Sold

Studebaker SOLD............

Thanks, everyone!!!

Clean Stude

A couple of car buddies stopped by when we were doing a little paint cut n' buff for a very good (best friend).
The basic comment was, "If someone experienced comes and looks at the Stude they will take it home!! You've done all the hard work!"

Crawl under a 65 year old untouched car and then look at this one.

I actually discarded the old NASTY fuel tank in a dumpster 50 miles away. It stunk so bad, I could not even keep it in the back yard!

Yes, it needs body and paint but you will not find many as nice as this to work on.

Not too shabby is it???

Thanks for looking.

An Exhausting Project

I'm as old as dirt! 

During the last 60 years, I've been known to do a little exhaust work. The small block Chevy always responded well to a low restriction exhaust system. 

With ceramic coated block huggers and a   2 1/2" to 3" Y pipe, this 350 will run OK.

I bent up the tube a couple of months ago before my old shop closed its doors and my access to the bender ended.

Click the Picture for a better view.

Even though the Stude may end up looking and sounding a little "Land Speed", at Dirt Plus, 110 MPH with bugs on my teeth is my limit now!

I need a better 700R pan!

53' Signal Lights

Please understand that virtually all the chromed pot metal on this jewel is pitted and corroded beyond use as is. Someone rechromed some of the trim without polishing out the pits, so now we have holes in the chrome and the trim is up against the wall in the back yard.

Since we had the internal grill pieces (1 '54 and 1 '53) we resurfaced and repaired both pieces and painted misty gold.

 At this point the plan was to install 12V amber bulbs for the Park/Turn 2 element receptacles. Unnoticed by me, the 1158 bulb is not interchangeable with the 1157A. It is a dual filament bulb but equal power and straight across pins. 

NO PROBLEMO... the Dorman #85803 service receptacle will replace the original and allow the use  of the 1157A bulb. Dim filament for parking and bright filament for turn signals.

Its not hard to replace the receptacle, but I recommend doing this prior to your refinishing job.

I needed a sharp putty knife, hammer, and Dad's old Blue Point tapered ream thats probably as old as I am.(old as dirt). Remove the old receptacle by bending the lip with the knife. A small amount of reaming (or filing) will allow the installation of the new unit with the retainer tabs bent straight.


The new unit must be seated completely or the bulb will not be able to be installed.

Click on the picture to view the retaining tabs bent over tightly after installation. Notice how close the bulb is!!



This is a mock-up of the grill assembly refinished in paint to match the body.
Just something to eyeball while the doors are being worked over.

If anyone ever asks you how many hours are involved in one of these old dogs, respond with TOO MANY!!! 

First Aspect

I'm going to eyeball this for a while. There is always the option of scuffing and repainting all misty....




The other option is to scuff 
and paint it all misty but that would destroy the chrome that is left. No going back!!

I went fishing last week, it was absolutely wonderful.
I was the only boat on the lake and the only other fishermen were four eagles who astounded me with their expertise. 

Decisions

The decision here is what front and rear treatment to give the Stude. The Lowey coupe was years ahead of its time but later treatments are very attractive.

Even painting the rear of the grill shells, the chrome is driver quality at best. 

As we move forward slowly, I am considering the solid color scheme of later unscrupulous modifiers.





                                                                                         

This is one of the many options available on the 53/54 Stude. Its nice and clean reflecting current design techniques AND eliminates the $$$$ thousands in re-chroming bumpers and pot metal grills/trim pieces.


I'm into saving the $$$$  and spending it on GO FAST. Maybe we need to think about a supercharger! Instant go fast!!! I probably should have bought Milt's 500" Caddy engine. That was then, this is now!!

Misty Gold

Yesterday  was a very nice day, light breeze and 71 degrees at noon. It took about 3 1/2 hours to shoot the GM Gold Mist. I used 4 coats of Wandabase for coverage and then 2 coats of Southern Polyurethane's Universal clear.

For a trainee, the afternoon went better than expected. I really like the Wandabase HS, It lays down perfectly for me. Add the SPI clear and the job went very well.

I'm improving on little things, I cannot imagine painting a whole car at once!!  I think this is pretty classy for the Stude!