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 mecanical and get it in before final body work and painting.  But several parts are beginning to come together, as you will see here.                                     (click pictures to enlarge)

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 tes 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 a lathe.  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, y 6.45-13.  One rim was aparently replaced at some moment.  I’m putting on 4 Pirelli P400 P195/70R14

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.

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.

Once I get the car finished with the interior and engine I’ll take it to my alignment shop to do the adjustments.

The differential moved from a rusty and muddy mess that took several days to force the case open to a sandblasted and painted case ready for assembly.  We finally had to make a wrench to break loose the 47 years of rust. (shown below on assembly)

There was a binding in the differential assembly.  Disassembly showed a broken pinion shaft retaining pin holding it together.  Adjustment is straight forward so in very little time I had the .005” tolerance required and no end play anywhere.

The transmission gears have a few broken tips.  I will smooth them and reverse the gear so the good side is in primary contact.  Both bearings in the transmission were very worn and loose, and had to be replaced.  Fortunately they were in stock at my local Timken retailer.

The bronze synchronizer shows very little wear, but the chrome ring is indented.  It still appears to lock tightly.  There is no sign of this transmission or differential every having gear oil in it with EP additives.  I added 4 shims to take up the slack.

The shifter forks were very loose so I tightened them with a center punch.

And finally the assembly is together and waiting for the car to put it in.  It shifts easily between the gears with a screwdriver in the linkage, so should work fine.

The engine sheet metal is ready for assembly, with the tubes painted silver since they pass through the air plenum.  Some of these parts were either donations or purchases from members of varios Corvair Clubs in the US.

The original starter was welded and had excessive play in the nose bearing.  I rebuilt it with a new nose cone and a custom bearing to compensate for wear in the shaft.

The pedals and shift lever ara blasted, painted and lubed.

The old clutch disk was not completely worn, but was burned and flaking, saturated with something.  It has been rebuilt.

The pressure plate and flywheel are were resurfaced and balanced at a machine shop.

The original throwout bearing support was broken so I am replacing it with this new design with a double oil seal.

The old distributor was very worn out and patched.  I replaced it with a rebuild one and put a Pertronix Electronic Ignition inside it.

I bought kits to rebuild the carburetors.  This is the stuff that was inside the first one I opened.  After cleaning it up I discovered the other one is not from the same year.  The one on the left is a 1960 while the one on the right is from a later year (without some parts).  I will have to buy a matched pair.