A Visit to the Body Shop

Stopped by the Body Shop at lunch today to check on the progress. Looks like the new trunk has been mounted and they've pulled the doors back off to fill the few minor dings on them.

Next up--a trip to the paint booth for a second coat of primer. After that, it will be blocked (sanding with long sanding blocks to ensure the surface is perfectly flat) then back to the paint booth for paint. We're getting close!

A Man can Only Clean so Much. . .

I've been cleaning and reorganizing my garage. We're not just talking about sweeping the floor and putting away tools--this is a "I'm going to paint the walls and ceilings and tear out that crappy workbench that came with the place" sort of clean up. I figured that I had some time with the car gone--and it will be nice to have a clean, well-lit place to do some of the assembly work on the Stude.

But after putting up with the remnants of the flu for a week, I decided to give myself a bit of a break from all that cleaning/painting. So I threw the new intake manifold on the engine.

Oooh!

It was fun turning a wrench again--it had been too long. I even threw the distributor back in (although I plan on replacing this with something a bit more modern.) Ok, now back to painting.

Weekend Treasure Hunt Results

I headed over to Studebaker John's Saturday morning to pick up some needed parts--and as is typically the case, I came away with a few unexpected extras.

From left to right: The very elusive Studebaker headrests, a 4-bbl manifold, and a passenger-side trunk hinge.

In addition to the parts above (the rust on the headrest looks much worse in the picture than it is in person) I also picked up new 12-volt defroster and heater blower motors as well as a 12-volt wiper motor.  A very nice haul!

That was fast...

My trunklid arrived today in great shape--3 days earlier than expected. Go Greyhound!

My car is back off the "waiting for parts" list at the body shop. Onward!

Eureka!

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and the kindness of studebaker officiandos, a trunklid is on its way.

No rust and no creases! Such a beauty.

Still shines.

Fingers crossed, it will arrive early next week.