Page Seven: Rabbit Holes

I can’t do that until I do this, but I can’t do this until I do this other thing…

While I’m waiting, I may as well do this.  You know, rabbit holes!

Since I have the front suspension out, I may as well pull the gas tank…

Should pull the fuel lines too.  I said earlier (somewhere) that the gas tank is in pretty decent shape, and it is, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to clean it out and reseal it.  It’s lying on a table, right?

Also, I have enough left over Eastwood tank sealer from another car.  (A 1964 Sunbeam Alpine aka “Alphie.”  I have another blog about that one.  See the right-hand column on the home screen for a link.)

The brake master cylinder is coming out, only a moron wouldn’t rebuild the entire brake system.  The brake lines are rust pitted but savable, except for one that I twisted apart when I tried to break it loose.  They’re all sanded and painted now.

Since I’m here, let’s check out the wiring harness, the shift cable, the e-brake cable…  I think you see where this is going.

I mean, all this stuff needs doing, but I keep finding little things that I may as well do while I’m here.

So, I pulled the steering box, as I mentioned, but since it’s out, I removed all the bracketry that holds the steering column to the dash.  Which holds the e-brake handle.  After all, it will be easier to put the steering box back in with a clear path and I’ll maybe won’t scratch all the new paint too.

I need to weld up a hole someone cut in the panel between the dash and where the steering column meets the dash for a switch of some function.  All the bracketry will all get new paint, of course, but…

With the gas tank out, I need to repair some rust through…

Behind the gas tank under the truck and behind the seat inside the truck, a section along the bottom where the metal under seat meets the rear wall of the cab is a length of Swiss Cheese metal that must be cut out and replaced.  I can’t put the tank back in until I get this done.

Replacing the sheet metal is relatively straight forward except that the panel has wide grooves in it for strength and to keep it from oil canning.  No one says I need to reproduce the grooves, I mean the gas tank will cover it under the truck and it will be hard to see from inside the truck, but I figured out a way to do it, so I did.

Start with a slab of Lowe's sheet metal (22 guage)
and my homemade "groove jig"

Start groovin'

Another angle on groovin'

New compared to the old - ain't perfect, but it'll do.

The panel meets The Ramper - decent fit!

Next I made a smaller panel for the driver's side.
Forgot to take pics during the fab and fitting process.
You can see that my Harbor Freight spot welder got in on this action.

Welded in with very ugly (but solid) welds!

Passenger side before fitting a patch panel.

Hard to see what this is trying to show.
Looking down from inside the cab
where the panel meets the back wall of the cab.

JB Weld, calk and undercoating enhances my welding skills!

Driver's side patch, DONE!

Passenger's side, DONE!

Since I have all the cables and wiring harness out, I should spiff up the dash, heater controls and the rest…

Yeah, I pulled out the dash and the wiring harness too.  I knew the wiring harness had been violated.  Someone had wired in CB radio (apparently, judging by the holes for an antenna mount), someone added clearance lights on the cab, and they used wire nuts!  There are no wire nuts in automotive wiring!

More evidence that the 55K miles may be original,
very little wear on the brake pedal pad.

Cleaned and repaired the dash wiring harness.

Some of the multi-wire plugs crumbled to dust while I yanked on the harness.  Fortunately, I have two boxes of old Corvair wiring harnesses to scrounge the correct connectors and other doodads.

The instrument panel came out with the wiring harness, but I had an ulterior motive.  I bought The Ramper without a key.  The ignition switch is in the dash but no key.  I’ll need the number on the barrel to get a key cut, but I’ll need someone to pick the lock so I can get the barrel out.  (The story of the key is a post in itself, a story that hasn’t ended yet, so I’ll write up a post on that soon.) 

The fuel gauge was junk I discovered, but no worries there, I have three complete early model instrument panels plus a bunch of extra dash pieces.  I’m not new to the Corvair game, remember.  See?  Rabbit Holes.

Fire Wall

What better time to clean the fire wall, repaint all the brackets and doohickeys, replace rusted screws, bolts, etc.  I cleaned the windshield washer bag and its brackets, very clean and original too.  Painted the little access panel for the windshield wiper mechanism.  I found the door stop doohickey that limits how far the driver’s door opens.  I saw part of it sticking out of a rust hole when I removed the steering box.  (I’ll need to fix that hole too.)  Apparently, it fell into the cavity for the left side fresh air vent.  Bead blasted, painted, reinstalled.

I cleaned the firewall but didn't repaint anything.

Except this little panel wich covers the wiper mechanism.
I found a new FC brake light switch I completely forgot I had in an old box of dash parts, which is good since the one on The Ramper is very stiff and doesn’t spring back like it should, and new ones are $$$.

I pulled the body wiring harness because I found a bare wire when I removed the gas tank.

I pulled the e-brake cable because I have to re-thread the end because I seized the nut taking the e-brake pivot mechanism apart.  It was unacceptably rusty, OK?!

The driver's side is looking slick - I'll get the passenger's side eventually.
(I'll replace the floor mats, paint the steering wheel
and replace the uphosltery also eventually.)

I cleaned, repainted and sined up the dash bits - me like!

Repainted the lettering too!

The Gas Tank

The gas tank is amazingly, and thankfully, clean.  Some saint of a person drained the gas before pushing it into the barn.  Saved me a lot of buckage!  Of course, I painted the tank, the straps and got new hoses and a filler neck grommet.

The before pic - it's better than it looks.

Eastwood Co's "Tank Tone" paint and new sending until and fuel line.

The other side - new anti-rattle strips.
Tank and filler neck installed!
There are more rabbit holes, the heater ducts, the glove box, the fresh air vents, but all in due time. 


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