And Then There Was One

What a momentous weekend. Last Saturday, I sold Luna and took a deposit on the sale of Glinda. Within a couple hours, my car-world went from Corvair-centric to LeMans-centric, and I couldn’t be happier. Once the sale of Glinda is complete, I’ll be putting this blog, as well as Scarlett’s wreck repairs, on hold.

My efforts to document the trials and tribulations of old car roadification will not end however. I’ll be creating a new blog that will start with the extraction of my 1965 Pontiac LeMans convertible from its storage spot behind my garage. This long-suffering car needs plenty of attention to get it back on the road after twenty-three years of sitting. Really, this car has never been roadworthy since I bought it in 1985.

Back to what happened this weekend. I got a call last Wednesday from a guy in PA interested in Luna. He told me how he’d fixed up a couple Corvairs before (a EM coupe and a LM 4-door), but always wanted a convertible. He’d sold the two he’d had and was in the market for a project. I answered all his questions, and we ended the conversation with him saying he was interested. Saturday morning I got a call asking if he could come by that afternoon. I gave him my address and he arrived around three in the afternoon. After about forty-five minutes of talking to me and thoroughly checking out the car, he asked me how far down I’d go. We went back and forth until we settled on a sale price of $1700 plus the cost of gas for me to deliver the car. I believe he got a very good deal, but, more importantly, Victoria (the daughter who’d bought this car back in 2012) and I can move on.

The story of Glinda’s (presumed) sale is very different. Around ten Saturday morning I had the following text conversation with an unknown phone:

Him: Hello Tom do you still have the 68?
Me: Yes
Him: Standing here with Lee he says I need to buy it.
Me: Tell Lee I think he's a smart man

I didn’t hear anything more until soon after Luna’s buyer had departed. Then, a long-ish text popped up explaining who the sender was and making me an offer of $2500 to buy Luna, the 140 engine pieces, and my tow-bar. I replied that the engine stuff had been sold and I needed to keep the tow-bar since I still had old cars that would probably require a tow in the future. He then asked a few questions and I answered them and he offered me $2000 and I accepted. He PayPal-ed me a deposit and we made plans for him to come and conclude the deal in two weeks.

And with that the fleet has shrunk to one.

UPDATE: Luna has sold and is gone. Recurring Theme (i.e. Luna’s also for sale)

UPDATED 1/10/17: Added more photos to the bottom of the post.
UPDATED 1/9/17: Added video links.

Last week Victoria told me I should sell Luna for her. She has accepted the fact that her life is too busy to spend the time required to roadify the car. I feel badly for her because she really likes the car, but I can’t work on it without her. Add to that her supposedly reliable, modern car sucked all the spare car time she had during the first half of last year, and she’s in no mood to give up what little free time she has on another car. I put a listing on Facebook and Craigslist and have received the following notable responses: trade for a motorcycle (had to say no), low-ball offer, “I’m still looking and will get back to you,” and an appointment for someone to come by Saturday to look at her. Currently, her battery is dead, but I plan on jump-starting her Saturday morning and adjusting the carbs so she at least runs and drives for any prospective buyer. I toyed with the idea of welding in the patch panels in the rockers and the front fender, but there are too many other priorities in my life right now.


With that said, here’s the pertinent info on Luna. She has a 110HP engine with a Powerglide automatic transmission. Currently, the engine doesn’t run since she needs a battery and a tuning of the newly rebuilt carburetors. She has new tires and a new top, but the top’s installation isn’t perfect - needs some adjustments. There are rust issues in the rocker panel, right front fender, and passenger door, but replacement panels and door are included. The odometer reads 24k miles, but I’m sure it’s 124k. The top is manually operated, but goes up and down easily. We’re asking $2000 for the car with the extra parts. More photos at the bottom of this post. Here's a video of the engine running. Here's a video of me driving the car around our neighborhood.


As I mentioned in my last post, I am selling the parts needed to build a 140 HP engine. Here are a couple photos of the major parts included (note buyer gets two blocks to choose from). Also included is a bin of internal parts including the lifters, rods, pistons, oil pan, fasteners, etc.

I’ve not had any offers on Glinda as of yet, but I’m still hopeful a buyer will come along soon.
As part of my Corvair Reduction Plan, I’ve taken another load of GUPs up to the Corvair Ranch. In return Jeff presented me with a front end of another ’64 to use to repair Scarlett. This cleansing has allowed me to take down the storage shelves in the garage making more room for working. Unfortunately, after pushing Scarlett against one wall, there’s still a large part of floorspace is being taken up by aforementioned front clip. Hopefully, this weekend I can cut it down to something that’s closer to what I need and recycle the rest.


Here are more photos of Luna.

Windy

My two daughters that still own Corvairs joined me in the driveway Saturday to work on their respective convertibles. About 3 PM, the nice-and-sunny turned into windy-and-more-windy - a cold front swept into our driveway and almost swept away the portable garage and Scarlett’s tarp. In the midst of the gale, the girls soldiered on with their tasks.

