Tuesday, August 25, 2009











Since I'm still too dumb to figure out how to put three pics on one post without them overlapping, these are the finished buckets. The other pic is the reason the Bianchina can't get on the lift. It's a 1965 Corvair bracket racer that I'm working on that belongs to a friend.


Since my lift is still full of Corvair, I started looking for something to do that didn't involve the lift. I decided to refurbish the headlight buckets. They underwent the usual blast, prime and paint treatment as shown above. Why red springs? Why not? Maybe they will act as a hidden identifier if the car is ever stolen. When the buckets are installed in the car, they will get new headlight bulbs even though these check out okay. I also need to get some more of the retaining spring wire thingies, I'm missing three of them.

Friday, August 7, 2009

I drilled out the pivot rivets on the seat tracks so as to remove them from the seat. I bead blasted them and started the tedious chore of straightening them so they would slide on the new floor tracks. After they were straight I painted them black and hung them outside in the sunshine to dry. I fabricated end pieces for the cross members under the floor and welded them in. I then seam sealed the bottom. You can get a good high off of that stuff, good thing all the doors were open. I installed the dry seat tracks and temporarily put the seat in just to double check the operation. I know the seat isn't pretty, ignore it, it will be re upholstered down the line. Chased the threads in the door hinges and re hung the door, lowered the car down to the floor and rolled the lift out of the way. I pushed the car back over to the other side of the garage and swept the floor. All ready for Corvair work. I'll do the other floor next break in paying jobs.

Thursday, August 6, 2009











Okay, so I lied. I spent yesterday cleaning up the Corvairs for the show Saturday. Today I finished welding the floor in, ground the welds smooth (left pic) and seam sealed all the joints (right pic). I think tomorrow I'm going to remove the drivers seat tracks and work on them until they glide smooth on the new floor tracks. Welding this was literally a pain in the back so it's rest time now.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I did the final fit and got the pan spot welded into place. I started the finish welding and realized this is going to be a long process. There is a lot of leaning over involved and my back is complaining. I listened to the complaints and quit, I'll go at it again tomorrow. Probably even get some pictures too.









Yesterday I spent most of the day trimming the opening for fit, scraping off some undercoating left in the middle of the car under the "console", making and welding a patch panel for the bottom of the inner fender well shown above. Today, I hope, will be the final fit and welding of the floor panel.

Sunday, August 2, 2009










This is one of the floor pans as received from the vendor. It has the seat rails already attached on the top and has the two cross braces welded on the bottom. I am still trimming off the extra metal left when I removed the old floor. Hopefully, tomorrow I can start welding it in. I have to say I am very impressed with these floor pans. Everything is in place and correct and it looks like it will fit in exactly as the original floors. Any one considering this replacement, buy both sides at the same time. Shipping is the same for two as it is for one, $30.