Found a guy willing to give him a '64 4-door that runs.
10/12/07: Pulled the drivetrains out of both cars and put the replacement into the car before calling it a day.
5/12/08: Installed the differential and transmission and raised the rebuilt drivetrain into place.
8/16/08: A summer of reliable, fun driving - at least a couple thousand miles worth.
7/28/09: Four hours from Baltimore, Heidi started running very poorly. It was making putt, putt noises and has no power. Hitched Heidi up to the Suburban, and, after a stop at the gas station to wash up and fill up, was back on the road by 10 PM. Another four hours of driving and he was home.
8/3/09: Discovered that the end of one valve stem was damaged by the rocker arm running askew. Irrr.
8/13/09: After 5+ hours on Monday evening and another hour on Tuesday, I had the engine back together enough start her up.
7/26/10: After hours and hours of prep including welding, Bondo’ing, priming, and sanding Heidi was ready for paint yesterday evening…I mixed up the first batch of metallic silver and poured it through a filter and into the gun’s reservoir….With four coats of color applied, I moved on to the clearcoat.

8/3/10: Brianna thoughtfully waited until I was home before going out to the garage to gaze upon her transformed Heidi. With Loriann’s hands covering her eyes, she walked into the garage. Her reaction, once she saw the car, was suitably appreciative and complimentary. We all agreed that, now in her proper silver with original red interior, Heidi fulfills her German name.
9/17/11: Brianna asked me if I’d be willing to take Heidi back to Baltimore for the winter.
11/9/11: I was driving home from dealing with Glinda, I glanced into Heidi’s sideview mirror and noticed it was vigorously shaking. I rolled down the window and grabbed the mirror only to have it come completely loose from its mounting. Thanking God I caught it in time.
4/20/12: I popped open Heidi’s engine lid and discovered one of the spark plug leads had come off the distributor cap. I poked it back into place, started up her engine, and was rewarded with the smooth idle I so love.
4/9/13: I just got the word from Brianna that she doesn’t foresee a scenario where she and Nich will live close enough to us that they’d be comfortable using Heidi as a daily-driver. It was a hard and sad decision for her, but she texted me, “it’s time for me to sell her to someone who will appreciate her.”

She’s Gone

Another appropriate title to this post would be, “I Could’ve Sold Her Twice”. Last Thursday I received a message on the CorvairCenter forum from a prospective Lucy buyer. He was responding to my post about which car I should bring to Sunday’s Corvair Ranch Open House. While he would not be able to attend the event, he told me he was “98% sure” he wanted the car.

Late that same day, my phone vibrated with a text message from a VA area code asking me if there were “any known problems on the red corvair.” I didn’t see the text until the next morning, but I immediately responded with a long message that basically told the interested party that she was good-to-go, with the only rust-though being a couple areas under the trunk lid. After a few back-and-forths, the sender asked for my address and told me he and his buddy would be at my house in two hours. True to his word (amazingly), two younger guys pulled up at my curb as promised and began giving Lucy a thorough inspection. I let them look a while before I moseyed on down the driveway and said hello. They were real excited about what they saw (thank You Lord) and Lucy luckily fired right up and they took her for a test drive. They were gone a while (got slightly lost), but once they returned, they asked what my lowest price was. $2300 was what I told them and $2300 was exactly what they were hoping for. SOLD! Now I can pay Victoria for Glinda and begin in earnest the work to trackify (see sidebar) that car (more on this later).

It took a while to gather all the stuff that was included (lug wrench, extra lug nuts, spare fanbelt, chrome trim, Monza badges, etc.), but I was finally able to let them go. With their departure, I could sit down with the family for dinner, and they asked me how I was doing. “There’s a small hole in my heart,” I joked. After dinner I checked my e-mail, and found another message from the first prospective buyer. “My wife thinks it would be a fine 50th b-day present…we’ll work out a deal.” I felt so bad having to tell this guy I’d just sold his birthday present. Fortunately, he took the news quite well, responding with a, “It wasn’t meant to be.” During this time, I was working on Heidi trying to get rid of the two bubbled paint spots above the rear wheel arches. I carefully wire brushed the bubbles away and used my new spot sandblaster to remove all the rust. This was followed by a generous application of rusty metal primer to keep any future corrosion at bay. Friday night I applied a few layers of filler and let it fully cure until the next morning when I sanded the repairs smooth, cleaned the areas, and then used my new airbrush to shoot a bunch of light layers of urethane primer. I was trying to get the repairs done in time to take her to the aforementioned open house, but a b-day dinner for the lovely Loriann took precedence over that plan, and the final painting and clear-coating didn’t occur until yesterday afternoon. It was so nice not having to match the paint since I had quite a bit of the silver left over. The finished product turned out pretty good if I say so myself. A little sanding once the clearcoat is fully cured and it will be difficult (I hope) to see the repairs.
 