Mikhaila was removing broken bits from Scarlett’s left front and cataloguing all the pieces we’ll need to replace. When she finished that, she undid the two bolts holding the trunk-lid latch in place and the turnk was open. She emptied it out and we then worked together to try and push some of the mashed metal back out. I’m not thinking I’ll get away with not replacing large sections of sheetmetal, but I do want to make it easier to cut out the bad and make patches and only with the body in some semblance of straight can that happen. We used the tire jack and an assortment of blocks of wood to push on the front panel. It worked somewhat, but we’ve got a ways to go. After she’d turned into a Popsicle, I released her to go inside and thaw out.

Victoria’s goal was to get Luna running again. She started by installing a pair of recently rebuilt ’68 vintage carburetors including reinstalling the linkage pieces and hooking up the fuel lines. Next, she dropped in and hooked up the battery. Finally, before turning the key, she injected fuel into each carb’s bowl using a syringe. Sadly, when she turned the key, we discovered the battery had gone dead. This is the one that was in Glinda and had gone bad, but I’d recharged it and it seemed to be holding the charge. I was wrong. The plan now is to pull the battery out of Glinda and use it to get Luna running and into the garage.

Portable Garage Tarp on the Way

Last weekend Victoria and I talked about what we should be doing with Luna. We decided that we’d get a replacement tarp for the portable garage and she’d commit to working on her car at least 8 hours every two weeks. I did some shopping and a new tarp has been bought. It will be here before the snow files, so Luna will be protected for another winter. We’ll get the car running so we can drive her in and out of the heated garage during the upcoming cold months. She’ll be sharing garage time with Glinda, who will be getting more rust repair, including a new trunk bottom, as well as crossing off some more of his tasks in the blogs To-Do List sidebar.

Last evening Mikhaila and I spent some quality time in the garage taking care of Scarlett issues. We lubricated the speedometer cable, screwed down the hi-beam foot switch, installed the C, the I, and the crossed flags on the engine lid using caulk, and adjusted the front toe-in.

The alignment project went exceptionally easily due to Scarlett’s rust-free condition. The clamps nuts over the tie-rod adjusting sleeves turned without drama, the adjusting sleeves themselves also turned with just a pair of vice-grips clamped to them. We started the project by Mikhaila driving the front tires onto round serving trays I’d sandwiched a layer of grease between. This allowed the free movement of the wheels without much resistance. We then determined the center of steering wheel travel by going lock-to-lock and marking top dead center with a piece of masking top at 12 o’clock. Next we laid out our strings along each side of the car exactly ten inches out from the face of the wheel. Then we measured the condition of each wheel to the string at the front of the tire sidewall and then at the rear. Then, with Mikhaila measuring and me spinning the sleeve, we set toe-in at an eighth of an inch (in other words an eighth of an inch difference between the front and back measurements with the front one being larger). I told her to drive the car around and make sure the tape on the steering wheel was still pointed at 12 o’clock while she’s going straight down the road. That’ll indicate where we re-set the steering wheel’s location on the steering column.

With Scarlett back on the street, I moved Glinda to the curb and put the truck in the driveway. I’m such an optimist that I don’t think I’ll need to use the truck any time soon.

Are My Corvair Days Numbered?

A few recent occurrences in my life have me pondering my current car path. Of the cars in the fleet, none are roadworthy and it will take, I believe, significant efforts to make each of them fit for driving again.

Glinda is the closest, and she’s a drivetrain dropping project away from having her clutch fork engagement corrected. Added to that, every time it rains, her carpet gets wet; the needle on her voltmeter shows a charging voltage that’s too high; her dash still has an automatic transmission shifter sticking out it; and her trunk’s leading edge is a minefield of rust bubbles just waiting to explode. Many, many hours ahead of me to deal with those top of the to-do list items.

Scarlett is many Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons away from complete roadification – not to mention the challenge it’s going to be to come up with the estimated $1600 of parts that are left to buy. That all assumes the engine is good-to-go – not a surety by any stretch.

Luna has sat untouched since Victoria and I installed her new top eight months ago. Her engine hasn’t run in over a year, and she hasn’t been on the road in nearly two. I blogged back in February of 2014 that she and I agreed to regularly spend time working on her car. Obviously, that hasn’t happened. I wish I could count on one hand the tasks ahead of us to get her car where she’d like it, but it’ll take three hands at least.

Finally, there’s Ringo. When Ariel and I had to pull him from the road, he had a myriad of issue including a ripped out right rear wheelwell with associated body damage, a driver’s door that wouldn’t open, and a driver’s seat that wasn’t fully bolted to the floor. While I have all the parts and supplies to do the work, what I don’t have are the space and hours to make the repairs. Once Scarlett is on the road, Ringo will go in next I suppose.

So, what were the occurrences that caused this trip down Frustration Lane? First, a recent visit with my parents reinforced how important it is to make the most of every moment since we never know when we’ll lose the ability to do the things we love. It’s been a few years now since my mom and dad had to stop traveling due to my mom’s advancing dementia. Now she’s in assisted living and his days are spent as her caregiver. You never know what God’s plans are. Second, the budding trees and warmer weather means winter’s over and our yard needs attention. Finally, there are the never-ending house projects that suck a significant portion of my weekends.

