65 Corvair known as the "Spousal Avoidance Unit"

[obrian]

It is a great looking car and needs a V8..I have one and it is the source of great joy. It is a Crown Conversion. I live in North Idaho and there are 4, V8 corvairs in this town. Google V8 vairs or V8 corvairs for lots of information
brian

[hrm2k]

Thanks obrian. I have spent a good deal of time on V8 vairs before it went down for a redo. I have also did a lot of research in the corvairforum.com. I am pretty much following the build that a guy in Arizona did.
I looked at the crown conversion. My main dislike is how far forward the engine sits. I just need more room.

I managed to get about 4 hours in today.........shit moves fast........

day 2.jpg

[hrm2k]

From a driving full interior car to this. Now the real fun begins...........the sawsall and cut off wheels show up on Sunday morning

[hrm2k]

I have been busy the last few days doing stuff to the Corvair and working on the engine and stuff.
The first cuts were pretty easy. Just trying to get metal out of the way. Having never done this, I am trying to keep and eye on what I am cutting while still trying to visualize where this whole thing is going to end up






And then came this past Saturday afternoon. A pack of new sawsall blades and a 20 pack of cut off wheels can sure change the landscape. At this time, we have cut about as deep as we are going to cut until the final trimming. Now we are into the grinding and dressing phase.



The next batch of pictures should include the final cuts on the oil pan and the putting together of the engine. My goal is to drive it by mid April......might be a little too fast time frame but we will come close

[hrm2k]

So after a couple of weeks of part time work, this is how it is going to look. The builder plastic block is bolted to the transaxle and within an inch of where it will be permanently..... I'm stoked

[Mike Miller]

Looking good.

[hrm2k]

So today I added a little bit of beauty to the project. I drove up to Robesonia PA and had a guy from the HAMB ( hoemadehardtop57 ) punch about 72 louvers in the deck lid to allow all the new hot air to escape. If you have never seen it done ( I hadn't so I figured others haven't either ) enjoy a 2 minute version of punching a Corvair decklid. Much thanks to Jerry for the killer job he did

[hrm2k]

We are altering the trailing arm setup to handle a lot more power. The first thing that came to mind was boxing the trailing arms. Simple as a template and some 1/8 inch steel. We have left part of the original bushing in the arm. We are making aluminum bushings and we need the piece in place. The boxing got a shot of lightning holes before they were welded together.....like this

[Stevie G]

This ought to be good.

[hrm2k]

So you saw the trailing arms which have been boxed a couple of posts back. We spent some time on the lathe at work making the aluminum bushing for the trailing arms





Once they were completely cut, we pressed the bushing into the trailing arm



We can now think about the placement and size of the coil overs we are going to need. First order of business was to find ride height. We had already removed the coil spring bucket from the frame.

This is how it looked from the inside



and from the outside




Monday I am going to order up some QA-1 coil overs, 13 inches in length with a 350 lb spring. We are going to mount the coil overs on top of the control arm running up to an area between the frame and the wheel tub. Sometime this next week, we will make the brackets for the control arms. You can see the control arm laying inside the car in the inside shot.....I'm getting excited........