OT: My 1966 Corvair Project

[Mr Project]

Hey, I remembered that a while back some of you guys were asking for some info on my Corvair project. I wrote up some stuff this weekend, so I thought I'd share with you guys. If you don't care, just say so.

Hey all, thought I'd post up a little info on my 10-year-long project. Hopefully I'll actually have it done by next spring.

The car is a 1966 Chevy Corvair 4-door sedan. The 4-doors are somewhat rare, and even more rare with the manual 4-speed transmission. Mine has that, and I've always been a fan of the pillarless hardtop design of the sedan. I bought this car when I was 17, my second car.

After driving it daily for about a year, I had the engine out and the car up on jackstands in the driveway for a clutch change. One fateful Sunday morning, dad loaded up the family in the Suburban and backed up....right into my car. The front was smashed pretty good, as he hit it above the bumper. Since then I've been working on it, very slowly, off and on, to fix the collision damage and do some rust repair. Of course, this turned into a full restoration, complete repaint, suspension rebuild, re-doing much of the interior, etc. You know how it goes. =)

Here's a picture as I was getting the car stripped down:
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/1673/img1059zc4.jpg

Here's one after I got most of the bodywork done, and got the car in the first few coats of primer:
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/7009/img1184largelx6.jpg

After getting it in primer, I decided to turn the car over to the real experts.. KR Performance and Restoration. These guys do great work, and they are nearly done with the paintwork. I should have the car back early next week, and I was down at the shop working on a different project today so I took a couple of crappy pics:

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/295/picture003rm9.jpg
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2326/picture004um8.jpg


This is where the car is at now, I'll post some more pics of the process and some of the welding I had to do.

[Mr Project]

It was a great learning experience for me on this car. I've turned a lot of wrenches over the years, but most of the body work was a first-time experience for me on this car.

Several years ago, I hired a body guy to weld on several panels for me. The driver's rear quarter panel, the front panel that was hit by the 'burban, and the passenger's lower rear quarter. After that, though, I still had several things that needed replacing. The worst one was the floorboard under the driver's feet:

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8920/img0028oe0.jpg

I started with a replacement floor panel from Clark's Corvair Parts. There are two nationwide Corvair-only parts vendors, if you can believe it. =) Basically this was my method:

1 - Cut out original floor, including drilling out spot welds with spot weld cutter on my electric drill
http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/8563/img0134rf3.jpg

[Mr Project]

2 - Carefully cut and fit replacement panel, then basically spot-weld over, and over, and over again with my Hobart Handler 135 MIG welder. I used 75/25 shielding gas and was very happy with the quality and ease of use of my welder....for a total welding newbie, it was pretty manageable.

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/4155/img0297mb6.jpg

3 - I fabbed up a couple of custom pieces of steel to fit in the area where the replacement panel didn't reach, and then followed the same welding method.

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/3972/img0486mediumjf8.jpg

After getting everything tacked in place, I just kept going back and spot-welding all the seams (moving around to limit heat buildup) until the end result was a constant seam of weld all the way around. If I thought I had it all done, I sat in a dark garage with a light under the car and looked for pinholes of light coming through, then welded them closed.

[Mr Project]

This was pretty much the result of once I had the floor welded in, including re-welding the OEM spot welds from the brace underneath, plus grinding things down.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/9089/img0557uj6.jpg

[Mr Project]

Here's another panel I welded in. the bottom front corner on the driver's side. I did the passenger's side the same way, but this one looked a little better. =)

1 - Cut and tacked:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/5584/img0311mediumar0.jpg

2 - More spot welds (ok, some are a little more than spot welds):
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/371/img0316mediummz2.jpg

3 - Ground down and ready for action:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/3629/img0330mediumku2.jpg

[Mr Project]

One of the biggest annoyances of 40-year-old cars is the crappy electrical and lighting systems. I want this to be a car I can drive and enjoy every day, so I've taken some steps to 'modernize' the car a little.