So, what’s a whiner supposed to do? One option is to sell all four of them. The uproar that would cause would be immense, but the girls would forgive me eventually. Fortunately, the lovely Loriann recommended something a little less drastic. I give the daughters responsible for Ringo and Luna a couple ultimatums. They shall find time in their busy schedules to spend at least eight hours working on their cars before June 15, and then enough time to get their cars on the road before September 15. If they fail on either of these, I will sell their car for them.

That addresses two of the four. What about Scarlett and Glinda? Mikhaila and I WILL spend sufficient hours in the garage to get her car on the road by early June so she can enjoy a summer of top-down motoring. I WILL spend an evening a week working on my car knocking out her issues and making her a reliable, racy daily-driver.


One other fleet-related happening is tomorrow’s expected purchase of a second racing seat for Glinda. My occasional Craigslist searches finally turned up a reasonably priced, used seat that looks enough like my existing seat to not induce disgust every time I climb in. It needs cleaning and some coats of black spray fabric dye before being bolted in. Two bucket seats means I now get to find a storage place for Glinda’s original bench.

More Thinning

No, I’m not talking about the top of my head. I’m talking about Corvair parts I’ll never use. Yesterday, bundled against the cold, I tackled the task of replacing the cover on Luna’s home (the temporary garage). I started by removing the tarp I’d tied to cover all the holes in the roof. Then I pulled off the front and rear tarp pieces. Finally, I took off the top in pieces as just pulling on it caused the aged material to disintegrate.

With no walls it was easy to drag out parts and pieces that had been in storage. To facilitate installing the new pieces, I moved much of the contents out from under the frame and into the driveway. It took some fiddling, but I got the new cover installed in a little over an hour. I made sure I didn’t make the restraints tight since I believe the initial installation was too snug and contributed to the early failure of the top where it rubbed on the frame. If I could easily slide a hand between tarp and rail, I called it good.

With the garage enclosed again, I picked though the stuff in the driveway and chose what would stay and what had to go. The two 140 HP engine block assemblies stayed, as did the tub with the 140 heads and the one with the parts I’d gleaned from the 140 engine that was in Phil’s Corsa convertible I parted out. Also staying are a ‘64 Powerglide and mating differential (in case there’s an issue with Scarlett’s), the manual transmission out of the aforementioned Corsa, manual transmission bellhousings (one EM and one LM), Heidi’s original engine block/crankshaft/bellhousing assy (I should make that into a piece of art someday), some piston/rod assemblies and cylinders, body portions to patch Luna’s holes, Scarlett’s set of wheels, and one torque converter with a nice, barely worn ring gear. Moved to the back garage were a spare engine lid and hood (to use for patching holes). That which was left was loaded into the truck for a trip to recycler were four torque converters, two powerglides, a couple automatic bellhousings, a non-posi differential, and the old garage tarp pieces.

Sunday wasn’t the only car day of the weekend. I spent part of Saturday at my buddy Jonathan’s garage. He’d done some significant work on his Corsa’s engine by installing a trick cooling fan setup (based on a vertical Porsche unit) and an upgraded oil system. With all that done, however, he was unable to get the engine to start. The first thing I noticed after I was done oohing and aahing over the new stuff was the spark plug leads were installed wrong. I had him turn the engine to top dead center to verify that they were off by one post. I did a quick inspect of the cap and it looked very used up, as did the rotor, so Jonathan pulled nice ones off his shelf of parts and they were pressed into service. With the leads properly placed, I had him crank the engine - still no firing. I hooked up an inductive timing light and asked him to crank again - there was no spark going to the plugs. Further sleuthing using a voltmeter and the wiring diagram for his electronic ignition module revealed it wasn’t getting the right voltage. We hooked up a wire bypassing the resistance portion of the ignition wire and the engine fired right up, albeit at quite a high idle. Thinking the timing was too advanced, I turned the distributor clockwise and got the engine to slow down, but also causing backfiring through the carbs. Jonathan then discovered some binding in the throttle linkage, so he disconnected the carbs from the linkage and the engine settled into a nice thousand rpm idle. I aimed the timing light’s beam at the harmonic balancer and found the engine to be a little too retarded (is it still politically correct to use that term?). A slight adjustment and the line and the 16 degree BTDC mark were aligned. That’s a little more advanced than stock, but his engine is far from stock. Also, since it was idling at 1000 rpm, the centrifugal advance is probably doing its thing, albeit slightly. He’ll do the final timing adjustments using the twist-it-till-it-pings method. I tightened the hold-down nut, and we moved on to putting his multi-spark unit back into the ignition system. With the wires all in place per the Crane diagram, we tried starting the engine – nothing. The timing light confirmed a lack of spark again. We spent a while double-checking all the wiring and concluded the box must be bad. We put the wiring back the way it was when the engine ran and it started right up again. He’ll be in touch with the Crane folks to see what to check next.

Still Trying to Thwart Me at Every Turn

Last evening was supposed to be simple – just bolt on the IROC wheels and take Glinda for a test drive. Instead it ended up being a frustrating evening of Glinda still fighting me on every task.

