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Post by Volktales on Dec 18, 2022 21:59:04 GMT -8
Sooo, how did the repairs at the shop go??? First up was diagnosing why there was no "run" power out of the ignition switch. This was traced to the switch itself which is a crimped together sealed unit of course. That is not going to stop me, is it? Once the crimps were carefully chiseled back, the Bakelite portion was teased out of the alloy housing. The contacts were turning green and were sanded back to a shine. Reassembly was moderately tricky, but successful in the end. Then it was decided to reconnect the original fuel line and feed gas directly from the cars fuel tank. The fuel did not smell bad, so 20 litres of fresh premium was added. The chokes were reconnected as well, although one required tweaking to work freely. It started right up and ran just fine, so that was a relief... I also topped up the ATF, and poked around underneath to see what else was required. Just a sway bar bushing that I had "in stock", and then it was time to look at the brakes... The brakes had not been touched since the car was brought to the shop. Past experience shows that applying the brakes on a car that has been sitting for years, usually results in brakes that do no want to release anymore. So I pulled the drums before trying to press the pedal. The rear brakes were all new, the fronts had about 65% remaining. Checking the brake fluid reservoir revealed that there was actually fluid still in it. Sucking this out revealed gobs of rust in the bottom of the cast iron reservoir, but I cleaned it out, added fresh fluid, and hoped for the best. Attempting to bleed the brakes was entirely unsuccessful, as nothing would come out the bleeder screws... Gently pushing on the pedal caused the wheel cylinders to go out, but not retract. I forced the individual pistons back in and reinstalled the drums. Carefully applying the brake pedal again surprisingly felt good and amazingly all the cylinders worked normally. After this the pedal felt just fine and no brakes were dragging. Very strange... Here is the car outside, getting ready for it's first test drive in nine years... Looks good next to Brent's bus. Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Dec 18, 2022 22:12:39 GMT -8
"Repair" plate on and ready for the test. Didn't go very far, but car ran OK, and there were no major issues. One very noticeable difference between this car and Kelowna Bluey, is the steering. This car has the standard ratio steering box, while the other one has the quick ratio box. Very noticeable in how they work. I will have to get used to this one... While still at the shop, I went through the lights as lots were not working at first. Stomping repeatedly on the dimmer switch got the headlights back in action, some new bulbs and cleaning the grounds in the sockets fixed all the rear lights. The engine oil was changed as well. It was nice to have the correct filter in my large stash of spare parts, but paying $57 for five litres of "good" 10w30 really sucks now. And no that is not synthetic either... Later on Friday, Brent followed me as I drove the mighty Corvair home on the first longish test drive. Nothing at all went wrong and the car drove just fine. Other than the flat spotted and ancient tires of course... Then time for a serious scrubbing... The back cleaned up particularly nice, as this part of the car was well protected in storage. The front was a bit rougher, but looks pretty good in this picture. Actually the car is quite presentable, and looks decent until you get quite close. Then issues are spotted... Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Dec 18, 2022 22:30:13 GMT -8
Now onto that gross interior! The cleaner of choice recommended by the internet is to use white vinegar in a spray bottle. I had some stronger "cleaning" vinegar and used it undiluted per instructions on the bottle. And was impressed with what it could do... It really did clean up nicely. As a bonus, the mildly acidic solution happily dissolved the corrosion on the various metal components, and cleaned them up nicely too. Once the interior is completed, I will probably do it a second time, and then follow up with Armour-All or equivalent... As the temperature was dropping fast, it was time to get it inside the garage. The next morning, I discovered a big coolant leak! Suuuurrrre. I think the washing water is slow to escape the various drains due to blocked up passages. Will have to figure out a way to do this. Anyway I am sure the car is happy to finally be in a nice dry garage again. Once the last of the mold is cleaned out, I am sure it will not be coming back again... Still have to sort through all the spare parts and file them with the others. Some good stuff in there like two brand new thermostats. Car is registered to me now, and think that I will send away to GM Canada for the birth certificate like Original Goldie. Wonder if this one is an Island car??? No longer smells like mold. Now smells like vinegar which reminds me of fish and chips. That is a good thing... Now I still have to finish cleaning the interior, fix some more electrical issues including wipers, fuel gauge, speedometer, dash lights, etc. But hopefully not much more than that before this car will be on the road in the spring. Fun times ahead!
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Post by Rob Sannes on Dec 19, 2022 10:18:08 GMT -8
Nice Russ I need to come take a look at this one! It's official 3 or more makes you a collector.
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Post by alltypes on Dec 19, 2022 16:54:36 GMT -8
Hard to believe that GM didn't offer those wheels on all Monza's. Too bad they are heading to Bluey. Maybe Terry will lend you his Cragar SS chromies for this one. Definitely going to be a fun summer driver.
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Post by PICTUP on Dec 19, 2022 18:06:12 GMT -8
Nice Russ I need to come take a look at this one! It's official 3 or more makes you a collector. Collector? When do we get to hoarder? LOL! All these Corvairs can actually run and drive(in a pinch anyway). Unlike my 3 Saabs of which only one right now has the potential of running and driving. This is gonna be a great summer driver. We are holding you to putting on the miles on a daily basis . I vote for raised white lettering as opposed to white wall on those rims. Don't worry about the lapses in condition, nobody is gonna see what it looks like up close and they will be left scratching their heads over what just went by them, which is something much more satisfying
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Post by Volktales on Dec 19, 2022 18:29:08 GMT -8
Yes I do have a Corvair thing going on right now. And I am quite happy with them. Those rallys look great on this car, and will look even better on Kelowna Bluey. Don referenced my choice of buying the period correct whitewall tires, or raised white letter versions. Leaning towards the lettering at the moment. There are lots of wheel choices out there that look great on Corvairs. Just wait and see what I come up with... And you guys can come visit anytime you want...
