Well, I finished the dent removal on the rear panel. It's all welded back together, filled and primed. I'm going to wait for the finish sanding until the rest of the car is done and do it all at once. I also was able to scrape more of the undercoating off the bottom of the car. It's clear to the front of the rear A arms, just have to do up to the bulkhead where the brake pipes tee off and I'm done with the rear. Since I'm planning on replacing the floors, I won't bother scraping them. Still have to do the rest of the front end too. I'm still waiting for engine parts and still trying to get my back to heal so progress is slow. I went to Silver Spring, MD yesterday to get some Corvair parts and the ride didn't do well for my back.

Well, got some time in today. Got the dent out of the rear panel and painted the inside of both pieces with POR-15. Also painted the suspension brackets I couldn't get to with the power train in place. I masked out the engine compartment and sprayed it with self etching primer. It's almost the original color of the car-bleahh! Tomorrow if I can stand up, I'll weld the rear panels back together. Notice the mystery yellow on the panels? It's not thin paint, I don't know what it is but it is just like the picture of the oil pan.

Well I got about an hour of shop time in today before my back informed me it was time to quit. I did get the rear panel apart using my new spot weld cutter. The right side pic shows the pieces as they go together, the other shows the inside of both. You can see all the marks made by that worthless stud welder on the shiny piece. After another 12 hours of sofa time, I'll start taking out the dent, welding up the holes and re assembling the panels. Love my MIG welder.

Didn't get squat done today due to my back, it just won't get better. I did manage to move the car over to the Corvair side and raise it up on my EZ Carlift. Maybe now it won't hurt so much to work on it.

Today was a light work day, still trying to get my back to heal. You can see on the left the cleaned up gasket surface all ready for the sump. That's British for oil pan, it's kinda neat working from a British shop manual (Haynes). I prefer it over the factory manual. The other picture shows the sump (GGG) installed and torqued to 50 inch pounds. There were four of the oval load spreading washers missing so I had to make them. You can also see the air flow conductor piece on the right side that was missing when I got the car. I have no explanation for the yellow streaks on the bottom of the pan- oops, I mean sump. They are not there in real life and I can't see how bright white fluorescents could do it.

Welcome aboard, Jeff.

I'm still just screwing around waiting for the engine parts. This is a closeup of the broken bolt, which has been taken care of, and the sealing surface is clean. I started to work on the back panel that the engine mount is on. I noticed it was bent in when I removed the rear bumper. I bought a stud welder from Harbor Freight to see if that would pull the dent out. What a piece of crap. It will weld the smallest studs but the slide hammer will not grip them. It will grip the bigger studs but It won't weld them securely enough. It is going back tomorrow morning. After looking at it real close I think I am going to cut all the spot welds loose, remove the panel, straighten it and reweld it all back together. Wish me luck.
Yeah, I know the panel is upside down, I thought it might be easier to work on that way.

Decided today to fabricate some brackets so I could mount the engine on my engine stand in order to remove the oil pan. As you can see, they didn't turn out too bad. Upon removal of the oil pan, why was I not surprised to find--Tada!! silicone rubber. I used a gasket cleaning pad on my 3" grinder to clean off the old gasket cement, silicone and other assorted crud. I used the correct tap and chased all the threads except one hole, it had a broken bolt in it. After its removal, the last hole was chased and I turned my attention to the oil pan. I had to scrape the lead deposits off the bottom of the pan on the inside before putting it in the parts cleaner. When clean and dried, I blew high pressure air through the false bottom to remove the cherry seeds, pieces of old gasket and such. I then removed the dents I was able to get to and straightened the edges and the openings for the false bottom. It was set aside to dry overnight. If you look at the lower left corner near the flywheel between the two brown smears, you can see the broken bolt.

Just got my manifolds back from being Jet-Hot coated inside and out. This is how they look and this is how they look on the engine. Still recuperating with my back so nothing else got done.
Sue me.

They are a bright shiny silver color, the yellow cast in the pics are from the lights in the shop. I guess

The preparation is all done, stripped, cleaned, de-greased, metal prepped, washed and dried. It's all ready for the metal etch primer. My back is hurting so I'm quitting for the day.

This is the fabricated part I made and this shows it installed on the car. Now I can go back to the paint prep I was doing while I was waiting for parts.

This shows the panel still on the car. The other shot shows the panel after drilling out the spot welds and removing it from the car to use as a pattern. As you can see it is rusted through almost the entire length of the piece. I fabricated a new part and am now in the process of welding it in.

Well, still waiting for parts, so I decided that this was paint removal weekend in the engine room. I used a chemical stripper, several different sizes of scrapers, and a lot of newspaper. I now remember why I don't like doing this. I couldn't talk my wife into it so I was stuck with the job. I took three days because of my bad back but it's down to bare metal now. I will go over it with a Scotch Brite disk to clean any last bits of paint off. The plan is to wash it with metal prep, degrease it, prime it with acid etch primer, sand it smooth and apply the color. I'm going to use a single stage paint in the engine room and the trunk area, and catalyzed paint on the body, whenever that happens. I discovered a rust problem on the left side of the engine compartment near the bottom. There is a piece of sheet metal that sticks out there that has no use other than providing a place to mount the left side apron (which I still haven't found). The rust worm had done its job and the plate was completely eaten through for about 90% of its length. I decided the easiest way to fix it was to drill out the spot welds, remove the damaged plate, use it for a pattern and fabricate a new piece from sheet metal stock. I took pictures but haven't down loaded them yet, maybe tomorrow.

I need to give credit where credit is due. A friend from the Corvair Center forum, screen name "nodice" did it for me using a program called Gimp. How many of you noticed the side trim pieces were moved and the body cove repositioned?

Well, I did a little body and paint work today, What do you think?



Don't get excited, it's photoshopped, just needed something to post while still waiting for parts.

Found out today that there is a different sprocket for the early 500's. Now just have to wait until it gets here. All the other parts are the same; drive sprocket, timing chain, seal and gasket. I installed the seal in the case, from the inside. That really seems weird to me but that's how it is shown in the shop manual and that orients the sealing lips in the right direction. I also cleaned up the nuts and washers used to mount the housing to the engine so It's all ready to go when the parts get here. Spent some time designing and making patterns for the engine lid hinges since there is none available anywhere in the world for less than a million dollars . GGGGGG Wonder what happened to all the ones on the cars? Must be like the hood trim, I've been told those parts fell off when the car was driven off of the dealers lot. Also did a little dent removal on the rear bumper prior to sending it to the chrome platers. Mostly just puttered around in the shop today, waiting for parts.