I should have known that just bolting on cast aluminum wheels in place of stamped steel would not work, but, optimist that I am, I thought the included lug nuts would, like they did on Lucy, accommodate the increased thickness of the wheel. They did not. That left me with a decision; put the stock wheels back on which would, within the next two days, need to be replaced (wouldn’t take them on the track), or remove Luna’s wheels and put them on Glinda as I did when she went to this summer’s convention. The former would require me to buy longer wheel studs, install them into the hubs, and then mount the IROC wheels – all before Monday morning. The latter means I’m good-to-go, just not with the wider, lower-profile tires I’d hoped to go with. Given all the time this project has sucked up, I went with the latter with the option to revert to new studs if time allowed. So an hour later, Luna was up on jackstands, and Glinda was finally wheels down.

At that point, I believed the last required task would be to back the car up on ramps and tighten the stabilizer bar bracket bolts. Sadly, it could not be that easy. Even though I had confirmed a couple times I could shift into all five gears, when it was actually required to happen Glinda said no. I’d pulled forward in the driveway until I was facing Ringo, then when I tried to engage reverse, I got nothing. After ten minutes of struggling, I gave up and got out the jack and jackstands. With Glinda’s rear back up in the air safely on jackstands, I slid underneath and adjusted the shifter by loosening the clamps, slightly rotating the coupler inside the shift rod, and re-tightening the clamps. That did it. With that small adjustment, reverse was available, as were all the four forward gears.

Next, I backed her up on the ramps to do the aforementioned bolt torquing. At this point, since I was already deep into the evening, I decided to quickly deal with adjusting and swapping back on Glinda’s right-side racing carburetor. I pulled the top off the carb, bent the float’s tang so it would shut off the needle-and-seat sooner, and, after removing the borrowed carb, bolted the tweaked one on to the head. Finally it was time for a test drive. It went well, other than the issue with that one carb is still there. I was able to shift through gears, although it will take some practice to always smoothly engage first thru fourth.

Back in the driveway, I added to my euphoria by emptying the rest of the gas jugs’ contents into Glinda’s gas tank and joyfully watched the needle climb towards ½ full when I turned the key to ON.

Being’s it was then nearly bedtime, I called it a day on the high note.

This morning I was on the CorvairCenter forum to find a wheel stud part number (Dorman 610-157), and then on the phone with Napa trying to find twenty of them. I succeeded in that it only took trips to the two nearest stores to round up the four wheels worth.

Regarding the still misbehaving carburetor, I’m going to first install the new plugs, points, rotor, condenser, and cap, and set the dwell and timing before I go any farther. I read somewhere that ninety percent of fuel issues are electrical. If that doesn’t solve the poor acceleration, I’ll try swapping the top from the borrowed carb onto the racing carb and see what happens. If it’s still a fail, I’ll revert back to the borrowed carb even though high-speed turns may cause a partial cut-out.

Lots of ‘Vair Time

Starting where I ended on last Friday’s blog, I’ve done some research on the exhaust pipe. An issue that’s popped up is one of the flanges on the exhaust pipe that I got from Rich’s stash of parts has one inlet flange configured for a ’60 Corvair (flat-faced flange). If I want to use this pipe, I’ll need to cut off this flat flange and weld on a standard post-’60 flange.

While I’m on the subject of exhaust, my buddy Jonathan came through with a part number for the Flowmaster mufflers he has on his Corsa. This morning I placed an order on Amazon for a couple of the same ones - Series 40 Deltas with 2.25” center inlet and 2.25” offset outlet. Since I don’t plan on ever driving this car during our season of salt again, I figure I’ll get plenty of years of aural enjoyment from my investment.

Now on to the weekend work. Saturday morning Victoria came over and she and I attacked Luna’s top installation. It took a WHOLE lot of blood, sweat, tears, and one bent wrist (sorry Victoria), but by the middle of the afternoon we finally had the well cover, back window, and top pieces all stapled to the trim sticks in the best-guess locations and all three trim sticks bolted to the body. Sadly, we lost a few of the rubber spacers and were short some to begin with, so we’ll have to go back and sneak them into place after the package from the Corvair Ranch shows up.

As we got back into it yesterday afternoon, I told Victoria that the hard part was done. I was wrong. The first task was to attach the rear side window weatherstrip pieces. At one point there were eight hands working at once as I drug Ariel in to stretch the front of the top forward and Loriann to stretch and hold the flap in place, while Victoria held the weatherstrip and poked an awl through each hole while I attempted to follow the awl’s withdrawal with the point of the screw. Finally, we had all eight screws in and torqued. Sadly, the right rear corner of the top has a nasty furl where it should be smooth. Hoping we could make some adjustments later on, Victoria and I continued. We did the best we could and we did finish, but neither of us is real happy with the results. We do have the option to take Luna to a professional and have them do the tweak(s) necessary to smooth out the one corner.





