V8RegistryForum.com

First, let me say how many great looking cars there are on this site. Mad skills seem to be everywhere. I'm glad I finally found this site.

I have had my 65 coupe for almost 20 years. I think it might have traveled about 100 miles in that time. A couple of years ago, I decided to make it a water pumper. My original plans called for a 13B rotary motor with turbos against a 944 transaxle............things change and so did my plans. Now it is a mild 400 HP small block against a TH425 out of a 73 Eldorado.
We cut the car up pretty good from the tail light panel to the front of the back seat. Amazing what happens when you mix lots of beer ad a sawsall



The radiator is mounted in front of the engine. There is a small wickerbill below the radiator to direct the air below the car into the radiator while at speed.We also added a rock guard to protect the radiator



We built an enclosure around the engine and radiator. That ended up looking like this........



We accomplished two things by doing this. We were able to cover the engine compartment with 1/2 " thick Lexan and keep the engine and pieces away from the driver/ passenger compartment............like this

the engine cover



and clearance between the engine and seating area



I still need to redo the rear suspension. I put the car away for the last year to work on something else. I have moved into a new building in the last month. As soon as the move is through, I plan to finish the rear suspension. It should be out in the Baltimore area this spring

Fantastic pictures of a tremendous car! Great workmanship.

John,
You are using our Forum as we hoped the members would use it. Thanks for sharing pictures of your build for the world to see. Seeing your build after the project set idle for 20 years will hopefully encourage others who have procrastinated too long to resurrect that old Corvair Conversion project and finally finish it. Projects like this also help to encourage new interest in our favorite cars that go fast and handle well.

Very Nice,I really like the radiator location. Mike

Thank you for the nice words. I appreciate it. I did a complete build thread over on Corvair forum. There was a lot of great support. There are many other neat pieces of the build. I will try to hold them down to a dull roar.
I have been looking at how others did their exhaust. While there was plenty of room, I was afraid that I would run out of room. So this is how I did the exhaust. After building a set of headers ( for the first time ), I bought a set of thrush mufflers. We built some mounts as well as welding the mufflers together. The pipe connecting the headers to the mufflers was made and held in place by 3 inch wide strap connectors. The first step was complete



I was trying to find a picture of the finished system but they seem to have escaped me.

The priorities have changed and the Corvair is now top dog on the work schedule.............It even got driven today

Finally got my old ass in gear and got some more work done on the Corvair. This picture is of the new rear crossmember that will hold the control rods. Hopefully this will end the camber in situation I have been having. Not a great picture but you get the idea

Weakest Link showed itself.............that's hot rodding

OUCH !!!!

Finally got a chance to do some work on the Corvair. It turns out my suspension problems were nothing more than things settling into place. The driver's side of the car is 3/4 of an inch lower than the passenger side. It is just enough to put a bind on the driver's side axle. As soon as we get the adjustment done, it is time for some miles. Until then, here are some detail shots I took today









nothing earth shaking but progress is being made