Ringo’s Got Pedal Again

Last evening I took Ringo out for test drive. I did notice that slamming on the brakes only locked up the front wheels. I also found the emergency brake adjustment was too loose again. So I put Ringo’s rear in the air supporting him with jackstands placed as far outboard on the control arms as possible to simulate proper wheel-to-body relation. I pulled the wheels and drums and turned the adjusters out enough to the point where the there was just a slight amount of drag on the drums. With drums in place, I stepped on the brake pedal and found it went hard much higher. With drums still in place, I tightened the emergency brake cable until a few clicks produced resistance and the cable was taut before I ran out of clicks. After all that I verified the cable wasn’t dragging in the armor. Hopefully all this will now take care of his brake issues.

This weekend will be filled with Corvair activities. Starting this evening I’m getting serious about parting out Old Betty. My hope is to have the engine out before I knock off tonight. I’ll try to keep the differential and transmission in place so I don’t have to deal with the rear suspension. I’ve never done this project on a LM before, so it will be interesting. I do have the manual, and some stuff I pulled off the web, so I’m not flying totally blind. Tomorrow morning I’ll start cutting away metal to patch Glinda and New Betty. Then I’ll pull off bits that New Betty is missing like a decent hood, taillight sockets, and seatbelts. Finally, if time permits, I’ll remove pieces that history has proven I should have spares for - gauges, switches, and wire harnesses. Sunday morning I’ll hitch Old Betty up to the Surburban, slap on the towing lights, and head up to the Corvair Ranch. It’s their annual Open House, and I’m going to make things more hectic for proprietor Jeff by dropping off an addition to his backyard bodies. Then there’s the fact I need the wheels back for New Betty. Better remember a jack.

Exhaust and Exhausting

Last night I took a look at and a listen to Ringo’s exhaust. Ariel had complained of a headache and exhaust smell the last time she drove him. I first checked the packings (gaskets) between the exhaust manifolds and exhaust pipe. No leaks there. I did, however, hear excessive noises from the driver’s side exhaust manifold, so I pulled off that side’s shrouding. With the engine running it was easy to confirm that cylinder #6’s spent gases were being allowed to leak into the heater space – not good. Unfortunately, since it was Thursday night, a call to the Corvair Ranch in the morning would not get me the replacement packings in time for Ariel to drive the car back to school Sunday. I had another option – Gary, the local Corvair guru. Unfortunately, I had to leave a message, but I’m confident he’s got the parts in a drawer or on a shelf in his basement.

The next portion of the evening was pushing Old Betty and New Betty around the driveway. I wanted to get Old Betty into the garage before the rain hit so she’d be accessible to cut patches off this wet weekend. It actually went easier than I’d expected, but was exhausting nonetheless.

Prepping

Last night I spent a couple hours out in the garage doing prep work. To prepare Glinda for Bondo and paint work, I cleaned off duct tape residue from around Glinda’s front and rear windows. I found a couple places in the front window track that still needed some rust removal, so I got out the Naval Jelly and, using an old toothbrush, applied to the affected crevices.

Brianna and Nich are coming to spend this weekend with us, and with Nich’s car iffy they may need to drive Heidi up from Blacksburg. If Heidi does come up, I thought it would smart to grease the driver’s side rear wheel bearing to prevent a reoccurrence of this (click here). If that happens, I need to get New Betty out of the garage. The coziness of my workspace forces me to creatively store items. My laziness inevitably results in burying one or both of the 4-wheeled occupants under stuff. So, to prepare New Betty for life back out in the elements, new homes were needed for snow sleds and disks, boxes of new and old car parts, a pair of bucket seats, a towing light set, assorted tools, a couple spoilers, a dashpad, empty oil jugs, one of Glinda’s turquoise wheels, and four or five large pieces of cardboard. I was able to relocate everything but the seats, spoilers, and cardboard. I’m sure when it comes time to move the car, I’ll transfer the stuff to the roof of the next victim.

Need A Plan

I’m blaming it on the weather and an extended work schedule, but I’ve been entirely uninspired to spend any more time than necessary in the garage. For instance, this weekend the temperature was above freezing, and all I could manage to do, car-wise, was straighten a dent in the Suburban. By the way, is it too much to ask people to take responsibility for their actions? Last week the Suburban was parked in front of the house for a few days during which someone ran into the driver’s door AGAIN. A couple years ago that same door was backed into and no one left a note. No one left a note this time either. This is the third time in two years we’ve been victimized by hit-and-runs. Pretty sad that so many people today 1) can’t drive and 2) don’t have a conscience.

