Dale Shanholtzer - Quincy, Illinois
The Monza is at the Virginia High School Industrial Arts auto shop, Virginia, Illinois, where the second semester program students will do some of the preparation for the install of the V8 package. The class hopefully will be able to install the rebuilt parts, and make it a rolling chassis with engine, transmission, differential and half-shafts to make a car qualified for future documentation. The class is taught by a former student teacher we had at CACC, Darin Waters, who has had a decade+ of teaching experience since.
I am a retired teacher of auto. tech. My teaching was in the Springfield, IL area for over thirty years. I retired in 2002 and my wife Pam retired a few years later. We moved from Springfield in 2017 and now live near Quincy, IL. Pam and I have been married 54+ years, we have two adult children, a daughter near Quincy and a son near Fowlerville, MI. We have four grandchildren.
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My first experience with Corvair was in 1963, when my Dad purchased a new Corvair 95 van. He needed it to haul paper from the warehouse to his place of business, Shan's Printing, Postmaster's Supply Co., & Shan's Insurance, located in Coatsburg, IL. The 95 was a dandy little workhorse, as it's EVW. was 2600 pounds and it's GVW. was 4600 pounds, one full ton!
In 1972 Dad bought a Chevelle wagon and we acquired the 95 van. Pam and I were building a house, which she designed, and we needed a way to haul building materials. We hauled everything we could fit into the 95. One thing that would have been nice, would have been a 48" + of horizontal rear doors opening! It was not, but if one lifted the sheets up on one side and slid them in you could load until out of room to do so! |
In the mid 70s, one of my co-workers at the vocational school where I taught auto shop, sold me a 65 Monza coupe with 140 engine. The engine was tired so it was rebuilt, a four barrel added, as well as headers, and the 3 speed trans was replaced with a 4 speed, Saginaw box. The coupe was stored and the engine transmission etc. was placed in the 95 van. We used the 95 for family fun, as well as general hauling, and made many a trip to the drive-in taking Dana & Daren, and the popcorn, the hotdogs in a thermos, and the soda, to save on the expenses! We used the 95 for a number years especially after adding the gas heater which was awesome, as you could warm the little van up and not even need to fire the engine! Eventually we sold the little 95 van. Probably a mistake!
Several years later we got the stored 65 coupe out of storage, without an engine, and started on a mid engine creation of my own as the Crown package was too expensive for me to justify the cost! I built a sub frame, much like the Crown package and rebuilt a 340 Mo Par engine and a 727 transmission, both modified, with lots of information from Direct Connection/ Mo Par. The machine shop at the school shortened the output shaft on the 727, we eliminated the governor and the tail housing re-splining and shortening the output shaft to a Corvair four spider differential. Teaching night classes in automatic transmission at the Community college I had the opportunity to dyno test the 727 which checked out with manual valve body conversions as successful! Some of the students tipped off some MO PAR fans and they offered to purchase the package before it was ever fired up! They made me an offer I could not refuse! However, having rebuilt the suspensions, the brakes etc. on the Coupe, I felt I had to keep it. We did negotiate a deal on the engine and trans package helping them convert back to a conventional tail housing and output shaft and retaining the manual valve body modifications. With the cash from the sale of the MO PAR I was able to begin the Crown conversion with the sub frame, and eventually the entire package, purchasing a little at a time from Clark's. The engine I planned to use is the one in the picture that I will send. It should dyno at 450-500 hp. The nitrous block was the first one that Edelbrock had ever made for the tuned port fuel injection package, as when I called to inquire about it, they said no one had ever asked before! So they said it would be something they could do for me, for 100$, so they did. Vocational education was going through some tuff times at that time and the Machine Shop program was dropped, and the equipment sold off. It was also a time when Allis Chalmers (was building the world's largest crawler tractor there in Springfield, IL) yet having tuff times, and that was just before Fiat purchased 51% of them. Shortly thereafter they moved to Italy! Some of the Springfield employees moved with the company but most returned not long after the move. Much later I got around to sending the information to Edelbrock for the prom chip in the controller, and they told me it had been awhile since anyone had sent in for their chip with those production numbers! So I guess I'm not only old school but also slow school!
So then I had a Crown Kit, a SBC 350 engine and most of the assembly completed, except for electrical and cooling. One of the members of the Springfield Corvair Club found out about the conversion and the car. He was interested in the coupe but I had lots of time invested in the rebuilt front suspension (disc conversion), rebuilt rear suspension (Kevlar brake linings from Praise engineering out of Texas) and making the modifications to the Saginaw box as well as the four spider differential. I offered the car, but kept the Complete Crown Package, the engine, the front and the rear suspension, fiberglass seat(s), and engine cover. I pretty much sold the stripped body, but the new owner was happy to get it, and later sold it. We do lots of interesting things in life, so we look back at those times and think, wow that was stupid of me, and other times wow, that turned out out to be a good deal! Sold our 70 GTX 440, 4spd, 410 gear with air grabber hood! No doubt another mistake! But a great individual, Tim Wilkerson (Top Fuel Funny Car, driver, owner, tuner, LRS is sponsor) was the buyer, he was graduating from HS!
