<VV> Turbo Odyssey Part 25 -- First Cruise

[Norman C. Witte]

This post may be viewed on-line at
http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/25.htm

October 8, 2005

http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/IMG_8477.JPG

Today is one of those overcast, cool fall days when the trees are just
starting to turn. I should be at the office, but I spent some time on the
Corvair instead....

I started with the interior quarter panel trim. In a late convertible this
consists of three parts: a square cardboard trim pad, a lower panel and an
upper panel. The lower and upper panel cover the top mechanism. The ones I
took out of the car looked like this:

http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/IMG_8464.JPG

I ordered the material to recover these from Clarks. While you do get
directions with the material, there is still a learning curve to this job.
The first panel I recovered was the upper passenger side panel. When I
peeled the vinyl off, I also ripped off all of the old padding underneath,
which was one of two mistakes. I decided that I would prefer to sandblast
and paint this old sheetmetal, and I spent probably and hour or two blasting
off old glue, padding and rust.

This was a waste of time.

Once the sandblasting was done, I painted the sheetmetal.

This was another waste of time.

Since I had destroyed the old padding, I used some felt I also ordered from
Clarks to replace it. The felt is thinner than the old padding. Rather than
brushing on glue as Clarks suggests, I used 3M spray trim adhesive, as
pictured below:

http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/IMG_8468.JPG

Excess glue can be removed with WD40 and a little elbow grease.  This
picture also shows the two types of padding used on the lower panel.

I first attached the padding to the panel using the spray adhesive, and
following the directions on the can. Next I attached the vinyl cover, and
here I made my second mistake. I sprayed adhesive all over the felt and also
the back side of the cover. I thought that the vinyl was supposed to adhere
to the padding, which it is not. While the result is not too bad, it does
not look as smooth as it should.

So, having identified the mistakes I made so that my constant reader will
not repeat them, let me walk through the method of doing this that worked
better on the remaining pieces. First, remove the old vinyl, being careful
not to pull off the padding. The best way to do this is to start at the rear
of each panel (toward the back of the car) and work your way toward the
edges. The padding is not glued to the cover, but at the edges where the
cover is glued to the metal there may be some glue on the pad.

Once the cover was removed, I used a wire wheel to clean glue and rust from
the areas I would be gluing.

http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/IMG_8470.JPG

Here is a before and after shot:

http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/IMG_8462.JPG

Here are the two panels completed:

http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/IMG_8462.JPG

After I finished with this task I went back to tinkering with the motor.
First, I installed the head to crossover pipe gaskets that I, uh, kinda
forgot. That didn't solve my start problems. Then I adjusted the choke. It
took about two turns of the black round choke cover before the choke began
to open.

This did the trick. I got the seats bolted down, bolted in a set of
seatbelts, and took each of the kids for a ride around the block.

http://www.wittelaw.com/personal/turbo/IMG_8476.JPG

It drives smoothly and the motor sounds great. The transmission is tight and
smooth. The car feels as solid as granite. I'm looking forward to driving
this thing constantly next summer.

I do still have some issues to sort out with the idle being too high and a
bit of run on after I shut it down.  I think these will be resolved with a
bit of fine tuning.

I need to align the windows so that they seal properly, get the carb and
timing sorted out completely, fix a few electrical gremlins, empty the sand
from the media blaster from the tunnel air duct (the heater currently blows
dust) install wiper arms, install the right rocker panel molding, install
carpet and trim pads. I am sure there are a few dozen more little tasks, but
this car is nearly done.

Just in time to put it up for winter.

Norm Witte