Dennis Feragen - Anacortes, Washington
Here are a few details on the build of my 65 Corvair now known as Monzarado.
I purchased the car from an ad on craigslist for $400. It sort of ran with a lot of blow-by. It must have had a blown piston. I rented a car dolly and towed it home for about a hundred miles. I then started it up and drove it into my shop sitting on a wheel for the drivers seat. I started to tear it apart and found the usual rusted out floor sections. No big deal - a little stainless steel sheet and some welding took care of that. Then I had an idea that I wanted something really different - a custom look with a very cool power system so I chose to use my father in law's Cadillac power train. He said I could have it if I got him another car.
I started to customize the body, building some scallops into the front hood, built the front ground effects and plenum. Then we started on the fender flares . They are reshaped and flared about 2.5 inches each. Then I built a stainless fuel tank to fit the new setup, holds about 14 + gallons, then a new frunk floor fabricated from alum all riveted in place with a removable section for access. I tore out the engine bulkhead/ firewall and floor to where the back seat fwd edge is and reinforced with square tubing, while cutting in the left and right inlets for where the two triple pass Honda aluminum racing radiators were going to sit.
Then we asked "how will the engine fit"? Oh boy, we are going to have to do some trimming here cause the power train is about two inches wider that the sub frame. We got an Eldorado engine and trans from the junkyard to use as a mock-up. The whole thing just drops out the bottom of the car with the K frame. The K frame was too bulky and did not lend itself to my plan so I fabricated a new powertrain cradle for it from square tube and angle bar, again getting rid of the McPherson struts. I tried to use the Caddy stabilizer but it just would not fit, so I got one from a 3/4 ton Chev pickup and modified it to fit. Now it's time to modify the sub frame for clearance...
I cut away 1/2 of the subframe on both sides, added some stainless 304 and tig welded it all back together using some gussets for strength and attachment points . The original Corvair powertrain was bolted in at the swing arms, the trans cross-member and the rear mount a total of 4 points. The new setup is attached at 9 points to distribute torgue and load.
I purchased the car from an ad on craigslist for $400. It sort of ran with a lot of blow-by. It must have had a blown piston. I rented a car dolly and towed it home for about a hundred miles. I then started it up and drove it into my shop sitting on a wheel for the drivers seat. I started to tear it apart and found the usual rusted out floor sections. No big deal - a little stainless steel sheet and some welding took care of that. Then I had an idea that I wanted something really different - a custom look with a very cool power system so I chose to use my father in law's Cadillac power train. He said I could have it if I got him another car.
I started to customize the body, building some scallops into the front hood, built the front ground effects and plenum. Then we started on the fender flares . They are reshaped and flared about 2.5 inches each. Then I built a stainless fuel tank to fit the new setup, holds about 14 + gallons, then a new frunk floor fabricated from alum all riveted in place with a removable section for access. I tore out the engine bulkhead/ firewall and floor to where the back seat fwd edge is and reinforced with square tubing, while cutting in the left and right inlets for where the two triple pass Honda aluminum racing radiators were going to sit.
Then we asked "how will the engine fit"? Oh boy, we are going to have to do some trimming here cause the power train is about two inches wider that the sub frame. We got an Eldorado engine and trans from the junkyard to use as a mock-up. The whole thing just drops out the bottom of the car with the K frame. The K frame was too bulky and did not lend itself to my plan so I fabricated a new powertrain cradle for it from square tube and angle bar, again getting rid of the McPherson struts. I tried to use the Caddy stabilizer but it just would not fit, so I got one from a 3/4 ton Chev pickup and modified it to fit. Now it's time to modify the sub frame for clearance...
I cut away 1/2 of the subframe on both sides, added some stainless 304 and tig welded it all back together using some gussets for strength and attachment points . The original Corvair powertrain was bolted in at the swing arms, the trans cross-member and the rear mount a total of 4 points. The new setup is attached at 9 points to distribute torgue and load.
Now I'm going to get the real powertrain from dad's 99 Caddy 4.6 liter Northstar. That's another story for a later time. At this point the engine has been modified with twin turbos and a lot of other things. It has actually been run for a few minutes and we are currently working out the bugs.
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While waiting for father-in-law to give up his Caddy, I did some more bodywork - and a lot of it! Of course the rear window had to go so I added some more structure and sculpted the rear window post rearward to give it a better line and filled in where the window channel would go. Then I built in a double walled rear bulkhead with an electric rollup window from a sunroof which had a slight radius to it, so it fit the bulkhead nice. Then I cut off the drip rails and tig welded the pinch weld flanges flat and smooth it looked so much better with the gutters gone.
Now, on to the bumpers. I welded up all the boltholes, welded the brackets inside and narrowed them about 1 inch for a nicer fit to the body. Then we grabbed some more tubing and a bender to form the rear diffuser and spoiler, welded it all up and put in the sexy stainless exhaust tips. On the front bumper, we sunk in L.E.D. lights for park and turn signals. At the rear edge of the roof we added a scallop kinda like on a 58 Bel Air and added an upper brake light behind a blacked out grill so its not visible until it lights up.
Now, on to the bumpers. I welded up all the boltholes, welded the brackets inside and narrowed them about 1 inch for a nicer fit to the body. Then we grabbed some more tubing and a bender to form the rear diffuser and spoiler, welded it all up and put in the sexy stainless exhaust tips. On the front bumper, we sunk in L.E.D. lights for park and turn signals. At the rear edge of the roof we added a scallop kinda like on a 58 Bel Air and added an upper brake light behind a blacked out grill so its not visible until it lights up.
I removed all the trim from around the tail light facia and molded in a welded trim similar to the shape of the aluminum trim. I went on to make up some new pieces to french in the taillights about 1.5" deep for the led taillights. I made some stainless bezels to accent the lights, which are DOT lights. Kinda has that Charger rear look.
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. I tore out the old trunk floor to get ready for the new front suspension which came from a 03 Cadillac CTS, complete with rack and pinion steering and McPherson struts. Did not like the struts so went with custom built aluminum upper control arms and QA1 coilovers. I used the Caddy stabilizer bar and the cast alum lower control arms along with a narrowed K frame and attached it to the Vair sub frame with a few more attachment points added for strength.
Stayin focused...
Best regards, Dennis |
So here we are workin out some glitches got the engine running and it seems to have settled down into a 1000 rpm idle ..going out for a test drive to see w hat happens ..Brakes not so good because it is turbo charged and had to use a vacuum pump for the booster ...does not recover soon enough , have to rectify that first then on to a few other drivability issues having to do with the Holley EFI system other things seem to be pretty good though .
March, 2019 Update
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