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Post by tcoat on Sept 9, 2024 7:45:25 GMT -7
This is another one of my 'Cars I Used to Own' series. Mine was actually a '66 but since the '69 kit was readily available and cheap I evoked the "Meh close enough" rule. I bought this car in 1982. It was the 140HP with the four carbs. It also had the optional 4 speed stick so was pretty peppy. I only paid $150 for it as the engine leaked oil so bad it would actually leave a trail as you went down the road and the valve seals and guides were so worn that she smoked like an old locomotive. New seals, guides and gaskets all around fixed it right up. Surprisingly it had a fully intact and not horribly rotted out floor which is rare for these things around here. Did some minor body work to rear quarters and rockers and sold it 4 months later for $1800. It was a fun little car while I had it though since the suspension upgrades in 1965 made a massive difference over the first gen cars.  It is the latest release from Round 2 (They own AMT) and I was not really impressed. There was so much flash and massive mold lines it was just a vagally Corvair shaped chunk of styrene. I was so shocked that I didn't even think to take pictures but the mold seems on the rear of the body were so big it looked like a '59 caddy! It was disappointing but of course not insurmountable. As always I started on the engine. It required a great deal of cleanup as well but went together nicely. This will be another rather worn and well used build as mine was 18 years old and all original when I got it. .jpg.1ec1f235712a1a7356a9b8bca2c30531.jpg) .jpg.f4511e896d3989f4df0d857fe7a532d1.jpg) .jpg.ff2ddfa786159fc00695c0e3bdc389cc.jpg) .jpg.c86f5523fe8d121fa1a7963ae6b1f836.jpg) .jpg.fc78c5d3d1c7018193ef9bfc2f5fd539.jpg) .jpg.d10830c5717fa1949ba383e12d26853f.jpg) And yes the kit designers must have been drunk when they came up with that drive axle .jpg.780ca50b50cdc8f2b9bdb89b9532e278.jpg) This was going to be a simple out of the box build but that engine bay needs a LOT of work since the only other kit part is a battery. .jpg.f0b618e6d4ac83fc4217825ffc879b77.jpg) .jpg.06bbdd48ef4dd74b5a3aa28e39076f56.jpg) Needs at least some of this  |
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Post by 406 Silverado on Sept 9, 2024 7:53:41 GMT -7
I hear ya Tony. It's stuff that kit manufacturers used to get away with but can't anymore. Looks like AMT spent some time on the engine though. Great looking weathering throughout on this build buddy.
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Post by tcoat on Sept 9, 2024 8:29:17 GMT -7
The engine was OK but the compartment was extremely sparse so I busied it up a bit. Proper fire wall made. Heater duct is a piece of a header with wire wrapped around it for "pleats" Shrouds all around so can't see through to the ground. Rubber shroud gaskets are screen spline split into smaller strips. Long skinny stock 1966 battery swapped for normal one. Spare tire from spares box parts crammed in. Wires are... well... wire .jpg.25c0e653a760c021a5441911d9a35d3f.jpg) .jpg.c3851999c4fd6bf140e99becb90e25e2.jpg) .jpg.1aadec9581cb588cf1b69a1325fa90ad.jpg) .jpg.4c19d54a7af759c4a2ea89fce055812f.jpg) |
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Post by 406 Silverado on Sept 9, 2024 9:22:30 GMT -7
I can't get over that spare tire in there pretty much right on top of the engine. That was CRAZY!!
Great work in there BTW Tony!!
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Post by RetroSpectKustoms on Sept 9, 2024 22:23:20 GMT -7
Nice detail, Engine bay looks great.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 10, 2024 7:41:18 GMT -7
There is only so much you can do with some kits. This looks amazing so far. Looking forward to more.