Regarding the trackification of Glinda, my priorities are making sure her suspension is up to snuff and that includes cutting a coil out of each front spring, installing new shocks at least on the front, swapping in the quick-steer arms I bought from my ‘vair-buddy Jonathan a few years ago, and getting a good four-wheel alignment. I really, really want to do a 4-speed swap, but I’m not sure I’m going to have the time (or funds). I was hoping to pull the needed parts from a carcass up at the Corvair Ranch, but my last conversation with Jeff indicated he wasn’t too hopeful that he had a prospective donor. Bummer. If worse comes to worst, I can drive her on the track as an automatic, but it won’t be nearly as fun. I was thinking I’d need to buy wheels (?) and new tires (???) since the current 185/80-13s are not track-worthy, but it occurred to me that Luna is just sitting in the portable garage on four very nice tires. I’m sure Victoria won’t mind if I take a millimeter or two of tread off of each one. I’ll be relying on the stock lap and shoulder belts to keep me in place during this summer’s convention track day and autocross. Getting her carbs modified with relocated jets and a good tune-up will, I’m sure, take up the couple months I have until Gingerman Raceway event.

So Close….

You know the rest. The prospective buyer for Lucy was all set to come down to Baltimore this Saturday, but then Monday I got an e-mail from him telling me was going to pass on her. Then, the prospective buyer for Heidi was all set to come up to Baltimore at lunch today, but then I got an e-mail form him telling me he’d just bought another ’64 that was for sale nearer to his home and was a color scheme his wife really loved. So, there you go. Still so very far from selling the two Corvairs I’ve currently got on the market.

With the rejections fresh in my mind, I pulled Glinda up onto the front lawn yesterday evening and shot a series of photos that I’ll use in the ads I’ll put up to try and sell her.

I really don’t want to lower the price for Heidi. I feel I’ve got her priced fairly (with a little negotiating room), and I know Brianna could really use as much money from her sale as possible. As a fellow Corvair hoarder answered, when I asked him how much for his rusted ’64 coupe, “Make me an offer, but I’m not giving it away.”

Lowlights

I haven’t been inspired to write much lately since my Corvair experiences have been rather negative. Here are the high(low)lights. I’ve had at least four different people make appointments to come and look at Lucy or Heidi, and only one has actually showed up.

I’ve had one person tell me over the phone that he would buy both for $6600 and that he was on his way to bank at that moment to get the money and he would be at my house that evening at 5:30 to buy both Lucy and Heidi. He never showed and he never contacted me again.

A guy called me on my way home from work and asked to see the cars right then. I accommodated him, and he proceeded to tell me all the things that were wrong with each car and then offered me about 60% of what I was asking. In other words, he wanted to see if he could something for basically nothing.

The one guy that kept his appointment had sent me a very positive “I will buy your car once mine sells” e-mail followed a couple months later by an “I’ve sold my car and I’ll be in Baltimore Saturday” e-mail, so I was rather hopeful he’d come through with a reasonable offer. Instead, he showed up late, wanted to chat even though he knew he was keeping me from a dinner party, and then went on to say he wasn’t interested in Lucy. This was after I'd spent an hour digging out all the parts I was including with the sale since he’d told me over the phone he wanted everything.

I’ve had a guy stop me from working on the lovely Loriann’s car so he could talk my ear off about how awesome Lucy was, take her for a test drive, come back and tell me again how awesome the car was, and then promise me either he or his brother would DEFINITELY buy the car AND I’d hear from one of them THAT evening. Nothing!

Then, courtesy of two parking tickets (Heidi and Lucy), I learned of Baltimore's 48-hour parking limit. It seems I can't park a car in the same place on a city street for longer than 2 days. So, now I have the pleasure of rolling cars around since I want to keep the two that are for sale out there on the street for any prospective buyer to spy.

The truck was finally put into service as a tow vehicle when, last Friday, I got the call from Ariel that she’d smelled smoke coming from the engine compartment and immediately pulled over onto the side of I-97. When I got to her, I discovered the alternator bearings had failed. Fortunately, I had a spare, that I pulled it apart, greased the bearing I could get to, reassembled and swapped in place of the failed one. Also, fortunately, the spare worked electrically so Ringo was roadworthy again that evening.

Last Saturday, I washed both Heidi's and Lucy's engine compartments. Somehow, unbeknownst to me, I managed to knock loose one the right side carb linkage from the throttle assembly, so when I took her out on the road that evening, she was significantly down on power. Fortunately, I was able to find the issue, locate the clip that had fallen off, and put everything right again.

Clean Cars

Sunday, after church, I launched into cleaning Heidi. I think it’s the cleanest this car’s been since I repainted it. Once I was done washing both inside and out, I Armoralled the top and the vinyl and repaired the crack in the dash pad. I then drove her onto the front lawn and took some photos which I’ve posted on Flickr.

Next, I installed Glinda’s new speedometer cable and thoroughly washed her inside and out followed by a generous application of Armorall and a thorough cleaning of the windows. I ended the day by reinstalling the stainless trim around her windshield and backlight. Once we have good weather again, I’ll take photos.

