Richard's Corvair

The Restoration of my 1960 Corvair

Cylinder Jugs and Body Work

Clogged old barrel (VW)

Cleaned old barrel (VW)

40 year old replacement barrel with flashing

Replacement barrel after de-flashing

Left front corner with dents and rust

Left front fender patched

Left rear door before

Left rear door sanded

Door and rocker panel repaired

Rocker panel patched

Left rear corner sanded and straightened

Hood

Right front corner

Left side sanded

Trunk patched

Old wheel and tire

New wheel

Measuring Toyota seats for height and position to make bases

Month 3

Progress this month is somewhat limited by the delay in parts. I have brought a good number of engine and electrical parts with me, but did not anticipate that it would take 6 weeks to get some of the parts needed to assemble the engine.

I have the new cylinder barrels for the engine. All are obviously more than 40 years old, remanufactured to .020 overbore, but one came painted, one had a lot of caked on grease, oil and dirt that I had to scrape and clean off.

Here we have a picture of one of my original cylinder barrels before and after cleaning, one of the new ones before de-flashing, and one of them after de-flashing and painting.

I have “de-flashed” all 6 barrels, eliminating the flashing from the molds that was left on from the factory. This should improve cooling. I decided to give them a thin coat of high temperature paint to eliminate rusting. I would have liked to put a heat transfer coating on them, but I could not bring it on the plane.

The body is beginning to take shape. Here is the beginning picture again, and the current one showing the patching of rusted areas.
You can see from the faded paint on the rear door that it is not the first time this door has been repaired.

We have taken off the stainless belt trim to sand and paint the body. I will have to find a way to replace the majority of it.

The rest of the car is getting a lot of sanding to get down to bare metal, eliminate rust, and see what is there. The edges of the doors will be sandblasted to eliminate any rust before painting.

I have purchased a set of new wheels to dress it up a bit. These are two piece wheels from Volk Racing in California. I will have to bring 45 degree angle valve stems from the U.S.

Here I am trying out the Toyota seats to measure for the mounting bases so they will be comfortable.

Previous | Next