The two Vairs that I presently own, one convertible, a 1966 Corsa is very solid and presently stripped and at Phoenix Collision in Springfield, IL awaiting a complete paint job. Perhaps it will end up later with the built V8 engine and the Crown Kit. But for now the Crown Kit is being installed in another Monza convertible that we also own. It had caught fire and we purchased it mainly for the engine as we sold the 140 from the Corsa to a student and his Dad so they could use it on an air-boat. The engine from the Monza will go into the Corsa and be pretty much stock except for four barrel and headers. Possibly add fuel injection, if time allows. It's a 4 speed and it will be fun to get back on the road!
The Monza is the red car that you have a pic or two of. It is presently at the Virginia High School Industrial Arts shop. I recently visited the shop to take the instructor and students the parts as progress begins on the Crown Kit. We will refer to it as a Red Rat Rod for now, and we believe the students will enjoy getting to build, a not so usual project! The instructor at the school has built up a very interesting program offering many units of study. Computer, electronics, woods, welding, electrical, building construction/design to name some of them. The programs are made up for students of high school age. One project I thought was very unique and interesting was a go-cart type, body of wood car. It uses a Rascal power chair front and rear suspension using a mono-leaf set up. The rear drive battery power with computer control was modified to provide much more aggressive power than a typical Rascal that might be used by some of our most senior citizens, and designed originally to be very easy-going, and not over-exciting to operate! Not only is the new Rascal modification fun for students to operate, but it also has the feature of battery re-charging during braking and de-acceleration!
The Red Rat Rod got started this fall and has had the floor pan cut for engine placement. The front and rear suspension have been removed and the subframe has been installed as well as the rear crossmember. The next progress will be the power train install and then the front and rear suspension. We will attempt to send pics as things go, but the China Virus has definitely put a 'MONKEY WRENCH' in our progress! The building of the Red Rat Rod was to have started early this calendar year! A rear radiator is in the thinking for now, with full utilization of the front storage compartment as originally designed. We can be sure it will be interesting to see what some of the ideas are that students come up with, in the build process! They have copies of the original build data from Crown. Many of you know, previous builds have added information, that continue to make builds easier in many ways! The hydraulic throw out bearing is one of those improvements for now! We will consider electric power steering, the C5 differential adapter and others as future additions to the build.
Best to you from,
Dale A. Shanholtzer
Several years later we got the stored 65 coupe out of storage, without an engine, and started on a mid engine creation of my own as the Crown package was too expensive for me to justify the cost! I built a sub frame, much like the Crown package and rebuilt a 340 Mo Par engine and a 727 transmission, both modified, with lots of information from Direct Connection/ Mo Par. The machine shop at the school shortened the output shaft on the 727, we eliminated the governor and the tail housing re-splining and shortening the output shaft to a Corvair four spider differential. Teaching night classes in automatic transmission at the Community college I had the opportunity to dyno test the 727 which checked out with manual valve body conversions as successful! Some of the students tipped off some MO PAR fans and they offered to purchase the package before it was ever fired up! They made me an offer I could not refuse! However, having rebuilt the suspensions, the brakes etc. on the Coupe, I felt I had to keep it. We did negotiate a deal on the engine and trans package helping them convert back to a conventional tail housing and output shaft and retaining the manual valve body modifications. With the cash from the sale of the MO PAR I was able to begin the Crown conversion with the sub frame, and eventually the entire package, purchasing a little at a time from Clark's. The engine I planned to use is the one in the picture that I will send. It should dyno at 450-500 hp. The nitrous block was the first one that Edelbrock had ever made for the tuned port fuel injection package, as when I called to inquire about it, they said no one had ever asked before! So they said it would be something they could do for me, for 100$, so they did. Vocational education was going through some tuff times at that time and the Machine Shop program was dropped, and the equipment sold off. It was also a time when Allis Chalmers (was building the world's largest crawler tractor there in Springfield, IL) yet having tuff times, and that was just before Fiat purchased 51% of them. Shortly thereafter they moved to Italy! Some of the Springfield employees moved with the company but most returned not long after the move. Much later I got around to sending the information to Edelbrock for the prom chip in the controller, and they told me it had been awhile since anyone had sent in for their chip with those production numbers! So I guess I'm not only old school but also slow school!