Last night I noticed, as Ariel was pulling up in front of the house, that Ringo’s right rear brakelight was out. Fortunately, I discovered the not-quite-connected connector before I tore into the light housing. Love those easy fixes that, sadly, are few and far between. Next, I got out the adhesive caulk and tried to affix the bottom corners of Glinda’s backlight stainless trim. The clips aren’t close enough and those corners just flap in the breeze. After putting copious amounts of caulk in the joint, I strategically placed bricks on top of rags on top of the trim to hold it down while the caulk cures. I’ll check out whether I was successful or not tonight.

I’ve had a few responses to Heidi’s Craigslist ad, but they’ve been the typical kind (i.e. someone calls and sets up an appointment and then cancels 2 hours before, someone calls and sets up an appointment and then never shows, someone calls and you quickly find they don’t have a clue and this is not the car for them). Waste of time.

Oh Yeah

With all the For Sale excitement, I forgot that I spent an hour or so working on Corvairs yesterday. In preparation for Ariel taking over the reins of Ringo again, I tightened up the steering box, adjusted the brake pedal height, tightened the sunvisor retaining screw, tried getting the heater control to fully shut off the warm air (failed), checked the fluid levels and fanbelt tension.

Then, I fired up Heidi and let her idle and warm up in the driveway before checking the transmission fluid level (still above Add).

Finally, I unburied Luna with the hopes of starting her up. I checked for fuel in the tank by sticking a hose through the filler tube. When that came up dry it was time to call it an evening.

Big Changes Afoot

I’ve had enough! The herd must be thinned! All non-essential Corvairs are to be sold! Headline it as you want, the bottom line is I’m selling at least two Corvairs.

I just got the word from Brianna that she doesn’t foresee a scenario where she and Nich will live close enough to us that they’d be comfortable using Heidi as a daily-driver. It was a hard and sad decision for her, but she texted me, “it’s time for me to sell her to someone who will appreciate her.” So, Heidi gets a good cleaning this evening and a For Sale sign put in her window and she’ll be my daily-driver until she’s sold.

Then, I just dropped Lucy’s asking price on Craigslist to $2950 in hopes of generating some interest.

Then, I got the green light from Victoria to sell Glinda.

Then, Ariel is about to set off on the adventure of buying her first car. Once it’s purchased, I’ll be asking her if it’s okay if I sell Ringo. I won’t be pressuring her, but my thought is she’ll never drive him once she’s enjoyed the comforts, both physical and mental, of driving a modern, reliable vehicle.

If they actually all sell, that would leave a dramatically smaller fleet of two - Luna and TwoTone. What am I going to drive if they all sell? I’ve got a really nice Silverado. What about track days? They’d be over for the foreseeable future. Would that make me sad? Sure, but I’ve got higher priorities in my life right now.

I’ve Been Remiss

My apologies for not doing a better job of updating the current status of the fleet. Let’s go down the list alphabetically.

Glinda: When last I posted on her, she’d just been given a replacement speedometer cable and I pronounced the project to be, “Job done.” Well, I blogged too soon. My first drive after the install showed I hadn’t fixed the problem. Last night I pulled the driven end of the cable from behind the right front wheel and discovered it was missing the squared off termination that mates snugly with the receptacle inside the grease cup. Oh well, it was a freebie. This morning I ordered a GNP from Clark’s.

Heidi: She’s at the ready and with some eighty degree days in this week’s forecast, she will become a daily-driver once again.

Lucy: I drove her a couple times last week, and noticed a faint fuel smell. I tightened the fittings around the fuel pump and drove her yesterday. There’s still some fluid around the fuel pump, but I’m now thinking it’s a slow leak in the oil pressure switch. Irrr. I’ve still got a few improvements I’d like to make to her including installing the three-speed shifter housing. Oh well, just takes time.

Luna: Victoria is telling her clients she will not be working weekends, so, hopefully, this will allow her to spend some time on her convertible. The new top is just lying on top of the frame patiently waiting for us to staple it in place – if only it was that easy. There are also plenty of other issues she needs attending to (see sidebar).

Ringo: I’ve been putting the miles on the only male-named vehicle in the fleet while Ariel does her long-distance commuting in a reliable rental car. So far, he’s performed flawlessly. TYL. Ariel is supposed to turn the rental in tomorrow, so I’d like to tighten the steering and the fanbelt before giving his key back to her. This evening should provide an opportunity.

TwoTone: Yesterday was a busy day for the newest member of our fleet. After Mikhaila tirelessly helped me clean the floor of the garage, we pushed her (the car, not Mikhaila) into place under the lights in preparation for actually starting to do some work. I’m figuring that with the nicer weather, I can deal with the day-to-day maintenance of daily-drivers out in the driveway while TwoTone sits on jackstands in the garage. Hopefully a rainy spring doesn’t dampen my plans (pun intended). I was finally able to synch up with TwoTone’s previous owner and get the front clip that we’ll use to replace TwoTone’s smushed nose. Not sure where I’m going to store the front eigth of an EM, but I’ll find somewhere safe.

