Richard's Corvair

The Restoration of my 1960 Corvair

New Flywheel and Pressure Plate

Car Raised and ready to pull powertrain

Cracks in flywheel

Broken weld on Pressure Plate

Old bent rig gear-teeth far from bellhousing

Old bent ring gear-teeth close to bellhousing

New Dale Flywheel

New Pressure Plate

New pressure plate installed

New ring gear in bell housing

Starter solenoid-Bendix

New Bendix drive

Starter cone broken by bad flywheel

New Starter Nose cone

Me next to the car at Lake San Jacinto

Left rear at San Jacinto

Right front San Jacinto

New Whitewalls

Gas Door - Fender protector installed with polished belt trim

Whitewalls on the road

Front in Light (green)

Front in shade (blue)

Front corner with headlights and trim

Green left side

Blue left side

front on stones

Front with license

rear with license

Floor Mats

The license plates made to match the original number

60 months and 21 days. I now have real tags.

Month 30

When I first drove the car I noticed a lot of vibration and rasping of metals from the engine area, and found that after a few starts the nose cone broke off the starter.

So after careful consulting on Corvair Center, I ordered a new flywheel remanufactured by Dale Engineering and pressure plate, plus the new nose cone and a new Bendix drive for good measure. These parts traveled from Oregon to Tulsa, then off to Houston, finally arriving in Chile by ocean and on to Santa Cruz, then Tarija.

When I pulled the power train, I checked through the starter hole and saw where the pressure plate teeth hit the bell housing at points and stayed away at other places. I also found hairline cracks in the flywheel and a rattling sound. and broken welds in the pressure plate that had gone un-noticed by the machine shop.

Here is a short video clip that shows the oval movement of the ring gear.

The new flywheel and pressure plate fit fine and have a good and even clearance as the engine is turned over. I changed out the Bendix drive and the starter solenoid even though the previous electrician said they were “good”.

With the new Pressure plate and Flywheel installed, I took if for a drive of about 20 miles up to the lake. I still don’t have the license plates, so driving it is limited.

I decided to trade the black-wall tires for whitewalls, so here you can see the new look.

You can see up close how the belt trim and fender protector for the gasoline filler neck came out.

The next four pictures show one of the intricacies of this metallic paint (as well as the restored front emblem). Depending on the angle of the light, the car changes from blue to green.

Finally we see the left front corner, all together with headlights, bezels, belt trim and paint, plus a few shots along the road, including some with the "new" license plates. Actually copies of the last plates that were registered to the car.

With a little extra carpet and thread, I now have floor mats to protect the carpet.

Here you can see the license plates I had made up to match the last set of papers. Technically they were only valid til the end of 2000, but the DMV and I agreed this was acceptable until they re-created the missing paperwork.

Finally, 60 months and 21 days after purchase, I now have 100% of the paperwork and my permanent license tags.

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