My 1966 Kelmark car found me...

[Andria Raine]

My 1966 Kelmark car found me after a 25 year separation. More was posted in the Kelmark Thread.

This Corvair left the factory as a Blue Monza coupe and at some point wound up in a Junk Yard where it was acquired to build it as a V8 Corvair.

A longtime friend purchased this car down south (East Coast, Georgia or the Carolina's) in the early 1980's. By then the car was White in color and he drove it back to Maryland where he enjoyed it for a while before he decided to paint it. The car already had the CORSA dash in it but my friend installed the 1965 1st design telescopic column. I later added the comfort grip steering wheel.

The car was stripped to bare metal including door jambs and even where the weatherstrips fit into the hood and trunk areas. The interior was removed but the car was still able to drive.

As it often happens, once the project was under way, something else caught my friend's eye and I acquired a running driving basket case right around 1983.

The car got painted Black with a Ditzler Acrylic Enamel and put it back together. Unfortunately shortly after getting painted, a Deer decided to make my day and ran into the right rear 1/4 panel which resulted in the dent you can still see as it sits today. The individual I sold the car to in 1999 attempted to straighten it out but made things worse. I'll get it repaired this time around.

When I got the car it has a worn out 1966 327 in it which I replaced later with a 305 4bbl engine that came out of a 1979 Malibu Sport coupe with about 100K miles. It had been rear ended.
The Malibu appeared to have been well cared for and as it turned out, the engine was a nice one for a 305. I believe this is still the one in the car today although it has seen "Modifications".

Attached are photo's of the car from back in the early 1980's when my friend went south and purchased it. Note the front panel had a series of 1" holes poorly drilled for air intake and the side pipes. I replace the front panel and cut intake holes under the front bumper, adder the CORSA script and "C's", also note the 1965 hood. These are the White car photo's.

My plan is to post additional photo's as I slowly move forward.

[Andria Raine]

Here is my first look of the car after a 25 year separation. One look and I knew it was indeed my old car.
I had almost lost hope of ever seeing it again and was anxious to get it back.

[Andria Raine]

Here is the car outside in the daylight a week later when I picked it up and brought it home.

[Andria Raine]

Finally home sitting in the yard after getting washed and rained on.

[Andria Raine]

In the middle of posting here back on the 14th, I somehow offended the Go Daddy folks who thought I might be up to no good and got blocked. Thanks to RIck, I am back up and running.

One of the first things I did was to make keys for the car as it came with none that worked properly.
The trunk would not open as the tailpiece had become damaged and disconnected but getting it open was easy due to the air intake openings under the front bumper.
Fortunately for me, I had keyed all the locks to use the same key when I originally owned it.

Last week I removed the front seats that were in the car and hauled them off to the dump. I plan on using stock 1966 seats. It had 1967 Camaro Deluxe bucket seats when I bought it the first time.
I cleaned the door panels, removed what was left of the carpets and moved the engine cover to a safe location. It will need some work to make it functional once again.

The one thing that was done to the car that I think may be beneficial was the side cover on the transmission appears to have been replaced with one from a more conventional Saginaw transmission with the shift forks and a more conventional linkage set up. When I bought the car this time, there was no operational shifter in the car. I am considering my options, one of which is a cable shifter if I can figure it out.

No longer having a decent garage to work out of at the moment makes forward momentum a challenge and I don't anticipate a whole lot of immediate progress, it may be another year before I can move the car under it's own power again (maybe longer).

[Andria Raine]

More progress, I removed the carpet and cleaned more of the sawdust off of the engine and generally cleaned up the interior some.

When I sold the car, it had the factory 305 4bbl intake and Quadrajet carburetor on it and worked well. It was replaced with a Edelbrock Performer intake and a Holley 4160.

I had 1966 vintage Rams Horn exhaust manifolds running through a mid 1970's GM F body transverse style dual in/out muffler which resulted in a nice quiet sound.
The car currently has shorty headers and as I understand it, "Loud" exhaust. This is something I plan on changing. I recently bought a pair of new Rams Horn style cast iron manifolds that are currently out being ceramic coated.
Once I have the car running well enough to drive it to a shop for a decent exhaust system, it will get one but first the car will need the brakes and hydraulic clutch gone through as neither work.

On order is a second spare input shaft while I can get one and a set of Clark's V8 specific springs for all four corners. The Koni's on it are old but I hope they will still work acceptably enough.