Modern touch #1 - LED Taillights

Lucky for me, the Corvair lights are just over 4" in diameter. I took some 4" LED taillight assemblies for semi trucks and cut them apart.

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/231/img1526smallhf4.jpg

I then cut the back ends off and wrapped up the drivers so that I could get the LED assemblies as-is into the stock housings.

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/306/img1599smalliu4.jpg

You can see the pieces here that comprise my assembly:
1 - Metal backing plate
2 - LED assembly
3 - OEM Lens

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9543/img1531smallzy0.jpg

And here's the final result. I couldn't get a good picture, but rest assured that it's a LOT brighter than the stock bulb assembly, and more importantly, it's going to have its own ground wire rather than relying on grounding through the housing to the body, which was never very reliable.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/719/img1538cropsmallbb2.jpg

[Mr Project]

Modern touch #2 - Trunk-mounted Battery

Let's face it, rear-engined cars are great and all, but there's something to be said for slightly more even weight distribution. A few years with BMWs has taught me that. =) I wanted to mount the battery in the trunk for a couple reasons:

1 - Move weight to the front
2 - Less wire to feed my 400W of headlights ;)
3 - Future engine plans include big oil coolers and intercoolers...I need the room back there!

So here was my method:

1 - Build battery tray from welded angle iron. Here you can see it built and coated with POR-15, plus the hold-down hardware I fabbed up.

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/7666/img1621smallut0.jpg

2 - Make a ground lug to the body and brackets for the battery box

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4311/img1623smallko4.jpg

3 - Weld in bracket level on trunk floor

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/752/img1634smallyl8.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2866/img1636smallqg6.jpg

[Mr Project]

4 - Build wooden battery box (this will be carpeted later)

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/9606/img1627smallsg0.jpg

[Mr Project]

Modern touch #3 - Trunk

Hmm... 40 years later, we can do better than primer-like splatter paint, can't we? I wanted something I could be a little 'rough' with in the trunk that would hold up well. Herculiner seemed to fit the bill nicely. =)

Before:
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/6489/img1756smallbq0.jpg

After:
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/218/img1758smallmn3.jpg
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/9831/img1759smalltb8.jpg

[Mr Project]

Modern touch #4 - DIN headunit slot

Well, I wanted to replace the dual-post headunit. So, I cut down a DIN cage from a Mercury Villager (of all things) and fabbed up a little metal to 'smooth' it into the dash somewhat. Yeah, it sticks out due to the angle of the dash, but I think it will work out ok in the end. It looks good in the paint now, and hopefully with the dash and glovebox installed it will blend in ok.

I'm still thinking about either a vent or some extra gauges above the HU, so we'll see how that develops.

I think the pics speak for themselves:

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9360/img1728smallxo1.jpg
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6069/img1735smallzp8.jpg
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/2929/img1737smallyw8.jpg
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4494/img1753smallep9.jpg

[Mr Project]

I didn't take very many good pictures of the front suspension rebuild. In this shot you can kinda see the front crossmember laying on the ground:

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/3881/img0623mediumqn7.jpg

I rebuilt the entire front suspension, including:

- POR-15 on all components
- All new bushings
- All new balljoints
- All new steering linkage
- 2" drop race springs
- High performance Gas shocks

With these springs and shocks, the car is SO STIFF in the front that I can barely compress the front suspension even when jumping up and down on top of the front end of the car. It's FAR stiffer than my Eibach/Koni/3mm spring pads lowered E34. I may end up regretting this, but it should stick to the road quite nicely. =) In the end it's just one more reason to get some weight on the front...

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/7327/img0780smalldn5.jpg
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/9987/img0779smalldd6.jpg

[Mr Project]

Modern touch #5 - Seats

Ok, the stock Corvair seats are...shall we say...somewhat unsupportive. In fact, they are big, flat, and vinyl, none of which lend well toward sporty driving. At all. The other problem is that the factory seat sliders don't have a lot of adjustment. If you're very tall (over 6') or very short (under 5'8"), you'll have a hard time getting comfortable.

