<VV> fun times with the '60 4-door

[Mark Durham]

Tony it's always interesting to read others experiences because it
helps each of us take better care of our cars!
Let us know how it drives with the 64 sway bar. Mark Durham

Sent from my Windows Phone
From: Tony Underwood
Sent: 6/2/2012 11:01
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> fun times with the '60 4-door

If jackleg mechanicking interests you, feel free to indulge me.  If
not, delete.


A few of you may know about my '60 4-door.   I've owned it longer
than anyone else in its lifetime.   It is cosmetically unrestored,
originally white over silver, so you can imagine what it looks
like.   It has a few miles on it.  I'm not sure how many times the
odometer has been rolled over.   Several years ago it got a fresh
engine which replaced the original one that swallowed a valve but was
running well before it ate, albeit smoking a bit which was no
surprise and I blamed it nary a puff.   Current engine runs like a
champ.  Powerglide is untouched since '60, judging from the looks of
the hardware that holds it in.   It could use a band adjustment... if
you unplug the vacuum modulator valve it works fine; plug in the hose
and Lo is kinda sloppy and wants to slip if you lug it hard.   But
enough of that for the moment.


The front suspension was becoming an issue.  It had gotten to the
point that I could "tapdance" on the brake and feel the front end
thump.  Steering wasn't as sharp and tight as it oughta be.  Steer
gear was snug...  but that could not be said for the rubber bushings
in everything with a bushing.  Cracks, splits, hard as concrete, and
no additional applications of Black Magic helped anymore.

Oddly enough, tie rod ends, ball joints, idler arm... all passed
muster.  No slack or play, but every rubber bushing was long since
pretty much shot.   So, out came the front suspension.   On hand is a
freshened up '64 suspension with some care and feeding already applied.

This is where things diverged from what should have been a simple
swap into a rather interesting endeavor.


Once underneath the car, I eyeballed everything to see what was
what.  It had been a couple years since I'd crawled around under the
'60 4-door.   First thing I saw was a rust hole on the outside of the
box member behind the pass. side wheel, behind the rear cage nut
bracket location.   I peeled undercoating off around the hole and it
grew.  The more I peeled, the more it grew.   It ended up about 6"
long.   Behind the same unibody member on the fuel tank side, the
hole was not a hole but an absence of anything.   The whole backside
of the box member was gone.   This had not been evident last time I'd
had the tank out of the car (admittedly a few years ago).

I went ahead and removed the suspension at this point since it needed
to come out in any event... and broke the passenger side rear mount
bolt off in the process.   Snapped it off flush with the cage nut
inside the bracket (same bracket that was hiding the ever-expanding
rust hole).   More on that later.

I poked around some more once the suspension was out and noted that
the area was also a bit sooty which pointed to the somewhat
perforated (and now removed) heater exhaust pipe as having been the
culprit.   Vision of Challenger came to mind.   Glad the hole was
directed to the right side rather than to the left towards the fuel
tank or something etc although I doubt it would have actually done
anything either way.   Anyway it appears the heater exhaust may have
cooked the undercoating and whatever paint was originally there and
allowed the metalmites to do their thing.  Things were somewhat
aggravated seeing as how much of the heater exhaust pipe was long
gone and what was left was half-flat from one-too-many impacts with
whatever the car had bumped its way over in the course of a
half-century and admittedly I bumped it over some things along the
way myself.   Anyway... so, break out the zip wheel and angle-grinder
and the MIG welder.

Then I stopped breaking out the welder.   I smelled fuel.  Looked
closer and saw a damp spot on the bottom of the tank.   About 2 years
ago I'd repaired the tank after a blizzard left an iceberg in the
road that I missed in the dark (well I missed it but the car didn't)
which rumbled under and out from under the car as I passed over it,
bashing a small dent in the right front corner of the tank along the
way, leaving a crack that was dripping enough to run out 1/4 of the
tank overnight.    Next day at work I commandeered the crane (we have
a crane) and picked up the front of the car enough to "dangle" it
sufficiently to tilt everything backwards so the appx 1/8 tank of
fuel was sloshed to the back of the tank, thus not leaking anymore,
allowing me to run the extension cord, with a heat gun attached, to
cook the corner of the tank warm enough to get the JB Weld patch to
cure up without waiting for 36 hours in the cold (it WAS
wintertime).  This held long enough to last until spring when I
assaulted that corner of the tank with fiberglass resin and mat which
is doing fine.

But this leak was something new.   So before I could put the
replacement suspension back in I had to repair the structural rust
issue and before that could happen I had to fix the tiny pinhole
(which leaked more and more with each rub I gave it with a shop rag)
leak in the tank which was located right on the right rear corner
about 3" from where the MIG welder would shower it with sparks and
before I could fix the tank I had to drain about 7 gallons of fuel
out of it and then flush it out and dry it since the hole was right
on the lowest corner and it had to be dry before I could fix the hole
and I was NOT gonna wrestle around with pulling the tank out, been
there done that and I was NOT in the mood, besides, the car was apart
now and up on jackstands and last time I took the tank out I had
better facilities than the back driveway.  So, drain fuel, then flush
out the tank with volatile solvents, then run a hose down the filler
spout and blow it out with air for about 20 minutes or so, then let
it dry overnight.  Following day, I scuffed the bottom of the tank
clean, 'glassed over the pinhole and everything else that looked even
remotely troublesome and let it cure overnight.  Next day after work
I assaulted the box member with the bodywork box and whizzer wheel
and zip wheel and grinder and cut patches for the box member, welded
in two (the front-side patches) and before I could launch into the
harder-to-get-to backside, a storm came up that blasted through like
something out of a disaster movie, made the news twice that
evening.  I did get everything put away before the deluge.

That was yesterday afternoon.

Today I'm waiting for things to dry out so I can finish the
welding.   What should have been a 3 hour job turned into a 3 day
affair.   I did spend some spare time welding a nut to the
snapped-off bolt shank in the cage nut in the suspension mounting
bracket, hit the backside of the cage nut with a torch and backed the
broken bolt shank right out, no problem.

So, by week's end, the rest of the welding should be finished and
painted-undercoated and the replacement suspension installed and
brakes bled etc and then test drive... and wonder what the '64 sway
bar up front is going to do to the car's handling.


OK, that's it for now, you can go do something else constructive.   I
didn't mean to waste your time; just felt like grumbling and ranting.   :)



tony..
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