The new floor pans arrived yesterday as promised so today was cut the floor out day! If you look real close at the before picture, you can see the various 3/16" thick patch panels added sometime in the cars life. The one that really made me shake my head in wonderment was the one under the outer seat track. The seat sat higher on the outside and would not adjust back and forth. What the hell kind of fix is this?? Makes you wonder when Darwin's theory takes hold. I used my cut off tool on the outer edge and on the rest I used my plasma cutter. The results are shown in the other picture. Felt a twinge in my back and decided enough for today. Tomorrow I will trim off all the little extra pieces and start fitting the new floor pan. It looks like it installs from the bottom, I'll find out for sure tomorrow. When it all fits nicely, I'll glue it all in with body filler and pop rivets. PSYCH!! I will actually break out the MIG welder and weld it all together. After any finish grinding I have to do, all the seams,inside and out, will be covered with paintable seam sealer.

Not much to report, moved the car back into the working bay and lifted it up preparatory to replacing the drivers floor. Also removed the gas tank and siphoned out the stale gas that was in it. I then removed the sending unit to see what shape the tank is in. Bad move, looks like it is full of coffee grounds. I'm checking on the availability of a new tank versus sending the tank to Tank Re-Nu for refurbishing. Bead blasted then buffed and clear coated the gas cap, made a new rubber gasket for it also. Scraped, sanded, buffed and clear coated the aluminum scuff guard on the bottom of the door opening. It had navy blue, red and dark green paint on it. Those colors are nowhere else on the car, can't explain it.

Not much new to tell, I did remove all the chrome from the front end and removed the botched up wiring harness from the whole car. I am waiting on my parts supplier to get in touch so I can order new floor panels. We've been playing phone tag since last Thursday.

I also added the engine mount, fuel lines in and out of the pump, made a bracket to hold the fuel line to the carb, added the spark plug boots that were missing and installed the fan belt.
Before the power train is installed in the car it will get a new fan belt, new points, condenser, cap, rotor and wires. I have already installed the new plugs. See anything that I have missed?

Obviously the previous post should have been done on Friday. Today I got a little further along. The shrouds have been added (twice) I had to remove one side to eliminate a rubbing of the fan on the side of the housing, finally got it right. The generator was added early because it is the drive for the blower fan. The air cleaner housing with a new filter was added, the carb linkage connected, distributor cap and spark plug wires added and routed through the stand offs with the new grommets, and the exhaust system added with all associated manifolds and mounting brackets.

I had a chance to work on the engine a little. I got the transaxle and engine mated together along with mounting the starter. If I get a chance tomorrow, I'll try to finish the engine assembly

Having reached the point of not willing to wait any longer for parts and the fact that UPS lost my Corvair parts shipment, I had some free time this afternoon to really give my old timing chain sprocket a good going over. I could find absolutely no wear on it so I decided to assemble the engine using it instead of waiting for something that may never arrive. The chain, sprocket and oil filter all went together with no problems as shown by the above pic. I then turned my attention to the transaxle. I checked every part on and in it and couldn't figure out what the two different seals are that I have been waiting even longer for. I also assembled the complete transaxle with the new axles and sliding couplers shown in the other pic. UPS came and delivered the replacement order so it will be a day or two before I mate the engine with the transaxle and start adding all the periphery attachments. Stay tuned.

Nothing new to report, just thought I'd post a photo of the shop so you can see why I have to shuffle the cars around to work on them. The yellow car is a customer car and is in the working bay. The pickup is undergoing (slowly) restoration, the Bianchina is waiting for parts and the motorcycle is waiting for me.

After completing six disc decompression sessions I can now walk upright without pain. I finished scraping the rest of the undercoating from the bottom of the car. I lowered it down off the lift and moved it back to the other side of the shop to make room for a Corvair($$$). I probably won't post anything for a while unless the long awaited engine parts arrive. This will give me a chance to increase the Bianchina fund to buy more parts that I will have to wait forever for.

Monday and Tuesday I couldn't walk so I began disc decompression therapy again. I'm moving around a little better so I managed to do something car related. I was able to locate the missing left side engine apron. After the usual clean, blast, and paint ritual, I installed it just to see how it looked. Fits nicely. I'm going to attempt some more undercoat removal this afternoon. I figure I'll be laying on my back so I should be all right, wish me luck! Oh, the picture shows the apron in place.