Projects 51 Studebaker business coupe to South East Gasser rules.

I'm saving another one, this time it's a very rare 51 Studebaker business coupe. It was a race car in the past but we don't know the history. It was called the Secret weapon (if anybody has any info on it) It's really hard for me to find time to do these build threads so this one is not going to be detailed as much as the ones I have done in the past.

A little about the man I'm building the car for.
The customer 72 year old David Walker from Chesnee SC. is a world renowned Studebaker collector. David has owned studebakers since 1958. His first Studebaker was a 1953 and it was a hot rod with an olds engine. At one time David had over 150 Studebakers but a horrible fire a few years ago took over 40 of his finished Studebakers plus tons of parts and motorcycles. David will not be new to the Gasser wars because he ran a 53 Studebaker from 1961 to 1963 in C/G at drag strips all over the eastern US. That's where he met the love of his life Sandra his wife of now over 50 years. He also has history in road racing and you guessed it he was driving a Studebaker.

This thread will not be in real time because the car is about half done already.

 

This is the car as it was setting in David's Studebaker junk yard.

 

Another as it was.

 

The old floor pans and fire wall cut out, it's hard to tell in the pics but they almost fell out.

 

This is gonna be good! Already subscribed.

 

It's not that hard to tell. That out of the way, cool. It's always nice to see someone doing something different. I'm not knocking the 55 Chevy's or Willys, but it's just nice to see something different now and then.

 

The body cut out and setting back on the chassis. Still has to be sand blasted and of course the cobbled up front suspension will have to go and be replaced with a straight axle to meet the South East Gasser rules.

 

From the rear, a 9" ford will replace the original Studebaker rear end. I always try to keep the stock inner wheel wells when they are not in too bad of shape to try and keep the 60s Gasser look. The original leaf springs will stay and stay in the stock location again for the 60s look.

 

Oh Damn I am in love. Can't wait to see it come together. Should be cool. I can't wait...

 

wvenfield, that's why I decided to take the time to do this thread because it's so different. I have built several others here lately but didn't do a build thread. Thanks for checking this one out.

 

Subscibed...maybe this will save you from a few phone calls

 

Quain,
I agree with everyone else, nice to see something rare & different being saved & resurrected!
This should be cool seeing the transformation of the Stude take place!
Jim...

 

I really enjoyed your other builds , so am looking forward
to this one as well. It WILL be different !

 

THANKS for making the time to show us this build, we REALLY appreciate it.
Glenn

 

Chassis on the jig with the body in place and the new front frame rails.

 

Another angle, the glass fenders had to be special made but believe it or not we found a glass hood and front center nose piece.
If you look close you can see I had to replace the whole bottom of the car from front to back it just fell apart. Even the lower door seal and inner rocker, had to be hand made, nobody had these that I could find. I'll post detailed pic of the sheet metal work later.

 

Quain, were the front fenders made by someone local?

 

If this is gonna be half as cool as the threat on the moonlighter, it's gonna be epic.

Love that body style! And as a gasser it's gonna be some thing real cool build.

Is there a reason for why SEG won't allow stock suspension?
But wasn't there thousands of cars running the heavy classes, with stock suspension and full interior?

I'm already subscribe, only had to read the post, and seeing your name, and I'm in!

 

Lurker subscribed.

 

Yea Duck, Terry Mallone from around the greer area. They were one off's. I guess David now owns the mold so there could be more made. They were High as jet smoke but had to build the mold and all for only one set of fenders.

 

Stock suspension in the rear is legal, as long as it is something like it was in the 60s. The front has to be a straight or dropped axle. The introduction to our rules tries to explain this. A modern control arm or strut front end would have a big advantage over an old school straight axle and we have a lot of cars in our group that are original gassers saved from the mid 60s. Our goal is to keep the original gassers competitive with the new build gassers. Also our group is based off of A/G witch was the lightest weight to cubic in of all the gasser classes. When we made the rules we took what was most popular in A/G in the mid 60s and based our rules from that, there were few control arm front ends and the ones there were not very competitive.

 

Okay. I Think I get it.
But is there also a class for some of the other survivors? B/G or C/G?
I know that it has nothing to do with this build, but since you are one of the "founding farthers" of SEG and a key instrument in the resurrection of the "Moonligther", that I really liked to follow, I hope it's okay to ask here.
I really enjoyed your work on the "Moonligther", it was really over the top! And I expect nothing less of this

 

They are several other so called gasser classes out there that don't have very strict rules where any front suspension is legal. Some will even allow alcohol and still call them gassers.
Thanks for the kind words on the Moonlighter thread. This thread won't ever be as good as it because we don't know the history of this car and I won't be able to spend that kind of time on this one. But I think it's still going to get a lot of attention.

 

...oh boy, nother Stude,...hope it makes it's way to the Meltdown in Byron Il. in the future...

 

Quain...Get Back To Work! Summer's Coming

 

This is definitely gonna be different and interesting, especially to me cause back in the 60's I had a '53 coupe w/sbc.

 

More then fair! Since I'm not even on the same continent, I only ask because I love any video from any event "you" take part in. And really like to see a lot of different cars, with different setups and different entry level prize tags.

The thing a love of your part of the moonlighter part, is your ability to combine state of the art, rule book stuff and the vision of an old car made faster. The era touches mix with the high level of craftsmanship I seen on the "moonlighter". And I hope to see the same here!


Maybe because I'm born so late and is more then "three thousand miles from Graceland", the historic part only comes to mind when I se the glow in Gene's eyes, and in the passion other people write with when post! That feels awesome, and gives another dimension to the build.

 

Damn now I really need to get home and work on mine.

 

As I posted earlier the whole bottom of the car was gone. Had to home make the rocker bottom of the quarter and bottom of the front door jam.

 

The inner cowl section had to be cut out out and remade for the engine to be moved back the upper part of this was a big job with a lot of compound bends, but it turned out nice. The lip around the inside is where the aluminum firewall will bolt