Corvair Body Work
After 15 years of thrashing, abuse, and second class citizenship, the Corvair is getting some visual attention.
First, bodywork. I chopped out and welded in new metal wherever there was rust.
This is the front corner behind the S10 spoiler, rust on both sides.
All four wheel well corners. This is a shot after the patch was welded in place. This spot rusted out because of our tree that drops tens of thousands of pine needles directly into the cowl, every year. These worked their way down into the fenders and acted as water absorbers.
Then came sanding the old crap paint off down to the good crap paint. Behind the Corvair you can see the 5.0 Rover powered 1969 GTV-8. It's under that cover, it's almost done, too (no, really).
Just about ready to roll.
The rear window was loose and rattling in it's frame, out it came. I cleaned the flange, no rust. The trim studs were all fine too, hmmm, things are going too well. I hosed down the plenum with black rustoleum rattlecan, and the grille was rolled with the thinned down white, several coats. It's impossible to sand the vents, so I didn't.
The rear grille/cowl went back in then rear window went back in, with no fuss. 3M butyl cord is neat stuff.
I found a tiny spot of bondo inder the windshield. No biggie, right? A little more sanding and... wrong.
Both sides of the windshield corners were rusted out.
Minus bondo and rusted area. All should be good. But it wasn't.
As I put the last stitch in the patch piece, the haz expanded out and melted a big glob of lead, which fell through a previously "repaired" rust hole just to the side. So I patched that one too. The holes in the dash panel I closed up with the mig, later. Pic taken after some grinding.
The other side was just as bad.
There was an obvious lead repair toward the pillar on this side, so I was more careful with the heat.
After the patch, I touched up the lead repair.
As I was covering up the windshield opening to keep the cats out over night, a 24" bungie cord, stretched to the limit, snapped me in the stomach.
This really hurt. Can you tell which part of the bungie cord hit my stomach? I said some words and abandoned the car in the driveway for a couple days. The red hook imprint slowly morphed in to a black, purple, yellow, and green bruise, six inches across, and welted up half an inch.
After a week , the bungie incident faded from memory enough for me to get back to work on the paint
I have no pics of the car covered in primer, thick high build automotive stuff, meant to be sprayed, but it rolled on just fine. Catalyzed primer has a short pot life so I worked fast..