Rick's original plan called for the restoration of the car to its original Crown appearance, but as he began to disassemble the Monza, he knew he wouldn't be satisfied with it. There were parts of the original conversion that hadn't been correctly executed, or had been crudely done. The last owner had complained that the engine overheated. It was obvious to Rick why this was happening, and he set out to fix that problem by improving the cooling system.

The car's braking system, original equipment drum brakes, worked very well for six cylinder Corvairs. However, with a potent V-8 to power the car, and with a front disk brake kit available from Bob Coffin at The Shop in Mesa, Arizona, it made sense to beef up the car's stopping power.

Once the car was up on jack stands, it would be two years before it would again see the light of day.

The previous owners, in an attempt to provide adequate cooling for the Corv-8, had cut ample but very ugly openings into the front of the Corvair.

The original Crown conversion also made use of openings cut into the inner fenders to exhaust hot air from the trunk area. This had let in a lot of water over the years.

Here we see the how the original owners relied on some small casement window fans with 12 volt heater blower motors to try to push air through the radiator. Rick wisely decided all this had to go, along with the holes in the front wheel wells that had promoted the development of a lot of rust in the trunk area.

Another area that needed improvement was the radiator and mounting. A crude homemade radiator and steel shrouds had been used, adding a significant amount of unnecessary weight.

On subsequent pages, you will see Rick's ingenious solution to the cooling system and rust problems. He completely redesigned the front of the car and came up with a configuration that, in my opinion, can't miss!

Click a road sign for more about the Norris Corv-8.