So, I took a set of seats from an old 1985 RX-7 that I had, and modified the RX-7 sliders (much more adjustment!) to fit the Corvair seat mounts. It actually was a pretty natural fit. The biggest problem is that the RX-7 seat on the passenger side doesn't have a flat mounting surface, so I have to build a new seat base first, and then attach the sliders to it. That has yet to be completed...but here's the driver's seat...works great.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3575/img1630smallas2.jpg

The plan is to have all the seats recovered in blue/black vinyl and suede, but that is waiting for funding.

[Alexlind123]

Very cool! The taillights are perfect.

[Antrieb]

Just wondering, why would you restore a Corvair? It would be the same as taking a for focus today and fast forwarding 40 years and restoring it.

[brosher]

Very cool. Nice work on the welds, it's one of the skills I'd like to learn as well. Your projects are an inspiration to the rest of us! I've been plotting out a M62 E34 touring to replace my 540. First things first though, I am building a garage in the Spring!

[94530inh]

dude the corvair is a classic american icon. Its a beautiful car and can be made to handle very well. They are not that heavy so a big motor would work out really well for that car. I've always wanted a corvair, even though they are "unsafe at any speed"

[ricola]

Here's my old vair. This was taken back around 1984. The car was way worse than your 4 dr HT. Crap, my file was too large!:( wish I could post the larger one.

[aston_jag_tech]

that is a really impressive resurrection. I should have sold you my 64 Impala SS to revive.

[Ross]

Looks like it will be sharp. Marina blue?

[Mr Project]

Antrieb, yes, it was basically a sporty economy car back in its day, sorta like the Focus is today, but the Corvair also represented something different: It was a car that offered very different design and engineering than anything else America had to offer.

Aluminum block and heads, air-cooled, flat-6, 4-wheel independent suspension, surprisingly good handling, light and accurate steering, decent fuel economy, etc. These were all very unique for an American car in the 60's, and because of that it really stands out on its own 40 years later, in a way that the very conventionally-designed Focus almost certainly will not.

Or I guess you could say that I just don't like Beetles and can't afford old 911s. :D

[Mr Project]

Sharp eye, Ross!! Yes, Marina Blue. I debated going to a more 'modern' paint, but I'm VERY glad I stuck with the stock color. It doesn't show in my crappy pics, but it's got a lot of depth and is just the right amount of metallic in person.

[spyrot1]

Is yours a rear engined model or front? I always thought that Corvairs were all rear engined, but yours looks like the engine is up front.

When you're finally done with it, you should drive it by Ralph Nader's house! Make sure he sees it :D

[Mr Project]

They are all rear-engined...I moved the battery up front, but the engine remains where God intended...behind the rear wheels. :D

[Dave M]

Thanks. Its nice to see a non-e34 related project for a change.

[Ross]

Great color that looks good on most anything. Are you keeping the drum brakes? What wheels do you plan on? Mini-lites or similar would look good.

[Mr Project]

Drum brakes - Yes for now, when set up properly a drum-brake Corvair will stop from 60 like a C4 Vette!

Wheels - Mini-lites would be my top choice as well. I did some research a while back and it was about $1200 just for the wheels for 15X7, so that is out for the time being. I'm actually debating between 3 different BMW wheels right now, would you believe that the 5-series offset and bolt pattern fits the Corvair? I swear I didn't get into these cars for that reason, but it does work out nicely. :)

[Ross]

HA! 120mm=4.72" Close enough to 4 3/4 Chev bolt pattern.
Who here will be first to put Chevy wheels on a Bimmer?
Maybe I could borrow the knockoffs from by buddy's '66 Vette.

