Technical Build: The 60's Style T build

not much to show today, just some more assembley

on the motor..

spent several hours walking the Goodguys Puyallup show,

tons of cool cars, lots of good ideas.

 

she's slowly coming together,

got the radiator in position and mounts tacked, I want to get the body and grill shell on and aligned before they get welded solid to the tank. the mounts will be bolted to the frame with rubber isolators to absorb shock...or thats the plan.

found a couple hoses to fit, filled it with water, fired the motor up and let it run for about twenty minutes, radiator cap off and little 12" electric fan pulling air she never boiled over.

one freeze plug needs replacing but no other leeks or drips. so far.

 

more baby steps
trimmed most of the rust at the subrails, ripped some 2x3 tabs from some 3x3 tube and tacked them temporarily to the subrail to sit the body back on the frame.
to recheck fit and alignment and come up with a plan for the floor.

also tacked a piece of rolled expanded metal in the grill shell, not sure about that..it'll do for now I guess

had to put the torch and welder down when the thermometer on the wall approched 100.. outside in the shade, in the shop is five or ten degrees hotter

 

yesterday mostly mundane tasks

I did put together the clutch linkage though,

I altered the stock stude bellcrank, mounted it and the new slave cylinder

 

yesterday I started in on the channel, subframe and hammered a patch in the skin..

 

...

 

started back in on the floor, got a piece of p'wood hacked to fit, gunna sandwich it between the body and frame,

and the phone rings, my differential gaskets finally came,
when I get there the guy admits to having a set on the shelf all the time,
just not in the computer! doh!

so I did the disassemble reassemble routine a half dozen times and got it feelin pretty good

stuck it under the car

 

couple more

 

believe me I know,
(but I can out rassel her any day)

 

got back to the floor, moving towards the front

started bracing the firewall to handle the swing pedal setup,

and fabbed up a panel to close the gaping hole at my feet..

still need a few more braces and flanges to attach and close the deal...

then I can bolt the body down

 

continued closing up the floor at the foot and firewall

the body is now bolted to the frame.

today I get to go back to work so progress will have to happen after work and weekends,

still a ton of work to finish but,
it doesn't need much for it's first run around the block.

 

I need another strike plate, latch catch, thingy for my '27 T Touring
if you got an extra...

in the meen time I need to keep my doors closed but only have one, so I made another for temporary service.

I took a bit of round stock and whittled the hook part
and a scrap of the corner of a piece of square tube I had laying around for the flat part and made one.

first the original I used for a pattern,
the materials
and the roughed out shape

 

then gouged a ragged hole, threw some goobery weld on it and roughed out the flat stuff to shape..

 

and finally, drilled and countersunk the holes, and bolted it in place..

 

U joints are not a big deal, when you get your shaft made tell them what your two yokes are and they should be able to set you up.

in my case the stock rear joint on the Stude shaft was an exact fit for the open banjo, I just had them cut the shaft to fit and bought two new replacement joints.

 

it's an old Ansen swing set made for the two three bolt Ford masters, I didn't get an ID on the exact application for the cylinders other than that they are Ford, all 1" and the clutch master has no residual valve, the slave is connected to the altered Stude clutch arm..

 

spent a couple hours on the little car last night..

bolted the bed to the frame and slapped together a basic seat frame..

 

gas tank mounted and plumbed
battery box located
tail lights installed

started fabbing a bare bones basic throttle pedal

should be making a shakedown run Friday
and HOTROD-A-RAMA Saturday..

 

tank and bat box

 

ok,

I whipped up a spoon pedal and I can't stand it any longer,

I'm gunna hotwire it and drive it.

gotta see what this little car feels like

 

this is a monumental post for me

this is to state and record the first time my little car has moved under it's own power.

I hot-wired it and ran off the battery, couldn't wait to get wires in it.

after initial fire-up all seemed great, so I headed out the driveway and down the block, before I made it to the end of the block I noticed I was leaving a trail..
turned around and when I got home saw I had lost a freeze plug (the same one I had just replaced)

put a new one in, topped off the water and headed out again.
this time I drove for several minutes, staying close to home, all seemed great, NO bump steer, tracked straight, brakes straight, brake pedal right at the top, no appearant over heating, all good!

went back to the house, took the nephew for a short romp around the block, everything was great!

came back grabbed the camera and headed out again.... barely made it to the end of the block and she cut out. I had to push her home.

dirt in the tank clogged the pre pump filter, swapped it and the after pump filter and it'll idle, and run rough at mid throttle but I must have fines in the carbs... I will go through them tomorrow and get a few wires strung..

not perfect but she ran great, she drove nice, and stopped good too.

 

this is, I think about.. what? post thirty eight? on this little car.
I worked on it hot and heavy for about three weeks about a year and a half ago, posting every day's progress here, and then as it happens, in my life anyway, life? or whatever you call it, takes precedent.
recently I finally had a chance to spend some real time on it and put my first ever in my life, two week vacation and after a few afternoons and weekends towards making this car come together,
again posting every day's progress.
I have tried to make a point of showing that not everything goes as planned, and sometimes plans change.

anyway, this is real life, hopefully we learn as we go and adjust as needed.

the car aint done yet, but as it becomes more done I will continue to post updates here on the HAMB

there was a thread recently asking "what has the HAMB done for you?"
this is what the HAMB has done for me.

 

Friday I went through the carbs, sealed the tank and put new filters in line.
she still wouldn't run..damn.
I called my buddy Ted who has owned more Studebakers then probably God, and described the symptoms, he was still leaning towards the carbs but I was sure I had them right, the other possibility was the condenser. I had a cherry distributor for the 394 on the shelf, I would just pull the condenser out of it and stick it in the Stude.
I pulled the cap off the Stude's distributor and saw the condenser wire just laying there, not connected at all! wtf? I plugged it back in and she fired up and ran beautifully! that was about midnight Friday night.

yesterday morning I wired the brake lights, drove it around the block a few times and felt it was together enough for a short road trip.

we packed up the little car, and the daily,
the wife drove the chase car,
following me the short fifteen or so miles to Tacoma

I had made my goal, I drove her into the Hotrod-A-Rama.

here's pics of the ride in, parked at the show and the ride home.

 

not much to report,

threw some tailpipes together out of the left over Lark exhaust.

small diameter pipes with the glass packs relatively close to the manifolds,

and long for (the frame) tailpipes gives a nice raspy note

 

how she looks now

 

a few changes since this thread left off,
swapped the Studebaker engine for a '50 Olds 303 with 4-71 blower,
the transmission is also now '50 Olds (stick)
and the rear is an early Ford truck 9",
dash, gauges, upholstery, wheel and column swapped too

all in the name of fixing what aint broke

so it goes...

now I'm swapping the stock '36 axle for an old dropped and filled axle I had laying around
just to give it a bit more rake..

it's all fitted and rolling
but waiting on a couple parts, perch bolts,
destroyed one pressing them out
and shock mounts,
I had welded mounts to the old axle,
'don't know if I want to weld on this one..
jury's still out on that one..

but it should be out and about again soon

 

Such a awesome hot rod.

 

Already a cool little hot rod. Should look great with this update. Great work Paul !

 

lookin good!

 

'moved these last four posts to this thread,
I had posted update to the wrong thread