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Post by tcoat on Sept 10, 2024 11:28:01 GMT -7
I think the steering column needs some tweaking. I do not recall ever having to drive the car with my legs shoved through the spokes!  That's better. .jpg.a596955e1a7b75e589c49eaa9abc7231.jpg) .jpg.ccfb6f595581961ae190f6e98c4e3af6.jpg) |
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Post by tcoat on Sept 10, 2024 11:38:49 GMT -7
I can't get over that spare tire in there pretty much right on top of the engine. That was CRAZY!! Great work in there BTW Tony!! The funny part is that since there is no room in the back of the air conditioned cars (the compressor is as large as the engine I think) they put the spare up front   Probably a weight distribution thing since with the turbo ones they kept it in the rear but had to factory dent the housing to fit!   |
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Post by 406 Silverado on Sept 10, 2024 13:20:37 GMT -7
Funny how the engineers came up with the idea to put the spare tire where it belonged on the A/C equipped cars. You've gotta wonder just who the brainiac was that came up with the brilliant concept of putting the spare tire over a hot engine. I wonder what the lifespan of a spare tire was under the hood.  |
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Post by stitchdup on Sept 10, 2024 13:58:49 GMT -7
Great work on the upgrades, the engine bay looks way better
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Post by tcoat on Sept 10, 2024 14:06:30 GMT -7
Funny how the engineers came up with the idea to put the spare tire where it belonged on the A/C equipped cars. You've gotta wonder just who the brainiac was that came up with the brilliant concept of putting the spare tire over a hot engine. I wonder what the lifespan of a spare tire was under the hood. Actually the engine compartment on these hardly even got warm much less hot. Since air cooled each cylinder was separate in it's own finned housing to dissipate the heat so there was no big heavy heat soak of a block block filled with 200 degree water to hold heat. The exhaust manifolds were underneath so As long as all pans were in place and sealed that heat didn't enter the compartment at all. And of course the fan drew fresh air through the vents on top of the compartment and blew it down through the engine. Under these things got VERY hot and that was the problem with oil leaks but in the compartment it self it was probably no hotter than a normal trunk on a sunny summer day.  |
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Post by 406 Silverado on Sept 10, 2024 15:27:56 GMT -7
Funny how the engineers came up with the idea to put the spare tire where it belonged on the A/C equipped cars. You've gotta wonder just who the brainiac was that came up with the brilliant concept of putting the spare tire over a hot engine. I wonder what the lifespan of a spare tire was under the hood. Actually the engine compartment on these hardly even got warm much less hot. Since air cooled each cylinder was separate in it's own finned housing to dissipate the heat so there was no big heavy heat soak of a block block filled with 200 degree water to hold heat. The exhaust manifolds were underneath so As long as all pans were in place and sealed that heat didn't enter the compartment at all. And of course the fan drew fresh air through the vents on top of the compartment and blew it down through the engine. Under these things got VERY hot and that was the problem with oil leaks but in the compartment it self it was probably no hotter than a normal trunk on a sunny summer day. The one thing that I did know about Corvairs is that the engines leaked like a sieve. My dad used to tell me stories about these things when I was a kid, and he didn't have a very high opinion of them either. The fact that the top of the engine area wasn't much hotter than a normal vehicle trunk is news to me as I thought the exact opposite until you explained everything. It does make sense now that you put it that way. |
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Post by tcoat on Sept 10, 2024 17:15:44 GMT -7
Actually the engine compartment on these hardly even got warm much less hot. Since air cooled each cylinder was separate in it's own finned housing to dissipate the heat so there was no big heavy heat soak of a block block filled with 200 degree water to hold heat. The exhaust manifolds were underneath so As long as all pans were in place and sealed that heat didn't enter the compartment at all. And of course the fan drew fresh air through the vents on top of the compartment and blew it down through the engine. Under these things got VERY hot and that was the problem with oil leaks but in the compartment it self it was probably no hotter than a normal trunk on a sunny summer day. The one thing that I did know about Corvairs is that the engines leaked like a sieve. My dad used to tell me stories about these things when I was a kid, and he didn't have a very high opinion of them either. The fact that the top of the engine area wasn't much hotter than a normal vehicle trunk is news to me as I thought the exact opposite until you explained everything. It does make sense now that you put it that way. One of the big issues with the early first gen (1960 to 64)models was that the carbs would totaly ice up in the winter! They actually had to pipe heat up to them. My dad hated the things as well until I pulled my engine down and he realized it is just sort of three 2 cylinder motorcycle engines all joined and working together. The big issue with the older American public at that time was that they thought cars should be this:  And that this was just for Beatnicks and foreigners:  Then Nader came along and wrote a book convincing people they would die if they drove light weight rear engine cars and that was the nail in the coffin. It was later found that all of his "testing" and reports were faked and pure fiction but the myth that they were bad cars survives to this day. By '67 all the issues (including the oil leaks) had been ironed out but by then there were so many compacts and sub compacts on the market they just couldn't compete so for the last two years pretty much all they made were the higher end performance version. Today people think of them as an oddball failure but the reality is that in their 9 year production run they sold every single one of the 3 MILLION they built. |
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Post by tcoat on Sept 11, 2024 4:57:58 GMT -7
