<VV> A reason to worry?

[Chuck McKinley]

OK, I tried this test, jacking up both the front and back ends of the car (one at a time), and didn't see any pinch at all anywhere around the door frame. I might add that the pawl plates (not sure that's really what they're called) on the doors that enage the latching mechanism are pretty worn, to the point of being deformed, and it might be that they're simply not getting properly engaged unless I slam the door. I might try lubing them a little (once every 20 years, whether they need it or not!) and see if that makes any difference.

Cheers,
Chuck

PS Mark, as far as replacing the floor panels properly, as you suggest, great idea, but I've decided I'm not spending any more serious money on this car. It's either going to be driven as is until it rots, or retired and parted out if I decide it's not safe to put on the road. I've got five cars and a motorcycle, so one less car won't make any significant difference to my mobility. 

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mark Durham 
  To: Michael Kovacs 
  Cc: Chuck McKinley ; VV 
  Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 12:27 PM
  Subject: Re: <VV> A reason to worry?


  Mike, is right. If you get movement with his test, and I'm thinking you will, then you need to find the weak areas in the body and strenghten them. A good start would be to get real repro floor panels and WELD them in. Make sure the car is on a flat surface when you weld them in place, or your doors may never fit right again. Those panels may lay flat but still provide rigidity to the actual frame by preventing it from flexing. Remember this is a unibody car, so the unit as a whole provides the rigidity, not just the frame portions along the lower outside rails. Unibody cars rely on the whole package to do the safety job, you cannot rely on the rail box (frame) alone. 

  If your search finds lots of rust in the frame of the car, (look everywhere you can) its time to look for another rust free body (from the west) and build it up. Because when frames begin to flex like this, they become suseptable to damage from road conditions that they normally handle OK, and become dangerous to drive. The car could become uncontrollable, over time. I saw a older little Toyota pickup driving down the road that the frame was so rusty it flexed or bounced up and down. I knew the owner and asked him about it. He said he knew it was that way and had just felt the pickup do something odd while carrying a small load, and figured out it wasn't safe and took it off the road.  

  Mark Durham 


  On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 8:36 AM, Michael Kovacs <kovacsmj at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

    Worry, maybe. I'd jack up one corner of the car and see if the gaps on the dpprs
    have a significant movement. How are the rockers?.
     MIKE KOVACS




    ________________________________
    From: Chuck McKinley <cmckinley313 at verizon.net>
    To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
    Sent: Thu, January 3, 2013 11:19:16 AM
    Subject: <VV> A reason to worry?


    Every so often while I'm driving my '63 Monza 900 coupe, I find that one of the
    doors has popped slightly open (~1/2 inch). It can occur to either door about
    equally. When I slam them shut, it seems to be OK for the moment. This just
    happened to my driver-side door when I made a sharp right turn at walking speed
    in a parking lot. I'm wondering if that's symptomatic of a dangerous level of
    frame flex. Is there a simple test I can make to decide whether this is a
    terminal condition such that I should finally retire at least the body of the
    car?
    I can add that the floor pan is full of holes of various sizes and is patched
    several places with sheet metal pop-riveted through the original floor metal -
    not welded anywhere.
    I just did a simple-minded trick of opening the door, standing on the rocker
    panel and basically jumping up and down several times. I did this on both sides
    of the car and nothing broke, for whatever that's worth. I weigh about 180 so
    it's probably not a very good stress test.
    Advice is welcome, as always.

    Chuck McKinley
    '63 Monza 900 80 hp  3-speed
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