The Fleet’s in the Red

When there are more of this family’s Corvairs that are undrivable rather than drivable, the fleet’s in the red. Currently, the score is: six with usability issues and only Heidi being roadworthy.

While the numbers will be helped when Wilma goes away tomorrow, Glinda has exhaust issues (the CO detector went off last night), Ringo needs his starter replaced, Luna needs a top, Lucy needs a floor, and TwoTone needs everything.

This evening I’ll get started by making sure Wilma’s ready to go and moved out of the portable garage. Then I’ll move cars around so I have access to the garage. That will include putting Luna in the portable garage to spend the winter with TwoTone temporarily taking her place in the driveway.

Finally, with the garage heaters on high, I’ll start tipping the scales by dealing with Ringo. By the end of the weekend, I plan on Glinda being back on the road and maybe even a floor and speedometer cable installed in Lucy.

As mentioned in a previous post, I’m leaning towards converting Glinda’s transmission from an automatic to a manual. I found a list of all the parts that are necessary to accomplish this. While most of the parts will be coming from a car at the Corvair Ranch (probably the ’66 Corsa I hauled up there a couple months back), I do need a late LM brake/clutch pedal assembly. For 1967 and beyond, Chevy used a larger, collapsible steering column which necessitated redesigning the clutch pedal shaft. Today, with the help of the CorvairCenter forum, I agreed to purchase the unique assembly from a guy out west that just parted out a ’67. Looks like Glinda will stay part of the fleet.

Too Busy to Blog

When last I posted the lovely Loriann’s daily-driver was out of commission and the wobble-fronted Suburban had been pressed into service as her mode of transportation. That’s been resolved. The Cruiser is back on the road with a new timing belt, water pump, tensioner, and idler and the Suburban is now my daily-driver instead of Heidi.

With the Cruiser work completed, Lucy’s back in the garage awaiting floor patches. I’ve been familiarizing myself with my new MIG welder. One of the jobs I used it for was repairing my drill press’s table. I’d broken it when I was using it as a press for assembling Ringo’s Powerglide transmission. Cast iron, which the table is, does not like to be welded, so I’ll need to take it easy on the table – no more using it as a press.

Here’s the latest from the rest of the fleet.

Heidi – Other than the defroster cable recently breaking, she’s behaving admirably.

Ringo – Broke a fan belt on Ariel’s drive home from work last night. Fortunately, she was nearing the house at the time, so it was a short drive to get to the car and swap in a replacement. I still need to keep a closer watch on that engine’s propensity to eat belts.

Luna – Started right up when it was time to park her in the garage during hurricane Sandy’s visit to our neighborhood. She behaved once again when it was time to move her back into the driveway. She’s now got two layers of tarp tied tightly over her. This will have to do until Lucy leaves the garage.

Glinda – Has developed a new noise emanating from the engine area. I think it’s developing an exhaust leak, but I can’t pinpoint the origin. I asked Victoria to make sure her CO detector was properly functioning and to let me know if the sound’s intensity increases. The only other attention she demanded was tweaking the left rear taillight/brakelight socket to fix an intermittent illumination of the taillight bulb. Victoria and I have been tracking Glinda’s fuel mileage. Lately, she’s been averaging around 18 mpg – a large improvement from 13 she was getting a few months back. I think the big difference-maker was the rebuilt distributor.

Wilma – Prior to hurricane Sandy’s arrival, I moved the portable garage back against the inoperative door of my permanent garage and anchored down the four corners. Additionally, I tied the frame to Wilma’s front bumper in hopes that everything would still be there the morning after. Thankfully, we fared much better than all the dire warnings had said we would. Wilma stayed dry.

YellowVert – It looks like she’ll be heading to her new home in Delaware tomorrow morning. I struck a deal with a guy who hopes to restore her. I’m relieved that I didn’t have to scrap her since ridding her of her rusty portions doesn’t appear to be that daunting an effort. I’m still left with the bright blue interior that I’ll peddle online.

An Exhausting Weekend

First, a status on the eBaying of some of Phil's parts: it didn't happen.I decided I’d try a couple other avenues before dealing with eBay. I gave the CorvairCenter Forum folks first crack at the wire wheel covers and 140 4-barrel carb intake setup. The wheelcover post got not responses, but I did sell the intake setup. The wheelcovers were then put up on Craigslist and the only response I’ve gotten so far was SPAM , so they’ll go up on eBay in the next day or two.

