Colossus - the 1970 Concours frame replacement project

Norman,
The wife is very understanding; she let me bring this dog home. All of the closets are tidy in the house. The garage, and half of the back yard, are another matter. From last year before I shipped 5 Corvairs to my friend in Nebraska, just to give you an idea of my state of yard:





I can’t remember where I parked the burned El Camino while I did this… So far my neighbors have been very cool.

My son is working on his driver’s license, and wants to drive the car, so he has a motivation to see it running. He also said he would like a 67-69 Camaro. After all he has been through on this thing he still does.

If you want pics of the tool I’ll send them to you, but I work as a tooling designer and run the Tooling department where I work. I couldn’t make it for what I bought it for even if I had the housing extrusion. As far as the tubing ends, I am going to lightly upset them with the double flare tool, as I cannot find a tool to put the bubble ends on.

SIlverfox,

I have a nice 3 car garage, 2/3 full of car parts and 1/3 full of non-running 71 Corvette. I would love to work on cars in my garage again. The wife has said I can have a workshop/garage in the back area, so maybe someday…

Best,
Tom

 

You have created a car guy! And you've given him skills that he will value for life.

Great job.

 

CG, when I was a teen, I heard that in Russia, you couldn't get your license unless you could repair the car on the roadside. The reason was that there were only 1500 repair shops in the whole of Russia.

Man! Your closet is heavenly chaos! I owned a 1966 Corvair Monza with Turbo. Fun machine. Even redid the interior in real Naughahyde in Purple and Yellow. I was all of 19! Fun days.

You and your son are lucky. Nuthin' like scraping knuckles and twisting wrenches together. Good for both of you. My dad and I had that. Precious times.

 

OK, got the bushing cans paired up with the bushings.

This:


and this:


assembles into these:


with these needing some machine work to fit together:

Luckily I have machine shop equipment that can help.

Interesting, the Energy Susp bushing set is for a Monte, and says I need different diameter support cans than were used on my wagon. Also, no support bushings over the axle, when I thought I saw those on my Montes. Gonna call Energy next week to see if I can buy just those bushings. I tried to get a set of instructions many times prior to buying, but the PDF for Montes was the only one I couldn't get Energy to supply to me. So I ordered based on what (I thought) I knew... Ah well...

Also. Big bit of forward motion this weekend. We finished the fuel supply & return and vapor lines today. Hurray and stuff:








After reading all of the horror stories on various sites about bending fuel lines and how much it sux and how I should hire a professional, I had some reservations. Overall, I am happy with the result.

Tools I used (as well as the aforementioned straightener). The HF bender was just OK, but I am glad I bought the 2 Rigid benders. I'll eventually buy the 5/16" bender so I have a set. Proper tools make even a novice look semi-pro, heh heh.


Time to get all of the rest of the suspension cleaned (springs, spindles and diff) and ready to be put together, then final clean and paint the frame, then maybe look towards some assembly.

Best,
Tom

 

I almost peed myself a lil when i saw the 'backyard'...

and I thought my 1.5 acres was cramped

congrats on getting soooo much done with the space

 

Bitchin' job, but my wife was lurking over my shoulder and says i need to road trip to your joint and bring her back one of those corvairs!!

 

Rev & Ringer,

The Vairs are gone, they belong to a friend of mine who really loves the dang things. I think they're cool, but not cool enough to give up my Montes and Chevelles. Started with one at my place, bought him 3 more (one a Turbo), than a few weeks before shipping to him in Nebraska, got the final one. The day they left was wild, as my neighbors knew what was going on and helped me push them around and load them, but people from outside the neighborhood slowed to look at "all the old odd Chevy's".

Gonna try to get more done this weekend, wish me luck on not having time snatched away for other projects.

Tom

 

Now THIS is my idea of a cool back yard!!





Havin' fun here following your build, CG!

 

Ya, a great read for sure! Thank God, you didn't say "Grab your trailer and come on down!!" Last time I heard that I was on an Airplane for St. Louis Misery!! Love corvairs too! AND first Gen Montes! AND Econoline Pickups!! AND Station Wagons, Just picked up a California 69 Camaro SS. BB 4spd. in pieces but complete and rustfree! I gotta go, before I have a meltdown!! Keep goin!!

 

update - update - update

OK, an update finally, not much of interest going on on this car lately.

