Nader Was Right ! The early Corvairs (pre 1965) had a SERIOUS suspension design defect ~ ask anyone who's ever driven one . Most American cars have " understeer " ~ this means you have to turn the steering wheel a lot to make it tip in to a turn . The Corvair had " oversteer " much like most European cars , this means it darted into turns and this , coupled with the rear wheels tendency to tuck in until you were riding on the sidewall , made them easily spin out at best and flip upside down at worst . If they'd sold it as a Sports Car , the folks who bought them would have been ready for this but selling them as cheap family haulers , made for troubles and GM did a cost to loss survey and decided it was cheaper to pay the occasional death lawsuit that is was to make the simple fix necessary..... That's the unvarnished truth of the matter and yes , I still love Corvairs , especially those early models as they handled how I personally , think every car should handle but i'd not let my Sweet drive one . Not even a beautiful Lakewood Station Wagon..... (only one year of these gusee why) BTW : Ralph Nader was & is a nutball , he was just right this one time .
Yep,Mr. Nader was almost single-handedly responsible for killing off the American convertible back in the day too.
Sooooo, the body came back from the sandblaster yesterday, the trans back from the trans guy, and back to work we go. The engine came in a week ago, it is NICE. It came from Tuff Dawg engines in Az. I would reccommend them. We got it and the trans mated up, then hoisted into place for a mockup. The factory engine mounting was over a bit to the right, so we are mocking it up close to this position. I have some Sanderson headers on the way that are supposed to be the tightest tucking headers you can buy for 390 FE. We need tight on the passenger side! That would be a Tremec 3550, converted to mid shift, and a shortened input shaft for the 390 bellhousing...
*sigh* I suppose I should be happy you're saving it from the crusher but it was so original when you got it , I'd have rather seen you do a total rebuild like you did to the AD.... Wishful thinking I know but these Unibody Ovals are really good drivers in stock form , I'd prolly be happy with one if it had a big 6 in it . (off to barf now , I can't belive I wrote that)
Looks like it's GOOD to GO. Now onto that ratrod GMC project! What's up with the suit feeder cage on the inner fender? I don't see how the birds are supposed to get to that. I'm sure this truck won't be rusting in a field with its hood up anytime soon, sooo.... ??? Oh well~ ON TO THE GMC RAT ROD PROJECT! (With pictures!)
Fear Of Clowns ..Is no little thing to the people so affected . I personally don't understand it but I *do* know it's a terrible thing to have a clown walk up to a so afflicted person so don't go making fun of people for this .
tHE old girl is now at the paint shop. .....and now for something completely different......we drug a 67 Impala SS from my neighbor's yard to my shop to "get her running" He is going to sell it, but wants id driveable. We have already installed a 350 from a 91 Suburban and got a clip from a 67 4 door (brought $319 from the scrapyard!) Some serious southern engineering for the push bumper to get it up the hill.
I hope you aren't going to use that hammer to knock off the valve covers. If you don't like em send em to me.
