Wow! That's a lot of rubber!

Waiting. . .

Rubber should be shipped this week.

Waiting to hear back from one of the two possible local sources for a trunk lid.

I'll be busy soon enough.

On the rack!

Before they did the final tweaking on all the shut lines the men at the body shop wanted to make sure that the frame of my car was aligned properly. It is, after all, 60 years old and a lot of things can happen to a car in that time and if it needs to be straightened now is the time to do it. So onto the frame rack it went.

Ignore the hood alignment--the bump stops are not in yet.

I'm happy to report that the frame alignment is right where it is supposed to be--it is nicely straight and square! No adjustment necessary.

In other news, I ordered a "rubber kit" for the body today--there's a surprising number of cushions, seals, weatherstripping, and flappy-things on this car. Since every piece of rubber on this thing was hard as a rock (it really was) a kit was the most cost effective way of getting those things. Hopefully it will arrive soon so the hood alignment can be completed.

The pace has slowed down a bit, but I'm still seeing signs of progress.

Body Shop, Day 3

It has been awhile since it has been all together like this--it was nice to see it. Things are going well--the gap alignment is very decent (with the exception of small minor areas around the front fenders, which is typical of 53 Studebakers) and so far there have been no major surprises.

Well, ok, almost no major surprises. One thing has come up: the trunk lid has been bent in front of the right hinge and was repaired poorly. I'm now searching for a replacement. While it could be repaired--anything is possible--it would be better if I could find a nicer example.

Those of you who have done body work will likely notice the door is too far in at the back--this is because I had left the latch for that side in the garage. That's why I was there today--delivering some parts.

If this pace continues it won't be too long the until secret of my color selection is out.

A New Home (for a bit)

My Studebaker, after a busy weekend of going over any little area that needed new metal after media blasting, was loaded onto the flatbed again and hauled the 5 blocks to the body shop. There it will have a couple areas repaired that I didn't have the equipment (or knowledge/skills) to do properly myself, followed up by block sanding and paint.

To do it correctly, they're going to reassemble the car to make sure all the body panels line up. After dropping off the car early this morning, I went to work--and they called to ask if I could bring in the hood hinges and the radiator surround. When I brought the parts in at lunch, they were already working on the small dent I wanted them to pull out of the panel at the rear of the trunk. I was very surprised (and happy) to see them start on it so soon--I expected to see it sit for a bit.