I love weird, gimmicky engineering.
In 1953, one of the myriad of options for my Studebaker was an internally controlled antenna. This nifty little thing allowed the driver to reach under the dash, and crank a little knob on the kick panel to raise and lower the radio antenna. When one came up for sale recently, I had to have it—I mean what person would have bought the AC-2300 Stratoline Automatic Tuning 8-Tube Radio for $81.25 without springing an extra $10.25 for the AC-2303 Internally Controlled Antenna? (That’s a total of $1,028.28 in today’s prices, if you were curious. That better be a nice sounding AM radio for a thousand bucks!)
But of course that means drilling a hole through a freshly-painted fender.
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| Wouldn’t it be better to just get an internal antenna and hide it under the headliner? |
Fortunately, as I’ve mentioned numerous times here, Studebaker enthusiasts have a wonderful support network. A quick call to the Studebaker National Museum ended up with a photocopy of the installation instructions, complete with a template for drilling the hole, in my mailbox a few days later. I guess there’s no putting this off then.
A quick tap on a center punch and I was set to drill. The instructions called for a 15/16” hole saw, but the best I could come up with was a 7/8”. It worked just fine.
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| Only a tiny tear in the paint—not bad. The gasket will cover that. |
Next up, the install. It goes in from the inside.
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| Had to drill a couple of small holes for the mounting screws. |
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| Wait, where did those red seats come from? |