During the school year, Wednesday has always been a fleet night since the lovely Loriann and Mikhaila have their Girl Scout meeting. This year I’m getting an additional designated fleet night since the lovely Loriann’s new job as our church’s youth director means she’s occupied each Friday evening. So, last Friday night, I backed Ringo’s rear up onto the ramps and tackled the dreaded effort of replacing his muffler and tailpipe. With all exhaust projects, one must be prepared to replace every component because, as noted many times before, rust never rests and this axiom is never better illustrated than on the metal of mufflers and pipes carrying away the escaped byproducts of each engine explosion. Even though Ringo’s muffler had only been on a few months, I was ready to replace all components from the exhaust manifolds to the tailpipe.

Why, you may ask, am I removing a perfectly fine part – especially when the removal is rife with possible swearing opportunities? Well, when Ringo was ready to be put back on the road, I needed a muffler and the only GUP Jeff had in his Corvair Ranch stock was for a ’64 and newer Corvair. While it wasn’t correct for Ariel’s ’61 coupe, it could be used, so I played the cheapskate and bought and installed it. Since Heidi now needs her muffler replaced, I purchased a new EM muffler from Clark’s intending to swap Ringo’s onto Heidi and bolt the new one onto Ringo. That way each would then be sporting proper parts.

Back to last Friday – I first liberally applied penetrating fluid onto and around the nuts of the clamp at the exhaust pipe-muffler joint as well as the slip joint itself. After giving it a few minutes to magically do its thing, I torqued off the nuts and, by jiggling and twisting the muffler and finally beating on the end, I was amazingly able to remove the muffler. I then gave the exhaust gaskets (the ones between he manifolds and the pipe flanges) a close inspection and deemed them undamaged. The new muffler and tailpipe slid into place easily and the clamping of the two joints was anti-climactic. Ringo’s engine fired right up and settled into its subdued rumble with all the exhaust exiting only through the tailpipe – no leaks. TYL.

With his rear still raised, I used the rest of the evening to change his oil and filter. This overdue task should have been done a few hundred miles ago (a rebuilt engine should have it’s oil and filter replaced around 500 miles after putting it on the road). The oil drained from the crankcase appeared normal, so I’m gonna’ go with this being an indication my rebuilding job was acceptable to the engine gods.

The final task before rolling Ringo off the ramps was a slight tightening of the fanbelt. A quick, uneventful spin around the neighborhood and he was parked at the curb.

Heidi was then driven down the driveway and backed up the ramps for her portion of the muffler transplant. A quick review of the state of things indicated the exhaust gaskets would need replacing since the failed muffler had vibrated the end of the exhaust pipe and caused enough damage to the gaskets to render them useless. Since it was nearing 10:30 at night, I just squirted the penetrating fluid on the threads and joints that need it and called it a night.

It wasn’t until yesterday afternoon that I was able to get more car time. Completing the muffler transplant was priority one. It was far more difficult on this car than it was on Ringo since the muffler had been on the car since January of ’06. Once the hanger had been unbolted, the old muffler came right off, but left its mounting flange still at-one with the exhaust pipe. Next came the most remarkable part of the project – all four fasteners holding the pipe to the manifold came off without breaking. A huge TYL. Then, with the help of a cutoff wheel mounted on my die-grinder, I carefully cut a slit through just the remnant of the muffler flange and peeled it off the exhaust pipe. A few minutes at the wire wheel, and the exhaust pipe was ready to be reinstalled with new gaskets. On it went and the muffler that I’d removed from Ringo soon followed. After sliding in the tailpipe, I rotated the muffler and tailpipe to their proper position and installed the two clamps. The subsequent test run of the engine cause me to tighten the four flange fasteners at the exhaust manifolds until no pulsing jets of air were escaping.

With the car off the ramps, my next task was cleaning up and lubricating the pivot of the gas pedal. It had been sticking badly for the past week or so – to the point of being tricky to drive safely. After pulling the carpet back, I removed the screws holding the forward cover off and one of the two screws holding bushing support to the floor. The second screw refused to budge, so I ended up having to bend the support enough to break it at the resistant attachment point. Some scotchbrite removed rust and polished the rod. The bushing was cleared out with the appropriately sized drill bit. The joint was liberally greased and bolted back into place with the tunnel and carpet following suit. No more sticking!

With some more car-time left, I used the borrowed engine hoist and put the two competed engine assemblies on moving dollies I’d recently bought at Harbor Freight. This will make maneuvering them around the garage possible after I return the hoist to its owner.

The final bit of fleet-related news took place this afternoon when I added a couple tools to my arsenal. I bought a ginormous (at least to me) air tank that took two of us and a tractor to load it into the back of the Suburban. I’m going to plumb this in series with my current air supply system to bump up my reservoir capacity by two-hundred percent. While the seller was clearing a path from the corner of his pole barn to the door, he invited me to peruse the rest of the building’s contents since it was his intention to clear it out ASAP. I found an old welder and drill-press, but the item that caught my eye, and ended up coming home with me, was nice, beefy, USA-made grinder on its own stand. This purchase will allow me to dedicate polishing to my low-horsepower Harbor Freight unit.

