Turbo Odyssey Part 3 -- Arrival

June 30, 2004

It was an exhausted Clark Hartzel who arrived at my house Monday morning at around 10:00 a.m.  He made the 3,400 mile trip from Michigan to Montana and back in 100 hours flat.

Although I am sure Clark saw some great scenery, he says he isn't interested in making the trip again.  Something to do with rain, sleeping in the truck and sleep deprivation in general.

Anyway, he rolled the car off the trailer, parked it in my drive, and headed home for some well-deserved rest.

For my part, as soon as I got out of the hearing I had that morning, I went home to see just how big a mistake I made.

 Here, Jake and I check out the impromptu top the seller rigged up for the trip to Michigan.

The car came with a box of documentation.  Most interesting was the title I received.  The title was an original New Mexico document from 1966, which had a release of lien on the reverse side by GMAC from 1968.  From the documentation, it appears that the original owner traded the car after about a year, and it was sold to the gentleman who was its true owner.  He drove the car until 1979 (and kept all the registrations, which I have) at which point he parked it.  He sold it earlier this month on a bill of sale to the gentleman from whom I purchased the car.  I also received a bill of sale from him.  I took these documents to the Michigan Secretary of State and became the third titled owner of the car.  The guy working at the desk asked me if I wanted the original title, and I said, are you kidding?  He walked over to the copier, made a copy of the back and front, wrote VOID on the front of it, and handed it back to me. 

Also included in the documentation with the car were the owners manual, the service manual with Protect-o-Plate, a couple of original Fitch Sprint parts brochures and some IECO materials. 

After work Monday, I stripped off the temporary top, put the boot on and thus solved the problem of the nasty top, at least on a temporary basis.  I got some "purple stuff" (Castrol purple cleaner) and went to work on cleaning off the upholstery.  Although it doesn't look too bad, it will have to eventually be replaced. 

The next step was to take the tires and rims off and replace them with the 13" tires and wire wheel covers from my other Corsa.

The tires on the car were bias ply rubber and were weather cracked.  I'm surprised they held air.  Perhaps there were tubes in them.  Anyway, the only duty they will ever see again is in the body shop as something for the car to sit on while it is being painted.

The next step was a hard, harder, hardest test for the brakes, which I did a couple of times.  I wanted to take the car for a short drive just to see how things were working.  I checked the oil, which looked fresh, and set out.

The first thing I noticed was the quick shift kit.  The car shifted easily and the clutch worked well with no noise from the throw-out bearing.  The car rode very solidly and smoothly.  I was quite surprised.  At about 40 mph a vibration became apparent in the front end.  After a short bit of driving a punched it a few times and was astonished to watch the boost gauge needle move to the right side.   I have had at least one '65 Corsa since 1985, but this was the first time I had ever seen this happen.

After the second trip around the block with my son, there was a fair amount of smoke coming from the engine compartment, the result of unknown oil leaks under the shroud.

The way the car is leaking oil, it really can't be driven.  My original plan was to fool around with it as it is for awhile, but I think now that the better course is to pull the powertrain and start dismantling the car for paint.  I see no point in fixing the leaks to put the engine back in, just to take it out again in a month when the car goes to the body shop.

Having now had a couple of days to look the car over, here is what I have learned.

The body is basically solid, but it does have some issues.  The quarters behind the wheels have some rot and are both going to have to be patched.  The area below the windshield is just as bad as I expected and also needs new metal.  There appears to have been some damage to both rear quarters behind the rear wheels which was poorly repaired.  The Bondo will have to go.  Otherwise, the body looks pretty good.

The interior, as I said, doesn't look too bad, but will be replaced.

The previous owner did more than look at the Sprint catalogs.  A number of Sprint mods are on the car.  It has Sprint seat track extenders on the driver's side and a Fitch-provided "Corvair" shift knob.   I also noticed the Fitch spring cushions in the rear springs and a Fitch steering damper had also been installed.  With the front of the car off the ground, I noticed that the steering wheel took about 3 1/2 turns lock-to-lock.  However, on the red Corsa when it hits lock, the steering wheel stops turning.  On this car, when it hits lock, the wheels quit moving, but the steering wheel still turns a little bit.  I am not sure what's up with that.  Based upon the documentation that came with the car, I suspect that it does not have a quick box, but instead sports a set of Fitch fast steering arms.

Dash, tail and brake lights do not work, although the rear turn signals do work.  Since the car is going to come apart, I am not too worried about this.  I am sure I will find the short in due course.

Given the interesting accessories added by the previous owner, I am getting pretty excited about this project.  My brother is coming to town next week.  I don't want to start taking the car apart until he sees it, and while he is here I probably won't have too much time to work on it, so it will probably be a couple weeks before I can really turn in on it.

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