Projects Fly in, Drive home in my late Dads car. Attempting 2000 miles

Condolences to you and your family on losing your Pop. I’m going through a pretty similar deal myself. We lost our Dad in January and while he had some pretty cool stuff most of it was in disrepair. I actually posted today about retaking possession of some pretty rare stuff from the family of Raccoons that had claimed it for themselves.

 

A friend of mine had a son that was born with quite a hard-on. They named him pushrod.

 

Blinker fluid
Who knew

 

Bet he's glad that rear end was never in consideration.

 

Never saw the inner tube full of oil trick for a cable but I like it, will have to remember that for the future.

 

Joel, What city are you near? If you're 200 miles north of Jim, you might be near me....I'm not real busy right now ...

 

south of AJ....quite a ways from you

 

Maybe Cam can name his first born Crank.

I hope you have smooth sailing on the way home.

 

Thanks..and you're right.

 

How does a pair of 67 caddy headlight bezels get mixed in with corvair parts?

 

Funny @JNKYARDDOG_1 that you mentioned that because when I saw the same picture, as I was catching up on @Hemi Joel trip prep I thought “how did a turbo dodge exhaust manifold end up in a pile of Corvair parts”

Joel, sorry about your dad but I’m rooting for your road trip with your son. I bought a Shelby 15 years ago and my son and I flew out to Texas and drove it home to Connecticut.

Cliff Ramsdell

 

Looks to me like that Corvair trunk became a great collect all storage space.

A car guy can have pretty strange collection of parts. I'm pretty hard core Mopar guy, but I found a mid 90s GM wheel in my bottom storage garage. I have no idea how it got there. I'm blaming my son for dragging it home (he doesn't come here). LOL!

 

Sounds like a cool story/trip. Have you thought about the non-leaded gas issue? That car was made to run on leaded.
Hopefully you wont have any problems.

 

You might look for rubber or vinyl dressing with lanolin in it. Had some kind of spray dressing for a tonneau cover years ago with lanolin. Seemed to soak in good and kept the vinyl pliable. And it left your hands nice and soft after buffing off the excess dressing. Can't recall the brand name though . . .

For rubber stuff you might try a coating of dielectric (silicone) grease. Let it sit for a spell and then come back and wipe off the excess. It doesn't have a petroleum base so it doesn't attack plastic or rubber. GM recommends using it to keep weatherstripping flexible and to prevent moisture from freezing your doors and trunk shut in the winter.

 

Or dipstick!

 

I got the dryer tube installed for the heat ducts. That was a very difficult and annoying job because it's so hard to get my big paws up into that confined little space to install the tubing and then install the hose clamp. On the driver side I had to take the starter out to get at it. I wrapped up the terminals of the starter solenoid with duct tape, and put some duct tape around the dryer duct and tied it up with a big tie wrap to prevent a short.
Then I installed that stock exhaust system that I had found, but when I went to install it for some reason the crossover pipe was a quarter inch too long, so I had to cut the pipe in half and go buy a sleeve and some clamps and put it back together. Then I started it up and lashed all the valves. When I was tightening the last valve cover bolt all of a sudden I heard a snap and felt the pressure on the wrench disappear. Apparently there was a helicoil in that hole that pulled out. So I tapped it out to the next oversize and put in a bigger bolt.
I pulled the rear drums to check for any grease that may have slung out of the wheel bearings, and I did have to do a little bit of cleanup as some grease got slung out of there. I adjusted the clutch cable and the parking brake cable, then I took off this big sheet metal cover that runs the length of the center of the floor pan and lubricated the clutch cable and the shift linkage.
Then I took it for another test drive, I went about 35 mi or so. It starts really good, runs very nice, but I could definitely tell that the rear shocks were completely shot and the rear coils are kind of sacked out. So last night I called O'Reilly's in Coolidge and they said they had one shock absorber. Then I called AutoZone and they said that they're store in Gilbert had one shock absorber. So I went to O'Reilly's and bought the one shock, and then I decided to call their store in Gilbert before I went over there to make sure they really had the shock and they did not. So now I have one shock. But the Napa store is getting another one in for me this afternoon. I also bought some of those twist in aluminum coil spring spacers I'm going to pop a couple of those in there. But the main issue is that the rear brakes seemed to be dragging making a scraping sound and warming up the drums. So I'm going to inspect that and figure out if the handbrake is not fully releasing or if I need to back off on the adjustment or what the issue is. Then I'll put in the shocks and the coil spring spacers, clean up the interior, put the passenger seat back in, and then it'll be ready for about a hundred mile test drive before I hit the road.

Regarding the stuff in that Corvair trunk, I'm pretty sure all of that was there when Dad got the car. He got that one from a paint / body guy who was notorious for collecting a big deposit, taking people's cars apart and then letting them sit forever until they came in and collected their basket case and dragged it away and discust. So those parts probably came off of some poor customers car who never got the parts back.

 

It looks like you're developing a real love for working on crappy old Chevys, Joel

 

Well, you've gone this far, might as well paint it!

 

I just got back from a 65 mile test to drive. I think I have rear axle bearing noise. As soon as I got home, I jacked up the rear end, pulled the wheels and the drums and felt the bearing housings and they were stone cold. When I roll them by hand they don't feel perfectly smooth but they don't feel horrible either. So I'm thinking for the trip home I'll bring sufficient tools for an axle swap and grab an axle out of another car to bring with as a spare.

So I have a question for the Corvair guys. Does the right and left axle on this 1963 interchange with each other? Will the axles out of a 1964 interchange with this 1963?

Thanks, Joel

 

60-64 all the same, both sides...except vans are different.

 

Awesome! I just pulled the axle out of a 64, and it has a nice smooth operating bearing on it. So I'm going to bring that axle/bearing with as a spare, and make sure I have all the tools needed to change it out in case I do have a failure.
Other than a few minor things I think this car is ready for the trip! On my test drive tonight I found out that the heater and defroster both work and that the fan from the engine provides a decent amount of airflow, so I think I'll be fine without the electric blower fan. It's not like I'm going to be driving through 20 below anyway.
The one thing I haven't prepared for yet is the potential of a blower fan bearing failure. There's a spare engine sitting in the garage. Maybe I'll pull the fan and bearing off of that and bring with.

 

Glad to hear you are about ready. Anxiously waiting to follow along on the trip home.

 

Dang, Joel! Good one. If I can remember and can find a bicycle tube.

Ben

 

Same here,good luck!

 

Good luck on the trip @Hemi Joel ! I'm on the west side of Kansas City, so if there's anything I can do to assist let me know. I'll send you a message with my phone number.

I am heading out to upstate NY next Friday, but by then you'll probably be back home in the Great White North.

 

Bon voyage!

 

Keep us informed on your road trip. My only advice is…..



Relax and enjoy your drive!

 

And, be sure to reach out here if you have any issues along the way as you likely already know. Plenty of HAMBers along the way that would likely help out if needed. Did you post your route so we know how you are heading up? I saw that someone else suggested the "Trucker Route" that would miss my state, but not sure how you are planning to head.

 

So I think I'll go up to Florence junction, and then take 60 East all the way out to Vaughn New Mexico, then 54 East, 219 North, 84 North up to I-25 North. Then I'll go up to Denver to visit my uncle, then probably take 76 up to North Platte Nebraska, then go north and take some back roads to find the rest of the way home. It won't be too long out of Florence junction before I get into some mountains, and the salt River canyon, so I guess the The old Corvair is going to get a test today.

 

On a smaller scale, this cross country journey that Joel is about to embark on, is just as cool as anticipating Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic!
Go for it Joel, and enjoy the drive!