Now I need to figure out how I’m going to get the beast of a tank out of the Suburban and into place. Thank goodness I still have Larry’s engine hoist because I don’t have a tractor.

Rust Never EVER Sleeps

Such an enlightening weekend, fleet-wise - as they usually are. It started Friday evening when I drove chuff-chuff-chuffing Lucy into the garage, opened her engine lid, and found that sparkplug #4 had been ejected from its threaded hole. Amongst all the possible failures I had imagined, this one was the best since I’ll be able to repair the failed hole with a KD insert using tools I’ll borrow from the Corvair go-to guy Gary. The only disassembly required is removing the left carburetor. TYL it wasn’t a dropped valve seat.

Since the night was young, the family was away, and I was in my grungies, I decided to find out how bad Lucy’s spongy floor really was. After removing the sill plates, I pulled back the carpet and found a LOT of ugliness. Needing to go farther, I removed the front seatbelts, all the seats, all the carpet, and the rear heater duct and it only got worse. I guess if one is into abstract art, like those photos of the earth from outer space, they would appreciate some level of beauty in the natural erosion of steel by the elements. I’m not that kind of person. Fortunately, the main support for the seats is still solid as are the rocker panels – a better scenario than I had with Ringo. I went to Clark’s website and they get over $100 for just the driver’s side, so it looks like I’ll be hacking up a hood again, just like I did for Ringo, to create floor patches. After cutting away the rot, I called it a night.

Sunday afternoon was my next opportunity to attend to the fleet. Mikhaila and I rolled YellowVert out into the sunshine for consideration. She’s still on the fence as to whether this LM convertible will be HER car or not. After taking a closer look Sunday, to say she was not enthused would be a vast understatement. She’s quite discouraged about the level of effort she perceives will be necessary to roadify this currently dilapidated looking vehicle. It didn’t help when, not knowing it had a power top, we unsuccessfully tried to manually lower the top. She's thinking there are better candidates out there. After further conversation with her mom, we’re tabling the decision for a little while.

In the meantime, I vacuumed about two gallons of acorns out of the engine compartment and interior of the car before pulling back the carpets to reveal that the tin worm had gorged himself on this car’s floors just as he’d done on Lucy’s. Fortunately, the doors are still centered in their openings and it appears that, structurally, the car is still sound. I vacuumed out all the rust flakes and, while it’s worse than Lucy in some places, other places are still quite solid. If we decide to keep this one, I will be forced to use Clark’s floor patches – there are some important features, like the gas pedal mounting, that I don’t have the skill (or desire) to fabricate.

The next step for this car is to remove the seats and evaluate their condition. If they are solid enough, I’ll sell the seats I pulled out of CorsaVert. If not, I’ll toss the bad seats and temporarily insert the better seats to get them out of the way. If we decide to sell this car, I want to make it as attractive a purchase as I can, and touting all the solid features will be important.

Speaking of features, I took the time to decode the body tags of Heidi and YellowVert. Here’s what I found:


Heidi

• Data (01C): Third week of January 1964
• Style (64-0967): 1964-Monza Convertible
• Body (WR13129): Willow Run - 13,129 Corvair for that year built there
• Trim (781-1): Medium red bucket seats w/ White Top
• Paint (900): Tuxedo Black Exterior
• Acc (2MP3C): Powerglide, C&C (2 spd wiper w/washer, day/night mirror, backup lights), Padded Dash
• Extra (D): Red interior painted surfaces

YellowVert

• Data 05C: Third week of May 1966
• Style (66-10567): 1966-Monza Convertible
• Body: (WRN8772): Willow Run - 8772 1966 Corvair built there
• Trim: (758-): Black All-Vinyl Interior
• Paint: (N-2): Madeira Maroon w/ Black Top
• Acc: (WD2M5Y): Windshield Tinted Glass, Power Convertible Top, Powerglide Trans, Custom Deluxe Front & Rear Seatbelts w/ Front Retractors

Rough Running Repaired…

…and I didn’t even leave the car. I’ve noticed more and more lately that members of the fleet are developing a rough-running condition – ethanol perhaps? Glinda had the problem a couple weeks ago, and Ringo came down with the illness during his drive home from PA last weekend. In both cases, the problem went away after I caused the venturi in each carb to develop a high vacuum supposedly sucking away whatever was causing the issue. For Glinda, this was accomplished by putting my hand over the carb’s throat and revving the engine. This afternoon, for Ringo, I put the shifter into Low while going around 20, floored the gas until we were doing around 35, and then immediately let up on the throttle. Lo and behold his idle smoothed right and the surging went away. Then I fixed his non-blinking blinkers by removing the blinker unit from the fuse block and reinserting it a few times until it worked again. Two fixes and I didn’t even loosen my seatbelt!

Last evening I got Heidi’s left front blinker to illuminate – slight corrosion on the socket contact. Now she is the only member of the fleet to be without an entry on the to-do list. Wonder how long that’ll last. Actually, I should add touch up paint and Armor-all top to her list. Darn, that didn’t last long.

