Studebaker Chronicles

[cycledog]

Thought I would start a build thread.
This sat in a barn in Colville WA. for 15yrs. Wife said do something with it or sell it. So now its at my house.

Real straight, rusted out front floors. It came with new in the box floor panels and rocker panels although the rocker are solid.

Rodent condo. Interior and headliner had to be taken out and inside sprayed down with bleach. Seats scrubbed and disinfected. Other than that its a runner and driver.

I will retain the 185cid flathead six.
I have a set of headers and T-5 tranny adapter on the way from Cathcart Studebaker. Will have an Offy dual carb manifold.

Cathcart's will also be supplying a re-ground "racing cam" racing in the loosest terms. The engine produces a neck breaking 101 hp from the factory. With the mods I am sure it will come up to 120hp or less. Keeping the six for the lets be different factor.

It will be a different color. To be determined later. Anything but blue

Anyway it's a start. My wife has her coveralls clean and ready to get dirty. She's ready to get it done and will be working side by side with me as usual.

 

[dmw56]

Love that Stude!! Good luck and keep us posted.[cl

 

[Flipper_1938]

Lucky Guy...on the stude and the wonderful wife!

 

[Gregster]

That car looks almost perfect in the pictures

 

[59imp]

wow that looks like it's in terrific shape

 

[Rat33pickmup]

I am going to have to come out to your place and check out the Tin you have all over!!!! Nice Stude

 

[cycledog]

I am going to have to come out to your place and check out the Tin you have all over!!!! Nice Stude

Any time.....bring your trailer.

 

[earthman]

Top repainted to match the bottom, american mags. How long will it take you ?

 

[turbostude]

Don't discount that engine. It has a long racing history and is extremely tough. It has a forged crank and rods. The mains are 3"!!! I have raced these, and mine has happily tolerated 17lbs boost and delivered 240hp/290 ft-lbs torque. Stude guys never throw out anything, and the parts network is really extensive and relatively cheap. You might like the Studebaker Driver's club and the racingstudebakers forum too.
Good luck with your build. How long were you on the phone with Dick Cathcart? A treasure to us 6 guys. Donated a stroker crank to our racing effort!

 

[cycledog]

Finally been able to spend some time on the Stude. I removed the center grill and front bumper. I believe the bumper will stay of permanently. No longer looks like it has a fat lip. I blacked in the mouth, removed the hood ornament.

Tackling the floors next.

 

[earthman]

Jeez, i plumb forgot about this.

 

[skull]

get in it and go

do it, that's a pretty car[cl

OLater

 

[cycledog]

Not much too exciting going on but here's some progress.

Had to replace the H2O pump.
In preparation for the dual carb set up the oil filter will have to be relocated. Battery was going to the trunk anyway so I think the filter will fit nicely where the battery once was.

Took the battery box out prepped the area and gave a couple of coats of Rust Bullitt.

The voltage regulator looked a bit ugly, took the lid off and the inside was nasty so ordered another regulator.

For those not familiar with Studebakers, if you look at the picture of the battery box the thing that looks like a spring is indeed Studes idea of a hood spring. There are 4 total two in the engine bay and two that hook inside the fender well. Not sure they do anything, although in a pinch one could be used as a emergency throttle return spring I guess

 

[cycledog]

Got to work on the Stude a bit.
Got the oil filter moved. The big ugly piece of angle iron is where it was.
Ground off the casting marks on exhaust and painted them. Bought the #2 weld wire to make battery cables so I can put the battery in trunk.

Not too exciting of a build, but I am enjoying it.

 

[earthman]

Thanks for the update

 

[HALLnRODZ]

Studebaker always built the coolest cars. We didn't get too many coupes down here in the day. Awesome car man!

 

[cycledog]

More on history's most boring build.
Got the battery box mounted in the trunk. Shaved the hood and trunk, still a bit more work to get it all smoothed out.

I was going to figure out a way to do away with the stock latch..but Studebaker being the odd ball it has a weird latch. So I took off the surround and will retain the stock lock mechanism.

 

[Flipper_1938]

What happened with this one? I am going with dad this weekend to look at a 1954 starliner.

 

[cycledog]

Painted top metal flake red. Dual carbs, dual exhaust. Drivin' it. Thanks for asking.

 

[Skip]

Cool. Pics please.