Richard's Corvair

The Restoration of my 1960 Corvair

Steering and Suspension Rebuild

Original steering box

Disassembling steering box

Insides of steering box

Steering box parts

Assembling steering box

Finished steering box

Front wheel spindle

Original front spindle

Sandblasted front spindles

Painted front spindles

Rear Brakes

Front brake drum and parts

brake parts cleaned and painted

Rear brake drum painted and turned

Original set of 4 different tires

New set of Pirelli P400

Rear suspension-transmission-differential

Rear suspension

Rear control arm

Rear control arm sandblasted

Rear suspension bearings and painted control arm

Rear Suspension painted

Original front crossmember

Arrival of used front suspension from Tulsa

new front suspension

Spring cushions

Original tie rod end

Original strut bushing

New strut bushing from tractor tire

New strut bushing installed

Original front suspension

Front suspension parts painted

Pressing bushing in lower control arm

Front crossmember painted

Assembling front suspension

Month 8 part 1

The past couple of months have been spent sandblasting, painting and traveling to various parts of the US to get parts. Haven’t really been able to do much with the body as I need to finish the mechanical and get it in before final body work and painting. But several parts are beginning to come together, as you will see here.

It would not be right to put the car together without checking and rebuilding the steering box. It appears to be very well designed and amazingly had little wear, even though the grease was dry and there was water in it. The rust was superficial and limited to the ball bearing races.

I’ve put it back together with a polyurea grease with a high Timken test value so that it will last.

The front spindles did not look good, but I chose the best 2 that I had and cleaned them up with sandblasting and sanding. Now they are painted and ready for assembly.

Most of the brake shoes were almost new, but there was a lot of mud and rust. They have all been sandblasted and painted. Drums were turned and cylinders painted as well. Next to replace the hoses and hone the cylinders to rebuild them.

The tires that came on the car were 4 different sizes: 165/70R13, 155/TR13, 6.50-13, and 6.45-13. One rim was apparently replaced at some moment. I’m putting on 4 Pirelli P400 P195/70R14 (Later I changed these to Hankook whitewalls)

I may some day redo the original wheels, but for daily driving I wanted radial tires and some nicer looking ones. It took a while to get the 45 degree metal stems, but now they are mounted.

The rear suspension wasn’t as bad as the rest. Probably from leaking oil that kept some of it from rusting, but it still needed sand blasting and painting.

It was amazingly difficult to take out the old suspension bushings after 47 years, but they finally came out with a little over 2 tons of pressure in the hydraulic press and a few home made adapters to push them through.

The front suspension has progressed from the rusty twisted mess at the left to the painted parts on the right with the help of a some parts from the other front suspension brought from a Tulsa junk yard, shown as it arrived on its pallet.

The original suspension had cut tires for the spring cushions and the one from Tulsa had worn original cushions. I wrapped the upper and lower coils with industrial grade hose.

Here you can see the detail of one of the tie rod ends and the rubber used as a bushing on the strut.

I was unable to get strut arm bushings from any of the Corvair suppliers in the US, so these were hand made on a lathe from heavy duty tractor tires.
Here we are compressing one of the springs to assemble the suspension.
This month continues on the next page.

Previous | Next