More Misbehaving

At least Lucy is consistent. Any highway travel with sustained speeds over 60 mph results in a flickering TEMP/PRES light. Strangely though, the light seems to only come on with left-hand turning. Hmm. A dangling wire shorting out perhaps? Worth a look. Additionally, I’ll also be removing the lower shrouds to improve cooling across the fins.

Saturday morning VERY early I drove down to Lynchburg, VA to spend some time with my best buddy Bill. Around ten that morning, while we were working in his garage, my cellphone rang with Ariel on the other end. She informed me Ringo’s battery was completely dead. She went on to ask me if wet paper towels on top of the battery could cause the problem. Yep, the couple pieces I’d slid under the battery hold-down had gotten wet during the nasty they’d experienced in PA. The wet paper made a good enough conductor to drain the battery, but not good enough to cause a fire (TYL). She was able to find a helpful construction worker to give Ringo a jumpstart and he’s started up every time after.

While he’s been starting consistently, the drive home from PA yesterday was not with its issues. Ariel told me that part way home, the engine just started to chug – miss. Then when she was slowing down after exiting the interstate, the engine just died. While it started right up again, it died a few more times before she made it to our driveway. I went out after dinner and, other than a higher than normal idle, it ran fine. I reduced the idle speed and took a wait-and-see attitude. This morning, towards the end of Ariel’s drive to work, the engine wouldn’t idle when the car was stopped. It appears I’d overdone it on the idle speed and the higher speed I’d experienced the night before was due to the engine not being fully warmed up. Irr.

Finally, Heidi had to get in on the act. This morning I thought I’d drive her since the weather was supposed to be nice enough for top-down motoring. I climbed behind the wheel and turned on the radio to get the tunes going, but pressing the ON button did NOT bring up the display. Crap – dead battery. Yep, a turn of the key resulted in nothing more than eliciting another expletive from me. She’d been sitting in the driveway all weekend, through some serious rain storms, so maybe water got somewhere it shouldn’t be and caused a drain on the battery. This would be somewhat in line with the issues Brianna was having with the car down in Blacksburg - unexplained dead batteries. I’ve checked for a battery drain in the past and came up with nothing, so maybe a good rain is required before the drain appears. Anyway, I hooked up the charger to her battery and we’ll see if it will recover one more time.

A Little Fleet Work

So the fleet’s been behaving the last week or so – at least behaving well enough that those needing daily-drivers have had them. Monday I drove Lucy to work in the morning. Towards the end of my highway blast, the TEMP/PRESS light started to flicker. I slowed down from 70 to 60 and it stayed off. She’s had this behavior before when there was a vacuum leak around one of the carb’s throttle shaft. This may be the case again, so I’ll be checking the carbs before driving her again.

It’s wonderful to have Heidi as a backup. It’s been nice top-down driving weather, and I’ve made the most of it. She’s running flawlessly, but repairing the left front blinker is still on her to-do list. I’ve also added changing the oil and filter since the odometer says it’s time.

Ariel’s been putting the miles on Ringo without him giving her any problems. A big TYL for that.

Now to the work. Luna is so close to being road-ready. The only problem we’re having trouble solving is getting both brake lights to illuminate. After removing the blinker switch assembly (through which the braking circuit runs), I had to slightly bend one of the spring contacts to get both blinkers to work. After plugging the switch back in, I was able to verify that all but the left rear brake circuit was operating properly. At that point last night, it was time to knock off for the day.

Heidi on Five Cylinders

On my drive home from work Wednesday, Heidi’s engine started to run roughly. I made it home, thankfully, and then went to work on Ringo. Last evening, before starting my Ringo work, I popped open Heidi’s engine lid and discovered one of the spark plug leads had come off the distributor cap. I poked it back into place, started up her engine, and was rewarded with the smooth idle I so love.

False Alarm – Hopefully

I drove Heidi up to PA yesterday afternoon with a replacement (Purolator) oil filter, a gallon of Rotella oil, some speedy-dry, and the tools, etc. to replace Lucy’s filter. When I arrived, the puddle that greeted me was thankfully much smaller (about 10 " in diameter) than I’d feared and the oil level in the crankcase was only down about a 1/2 pint from Full. I had Ariel start up the engine while I looked for the leak source. After a few seconds, oil did start to run down the sides of the filter. I tightened the attachment bolt, wiped off the outside of the filter, and watched for a few minutes. No more leak. This engine had run a few hundred miles since I’d put the replacement filter without any sign of filter leakage or noticeable drop in the oil level. I thought about replacing the filter anyway, but changed my mind since Ariel was in a hurry to get the car back to her apartment and make it to class on time. I put the new filter, oil, wrench, etc. in the trunk of her car, kissed her good-bye, and wished her well. She’s quite capable of replacing a filter and cleaning up a mess if it does happen - now that she has the stuff to do it with. She also knows to check the ground under the rear of the car and pay attention to the idiot light.