Sorry for the tangent – back on topic. I could make a list a mile long of Corvair tasks, so it shouldn’t be so hard to find the motivation to turn off the TV and turn on the garage heaters. I’m now convinced a plan would help. I perceive three different segments to the plan – Glinda’s roadification, Lucy’s improvements, and Betty/PartsCar’s drivetrain swapping.

Glinda’s roadification is basically down to cutting out rusted body sections, welding in replacements, priming, and painting. After the front and rear window channels are repaired, Victoria and I need to re-caulk around the glass edge and re-install the trim.

Lucy’s improvements include doing a tune-up, installing a dual master cylinder, swapping an alternator in place of the generator, and putting in the ’64 rear suspension setup I’ve got all the parts for. I’d love to get all these done before the next track day in early May. While there are some expenses for each of these tasks, none is a bank-breaker.

Then there’s the whole Betty and PartsCar saga. Since I’ve decided that these two cars are changing purposes and thus names, I now can develop a list of tasks that need to be done as soon as possible. New PartsCar is donating its engine, trunk lid, driver’s window, and assorted body panels to New Betty, and some more body panels to Glinda before being towed up to the Corvair Ranch.

So from all this, what’s the plan? Assuming the above forty degree days melt the snow in the driveway the next few days, how about:

1. Take the driver’s side window out of the NewParts car and install in New Betty.
2. Move New Betty out of the garage and move New PartsCar in.
3. Cut out the panels from New PartsCar, remove her trunk lid, and then pull her engine and anything else that’s worth salvaging.
4. Pull New PartsCar out of the garage and tow her up to the Corvair Ranch.
5. Put New Betty in the garage, install the trunk lid, and temporarily mount the engine to get it off the garage floor.
6. Put Lucy in the garage and do the tune-up and master cylinder swap.
7. If time allows, do the alternator to generator swap.

Throughout all this, Victoria and I will continue to work on Glinda.

CPotD #36 (To Cut Or Not To Cut, Part 2)

Something I’ve been struggling with in this whole PartsCar/Betty decision is sacrificing a solid car. Both cars are in decent enough shape to put through roadification, but each has components the other needs. Betty has an intact hood, but a bad floor, while PartsCar has a rotten hood and an excellent floor. Betty has a running engine, but an automatic transmission, while PartsCar has the 4-speed, but no engine. Both cars could provide the body panels to patch Glinda, but so could many other cars.

It’s that last phrase, “so could many other cars” that I keep coming back to. Today’s CPotD is another photo Victoria took during our visit to the Corvair Ranch. There appear to be plenty of non-restorable cars sitting there that would gladly donate patch panels to our Glinda project.

To Cut Or Not To Cut

Why is it a parts car has the most intact floor of any Corvair that’s currently in or has passed through the fleet? Saturday, as I carefully removed the salvageable carpet from PartsCar, my thought was, "so, this is what a Corvair floor without holes or patches looks like." I told Loriann about this irony and she asked, "Why don’t you make the parts car Betty?" "No title and a bashed in driver’s door," was my immediate response. I was home sick from work today, so this afternoon I wandered out into the sunshine, removed the covers over Betty, and made a closer inspection. I pulled up part of the rubber floor mat and was greeted with a LOT of Bondo. I looked underneath and saw big, ugly patches. I did notice, however, that most of the areas Glynda needs patches for are solid on Betty.

I will now be looking into what it would take to get a title for PartsCar, so Betty will become the new PartsCar.

CPotD #13 (Will Betty Get a 4-Speed?)

I just received today's CPotD in an e-mail. This one hundred dollar parts car is for sale, but it has no engine or title. What it does have, however, is a complete setup for a manual transmission (transaxle, pedal set, linkage, shifter, etc).

Ever since I was given Betty, I’ve been scheming to convert her automatic transmission into a four-speed. This opportunity is far-and-away the cheapest one to come my way. It’s a great deal even with the price of gas to one, tow the car home and, two, tow the strip carcass to the Corvair Ranch after I’m done with it.

So what’s stopping me? Even though my typical triumvirate of tribulation is missing the money element, time and space are still there to muck things up. Time-wise, I’m under the gun to get Heidi done before Christmas. Space-wise, I would need to tie up the entire garage for a couple weekends.

First things first. Get Heidi done, and then see if the car’s still available.