time to catch up

So much has happened in the last month!

We went to Albany where a man who inherited his father's Corvair parts business had almost every piece we needed. We left with a rear seat in better condition than mine, wiper blade arms, badges (yes, I need the stinkin' badges), interior door and window handles (the chrome in much better shape than mine), and sun visors! Woot!

We got home and started directly in to cleaning up the floor pans. It took an afternoon to scrape and wire brush the rust out and clean up the pans. They looked great! While I painted the floor vent grates, Jim applied rust neutralizer to the entire floor.

Later, he installed sound deaden-er to the rear seat area and then we went to work installing carpet! She looks so much better now! We bolted in the seats, the sun visors and the wiper arm, and everyone hopped in for a spin around the block.

I applied the brakes before I started the engine...nothing. The pedal went immediately to the floor with out any resistance. Jim set to bleeding the brakes. After much pumping and holding and pumping and holding and, well, you get the idea...it turns out that we blew a rear slave cylinder. Fluid was all over the parking pad.

No joy rides that night.

Another weekend passes and we had the brakes rebuilt and the new shocks that Jim gave me for my birthday installed. Now we could take her for a ride! And it was sunny! So I took her down to the DMV for tabs and title.

She didn't run well. Coughed a lot. Had to pump the throttle to get her to really go somewhere and not just chug along. But I was driving her! And she made it :) With a new paper license plate in the glove box, I headed to school to pick up Olivia. This was the first drive I took with her on the freeway and then up Newberry road and Skyline. I thought that maybe she needed an Italian tune up.

She did ok on I-84. Kept a good pace with traffic and didn't need a lot of coercing. Steering was scary. Brakes were more so. I learned to pump them up before needing to use them. Uphill to Skyline was an event. She didn't want to downshift, so going was slow. Luckily, the speed limit is around 10mph any ways.

We ended up at a VW bus group meet at the Lucky Lab. I could attend because the Corvair is not only air-cooled and has a rear engine, but she's cool :) They all came out to oggle and to look at the engine to compare to the VW - LOTS of similarities. Jim met up with us there and took questions. I took him for a spin around the block to show him how she was acting. He said we had a vacuum leak and he knew how to fix it.

Olivia and I drove home in the evening air, waving to our friends on the way home. Jim was our escort in the truck just in case something went side ways. That loose steering still creeped me out on the rut-filled interstate. But we made it home and toasted the day.

Later, Jim and Olivia worked on the vacuum leak and rebled the brakes. Now the brakes are awesome but the carburetor that came with the car is too big and so it still runs poorly. I took the Corvair to meet a friend for after work beers, and she barely made it to our destination. Once again, Jim escorted us home with the truck and a tow strap at the ready. It was literally stop and go on the way home - more like die and go. Jim's photos on Facebook tell the tale.



The carb kit for the new carb came in the mail over the weekend. Carb surgery is next on the list.

Summer is here! The convertible must be driven!

her name is Betty

...as in Big Bad Bitchin' Betty.

The name my best friend in high school and I had for our bus driver.
It fits ;)

random thoughts

• the horn kicks ass on this car! :P
• the radio works! The AM radio. It only plays talk radio, Mexican tunes, and Brittany Spears.
• Olivia wants to call her Christine. that way if we push her backwards, she'll fix herself.
• so far, names for the car range from Maybel and Ethel to Faith, Grace, and maybe Gertrude. 
• I'm leaning towards Faith...as in needing a lot of it when driving it... :)

"clear the driveway!"

"...I'm not sure how this is going to go."

Those are the words Jim used on Sunday when we decided today would be the day the Corvair would roll under its own power.

I spent the earlier part of the afternoon reconditioning the vinyl dash in the shade of a large patio umbrella we placed next to the car. Jim adjusted the throttle and the carb and deemed it ready for a try.

