I find your welding, fabrication & machining skills, as excellent as they are, easily eclipsed by your ingenuity and thoughtfulness. This is a wonderful series and I can't wait to see the bodywork all painted and shiny, ready for that mahoosive motor!
Your comments are priceless. I have a L-5 & L-2 Burst fractures & fusions w/ chronic pain . Please don't stop video of your projects, only way I can escape besides drugs. Your important to me for learning & MENTAL HEALTH ! Thank You John.
My dad was a pilot who loved building engines. So, of course his retirement business was a full machine shop. 30 years later I still can't get enough. I love this kinda thinking.
I always thought these cars could have been so much better if only someone would have put a little more effort into them. Holly cow this is going to be a beast.
Very nice. When I was in high-school a local racer took the front wheel drive from a 455 Toranado and made a mid-engine Corvair. Wickedly fast and fooled many unsuspecting street racers.
The way you weld a tight radius ellipse into the swing arm for the rear suspension is to bend the tip of the tungsten and extend it so that you can fit it into that small radius, get a bigger cup and then turn up the gas supply. If you can build up a non-combustible dam around the area of the weld to constrain the gas flowing out of the cup from flowing out of the area, so much the better. It isn't a wonderful way of doing it, but it is functional and gets the job done.
Tune up shop in Glendale Az had one as a mid engine quarter-mile dragster with crinkle walls did a wheelie through the intersection on the way to pick up parts😂👍
Your weldments should be in a museum, priceless workmanship. I am gob smacked to say more. all the best, looking forward to the next installment. Take care and peace out!!
I enjoyed the drive axle and sprocket idea. I think a Hayabusa swap would make a lot of sense here. after months of welding you would end up with exactly the same horsepower as before :)
Man, I love what you're doing with that Corvair. Don't let the negative comments bring you down. I put a jet engine in my Mustang last spring, and the chicks really dig me.
You Sir are genius, and I'm not, for the quality of work you do, nobody could afford a kit, however nice it is to think 🤔 about. Outstanding beautiful welds, everything is top notch
Love the idea, once owned a Corvair like this one. Had to subscribe and will follow this project closely. Work is top notch and I am excited to see it being built. You are a craftsman for sure.
As a Aerospace TIG Welder for over 40 years - You need to use Backup Argon Gas then you can put your Tungsten out as far as you need to Weld. Make like a Tent out of Aluminum Foil or any non flammable material to keep the argon gas into place.
Good point about the shielding gas. The bigger problem was that the torch would have to be nearly horizontal to the joint. I've heard of ppl bending the tungsten to do such a job but a mid plate was a easier solution.
I found ya thru miss Nicole and the SUPER DOOPER BEETLE, and I have to say that you are an awesome fabricator and I love your vision, man. Thanks for bringing us along
Once upon a time I was involved in a 66 Corvair Crown conversion. At that time I was simply a mechanic with fab skills. Now, I appreciate & participate in machining processes as well. Your vision drives you to make it as you see fit. All I can say is, "Hope it exceeds your expectations!"
John Reynolds, You know what amazed me you are making the parts that you planned long time ago and you know already how to make the next suspension parts that can handle the massive engine torque that is going to be transferred to the rear wheel. Excellent fab. Thanks for sharing.
NASA would probably love to have you building things, top notch you are right up there 👆 with the greats in welded made things, nice 👍 thanks BigAl California.
John, it's been 3 weeks I'm looking for another update, welding fabrication, talking what ever you've got. I can only watch this video so many times. 😂 🤣👍
Watched the Volkswagen test drive with Nicole Johnson, then a few others and now the Corvair series. First video that reminds me of Ronald Finger videos. Funny parts.
I have a freind that put a 327 in the front of a corvair and put the floor and the hump of a s10 in with a rear axle turned out really nice. Made a nice 1/4 machine
The best bet as far as keeping everything lined up and turning freely is simply to have a reliable assistant spin the rear wheels as everything is tacked into place. If it all lined up initially then it still should provided the "poor man's jig" tip is followed faithfully. Lots of thought to your engineering. My choice when confronted with access issues when welding is adequate gap to weld thru into a copper or brass backing strip which is then sacrificed and cleaned up to smooth at those spots. Also have used ceramic tape for 100% backup strip. "I know, lets show some heat straightening and annealing with a torch and wet rag video".
Hot diggity dog this is turning out to be one hell of a vlog. Another hundred mill or two (views) and Al Gore's rhythm just might recommend you. I can't wait to see this thing roll out in the spring. You're definitely killing it. Going to be one hell of a car when it's done. The transverse LS4 idea was brilliant. Really making use of the available space. There's a build out here on the interwebs, a Vair Monza with a 283 that doubles as an armrest. He took Mid engine to heart with that build. It doesn't have an engine cover. I don't know how long I could tolerate a 283 riding 3rd wheel screaming over everyone else. With that said, I still give him an A+. Everybody talks, rarely does someone do.