So then I had a Crown Kit, a SBC 350 engine and most of the assembly completed, except for electrical and cooling. One of the members of the Springfield Corvair Club found out about the conversion and the car. He was interested in the coupe but I had lots of time invested in the rebuilt front suspension (disc conversion), rebuilt rear suspension (Kevlar brake linings from Praise engineering out of Texas) and making the modifications to the Saginaw box as well as the four spider differential. I offered the car, but kept the Complete Crown Package, the engine, the front and the rear suspension, fiberglass seat(s), and engine cover. I pretty much sold the stripped body, but the new owner was happy to get it, and later sold it. We do lots of interesting things in life, so we look back at those times and think, wow that was stupid of me, and other times wow, that turned out out to be a good deal! Sold our 70 GTX 440, 4spd, 410 gear with air grabber hood! No doubt another mistake! But a great individual, Tim Wilkerson (Top Fuel Funny Car, driver, owner, tuner, LRS is sponsor) was the buyer, he was graduating from HS!
The two Vairs that I presently own, one convertible, a 1966 Corsa is very solid and presently stripped and at Phoenix Collision in Springfield, IL awaiting a complete paint job. Perhaps it will end up later with the built V8 engine and the Crown Kit. But for now the Crown Kit is being installed in another Monza convertible that we also own. It had caught fire and we purchased it mainly for the engine as we sold the 140 from the Corsa to a student and his Dad so they could use it on an air-boat. The engine from the Monza will go into the Corsa and be pretty much stock except for four barrel and headers. Possibly add fuel injection, if time allows. It's a 4 speed and it will be fun to get back on the road!
The Monza is the red car that you have a pic or two of. It is presently at the Virginia High School Industrial Arts shop. I recently visited the shop to take the instructor and students the parts as progress begins on the Crown Kit. We will refer to it as a Red Rat Rod for now, and we believe the students will enjoy getting to build, a not so usual project! The instructor at the school has built up a very interesting program offering many units of study. Computer, electronics, woods, welding, electrical, building construction/design to name some of them. The programs are made up for students of high school age. One project I thought was very unique and interesting was a go-cart type, body of wood car. It uses a Rascal power chair front and rear suspension using a mono-leaf set up. The rear drive battery power with computer control was modified to provide much more aggressive power than a typical Rascal that might be used by some of our most senior citizens, and designed originally to be very easy-going, and not over-exciting to operate! Not only is the new Rascal modification fun for students to operate, but it also has the feature of battery re-charging during braking and de-acceleration!
The Red Rat Rod got started this fall and has had the floor pan cut for engine placement. The front and rear suspension have been removed and the subframe has been installed as well as the rear crossmember. The next progress will be the power train install and then the front and rear suspension. We will attempt to send pics as things go, but the China Virus has definitely put a 'MONKEY WRENCH' in our progress! The building of the Red Rat Rod was to have started early this calendar year! A rear radiator is in the thinking for now, with full utilization of the front storage compartment as originally designed. We can be sure it will be interesting to see what some of the ideas are that students come up with, in the build process! They have copies of the original build data from Crown. Many of you know, previous builds have added information, that continue to make builds easier in many ways! The hydraulic throw out bearing is one of those improvements for now! We will consider electric power steering, the C5 differential adapter and others as future additions to the build.
Best to you from,
Dale A. Shanholtzer
October, 2020 Update
Before
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I am in hopes of some day getting the built engine in a vair but not sure which one. I would like to try the big car PG as I have the adapter for that and maybe go with a C5 differential but we will wait and see how things go. We will see how the "red rat rod" turns out first and maybe put the built engine in it.
After!!!
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February, 2021 Update
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The rear suspension has been installed and the original front suspension has been removed. The crossmember was installed first, but was a challenge for the school! I would strongly recommend reading, and re-reading, the instructions on page 3, III FRONT CROSSMEMBER MOTOR MOUNT, for anyone who is not familiar with the procedure and plans to do the install! I was told that a young lady in the class, at the Virginia High School, has done some of the engine rebuild.
May, 2021 Update
I will send picture updates on the Red Rat Rod as soon as I complete the process to do so. I talked with Darin Waters the instructor at Virginia HS ind/arts autoshop. He tells me the car is now on the ground and may be fired up before the end of the school year! If not, then perhaps at the beginning of the next school year. The school has been open ALL this school year. The limited hands on time for many of the manual skills that are required for the courses of study, has made it challenging for students and the instructor. Thanks for the diligent and hard work of students, staff, and administration another full year of school is coming to a completion.
Hole drilled in bell housing to access bleeder screw
Clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, & starter installed
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Hydraulic throw out bearing
3D printed - spacer mock up to check required clearance of caliper with tiny 13 wheels & fat tires (too bad plastic isn't enough - spacer yet to make)
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January, 2023 Update
Hope to remove the Saginaw 4 speed & build & install a big car PG. I have sold the HOT engine and will use the engine that the school installed. Will need a different intake manifold, mild cam & 2700 converter. I'm old and slow but hope to have it running before the end of 2023. Local Lugnuts car club members have welcomed me and reinvigorated my desire to turn a wrench, weld, etc. Hope to make it a driver!
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