MONZORA redux: ‘65 Corvair + ‘94 Corvette mashup for 2019 Challenge

Drivers seat mounts complete. Had some cleanup to do first:

Ok, that's better.

New mounts were cobble-berkeleyed from free material. I cannibalized a non-rolling engine storage stand for the square tubing, an old chunk of cattle gate, and some flat washers I found at a roadside fuel stop on the way home from the challenge:

And came up with several of these:

Drivers seat is secure and has plenty of fore-aft adjustment. I'd like for the front of the seat to be about 1/2" higher, but it's OK for now.

While I was in there, I modified clutch pedal to reduce free play and move the pad slightly to the right.

I will eventually trim the exposed metal of brake pedal pad for infinity concours points. I'm also going to relocate the dimmer switch so I can fab and install a dead pedal.

Also while I was in there, I dropped steering column and pulled IP to rewire the tach. It's an old tach and may not be compatible with the LT1 tach signal, so IDK what to expect. If I don't burn the car to the ground, I guess I'll be happy.

Love the repurposed brake pedal pad. 

I've been waiting for those washers to hit the build.

QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:

I've been waiting for those washers to hit the build.

do you need any?  i think i still have about 50 left.  that was a Challenge gold mine, or at least my sleep-deprived brain told me it was.  

barefootcyborg5000 said:

Love the repurposed brake pedal pad. 

so do i.  continuity of design is a beautiful thing.  the 1994 pedal is exactly the same height, curvature, and thickness as the 1965 pedal, so i'm just going to tailor the length (or is it width) slightly to make it look a little more at home.

Last night I cut and prepped pieces for passenger seat mounts:

and this evening I applied hot glue gun:

tomorrow night, barring unforeseen events (ie mama having a different plan), I'll glue them to the passenger seat and bolt it in.

Who needs seats? More tuning!

Summary of last night's effort:

plenty of legroom and plenty of recline for passenger. Drivers seat is a little higher than the C4 seat was, and the ergonomics for me are pretty much perfect. Hand falls from wheel to shifter. Throws are short. Air box arm rest height is money.

Looking through windshield. Had to set camera on 0.5x so there's a bit of distortion. I love the combustion air feed. Back seat full of LT1 is pretty sweet as well.

I spent the day today helping a friend lay Pergo flooring and install a couple walls worth of kitchen cabinets. OMG I'm too old for 10 hours of that in one day.

Tomorrow I'll bolt in the seat belt and go for a data logging ride.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

I like how those seat belt clips look. Almost like they're factory. Can you show us the rest?

Stampie said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

I like how those seat belt clips look. Almost like they're factory. Can you show us the rest?

They are OE!

You know how there's always a whole bunch of "dang, I forgot about _____" when trying to reach a goal? Well, I got most of them done and took MonZora out for a drive around my sub this afternoon.  I haven't looked at the data closely, but I can say that :

• OMG these seats are nice!
• VSS works, but I need to check against GPS
• closed loop BLMs were mostly above 128
• I'll probably change to open loop idle
• thermal management is successful so far
• i need to secure crank wire at solenoid
• clutch take-up is good
• shift throws are a little higher effort than I'd like, but very manageable
• steering wheel to shifter to armrest layout is all good
• i need to add a fire bottle mount
• i need to build a laptop mount
• i need to trim front fender lips. Can't cross my driveway apron without tire contact

Overall a great day, and I'm confident that I'll develop a good tune before she moves off-site for winter.

Also, the scrappers in my hood did not disappoint. I put the C4 seats, minus the modified mounts and tracks, at the curb when we took the dogs for a walk around the block. Seats were gone when we got home 20 minutes later. Good riddance! 

Those seats look great in there!!

classicJackets (FS) said:

Those seats look great in there!!

Yeah, thanks! They are a welcome upgrade at a very small budget hit.

Awesome! glad to hear the refinements are coming together

IDK whether our current time is daylight savings or standard, but I know the Sun set at 5:21PM today. There's no way I can duck out of work early enough to do any tuning in daylight hours, so let me introduce you to my latest scope creep: retrofitting a set of universal LED projectors to the Corvair headlight buckets.

I pinched these from the scrap pile at a former employer. Yes, I know that's a high beam in the low beam position. It's just an example.

an interesting challenge with this install is that the mounting feet are all in the same plane, normal to the "straight ahead" light beam. Sounds great, right? Well, the Corvair headlight bucket is angled top to bottom *and* side to side, so how the F am I going to (1) center the new lenses in the Corvair trim, (2) get the beams centered top to bottom, and (3) get the beams centered side to side?

Funny thing is, I didn't think of (2) and (3) until I had cut the back of the low-beam bucket for depth clearance to achieve (1).

I studied the Corvair headlight buckets quite a bit, and realized the only surface that is normal to the desired straight ahead light beam is the perimeter of the connector clearance hole in the back of the bucket. And I had just death-wheeled that off one of the buckets.

So, here's where sitting and staring a while comes into play. I sat, and stared; then I stared, and sat. I repeated this for a while. How can I make the projector mounting plate parallel to this plane? Step 1 was to tack the bucket back together. Step 2 involved magnets. Some people don't even know how they work. And this specific magnet is in the base of a 6" bubble level.

There are a bunch of extra 1/4" holes in the projector mounting plate, so here's the plan:

1. Line everything up the best I can
2. ?
3. Profit!

I have an idea but I'm too tired to thumb type it out. Will mock up the first one and post pix tomorrow night.

Interested to see what you come up with!

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

1/4" bar or allthread cut to length and welded to the bucket and to the adapter could work well.

preach said:

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

1/4" bar or allthread cut to length and welded to the bucket and to the adapter could work well.

great minds!  note 1/4" all-thread laying on welding table to the right of the headlight bucket. ;-)

Why not just anchor the projector bracket onto the sealed beam clamp ring and re-use the original adjustment mechanism as well?

In reply to TurnerX19 :

if the OE parts were in good condition, that would work. Unfortunately, the OE adjusters and clamp rings are junk, and the depth of the projectors require cutting the buckets. And what's one more fab project among friends? ;-)

I like the "Crazy Eyes."

Thats frigging awesome right there.

1/4" all-thread FTW

took PTO today for a campus visit with AK2. got home early, so the rest of the daylight will be spent on leaf cleanup and lawn mower winterizing, then I'll get the left headlights done.

Can you link the projector or did I miss it?
 

I have converted 1 50yo bucket to LED and have 5 more to do. Might do projectors on the 914 for even more of an outlaw/leper look.