This is my first build that will be all video. Previous builds have been done with just pics on forums. It's a niche crowd that will watch it so I don't plan to set Al Gores rhythm on fire. Yeah, the North/ South engine arrangement has been done hundreds of times and it's always the same problem: the valve cover doubles as an arm rest. Still can't use a back seat with an East/West configuration but at least, you would have to reach way back to touch the engine.
Porsche got around trail arm twist strengthening by putting tubes along the length of the trail arm to join both sides together . Welded outside . I would stitch weld inside also but I’m a back yard engineer from a country seaside town in Australia and don’t speak German.
This is fascinating. I have a 65 Corvair, but the body is set on an 88 s10 Blazer chassis and will be front engine. The mid-engine looked like way beyond my fabrication skills.
Holy shit John! I had no idea this was your vision when you were talking about your suspension design ideas when you first started this project. Beautiful work! Really enjoying your progress on it.
Oh yeah, you should build a kit, if possible when finished, an old friend (r.i.p.) had several corvairs and I have always been a fan of those. Screw Ralph Nader, real men love danger
I've seen an Oldsmobile 455 Toronado engine and TH425 transaxle installed in the rear of a Corvair. The engine was in where the back seat used to be. Pretty sure they used the front suspension as the rear suspension for the Corvair. Unfortunately I didn't get to see it go anywhere. I imagine it probably went pretty good.
When I installed a B-61 Hydrogen Bomb in the tail of my Fiat 850 Spyder I just used Advanced Search on Ebay and found a set of control arms to fit it for only $5 apiece, free shipping !
How many things u take apart when you was little? Just to see how it worked? What was or is your job? Do you have any video of that truck in garage? In first video I think you see it when going to look at transmission and engine.
If you did one inch long stitches every three inches and working cold bits before moving back to hot bits until every panel has a stitch every three inches you can then close up the gaps with the work pieces experiencing minimal distortion. An alternative to the center plate or in addition to would be to get some thick wall half inch or 10 mm tube and pass it through so it transects the bend then weld the tube to the walls it intersects with.
Those are other ways to do it I suppose. It been my experience that no matter how you put 5’ of weld on a fabricated structure, it’s going to shrink and warp. Pretty common to use fixtures when doing this kind of work. Thick wall tubing is certainly strong enough if you’re not concerned about weight.
Just a tought, When trying to position the caliper, what if you put the caliper in place, use some compressed air to tighten the pucks on the rotor, then the caliper will be in it's position, then tack and weld. Hard to explain in english I Really enjoy your work.
@@JohnReynolds661 I have used 180PSI to center & hold the caliper while welding caliper mounts for years. Works great, fast & easy.Caliper is not spinning so if it is off be a 0.005 or so not a big deal, pistons will correct any minor misalignment. Great work on your build sir.
@ Michel Party, It will work if the caliper is one sided piston design but if the caliper has pistons on both side the caliper has to be aligned equal distance to both side of the rotor before welding the hanger.
@@b-lopez394 I center 4-piston and 6-piston calipers with 180lb compressed air. You should confirm correct centering with a feeler Guage, but most often I find it very close, just like when you apply the brakes.
Hi, if you would be interested I saw a guy that took a second gen. and made it a hatchback maybe you'd be interested it looked cool and gave more room and looked factory the way he did it.
If halfshafts are part of the trailing arm suspension,trailing arm pivot points have to have some give. "Up and down" motion of trailing arms will pull in an in and out "at the halfshafts. Unless, halfshaft ends can slide "in or out" as trailing arms go in an "up and down" motion, due to road surface conditions.I owned a corvette C3 and trailing arm pivot points cpuldn`t be solidly bushed at pivot points. I hope you solve this situation and come up with something better than the old corvette style rear end.
Yes, the C3 and original Corvair rear suspension are similar in that they rely on the half shaft as one of the fixed suspension points. My arrangement uses inner and outer plunging CV joints and two lateral control arms so the axles have plenty of room to breath.
👍👍😎👍👍…… weld, weld, weld, weld, weld, weld…… 🤣😂🤣. To me it’s all about seeing how others fixture, setup and tack, yet it was really helpful to see the arm rest in action. I imagined how well they might work and now I’m convinced the smooth action arm rest could help a lot, again, depending on the setup. Thank you. Is the tubing notcher something you made or purchased?
The rear end suold have 2% toe in, rite , loll, nice a mock up straight axle, is straight, right, lol, nice you put some adjustments in place to get the 2% toe in, if you don’t have that , the real of the car will fish tail, it will vary easily swap ends, loll,nice thanks BigAl California. I’m buggy I built way way back in the day with no toe in on the rear end coused it to fish tail all over the place , nice roller coaster 🎢 ride , lololol, nice you will love it thanks BigAl California.
The main objective with the motor mounts is to make it easy to drop out of the bottom, 'cause, you know, it will probably be coming out for various reasons.
Damn, sprocket drive would have been so cool. Those yellow numbers look like the same kind as we use for transformer numbers. You work for a power company?
I watch a lot of you-tuber builds and I always wonder what you in particular do for money to keep the lights on and the chromoly racks full n tig bottles full?