[Mr Project]

Yeah, I don't think my OEM 13" X 5" steelies from the Corvair will fit over the brakes on the Touring. :D

[Dark Helmet]

13x5 steelies ftw!!!!!

j/k, the car looks great, i talked with the body guys today and they were pretty pleased with the result... If I have time tomorrow I'll drop in and see it in the flesh...

you guys should actually SEE the suspension on it though, it makes my full race E36 look kinda cushy... Driving school is in late april... you have decisions to make senor projecto.....

[attack eagle]

The car that scared Ford into the Falcon which begat the mustang.

Besides they are cool little cars...

Good work Mr. Project!

[angrypancake]

throwing stars or turbines on a marina blue Corvair? oh hell yeah.

[Mr Project]

Heh, that would be sweet, but if I get my hands on throwing stars, they're going on the Touring. :) I can only imagine how slow the Corvair would be trying to push around 17" wheels.

Basically for the Corvair I have several choices in my shed/yard/garage right now: (Hey, I've sold 4 sets of wheels/tires in the last year! I'm cutting back!)

1 - 15" E34 'bottlecaps'
2 - 16" E31 Turbines
3 - 15" Moda BBS
4 - 15" E34 basketweaves
5 - 14" styled steel buick wheels (seen in some of the pics)
6 - 13" stock Corvair steel wheels with hubcaps (boo)

Right now I'm leaning toward the bottlecaps, mostly because the 16X8 E31 wheels are a little big (and 2 need repair), and the basketweaves already have the E34 snow tires on them. I'm thinking that the bottlecaps, blasted and painted (maybe a gunmetal color?) would look ok on the car. Thoughts?

[DABIMR]

Heh, that would be sweet, but if I get my hands on throwing stars, they're going on the Touring. :) I can only imagine how slow the Corvair would be trying to push around 17" wheels.

Basically for the Corvair I have several choices in my shed/yard/garage right now: (Hey, I've sold 4 sets of wheels/tires in the last year! I'm cutting back!)

1 - 15" E34 'bottlecaps'
2 - 16" E31 Turbines
3 - 15" Moda BBS
4 - 15" E34 basketweaves
5 - 14" styled steel buick wheels (seen in some of the pics)
6 - 13" stock Corvair steel wheels with hubcaps (boo)

Right now I'm leaning toward the bottlecaps, mostly because the 16X8 E31 wheels are a little big (and 2 need repair), and the basketweaves already have the E34 snow tires on them. I'm thinking that the bottlecaps, blasted and painted (maybe a gunmetal color?) would look ok on the car. Thoughts?
Forget all that.. Buy my 15" E34 basketweaves w/Michelin tires.:p Pics in sig..lol...

[Mr Project]

Yes! Clearly what I need is one more set of BMW wheels in my shed. :D

The Corvair will need much shorter tires than the stock E34 size, too, so even if I did want to buy a duplicate set, the tires won't help. :)

[Ross]

Of the choices presented I vote for the Buick rims. Period correct and there are blue line tires available!

[Mr Project]

IT'S HOME!!

Just came off the trailer an hour ago. Very excited now...it looks GREAT. (dusty in the vid, sorry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Lt5IrzaAM

[Dave M]

Very nice,

No snow, baseball hat, green grass.... Oh, and the cars nice too. Seriously though, you must be a proud father, its beauniful. Question though, it didn't seem to gain sped coming down the ramp. How f'in strong is your friend (assuming you were steering).

Have fun,

Dave M

[Dark Helmet]

actually, Armen isn't in the video (his wife is) though!

the shorter guy steering is Robert (Bob) Roeder, the taller guy, (pushing) is Aaron Kester.

they own KR Performance & Restorations ( www.krperformanceandrestorations.com ) just outside Lincoln and they did all of the paint on the car (save armen's work in the engine compartment).

I'm just mad I didn't get to see the car before it got put up for the night.

[Mr Project]

A few slightly better paint pics.

Weekend update - brakes are fully assembled w/new MC and partially bled.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/8741/picture014largemr8.jpg
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/224/picture015largesl5.jpg
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4276/picture016largemn7.jpg
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/4165/picture017smallkc6.jpg