I then headed on down the road to the Corvair Ranch to pick up my order of bearings and gaskets needed to re-rebuild Ringo’s engine. I also had Jeff throw in a GUP Pittman arm bolt and nut and a GUP exhaust pipe to replace the leaking one.

The Ranch’s parking lot always provides some Kodak moments. I posted the pictures to my Flickr account here. I’m sure some of these will be used for my Facebook & Twitter Haiku4photo postings.

Speaking of photos, here are some of the engine work done last weekend.


It should be noted that on the first and second legs of yesterday’s adventure, Heidi’s top was down. As the sun began to set leaving the Ranch, the top went up.

It’s Good to be Round

Last night I finished tearing down Ringo’s new engine. I carefully measured the six rod journals on the crank and saw 1.799 on all six. The spec. on them is 1.800 to 1.799, so the crank is good to use as-is. Next, I used an internal snap-gauge to determine if the rod bores are still round. My unprofessional, yet steady hand found the minimum measurement, locked the gauge, and then rotated it around the bore to ensure the same dimension at all points. I’m satisfied that all six are still round and extremely close to each other in diameter. The manual doesn’t have a spec. on the actual dimension, but since this is a non-wearing surface, I’m fairly confident (read: prayerfully hopeful) that they are the proper size. I started to take apart the block so I could access the main journals and bearings, but ran out of steam around 10 PM.

I’ve placed an order with Jeff at the Corvair Ranch for new bearing sets for both the rods and the mains. I’m getting the standard size since what I’ve been able to measure indicates little to no wear. Before final installation, I’ll use Plasti-gauge to ensure the proper clearances.

Speaking of the Ranch, this afternoon will be a road trip for me. My first stop will be Millersville, PA to get Lucy back on the road. After that I’ll drive straight to the Corvair Ranch to pick up my order which, in addition to the bearings, includes the oil pan and top cover gaskets I need to put Ringo’s engine back together. Then, I’m hoping to make a final stop at fellow club member’s house pick up a GUP exhaust pipe for Ringo. Heidi’s got a full tank of gas and the sky is blue, so it should be an enjoyable top-down adventure.

Thank You Lord

Last evening I planned on finishing getting Lucy ready for Ariel to take back to PA. After a quick stop at the FLAPS for a 1-7/8ths pipe clamp, I changed into freshly laundered grungies and headed out to the garage. In no time I had the clamp installed and the system checked for leaks – all was good. Next, I moved on to the left side for the speedometer cable swap. While jacking up that side of the car, I noticed the brake line leading to the left rear wheel looked really rusty, so I decided it was time to give Lucy’s brake system the “hard, harder” test (basically stand on the brake pedal to see if you can make it fail). On the “harder” part of the test, the pedal went to the floor. Not good. I asked Victoria to come out and pump the pedal while looked around for the leak. As she pumped, we could hear the fluid squirting out somewhere, but only after a small puddle formed under the fuel tank, did we know which tube had failed - the one to the right front. To replace that line, I’m going to have to drop the fuel tank. Irrr.

I am SOOO thankful that I thought to do this test. I can’t imagine having this failure occur while driving. Even though Lucy has a dual master cylinder that would supposedly still stop the car using the rear circuit, I wouldn’t want to test its ability. Thank You Lord!

With Lucy now out of commission, Ariel would have to drive Heidi back to school. Since I know it’s going to get cold again and the only item on Heidi’s to-do list is the squealing speedometer that’s even worse when it’s below freezing, I decided to spend the rest of my garage time cleaning and lubricating her speedometer. After carefully driving Lucy to her parking spot at the curb, I put Heidi in the garage and had my déjà-vu moment for the day. It hadn’t been more than a week since I’d torn down Lucy dash to get the gauge cluster out, and here I was doing it all over again. The only difference being Heidi’s transmission shifter made things a little more difficult. After disconnecting the shifter cable, I was able to remove the cluster, clean the speedometer and odometer mechanisms and shaft with break cleaner, and then take a break while letting the cleaner completely evaporate.

During my break, I took Ringo for drive around the neighborhood to see if the magic trans fix fluid I’d put it had miraculously done what it touted it could do. Amazingly, the Powerglide sorta’ did its shifting thing without any special machinations. It wasn’t a perfect shift, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. I drove it around and, while things didn’t improve, I’m not ready yank the drivetrain quite yet. Regardless, I'll use the newly arrived rebuild kit to get my spare transmission ready just in case these improvements don't continue.

Back in the garage, I sprayed the liquid graphite into the guts of the speedometer and also coated the odometer wheels and the input shaft before screwing everything back together and reinstalling the cluster into the dash. All the bulbs and switches were put back in their proper places, the battery was reconnected, and everything worked like it should. This morning’s drive to work proved the efficacy of my efforts by the needle being rock-solid with no noise whatsoever.