With Jim driving and Gixxer and I in the passenger seat, we giggled like mad as he fired up the engine and moved the lever on the dash to "D". With a slight hesitation, the car bumped into gear and almost died. Jim put his foot into it, and the car lurched forward! It was a herkey-jerky drive, but we got to the end of the block before Jim stopped and asked if I wanted to drive. He only had to ask once. :) We Chinese-fire-drilled it and I drove the car around the block using the same technique as Jim: steady gas until it about dies, then pump it to get it into gear.

The steering wheel is HUGE! Jim's comment was "how many cranks does it take to make a 90degree turn?". The answer is like asking how many licks to the middle of a tootsie roll. And there is a sweet spot :)

We pulled back into the driveway and toasted to our success. Jim went in to prep food for BBQ and I continued to clean. Its amazing what clean windows do for a car!

Later, our friends came over for dinner and I took them each for a spin individually (no back seat yet) taking slightly different routes each time. The last loop took my friend and I passed a group of younger guys standing outside their house, near an old Lincoln with suicide doors. They saw us crawl by along the narrow street between the cars. They stopped, turned, smiled large and gave us big thumbs up! We waved and laughed all the way back home to our smiling boys, margaritas and great BBQ.

It was a wonderful way to spend Mother's Day!

soft parts on order

Retail therapy is a good thing! Today, I ordered the carpet kit from www.auto-interior.com and the convertible top from Clark's. (Jengel did say I should just hand them my credit card afterall :) )

Next up is yet more cleaning and the application of rust killer to the floor pan. MMMMMmmmm....fumes.....

For future reference: this is a '63 Monza convertible with a '61 2.4L engine. Clark's wanted to know, so I thought I'd better log it so I could refer to it later. ;)

milestone!

Last week, I was looking through a tumblr feed and found an image of a beautiful pristine built Corvair engine. As I looked at it, I realized that the plug wires were not routed the same way we were routing ours. They didn't use the guides that were built into the block, but routed them under the belts. When I showed Jim, he said that we'd use that method until we found the right length of wires. So, the next break in the weather we had, we routed the wires so they would reach, set the points, reinstalled the distributor, and set the timing as best we could without it running.

Today, after a long great weekend, we decided to tinker with the car while the weather and the light were on our side. Jim got the starter fluid out and I turned the key. She wanted to fire! After pouring gasoline into the carb, she fired and stayed running! Woot! Jim added gas to tank and hooked up the lines and started her up. (yes, she's a girl) Jim set the timing while I continued to vacuum out the interior - with that mask I was waiting for!

After that, we tried to roll her up onto the ramps so Jim could change the oil. but the ramps just kept pushing back as we attempted to push the car up on them. So the car went up on jack stands while Jim crawled underneath to check things out. He seemed satisfied with what he saw, so he tried running her through the gears while she was still in the air. For some reason she quits running once she's in gear. Hmmmmm.

I finished vacuuming the car and shut the door. Only this time, instead of the usual solid "thunk" we usually hear when the door closes, it was a twang as the door didn't fit well. I tried again and got it closed with effort. But then I saw the large gap between the door and the quarter panel. It seems that the jack stands caused the frame to flex enough that the doors didn't close well. That was a bit of a surprise.

We took her down off the stands and buttoned her up for the night, knowing that she runs! We still have a list of things to do, but we've hit our first milestone!

tips I've learned so far

• the thickness of the cardboard from a matchbook is about the desired thickness of the gap for the points
• stop trying to keep track of the amount of money spent on this project. after my 4th trip to the parts store to return/exchange/buy parts, I've already lost track. I am not a fan of spreadsheets for "fun".
• PBR and Corvair restoration go hand in hand.

backseat clean-up

Last night I continued cleaning up the interior. I ripped the remaining bits of soft top from the convertible frame and started to vacuum out the backseat area. As I did so, I realized that the back seat was loose. The entire seat has rotted apart. All that's left is the springs/frame and the vinyl shell. All of the stuffing is gone.