Once we completed the top work, we tried starting the car. The battery had plenty of charge on it, but it again it seems like the tank is empty since a number of cycles of me pouring gas down the carb throats would not get the car to run longer than it took to burn off the tablespoon or two that was sitting in the intake manifolds. Ironing out this issue needs to be the next task we deal with. Other Corvair activities of the weekend included spending some time Saturday working on Ringo. My initial intent was to only put the battery charger on his batter, but I noticed that his throttle linkage had seized. I isolated the problem to the left carb, so I sprayed some Deep Creep penetrating fluid on both ends of the butterfly shaft and let it sit to, hopefully, work its magic. Yesterday, during one of the breaks, I was able to finally work the shaft loose. I re-attached all the linkages and cranked the engine. After a few seconds, it started up and, as expected, there was some clanking from deep within the block where the lack of running had caused at least one lifter to drain down. I let the engine idle for about ten minutes and the nasty noise abated.

The work on getting Glinda a four-speed setup continues as well. Saturday evening I was in the garage giving the prospective transmission a close inspection. I removed the side cover, gave all the sychros and gears close scrutiny, and, fortunately, saw nothing amiss. I moved the internal shifter parts around until I was sure I’d be able to engage all four forward gears and reverse. At that point, I went to install my fancy new transmission pivot, but found the existing rod had been welded into place – it was supposed to be screwed in. A GUP cover from the Corvair Ranch would have to be added to the shopping list. All-in-all, a ‘vairy nice weekend.

Almost Ready for the Drop

Yesterday evening, I rushed home with the plan to take tiles off a bathroom wall. It was supposed to rain, but when I arrived home, and the skies unthreatening, I decided to don grungies and head out to the driveway. It took less than a half-hour to re-re-drain Glinda’s gas tank, re-re-remove the gas sender, re-flip the float, and reassemble.

With the fuel gauge issue considered put to bed, I turned my attention to completing steps one through sixteen under ENGINE ASSSEMBLIES (POWER TRAIN) Removal in Chevy’s 1965 Corvair Shop Manual. Just before nine the raindrops began falling on the bodyparts not lying under the car. At that point, I crossed off every pertinent step except for 3, 7, 15, and 16. While not instructed to completely remove the strut rods, I did so. Also, I removed the exhaust system (Step 18) and, since I need to replace the front transmission mount, I unscrewed the nuts and bolts retain the left and right stabilizer rods.

This weekend Victoria and I have a date to install Luna’s top. I made a visit to Harbor Freight to purchase an electric stapler to aid our assembly. I also picked up a tarp to cover up the rips in the portable garage cover.

While on the subject of buying stuff, I‘ll share the status of depleting the THRaF. After recent orders with Clark’s (Shifter Boot, Tunnel Pan parts, and gaskets for the Diff and Trans covers) and the Corvair Ranch (right side muffler hanger and a couple muffler straps), it’s now sitting at $261. $50 of that is already committed to the House of Balance (they promised the flywheel and pressure plate would be ready early next week) leaving a little over $200. I want to give Glinda a tune-up, so a tune-up kit from Clark’s will leave me with roughly $120. With that I need to buy a couple mufflers.



One of the items I bought during Rich’s big part’s sale was a dual exhaust pipe with crossover. This should allow me to use fairly loud mufflers without the 60 MPH drone I dreaded when I was running duals on Lucy. I’ve always loved the sound from my buddy Jonathan’s Corsa equipped with Flowmasters but they run about $90 apiece. Next down in price are the Thrush Cherry Bombs at $46 each (within my budget). Finally, I could go cheap with Flowtech Raptors like I had on Lucy for less than $30 each. I’ll sleep on it.

I Am So Frustrated

All is not rosey with the fleet right now. No work has commenced on Scarlett, Victoria is uninspired to work on Luna, Glinda’s fuel mileage woes continue, and Ariel just reported that Ringo’s driver’s door won’t open. Argh!

As mentioned, Glinda’s mileage keeps dropping (we’re down to less than 11 mpg), but I still can’t find why. While it does look (slightly sooty tail pipe) and smell like her engine is running rich, I find it hard to believe that the #52 jets are responsible. These are the same jets that, on the stock carburetors, gave nearly 20 mpg, but on these rebuilt ’66 vintage carbs the mileage keeps dropping. It’s that last bit of information that makes me believe something is leaking and the leak is getting worse. I need to find the source of that leak and fix it. Regardless, I still need to swap in the smaller #51 jets I got from the Corvair Ranch to treat the bogging under quick throttle issue.

It appears I’ll be buying a used door latch from the Ranch and installing it in Ringo’s inoperable door. That won’t be fun. At least it failed in the closed position. Ariel says she’ll finally be a serious car shopper come early July.

Gone, but Not Forgotten

I told the lovely Loriann, there’s a space in my driveway and a hole in my heart. I’m always saddened when I sell a car; Saturday was no different when TwoTone was hauled away. I can take comfort in the knowledge that the new owner, a really nice guy and his teenage son, will probably have her back on the road faster than Mikhaila and I would have. ‘Vair buddy, John’s, free ’64 coupe sealed the deal. They’ll be converting TwoTone to a 4-speed. It’ll be too cool.

What else is happening with the fleet?

