Coming home with me soon.

My Corvair will be coming home with me soon, as soon as I clean the shit out of my dads garage. The car has a ton of crap on it and there are three other cars in the way.

Does it run?

needs a little TLC, but you'll probably take it to the 'Vair shop right?

It doesn't run. Hasn't in 30 years.

I will be doing most of the work myself. I don't plan to have this car driving for a couple years.

 

It's home.

That's a really nice looking car. Obviously you're thinking restoration? How much work do you think it'll take to get it driving?

Driving, not so much, it needs brakes and tires, but I don't know how far gone are the brake and fuel lines are. The car sat in water for an undetermined amount of time, because the storage space it was at flooded, so I don't yet have an idea of what the floorpans look like.

It definitely needs body work and a respray.

My dad thinks it will start up with out much work.

whose crown pig?

Lots of awesome aspects to that car's design.

Honor wrote:whose crown pig?

It's my dads.

I like it. Is it a former detective car or what?

No it was an actual patrol car. He bought it from that place in Wisconsin I think Tailhappy had bought his. They try to turn them back into Civvy cars as best as possible.

Please tell me you're going to take off that red thing on roof.

ryguy79 wrote:Please tell me you're going to take off that red thing on roof.

That must stay

ryguy79 wrote:Please tell me you're going to take off that red thing on roof.

Nope, that is a Fitch Sprint style "Astro" roof specific to Corvair coupes. This was my dads race car in the 70s and I'm going to restore it to the way he envisioned it should have been.

Is it fiberglass or metal? If metal, I'd be afraid of all the rust the vinyl is hiding underneath.

Fiberglass

SBF wrote:

ryguy79 wrote:Please tell me you're going to take off that red thing on roof.

Nope, that is a Fitch Sprint style "Astro" roof specific to Corvair coupes. This was my dads race car in the 70s and I'm going to restore it to the way he envisioned it should have been.

I like the roof, but I'm not sold on how it stands out with it being a different color from the rest of the car. Will it be blended into a sort of two-tone scheme? Kinda like this?

That looks sick

Too bad it looks like crap. It looks like a tacked on afterthought and ruins the lines of the car for me. I can understand keeping it because of your dad, but that's about the only reason I can understand.

Well, I tell you this, it looks much better without the vinyl. It looks like a Landau top you'd find on a 70's car. My dad didn't have the intentions of covering it in vinyl, but the company that made the roof didn't make it to correct dimensions and it didn't fit properly, so he had it wrapped in vinyl so it didn't have any gaps. I'm going to pull it and have it redone so it will fit correctly.

As for paint, I want to keep it black and red, but I don't know how I want to execute it. I'm keeping the top, that's for sure.

I think it looks good. Do you plan on getting some sort of black wheels with red accents maybe? (Nothing ricey though) That would make it even better.

You going to keep the original motor or maybe put a 350 in it or something some day?

Honor wrote:I think it looks good. Do you plan on getting some sort of black wheels with red accents maybe? That would make it even better.

You going to keep the original motor or maybe put a 350 in it or something some day?  

Can you fit a 350 in a Corvair? I imagine it'd be a pain with the transmission....
And what would that do to the handling dynamics?

I wonder if anyone's tried to put a VW or Porsche Flat 6 in there.

Yes there have been V8 conversions. Front engined conversions, which I hate. the most commob is the Crown conversion which involves removing the backseat and floor pan and putting in a mid engined V8.

The latest one I have found that I like is an LS1 mated to a Porsche transaxle. This one is by a guy on my other board. He's got a stock one and this one.



Mine is staying stock

SBF wrote:Yes there have been V8 conversions. Front engined conversions, which I hate. the most commob is the Crown conversion which involves removing the backseat and floor pan and putting in a mid engined V8.

The latest one I have found that I like is an LS1 mated to a Porsche transaxle. This one is by a guy on my other board. He's got a stock one and this one.



Mine is staying stock

haha shit - that's insane. I wonder what the weight distribution is like with an LS1 essentially hanging behind the rear axle (which it appears to be doing).

I definitely say leave it stock. It's a classic.

I was just going off of Forza 4. You can stick V8s in them there, so I was just assuming people must do it in real life.

thewalrus wrote:

SBF wrote:Yes there have been V8 conversions. Front engined conversions, which I hate. the most commob is the Crown conversion which involves removing the backseat and floor pan and putting in a mid engined V8.

The latest one I have found that I like is an LS1 mated to a Porsche transaxle. This one is by a guy on my other board. He's got a stock one and this one.



Mine is staying stock

haha shit - that's insane.  I wonder what the weight distribution is like with an LS1 essentially hanging behind the rear axle (which it appears to be doing).

I definitely say leave it stock.  It's a classic.

It's probably not that much heavier than the stock engine if at all. LS1s are all aluminum. Isn't the stock Corvair motor iron?

Nope, Corvair motor is all aluminum minus the cast iron sleeves

SBF wrote:Well, I tell you this, it looks much better without the vinyl. It looks like a Landau top you'd find on a 70's car. My dad didn't have the intentions of covering it in vinyl, but the company that made the roof didn't make it to correct dimensions and it didn't fit properly, so he had it wrapped in vinyl so it didn't have any gaps. I'm going to pull it and have it redone so it will fit correctly.

As for paint, I want to keep it black and red, but I don't know how I want to execute it. I'm keeping the top, that's for sure.

Yeah, its the vinyl that is really ruining it for me. I googled some pics of others and it looks much better without the vinyl.

So I'm slowly acquiring parts. My dad gutted the distributor and took the coil for one of his other cars. So I just have to get a few other parts to make it complete.

Once I get what I need to create the ignition, I could have this car running sooner opposed to later.

Nice, definitely keep us updated!

So while I'm waiting for some parts, I decided to clean up my engine. There was just a lot of debris from sitting.

I pulled the distributor out and primed the oil pump which is what you need to do when an engine has been sitting for as long as this one has.

I dropped a battery in to see if it would turn over and it sounds like the starter won't engage. There is a chance that the battery I'm using is shot. So in going to pull the one out of my Cherokee to just see if it's the battery or not.




My dad put extensions on the balance (overflow) tubes. I'm told that it helps very much in hard cornering.

Update!

My dad was kind enough to buy me an electronic ignition to replace the old points and condensor set up.



That, along with a new coil, resulted into some ignition!



Now i need to get the fuel system intact so i can actually get this running!

I'm sure getting 4 carbs to be happy at once will be fun

Two of them are secondaries, so getting them to run properly isn't a big deal

I saw this over at the GRM board. Fantastic machine. Cool history with your Dad too.

It's alive! Well, sorta. Getting there though.

Kinda has a Mad Max feel to it. I like the red and the black. Pin stripes are cool too.