Yes, I have my hands full and with some luck, I will be up to the challenge.
The downside is that I am no longer as young as I was when I first bought the car back in 1983.
The up side is that I am hopefully a little wiser and more able to do right by the car as I move forward.

[Andria Raine]

Went to the Corvair Ranch this past Saturday and picked up $3,200.00 worth of parts for the car.
I don't buy direct from Clark's since Jeff gets better prices and this way both vendors make a little from my one purchase...

Items I picked up included, but not limited to were as follows:

New V8 specific springs for all four corners. A spare input shaft. (Now I have two spares)
A complete reproduction '66 Corsa wiring harness so I can modify a fresh new one rather than repair the one currently in the car.
New master cylinders, converting from a '62-'66 style to the '67 up for the brakes and a '62-'66 style for the clutch (I already have a new slave cyl.)
New wheel cylinders, New Brake lines, New Gas Tank and associated parts, New assembled Glove Box cardboard, New Carpet and more small items.

Something else I purchased off of e-bay recently was a reproduction dual snorkel air cleaner as found on the 1965-1966 Corvette's,
I thought it would be interesting since the stock 1979 Malibu assembly that was on the car when I sold it went missing and this new one resembles the Corvair 140 Air Cleaner.

[Andria Raine]

I am still picking up parts for this car as the become available.
This week, I purchased a reproduction air cleaner base and lid to use on the car.
I thought of using one of these long ago and decided to spend the money to do it this time around.
The Air Cleaner assembly reminds me of the 1965-1966 Corvair 140 set up but this one was used on the 1965-1966 Corvette's.
The opening is about 4-1/8" but the Carburetor on the car at the moment needs a 5-1/8" opening which means sourcing a different carburetor or modifying the air cleaner base.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome. I am in no real hurry to screw things up.
Click on the photo's to get a better view. (Full size photo)

[Andria Raine]

EDIT: I found an adapter similar to the Mr.Gasket 2082.

The opening is more like 4-7/32" and the Carburetor on the car at the moment needs a 5-1/8" opening which means I needed the adapter.

I attempted to Edit the above post but apparently time to do that had expired even though the Edit option appeared to still be available for me when I began editing.....I'm learning.

[Andria Raine]

The wiring harness on the Kelmark car was a complete mess and after untold hours trying to figure things out, I gave up.
I am NOT Electronically inclined which only added to my frustration.

Shortly after reacquiring the car, I did purchase a complete new reproduction 1966 Corsa wiring harness that will eventually get modified to work with aftermarket gauges and the V8 but that is going to be down the road a ways.

A couple of weeks ago I managed to bypass the existing wiring mess and wire up an ignition switch to the battery, starter motor, and HEI Distributor by following a basic schematic I found. This should serve my immediate needs.

I was able to get the engine to crank over and do a compression test. All the spark plugs were out for this procedure.
The results were five cylinders were at 220 and the other three were at 215.

Once that was done, I removed the thermostat, reinstalled the spark plugs & wires, installed the carburetor I had rebuilt, hooked up a temporary electric fuel pump and a two gallon gas can for my fuel source and actually got the car started and running.

My goal was to get the engine up to operating temperatures and make sure there was adequate Antifreeze in the cooling system and to check for coolant leaks at the freeze plugs or anywhere else as it will be outside for the winter this year.

Once I started adding coolant, I discovered a coolant leak in an unexpected place. Apparently at some point someone ran a screw into the floorboard and into one of the copper pipes that ran from the radiator to the engine.

As a temporary fix, I took a piece of radiator hose and a clamp and wrapped it around the pipe and snugged it down so I could continue.

One thing I overlooked was to connect the electric fan for the radiator so things eventually got a bit warmer than intended. Afterwards I did verify that the electric fan does indeed work but is sounds worn out so a new one will be forthcoming.

At the end of the day, I am happy that the engine runs although it is pushing some smoke out the tailpipes upon acceleration which could be as simple as valve stem seals, or as complicated as rings.

Keep in mind that this engine is a 1979 305 that had over 100K miles on it when I replaced it around 1986.
The 305 replaced the worm out 1966 327 that was in the car when I bought it.

My plan is to keep this engine in the car while I work on it and get it to a point where it can move once again under it's own power and sort out other issues before it eventually gets either rebuilt or replaced.

Thank You to Dean Gemberling (Fellow V8 registry member) for converting the video I took to a format where it could be posted and viewed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXKqYGhhdxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uzmwxov2v8