There’s no change, sadly, with the ongoing battle with Ringo’s driver’s door. Even after adjusting the door, it’s back to needing to be slammed. Irrr. It’s nice to report, though, that Ariel’s only needed to use the ignition bypass once.

I spent some time on Glinda last weekend. Saturday afternoon I decided to install the new clutch and brake pedal assembly. When I first started planning to do this swap, I researched what I’d need to do, and had been led to believe that the large support bracket was different to accommodate the clutch, so I bought a used version along with the pedals and pertinent parts. Over the last few weeks I’d cleaned up the used parts, primed them, and shot them with a couple coats of Rustoleum gloss black. With them ready to go, I crawled under the dash to determine the best path of attack. It didn’t take long for me to figure out the bracket that was in the car looked exactly like the one I’d bought. Okay, the hardest part of the job didn’t need to be done. Yay. The existing brake pedal came out once I’d popped off the clips that held the two shafts (pivot and master cylinder rod) in place, slid the shafts out, and dropped the pedal straight down. Getting the new, longer clutch pedal shaft into its pivot hole required me to remove the defroster duct; which required me to remove the glovebox; which required me to remove the new radio housing. With all that stuff out of the way, the clutch shaft slid into the hole, through the brake pedal, out the other side of the bracket. The clutch pedal slid over the end and was retained with a washer and nut. It took a while to convince the duct it needed to go back in, but it finally succumbed, and the rest of the reassembly went well. An adjustment to the brake pedal switch completed the pedal swap. The other task I undertook was repairing the failing vinyl on the driver’s seatback. I’d purchased a repair kit a while back. Step 1 was to glue a backing cloth to the backside of the vinyl surrounding the hole. Since it required a four hour cure, that was the end of Glinda work for the weekend.





Sunday was Luna day. Yes, the car that hasn’t moved in months got some attention. Victoria and I decided it was time to tackle installing the convertible top. With the sun beating down on us, we fought with the attaching the rear window piece to the trim sticks for a couple hours. Finally, we had to give up since the baking black vinyl and cloth were getting too hot to handle. While we made some good headway, it would have been nicer to finish the job. Well, they’ll be other weekends. While she (Luna) was out in the driveway I fixed the tie-rod problem I’d discovered when we did a lube job soon after bringing her home. A previous mechanic had adjusted the joint in such a way as to bind the balljoints. I needed to turn one end relative to the adjusting sleeve, but that entailed some doing. First, I needed to loosen the two clamp nuts from there associated bolts. This was done with great trepidation since these guys are known to just torque right off due to being seized. Well, God was looking down on me since both came off cleanly with only penetrating fluid and careful wrenching. The threaded connection of the tie-rod end into the sleeve took the aggressive application of flame to get it to the point where, with me standing on the end of a pipe wrench, I could get it to move. It only took a few degrees of rotation to free the tie-rod centering it in its travel. After cleaning the bolts on the wire wheel and generously applying anti-seize, I reassembled the clamps, dropped the car off the jackstands, and called it a day.

Luna to Get Some Lovin’

Last night Victoria was over at the house and I asked her if she could carve a couple hours out of her very busy schedule each week to work on her convertible with me. She, and I think I detected some enthusiasm, said, “yes, how about Saturday or Sunday?” Excellent! Let’s call this step one towards cancelling my “Don’t do it” credo.

Now, what task will we tackle first? As you can see in the sidebar, eleven options are available to us, but some are not feasible right now (install top, sand and paint) and some are not critical to make the car roadworthy (clock, bearings). That still leaves some jobs we can knock off before spring arrives, but what should we start with – what would properly kick off a series of weekend sessions? Well, at this point, the disappearing gas is the most annoying trait of this ‘vair, so I’m leaning towards tackling that issue.

My plan (I feel I type that a lot) is to put the car on jackstands so we can get underneath and go searching for visual clues of leaking fuel paying special attention to the tank and the rubber hoses. Note: since this project and some of the other ones on Luna’s list require getting her up off the concrete, I’m putting jackstands on my Harbor Freight shopping list so we can just leave her without leaving me stand-less. If we can’t find the leak visually, we’ll try audibly. I’ll stuff a rag in the fuel filler, disconnect the line at the pump and gently pressurize the system with air while Victoria can listen for a hiss. My hope is we find a cracked hose. If it’s the tank, I’ll get to find out how long the seller’s offer of “going through his stash of part to provide anything I need to get the car on the road.”

Should I “Just Do It”?

The lovely Loriann recently wrote an article for our church’s newsletter titled Just Do It. In it she shared that the Nike slogan is her New Year’s resolution, and ended the missive with the encouragement for all of us to “Just Do It” a little more in our lives.

With the cold weather icing any impetus to go work on cars, I’m feeling rather frustrated with what has become my credo – “Don’t Do It”. Should I drag Mikhaila out to the garage to work on TwoTone? Nah, don’t do it. Should I finish prepping the front end to weld onto TwoTone? Nah, don’t do it. Should I disassemble the Powerglide that I’m planning on rebuilding? Nah, don’t do it. Should I install the stereo in Glinda that I bought months ago? Nah, don’t do it. You get the message.

