MONZORA: a 1965 Corvair / 1994 Corvette mash-up for the 2019 Challenge

AngryCorvair said:

I've seen Corvette wheels on a BMW but I've never seen BMW wheels on a Vette.

In reply to Stampie :

Those are the 3-season rollers from my E60.  I want to drive the C4 a bit this winter and the 285 summers had two things going against them:  they are both 285 *and* summers.  It looks a little odd on 225/50s but I kinda dig it.

And for the first time since it’s been in my possession, today I turned a wrench on the Corvair!  The OE front suspension has to come out to make room for the C4 stuff, so that was my goal for today.

Step 1:  get the front tires in the air

Step 2:  remove front wheels.  This step is a lot easier if you adequately loosen the lugs before raising and supporting the car.  I did not, so had to get a little creative.

Step 3:  separate inner tie rod ends from center link.  Easy peasy with my HF ball joint separator.  I used a wire wheel in my 3/8” drill to clean the threads the best I could before removing the castle nuts.  Sorry, no pic.

Step 4:  position floor jack under center of front crossmember and raise jack to support its weight.

Step 5:  remove speedometer cable from LF knuckle.

Step 6:  loosen and disconnect brake tube nuts and hose retainers from chassis end of front brake hoses.  Again, I used wire wheel in drill to get rid of surface crud, then gave all interfaces a light shot of penetrant and everything came apart with hand tools.  No hot wrench required.

Step 7:  locate and remove six bolts securing crossmember to chassis.

Step 8:  lower floor jack while balancing front suspension assembly.

And with that out of the way, I can marvel at how little of this car has been eaten up by rust.

The crossmember is remarkably solid, and there are *no* holes in the wheelwells, trunk floor, or fenders.  Also, the OE undercoating is crazy thick in some places.  I’ll get a pic with a depth measurement one of these days.

feels good to make some progress!

i also have a kinda local ACVW specialist who dabbles in Corvair stuff, Munk’s Motors in Waterford MI who’s gonna take all the Corvair suspension parts to prep for future restoration projects.  Since I only paid $100 for the car, I’m trading these parts for “future considerations.”

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I live 15 min from Munks. Good people there and an old-school shop feel.  

Glad to hear the parts are going to help keep other Corvairs on the road.  Good progress!

How about the steering box?

Patrick said:

How about the steering box?

It’s still on the car.  The 65 has a one-piece steering shaft from the box to the wheel, so I need to keep it until I figure out what I’m doing for a column.

A call for old school Challengers eh?

I do know what I’d build...

I'm ready for the car fornication to start. 

In reply to DILYSI Dave :

Make it so!

In reply to Stampie :

So am I, but I have to remove a bunch more stuff from the Corvair before things get freaky.

Today I pulled what was left of the rear suspension from the Corvair.  PO cut two OE halfshafts and joined them with some angle to make an axle that joins the two rear hubs together, for rolling a Corvair with no powertrain on and off the trailer.  I donated it to the local Corvair Club.

The rear of the car is as solid as the front.  And it looks like the C4 trailing arms are about the same length as the Corvair’s.  If so, and if the width works out to be close, I may be able to combine the OE brackets and react the fore-aft forces through the strongest part of the Corvair body without needing to add structure.

I will have to fab a bunch of structure to react all the lateral forces since I’m not using the C4 diff.   As you can see in the pic below, there’s nothing back there now.

You forgot the:

 - Check to see if the VIN tag is actually from this car 

step.

(it’s a Corvair thing)

In reply to aircooled :

i didn't forget to do it, i just didn't write about it.

VIN plate on 1965-1967 Corvair is found on the driver's side rail of the engine compartment.  (i'm pretty sure, but not positive, that the VIN was moved to drivers side of the dash, visible through windshield, for '68-'69).   In addition, the last 8 digits of the VIN are stamped in the passenger side front wheelwell, in a spot that is hidden by the front suspension crossmember.   i have verified that the VIN plate matches the VIN stamp and that both match the title.  :-)

Angry, if you'd like this thread moved to the Builds forum, just let us know. Whatever you'd like is cool with us.

Thanks and thanks for sharing. 

Sweet progress.  Corvair looks stupid clean. I'll be excited to see the C4 come apart!

Oh I like where this is going.

David S. Wallens said:

Angry, if you'd like this thread moved to the Builds forum, just let us know. Whatever you'd like is cool with us.

Thanks and thanks for sharing. 

it's finally starting to feel like a build, so yes I think moving it to the Builds forum makes sense.   Thanks!

In reply to RacetruckRon :

i'm glad, because i'd like to pick your brain on C4 front subframe dimensions.  :-)

In reply to classicJackets :

it is very straight and it is shockingly rust-free underneath.   there's some rot around windshield and backlight where the drains get plugged, and of course there's some corrosion under the OE battery location where leaking acid did it's thing.   i'm going to halfway feel bad when i start cutting, but i think i'll get over it pretty quickly.  

In reply to AngryCorvair :

I shot you a PM, otherwise if you didn't get it I'm williamsryan523 at the google email server. I'm compiling all of my drawing/cad files of brackets and mounts I made when I did the swap.

AngryCorvair said:

David S. Wallens said:

Angry, if you'd like this thread moved to the Builds forum, just let us know. Whatever you'd like is cool with us.

Thanks and thanks for sharing. 

it's finally starting to feel like a build, so yes I think moving it to the Builds forum makes sense.   Thanks!

Bam! Done. 

Carry on, everyone. 

Two points:

1. The jack stands on top of the car skates are sort of freaking me out.

2. I kinda want to troll CL looking for beat old Corvettes.

Let me know if you need any brackets cut with robot fire!

In reply to TVR Scott :

I will definitely hit you up.  Robot fire makes every project better!