Finally got the body onto the cart, so it is now mobile. Used some Elco frame parts I had, as the full length wood beams I thot to use interfered with a part of the under body in the front area of the rear wheel wells...







Also got the frame painted, after many false starts caused by some wet weather on raw, cleaned steel...





More if I can get this assembled, maybe this week/weekend.

Good luck to everyone else on their projects,
Tom

 

Great thread, CG! Lots of work and you are doing a good job with it.

 

------Yes, what silverfox said. Loved your pictures and updates. Now I'm tired from all that work reading about all that work! Keep the family involved. Great family and great neighbors.

 

Restart, restart, restart…

Ignition on, fuel on, go main start…

Start looks good…

Let’s hope we are up and running… again, for a while

Projects often get derailed, and while I have been around here seeing what others have been doing, I myself have been doing not much of anything until a few weeks ago. So if you will allow me a moment to go slightly off topic, I promise I’ll show you where the Wagon Of Doom is now…

Last summer I helped my parents move just around the corner from me, as my mom had been suffering from Alzheimer’s/senior dementia and her care was taking a toll on my father. They found a nice house and I was helping get it ready for them to move in, however, my mom was getting a little worse, so we upped the move date a month. We moved enough items for them to have to live, but it left a house that was still 2/3 full of decades accumulation of stuff which had to be moved. At this point we also started upgrading the house to put it on the market. For approx 8 months we would be moving and sorting items one van-load at a time.

The last time I worked steadily on the W*O*D was early November, and over the Thanksgiving week I was able to finally set aside time to, you guessed it, work on another project that was dragging me down: my patio cover…





Glad it got done, actually ran over with a few days to the middle of December, but it was off the list.

Just before Christmas my mom worsened and went into the hospital. This allowed my dad and I to really knuckle down on the old house, making a couple pack-out trips a weekend, as he didn’t need to stay home with my mom to watch over her. We spent a lot of days and nights with her in the hospital, and she was able to come home just before New Years Eve.

My mom passed on January 12, 2012, 2 days after my daughter 2nd birthday.



I don’t know how to put this, but don’t grieve for my dad and I, for she is better now than she had been over the last year. The health care people don’t tell you what happens with Alzheimer’s/senior dementia patients, and I don’t wish to watch someone deal with that again, either as the sufferer or the family. We are all good now.



Good bye mom, I love you…

One thing that has come from all of this is that my dad has been spending much more time with us, dinner with us almost every night, going to Disneyland with his granddaughter (and the rest of us!). All good.




We finally got the old house emptied, and it had all the items upgraded that were not what buyers are looking for in a house today, and it went on the market and sold in 3 days, which is awesome in this housing market. I was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it was no longer an on-coming train.

Now, I could get some time in on the pile of stuff spread over the yard and garage that used to be a station wagon. Also, if I could just remember where it all went!

More to follow...

 

Go, go, go!

All systems look good, speed looks good, dang, we are running…

Might get this thing done, sometime…

Couple of weeks/weekends of updates here, nice when the days get longer and warmer, I can do stuff after I get home from work…

One stumbling block I was trying to get over was the braided covering used to insulate the fuel line at the front of the car. Finally found and bought some at NAPA, and finally got it installed, and then got the lines installed. $.95 per foot for 3/8, and they can get 1/4" thru 5/8" sizes.



This allowed me to get the fuel/return/vapor/brake lines installed. Cleaned all the clamps and clips, repainted them, and bolted it all down.



Also tried a trick I had thought of a long time ago to ease control arm installation. Instead of pounding the arms into place, they just slide in:





Link to write-up on this here: http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=380481

Hung rear upper and lower arms, rear swaybar, front upper and lower arms (lowers went in smoooooth), and front spindle assemblies.





Front rotors and calipers are ready to hang, along with tierods/center link assembly and front swaybar.





Next on list is reclean rear axle and get it sealed, painted and installed, and get the chassis on 4 wheels again. I told everyone I was jealous of Bob.

Thank you all for reading and looking,
Tom

 

SO glad to see you back CG. I wondered where my favorite back yard went! Nice to see you still doing stellar work, too!
I know you asked us not to grieve so I will keep it short in deference to your wishes. Suffice it to say that I am aware of the tribulations involved with the damnable Alzheimer's disease. It is true, as you say, that she is better now. But, mom's are the hardest things to lose and you have my utmost condolence. I'm glad your dad is now spending more time with the family.
Perhaps he will learn a few things from his son about cars.