Quick status update

1. Dash chrome was put in the tanks today.
2. Car goes to the body shop for blocking (sanding to a flat surface) and paint on September 10.

Back, in black

Back home from media blaster. Looking good!

Yesterday afternoon I was able to bring the Stude home--everything looks good. I have a few small areas of old plastic body filler that I need to take care of and a couple of small rust pinholes to fill in. But it should be ready to go to the body shop when they get an opening, "in a couple of weeks."

Not holding my breath on the last part--but I now have plenty to do in the meanwhile.

A little this and that

Didn't do much Stude stuff this weekend. On Saturday my entire day was spent buying a new car to replace our daily driver; it is amazing how much time it takes to buy a car.

Today (Sunday) after doing a few things with the new car, I decided I needed to make a little more room in the garage for the time when the Stude comes back home for final assembly. So I started by pulling the transmission off the old flathead 6 and moving the two 3-spd transmissions into storage. Then it was more cleaning and organizing.  Unfortunately, nothing really worthy of a picture.

I also pulled all the painted interior trim and the dash into the garage so I can get it prepped to paint--it is thinner than the body metal so didn't trust to have it media blasted. So this week it will be a continuation of the garage cleaning, and when I get bored with that, sanding on the trim.

Hopefully, the blaster will finish with my car this week. . .

A tale of two trans

I'm a little tired of doing body work and paint prep, so with the car gone to the media blasters it gave me the opportunity to do a little mechanical work. Time to mate up the new T-5z trans to the old Studebaker bellhousing.

The operating theater is ready to begin the transplant

First, I removed the bellhousing from the old transmission.

That was easy. Only 4 bolts.

 It is amazing how close these two transmissions are in size.

The old transmission is only an inch or two longer

Then a little clean up and a fresh coat of paint (only on the outside.)

Sorry it is so blurry, my phone kept focusing on the cardboard.

Then, using an adapter sold by Dan Giblin, which includes a plate that fits between the bellhousing and the trans and a new steel bearing retainer for the front of the trans that has been machined to the proper diameter and length, I mated the two.

tada!

Here's the view from the working end. The kit also included a new throwout bearing (also adapted to fit) and a pilot bushing.

I've never seen a pilot bushing like that. Or a throwout bearing with a grease fitting.

Felt good to turn a wrench again.

SDC 2012 Pacific Can Am Zone Meet

Yesterday afternoon found me heading north on I-5 to Tacoma, where the Studebaker Drivers Club Zone Meet for my region was being held.  Although I was unable to stay for the entire meet, I was able to meet up with a bunch of Studebaker folks and see some beautiful cars. Here's a few of my favorites:

They were all great, but I have to admit that my favorite of the meet was the two-tone green 41 Champion Business coupe (pictures 5,6, and 8). And the 54 Champion Coupe in the 3rd picture convinced me that the coupes do look good in two-tone!

There was even a 49 Pickup that had been converted to electric.

You can see more of my pics here:

Flicker Photo Set

I did come away with a couple of things from the swap meet: a mounting plate that adapts the shift tunnel to the 4-speed floor shift which was used in the GT Hawk (which should work as a good starting point for my conversion) and, for only $15, a Nocturne Blue over Maui Blue 53 Studebaker Commander Hardtop:

It is surprisingly heavy

I'm sick of it, just haul it away!

Mark, tow-driver extraordinaire, chains down the Stude

Ha, ha! Not quite. But finally, some action. The Stude was hauled off to the media blaster first thing this morning. 

Beat-up old pickup loaded with parts

Dick Bunce, the blaster, was very happy about the gauge of metal involved--says it makes his work much easier. And Mark, the tow-truck driver, had never heard of or seen a Studebaker before; I'm guessing from him taking a few snap shots with his phone that he thought it was interesting.

The car is getting completely stripped to bare metal--interior, exterior, top and bottom. It will then be cleaned off and immediately primed with an epoxy primer.

Depending on what they uncover (I'm not expecting many surprises) the body will either head back to my garage for a few additional repairs, or on to the body shop for prep and paint. Fingers crossed it won't be coming back here until it is nice and pretty.

No more undercoating

Ok, almost. But all the areas that matter.

While I used a needle scaler and multi-tool on the removeable fenders, I didn't want to have another noise complaint, so for the last week I've been going out with an old, cheap wood chisel and using it as a scraper. That did a great job for most parts, but in the area right above the rear wheels (the inner fender) it was on there tough.

So looking on the web for other solutions, I stumbled across someone who recommended an air chisel at its lowest setting. I thought it was worth a try--if it was loud, I'd go back to the hand chisels and just suffer through it.

Fortunately, while loud in the closed garage, it wasn't so loud that it carried much beyond the garage--and it made fairly quick work of the old, brittle undercoating. Oh, and for those who are concerned about my health, I wore a respirator and a face shield while doing this work.

Now back to waiting for an opening at the media blaster.