I removed the seat and started to vacuum up the nesting materials that were there, but then decided that I had better wait until I find a mask of sorts. The possibility of hentavirus is not my definition of a good time....though the nesting material looks more like squirrel to me than it does mouse...either way, I'm postponing further vacuuming until I get a good mask.

more parts store fun!

So. Things to remember when going to the parts store:

1. though the chassis is a '63, the engine is a '61. yes, there is a different set of part numbers between the years.
2. bring the original pieces with you to compare/contrast before buying

Spark plug wires are best purchased as OEM parts. The parts store equivalent is actually for a VW engine and wont fit properly - not to mention, they aren't long enough.

We have made progress though. I cleaned out the area of the car where the top folds into. All of the nesting materials and the rotted cardboard liner are scraped and scooped out. The broken plastic window is gone - resulting in the first blood sacrifice! The entire area is vacuumed out.

I brought in the vinyl cover for that area and applied half a bottle of Mother's Back to Black to it. Most of it looks gorgeous. The "arms" though are black, but still dull. I'm not sure I can make them shine like the rest. We'll have to see. For now that piece is safely tucked into the basement while the rest of the car comes together.

a success of sorts

tonight, after dinner, we headed to the garage to check out the situation.

Jim gave me with a "present". It was a steering wheel lock "club" that was left with the car by the former owners. My first thought was: "ooh! a club to beat someone? but it has hooks?" hmmmm....

after that, we got down to removing spark plugs and wires. my trying to loosen one of them resulted in my arm being jammed into lid latch. that should leave a nice bruise.

there was a multitude of errors, however: the plug wires I bought were too short, there was a broken wire in the distributor, and the grounding strap I brought home was the wrong type. I'm currently 2 for 4 on the parts count. at least the spark plugs and the distributor cap were right.

Jim hooked up a set of jumper cables as a make shift grounding strap and then had me turn the key. at first, there was only a generator light on the dash, and nothing else. then a few clicks. Jim wasn't happy. I turned off the key, and went back to the engine. there was smoke! Jim had something connected incorrectly. he reconnected it all and I tried again. this time, i opened the car door. there were interior lights! there were brake lights! I turned the key and it turned over briefly. Then there were headlights, and wipers! no turn signals or reverse lights, but we're thinking they are easy fixes.

we were giddy with those discoveries and decided to call it a night. a quick call to Baxter's confirmed that they had all of the parts in stock. I'll be heading back there in the morning.

other notes:
 - spark plug number 4 was wet with oil. Jim says that this is probably gasket seeping and not coming from a cylinder, so this is passable...for now...

more tomorrow!

the move, the plan, and how I ended up here

Our move to Portland was based on a series of desires:

1. less traffic
2. better weather
3. to be closer to race tracks
4. better environment for our daughter

Upon settling into Portland, we would achieve these goals:

1. keep urban chickens
2. I wanted to work from home
3. dive into my art
4. acquire an "in town" car that was funky and fun (aka "bomb around" car)

We officially moved to Portland in July.

The chickens were soon to follow, but once we purchased a house, the chickens had to go, as there was not enough lawn to sustain them.

 I have been heavily involved in a few art projects since I crossed the Columbia, and I'm enjoying every second of it. Check out my work on the Paris in the 20th Century web comic, and my personal illustration and design work.

I left my office job in Redmond and became a telecommute PM.

The only part left for full conversion to Portlandia was the addition of a red convertible bomb around car. I almost ended up with a Thing, but fate wouldn't have it. One day a friend sent me a Craigslist link to an ad for a red Corvair convertible at a price I could afford. Jim went to see it and handed over the cash. It sat at its previous owner's house until we were moved into our new place. And then it came home.


The plan is to get it running first and then work on the interior and finally the exterior when time and money allow. I just came home with a box from Baxter's Auto Supply with $90 worth of get it up and running and pseudo shiny bits.

Today the restoration begins.

cost:
$1200 for the car
$90.40 for plugs, wires, battery cable, distributor cap (plus cleaning supplies)