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Post by tony on Dec 19, 2022 18:41:22 GMT -8
Will there be pie?
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Post by Volktales on Dec 19, 2022 20:09:08 GMT -8
I could probably arrange that...
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Post by PICTUP on Dec 19, 2022 22:41:46 GMT -8
or raised white letter versions. Leaning towards the lettering at the moment. Arrr matey, ye dae know thon gin ye get the raisit white letters, ye are gaun'ae have tae drive a wee bit faster, eh?
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Post by Volktales on Jan 1, 2023 20:24:26 GMT -8
So time to do some actual "work" to Glacier Gray.... Several electrical things and a failing speedometer needed to be addressed, and the only way to do that is start taking the dashboard apart... So let's dive right in... The cluster assembly was held on with a bunch of Phillips head screws which easily removed. Less obvious was the fact the bezels for the headlight switch and windshield wiper switch also had to be removed. To do this the knobs must come off first. Wiper switch had an easy screw, headlight switch was much more difficult as a tiny release button on top of the switch body behind the dash had to be pressed to release the knob. With a few contortions of my aging body, this was soon done. The hard part was yet to come... Disconnecting the shifter controls which run through the cluster housing was a right pain. Luckily I could see how it was assembled on my spare cluster, and take it apart piece by piece. Once the cluster was out of the way, it was much easier to remove the shifter control assembly. Note there is quite a bit of surface rust under there that will certainly be neutralized and painted. This is one example that shows how much better VW was at building quality cars in that era compared with "American" quality. The under dash surfaces had no paint at all from the factory, and this was normal on domestic built vehicles at the time... I suspected I was not the first person to remove these parts, and here was some proof. A previous explorer must of wondered whatever happened to their 3/8 socket after the job was done... Out of the dash, now time to get busy fixing stuff!!! Continued...
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Post by Volktales on Jan 1, 2023 20:42:35 GMT -8
So jammed up on top the cluster was this random piece of paper. Or was it? This is actually an assembly notation from the factory when the car was built. Note the "M35" is circled. This is the option code for the PowerGlide automatic trans, and I guess the line workers needed to be informed of this at certain points throughout production. The paper will remain with the car of course... So first thing due for fixing is this. I disassembled the wiper switch as I suspected it had an internal fault (and was very stiff to operate). The contacts received a good scrubbing and the re-assembly was successful. It turns out the housing needs to be grounded to the dash itself to work correctly, and I suspect the corroded surface was the real fault here. It worked nicely when tested... I figured I would fix ALL problems while the dash is apart. The radio would not make even a peep when tried. Of course I checked the usual power and grounds, and these were fine. Once the radio was removed (a bit of a pain), there was obviously a speaker problem to deal with... Once out, first impressions of the speaker were not great. Lots of rot and rust present... That is one weird looking speaker. Unfortunately it is a full on goner, with rotten cone and corroded off wires. These are not reproduced, and a normal 6x9 is not going to slot in place. The mounting bracket is designed to clip onto that odd magnet, so some ingenuity is going to be required on this... As much as I hate to do it, I might have to see what the speaker is like on Original Gold... The radio itself was tested with a different speaker, and it worked well except for a very scratchy volume control. My electronics friend Adrien brought over his special can of cleaner, and this stuff is absolutely amazing! Worked beautifully and the radio sounds great. Gonna have to get me some of that stuff... Anyway I will also have to repair a couple of non-working dashboard lights, and repair or replace the failing speedometer and fuel gauge that never moves. Good thing I have all of these spare parts that came with the Kelowna Bluey... I actually don't mind this type of work and find satisfaction in making EVERYTHING work correctly on a car. Especially when the car is cool...
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Post by PICTUP on Jan 1, 2023 22:07:59 GMT -8
I can't even figure out one Saab by myself and here you are juggling 3 Corvairs and getting them all running at one time. At your pace, post spring will be Corvair summer
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Post by Volktales on Jan 1, 2023 22:47:02 GMT -8
I can't even figure out one Saab by myself and here you are juggling 3 Corvairs and getting them all running at one time. At your pace, post spring will be Corvair summer You do remember what I do for a living, right??? Working on multiple vehicles is pretty common in this profession. And the more I work on my Corvairs, the easier it gets...
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Post by Volktales on Jan 23, 2023 21:27:23 GMT -8
Sooo, some more work has been accomplished... I really did not want to swipe any parts off Goldie, but I cannot locate an original speaker to replace the damaged one in Glacier. Given the radio in Goldie was dead anyway, I made the choice to remove the parts necessary to extract the speaker. I knew this speaker crackled, which meant it might be useable. But you just don't know until you get it out of the car... And the verdict is not that great. Waaaay too much rust on the metal parts... The cone is not a total write off, but the housing is too rotten, and the special dense foam seal is completely destroyed. Going to have to come up with another plan here... Continued...
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