So what am I to do to get out of this funk? Maybe changing some of our plans would put a new perspective on things. Hunting down and acquiring a TwoTone replacement is one change that is currently afoot. Giving up on Glinda’s PG swap and diving into the 4-speed conversion could be another change. Moving Luna into the garage extension and putting the LeMans into the portable garage so I can easily access and work on it is also a possibility.

A Hush Has Fallen Over the Fleet

With only one of our Corvairs in use the past couple weeks, the odds were in my favor that it would be a quiet holiday season. In fact, it was. Ringo’s only misbehavior came courtesy of a flat tire. Ariel and I swapped a good tire and wheel from TwoTone and they were good-to-go again.

This reminds me of one of my little quandaries: what's the clearest, most concise way to refer to a tire and wheel assembly? In the previous paragraph, I wanted to just type, “swapped a good tire,” but I felt the need to elaborate, so I added the words “and wheel” to the phrase. However, it is perfectly clear, even to my engineer’s ear, to just say, “changed a flat tire,” and trust that my audience would never believe 1) I’d demounted the deflated tire from its wheel and mounted a replacement right there on the side of the road, and 2) I'd exchanged one flat tire for another flat tire. I guess it would have been easiest if I’d just said, “The only fleet maintenance during the last two weeks was changing a flat tire.” The automotive world has drive train (engine-differential-transmission) and air cleaner (which includes the air filter cartridge and a bunch of sheetmetal), but they’ve never come up with a word or two signifying the rolling thing consisting of a metal wheel with a rubber tire mounted around it and filled with air. What about “rolling stock?” Nope; that doesn’t work for me. “I swapped rolling stock” is too vague regarding plurality or lack thereof. I guess I could try to introduce a completely new word like twerk (Tire Wheel – get it?) to the English language, but given I’m not Miley Cyrus and I’m already trying to get Websters to recognize scramble-do (your hair-do when you get of bed in the morning – feel free to spread that one around), I’m reluctant to take on another quest. But I digress (or have I actually double-digressed).

Now for something completely different. ‘Tis the season to share your resolutions (I will be less of a curmudgeon) and plans for the upcoming twelve months, so here are my plans for the fleet. TwoTone will get a real name as well as plenty of attention. Given the glacial-rate at which Mikhaila and I are proceeding with her sedan’s roadification, I’m hesitant to use the word complete in stating my intentions for that car, so I’ll just say I hope we can get her on the road. Ariel will be replacing Ringo with a modern vehicle as her daily-driver. She insists, though, that she wants to keep her ‘vair, so I don’t see any reduction in the size of the fleet. It would be really nice if Victoria and I could get Luna drivable, but she is so busy and we’re still not sure what that car truly needs (in addition to the convertible top installed) to be a reliable road-goer. Finally, Glinda. Visions of a 140 HP engine and a 4-speed transmission have been dancing in my head for quite a while now, but I’m afraid those grand plans will not be executed in 2014. Too many demands on my precious time and our tight budget mean the best I can hope for is a rebuilt Powerglide and a re-seated windshield. The tranny rebuild needs to be completed before May 24th since that’s when the next track day has been scheduled by the NECC (Northeast Corvair Council) at the brand-new New York Safety Track. Click here to go on a tour of the track. Looks fun, even for an automatic.

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.

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.

Water, Water, Every Where

Last Friday, after figuring it made more sense to work on the engine atop my new-to-me engine cart rather than the one sitting on the floor, I removed the oil pan drain plug from the 95 HP engine. Much to my dismay (and chagrin) the fluid that flowed from the hole was mostly water. The stream finally subsided, but not before nearly filling my drain pan. Change of plans. Rather than storing on end on its bellhousing face, I needed to tear it down and stem the rising tide of rusting. About three hours later, I’d removed every fastener holding that engine together, and the floor around the cart was now cluttered with cylinders and heads, rods and pistons, a good-sized cardboard box filled with bolts, bits, and pieces, and a rather large puddle of the aforementioned oily water. In other words, the messy garage is now REALLY messy.

Saturday was a car-free day until I received a phone call from Victoria. She was heading home after a babysitting gig, and Glinda had thrown her fanbelt about ten miles from our house. Victoria nursed her another five miles before the pinging started scaring her (rightfully so). I grabbed a new belt, a 9/16ths wrench, my cordless droplight, and some latex gloves and made the relatively short drive to her location. A few minutes later, with my fingers dancing around the HOT engine surfaces, I had the new belt on and was just about ready to have Victoria fire up the engine, when I noticed the useless, blanket-blank belt guide at the idler was hard up against the pulley wheel. CRAP! Some more finger dancing, loosening, adjusting, and retightening and she was finally ready to go. I wanted to chastise Victoria for missing her weekly check-the-oil-and-fanbelt session, but she told me everything was fine last Monday, so she was in the clear. Just another day in Corvair paradise.

