Will She Be Ready?

A brief post to update what I’ve accomplished since my last posting and what’s still left to do in the next four and a half days.

Done:

• I’ve got three-quarters of the suspension assembled. That includes cutting a coil out of each heavy duty spring, koni shocks set at halfway between soft and firm, new ball joint boots, and new bushings throughout except for the ones in the rear trailing arms and the outer ones in the rear strut rods. I’m waiting for a special washer to arrive in today’s mail before I can finish the left front. The hardest task was removing the two large nuts on the stabilizing rods. I ended up cutting them off.
• With help from the lovely Loriann and Mikhaila, the backlight was installed, sealed, and trim sticks snapped into place.
• My new tachometer is installed to the steering column with a hose clamp. I first wrapped electrical tape around the column to protect it from scratches.
• The modified carburetors have been rebuilt and installed onto the engine. I’ll need to balance them once the car is back on the ground.
• Once I found out the old Sun oil pressure gauge I’d planned on installing had broke, I went online and bought a three-gauge set (oil pressure, voltage, and temperature) on Amazon. I’ll install the temperature sender somewhere in Glinda’s oil path and be able to monitor oil temp.
• Using an idea I read on the CorvairCenter forum, I flipped down the rear seat back and pulled left side passenger seat belts up and over the seat back. I latched them which provided an anchor for the shoulder harness belts of my 5-point racing harness. I drilled a hole in front of the driver’s seat for the anti-submarine belt and then bolted the lap belts in using the stock weldnuts in the floor.
• I spent a long time fiddling with the location of the racing seat. I wanted to make sure it was mounted so that, 1) I could get in and out of it, and 2) I could reach the shifter once I was firmly belted in. Once I set upon a location, I then figured out how to mount the seat. It took a trip to Home Depot and some more cogitating whilst standing in their Hardware aisle before I walked out with a piece of angle iron and a bunch of five-sixteenths fasteners. Once home, I cut bar to the measured lengths, drilled holes where I needed, and the mounting scheme was implemented. I still need to get some longer screws and paint the exterior bar before that item can be completely crossed off the to-do list.

Still to do:

• Buy and install the aforementioned bolts to finish the racing seat installation.
• Buy another chain link so I can lengthen the shoulder belts as necessary.
• Buy and install a fuel filter.
• Install and hookup the new gauge cluster.
• Hook up the tachometer and finish routing the wires/tube.
• Do a tune-up on Glinda’s engine and synchronize the carburetors.
• Install the tubes that raise the air cleaner. This should be a cleaner installation than I attempted to affect on Lucy.
• Adjust the throttle linkage to raise the transmission shift point.
• Install the driver’s front suspension.
• Break free that side’s tie-rod adjuster.
• Find the best four stock-size tires.
• Take the car in for an alignment.
• Have the tire place reverse the tires to have blackwalls facing out.

Will I be thrashing Friday night or will I have this all done with packing time to spare?

Here are some recent photos.