Done. Still needs a mirror but I don't have a suitable one right now so that will come later but still calling it done. The dull faded paint is done by painting Testers dark gloss red then misting a very light coat coat of Tamiya flat red over it. The slight grunge is from digging out a really worn and dirty fine sanding stick and rubbing down the flat coat to take some of the flatness off and leave some spots behind. It was an experiment that I think worked out well because the resulting finish is exactly what I was after. .jpg.26d9aba42a4659d46af2b5d7d9d1f8a8.jpg) The rather rough looking BMF doesn't look like that on the actual model of course. It is the magnifying effect of the camera. You can really see the existing yet subtle dirty sanding stick results on the quarter panel. I was after faded and slightly damaged 18 year old original paint and that was exactly the effect I got. .jpg.6cf30708bdb530beb0bddba519a9f3a1.jpg) All the kit chrome was knocked down with a light coat of Dullcoat for a more realistic scale finish. .jpg.7b62a2a2b2f6c6ff96fe9a9dc7368b7c.jpg) .jpg.b8dd0d016d6749774c1cef8fd894611a.jpg) .jpg.ef314960a49d4cf255ffa3640ae57c27.jpg) The rear panel is hand painted in silver and once again the picture doesn't show it well but it is a fair representation of the brushed aluminum panel of the real thing. .jpg.2a24818d74caf52b5a7e0da4d486f0fd.jpg) .jpg.0ab9237f99c2bbf257e1a6be2a315e9e.jpg) .jpg.a0d1e50aaecfb9d524259d976e70bc13.jpg) If you look really close you will see that the drivers side reverse light is missing the white lens. I never did find a replacement for the real thing back then but no doubt now they are all over Ebay. .jpg.b4a54246e81472ba578e51bd7ae4804c.jpg) So that is the model of my briefly but pleasantly owned and driven Corvair. |
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Post by 406 Silverado on Sept 11, 2024 5:13:39 GMT -7
Thank you for that very interesting read, Tony and you've brought to light things that I never knew in regard to these cars. What you've done with this model here is just jaw dropping. I like how you've captured look of a well-used daily driver and packed all of those details in while you were at it. Some good work buddy.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2024 6:53:51 GMT -7
That looks so good it looks unsafe at any speed. Well done. My grandad had a convertible red one that was perfect. Even had plastic covers on the seats. I swear he washed that car daily. This really brings all that back. Cool ride.
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Post by tcoat on Sept 11, 2024 7:19:46 GMT -7
Thank you for that very interesting read, Tony and you've brought to light things that I never knew in regard to these cars. What you've done with this model here is just jaw dropping. I like how you've captured look of a well-used daily driver and packed all of those details in while you were at it. Some good work buddy. LOL well I am a bit of a Covair fanboi so like to promote it when I can! It was the pride of Canada since they were all made here until '66. It was truly a key element in modernizing GM and had a pile of cutting edge tech that we take for granted today. Although unibody cars had existed in the past it was one of the very first to be built in any sort of large numbers. Of course almost everything in later years is unibody. The second gen ('65+) had a rear independent suspension based upon the '63 'Vette which made it the first mass produced car with it. Now that is pretty much standard on everything. In '62 it was the first production car that came with an optional turbo boosting it to 150HP. In '65 that went up to 180. This may not sound like much now but in the early to mid sixties that was massive, especially in such a small light car. It was the first of the North American cars specifically designed to combat the rising influx of small imports. Without it the Mustang may never have been developed. Although they moved the engine to the front it was the direct ancestor of the Camaro and Firebird. It was the initial success of the Corvair that made them go down that road and they used many of the design points. |
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Post by 406 Silverado on Sept 11, 2024 8:27:18 GMT -7
Thank you for that very interesting read, Tony and you've brought to light things that I never knew in regard to these cars. What you've done with this model here is just jaw dropping. I like how you've captured look of a well-used daily driver and packed all of those details in while you were at it. Some good work buddy. LOL well I am a bit of a Covair fanboi so like to promote it when I can! It was the pride of Canada since they were all made here until '66. It was truly a key element in modernizing GM and had a pile of cutting edge tech that we take for granted today. Although unibody cars had existed in the past it was one of the very first to be built in any sort of large numbers. Of course almost everything in later years is unibody. The second gen ('65+) had a rear independent suspension based upon the '63 'Vette which made it the first mass produced car with it. Now that is pretty much standard on everything. In '62 it was the first production car that came with an optional turbo boosting it to 150HP. In '65 that went up to 180. This may not sound like much now but in the early to mid sixties that was massive, especially in such a small light car. It was the first of the North American cars specifically designed to combat the rising influx of small imports. Without it the Mustang may never have been developed. Although they moved the engine to the front it was the direct ancestor of the Camaro and Firebird. It was the initial success of the Corvair that made them go down that road and they used many of the design points. All good points and ones that did in fact evolve the automotive industry in making better, more modernized cars and most certainly lead to the pony muscle car age. |
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Post by kwt on Sept 11, 2024 19:42:34 GMT -7
I'm diggin this.. never knew the spare just hung out in the engine compartment like that.
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Post by tcoat on Sept 12, 2024 4:36:36 GMT -7
I'm diggin this.. never knew the spare just hung out in the engine compartment like that. Well there is a bracket that it was supposed to be bolted down to but mine never was so I left the bolts off.  |
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Post by poet on Sept 12, 2024 4:44:45 GMT -7
You nailed it! Well done!
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