Yesterday’s car events didn’t get going until later in the afternoon when it was time to address some Ringo issues Ariel had related to me before she took to visit a friend in New Jersey. Getting the gas gauge to work meant replacing the current one with a GUP off the shelf. After testing the three spares, I came up with one that read the ¼ tank she thought was Ringo’s current fuel level. It some contortions to remove and replace the gauge since I did it without removing the gauge cluster, but it was finally finished. While still on my back under the dash, I lubed the speedometer cable fitting with WD40 in hopes that would free up the balky speedometer. To answer her complaint that he felt like he was laboring keeping up with highway traffic, I hooked up the dwellmeter and discovered the setting had dropped a few degrees. I tweaked the points to get the reading up to 32 and then checked the timing – 14 degrees BTDC – right where it needed to be. Finally, after a quick drive around the neighborhood (which indicated I hadn’t fixed the speedometer), I checked the ATF level and found it right on the add mark, so I added a pint and pronounced him ready to roll.

Meanwhile, I had given Victoria directions to start up Luna, which she did, and idle her engine for a few minutes to let her fully warm up, which she couldn’t. I pulled the air cleaner and checked the carburetors for fuel – nothing. I cracked open one of the fuel line fittings and had Victoria crank the engine. No shots of gas. This was a brand new fuel pump, and I believe the length of time Luna’s engine was able to run on the fuel in the reservoirs was plenty enough to get the pump primed and doing its pumping thing. Looks like a bad pump – AGAIN. I then had Victoria remove the pump so I could return it to Carquest for a replacement.

After a delicious dinner (does the lovely Loriann know how to prepare a meal that isn’t?), I re-donned grungies and headed out to the garage to tackle the mess I’d made. Before I could get any farther than turn on the music, Victoria walked out of the house carrying the phone. I just knew it was Ariel and that Lucy had a problem. Sure enough, Ariel started our conversation with, ““Daddy, I’m sitting on the side of I-95 near Havre de Grace. All of a sudden Lucy started making nasty, loud noises, and when I stopped, the engine died.” About three hours later, we were all back home with Lucy on the end of the tow bar behind the Suburban. Not sure yet what the issue is, but I’m bracing myself for a dropped valve seat. If that's the case, then I now have an excuse to install the 140HP heads and four-carb setup.

Life Goes On in Overdrive

Wouldn’t you know it – work demand and fleet maintenance demand are both on a rising curve. It started last Thursday when Victoria called me while sitting in Glinda on the side of the beltway. Something to the affect, “The Temp/Press light came on, now the car won’t start.” Ariel was nearby so she gave Victoria and Mikhaila, her passenger, a ride home. Later, after dinner, Victoria and I took the Suburban, loaded with the tow bar and it accoutrements, out to Glinda’s resting place. After we connected Glinda to the Suburban and made sure Glinda’s brake was off and the shifter was in neutral, I turned the key to restart the Suburban and all I head was clicking. A dead battery in the tow vehicle? Seriously?! With no jumper cables, I attempted to use Glinda’s battery but was thwarted by the post terminals versus the Suburban’s screw-on type. Finally, our savior pulled up behind us. Maryland’s State Highway Authority has service trucks roaming the highways looking to rescue poor folks with automotive breakdowns just like me. A quick jumpstart and we were on our way.

When I got home, I cleaned all the terminals and connection at and near the Suburban’s battery and that has fixed that problem. Glinda’s turn was the next day when I checked the fuel delivery to her carburetors. The pump wasn’t sending nearly enough fuel, so I swapped it with Luna’s and the problem was solved. A quick trip to Carquest and the offending pump was replaced under warranty and then installed in Luna’s engine.

Saturday, Victoria and I were finally able to attempt the installation of Luna’s new convertible top. I should’ve have known it would not be a good experience when my garage PC wouldn’t boot up. The next issue was the screws I’d bought were too large for the holes in the bow for attaching the new pads. I drilled and tapped for the screws I’d bought, so that problem was fixed. With the pads on, we move on to the rear window. The directions say to lay the new piece over the old one, and punch the mounting holes in the same place. We did that, followed by the same exercise for the well cover. After a successful test fit, I put a bunch of staples through window and well and into the trim sticks.

The directions were the same for the main top piece, but when the old was laid over the new, we discovered the tops were VERY different; too different to be usable. At that point, we were done. I sent the previous owner an e-mail telling him the top he’d included in the sale was not right and did he have any guess as to what it might fit. His response was that he’d gotten it from someone else who’d told him it was for a ’65 Corvair, so there’s a chance he’d gotten the year wrong and it fits an EM instead. I haven’t’ yet laid the top over Heidi’s, but I’d bet it fits.

The rest of Saturday was spent moving stuff around trying to free up space in the garage. The spare door we got went to the back stall with the LeMans, while the right front fender is leaning against the side of the house hidden by the shed and covered by a tarp.

Sunday we sold Victoria’s boat, so that freed up space in the driveway. Yahoo and TYL!

Finally, last night I started the assembly of the portable garage that had shown up at the house last Friday. The directions are easy to understand and simple to implement with all parts fitting nicely – so far. Once the trailer is gone (which will occur this evening), I’ll be out there with a ladder bolting all the subassemblies together – right on schedule for this weekend’s moving of Phil’s collection.