History The "lost" pics of my Dad's '53 Studebaker

looks like a Lark or Hawksteering wheel in there, and it has a 55 dash

 

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Today I tackled the brakes to see what I was up against. First thing I found was the front brake line was disconnected and a fitting with a folded-over stub in it's place. Sweet!. We checked the rear and everything looked right and in good shape. The rear brakes looked new and the wheel cylinders looked like they had been replaced in the not-so-distant past. I was feeling a little better by then when I realized only my left-rear drum had reverse-thread studs... ONLY that one. Sweet!

After a trip to the parts store for some brake line for the front, along with five failed stops attempting to find a handful of 5/16x24 phillips head screws for my door hinges, I got the lines bent and installed. We ran out of time before we got a chance to check the shoes and drums on the front, but Rome wasn't built in a day, so that will get finished up tomorrow.

I wanted to take a video is morning of the car running before I pulled it into the shop. Jim about pushed me over to get the chance to drive the car while I filmed.


I hope this link works...

 

Thanks much for the info- Gives me a starting point to look.

 

Thats cool you got it to fire. I love the Studebakers.

 

Not update time just yet, but I thought I'd share a couple photos that were sent to me from HAMB'r Hotroddon. In his words ...

"These were taken by none other than Grey Baskerville! And I think you might be in there Along with Jay Lindsley (who built my Anglia when he got the body from your dad), Pete Charouis, Jim Ewing (Super Bell) , Pete Eastwood, and Don Blair. These were taken in 1983 I think."

Sure enough- I'm the shy kid in the background in the first photo looking at the camera

A big thanks to Don for sending me these photos!

 

Great story! I always liked the way Studes looked from the '50s until the'60s when they were turned into boxes. Good luck on your build, and take it easy on your back.

 

Absolutely, the 53 Studebaker was so far advanced in body design over the competition, it wasn't funny.

 

Thanks, super. glad you enjoyed the story. I'm taking today off to rest my spine since it's not very happy with me. I just keep plugging along as/when I can.

I finally took some time to do some PhotoShop work for myself. I found two factory Stude colors for '53 (a light & dark grey) and wanted to see what the car would look like in a factory 2-tone paint scheme with 4 different sets of wheel/tire combinations. I applied this to the photo of my Dad's car, now I have a headache and can't decide which one I like the best.

 

Third row, third one down!

Nice work, tuned in!


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Great photos, I think that the model sprint car Don is holding is of his '74 (?) CRA champion car. Don owned sprint cars for many years, and was one of the first, if not the first, to insist on a roll bar. He finally won the CRA championship after years of trying and one of the rewards was that the car made the cover of HRM.

That Stude is looking great, tremendous tribute car...

 

Dad and I were racing RC cars at the time, so we both had a lot of interest in that little car. The accuracy of it blew my mind. That whole night was sensory overload for me.

 

Great stories and gonna be a super build to watch, good luck.

 

Just FYI: Studebaker never came from the factory with the fender/door cove painted in a different color than the rest of the body. For '53 and' 54, the two tone treatment was limited to the roof.

 

Thanks, P'Nut- I did not know this.

I'm headed to the shop today to begin the rewiring, mounting the seats, blah, blah... lots to do. I will try to remember to take some photos of my mess.

 

Time for a loooong overdue update:

I took a break from the car at the beginning of the year to buy a house with a garage of my own. Well, the real estate market went haywire and I decided to throw in the towel for the time being. So what better way to celebrate failure than to buy a parts car? I didn't need this car to nickel & dime me to death with all the small parts like clips, trim, bumper bolts and such. I didn't want to run the fiberglass nose cone but those damn grill surrounds are not easy to find. My car didn't have a lick of interior either, so that was something I had hoped I could score cheap enough until I could afford a nice upholstery job.

I found this '53 HT on Craigslist that fit the bill. Rusty as hell, beat to shit, but has almost all the parts I was looking for. I wasn't going to pay his asking price but he was open to interesting trades. My buddy Jim has a 66 Rambler four-slam that he couldn't give away so he called the guy and worked a straight-across trade. I paid jim what I was willing to offer for the Stude and the guy was totally stoked. Win, Win, and Win.

The HT has a 259 V8 & 3sp w/o.d. I have no need for any of the running gear but it would a shame to scrap it if I can get it to run. The tub and most of the fenders are junk. I was pleasantly surprised to see a factory tach (which mine doesn't have).

Anyway, just got the HT to the shop so this week I can start swapping parts. I know you junkies like pics, so here are a few.

 

Great story and a great tribute to your Dad . Wishing you all the best on your project .

 

Congratulations on the parts car Chip; too bad about the real estate market.

 

Thanks much, Pete! Glad you enjoyed the stories.

Hey, Jeff!
Thanks! Agreed I'm a bit bummed about the house deal. I almost bought a house on the coast, but it didn't have a garage, or anyplace to build one, so I passed. I looked at one in Klamath Falls that had a three-bay brick building, but the house was total junk.

All good, though. I'm waiting for the weather to clear so I can start pulling parts.

How are you and the family? Hope all is well with everyone. Oh- and Happy Holidays to ya!

 

No rain yesterday so I dug around the newly acquired pats car. It's definitely seen better days.
Yes- those are tiedowns holding the tank in place.
Body mount in the left rear. Looking' good...

I tried to turn the 259 over but the biggest socket I had was a 1 3/16 and it didn't come close.

I had planned on taking my dash to Russ Meeks shop to have him ceramic coat it for me but noticed that someone cut out a part below the radio. I wasn't planning on pulling the dash from the HT but it's worth the effort now. I got it about 2/3 of the way before I ran out of time.

Going to attempt to dodge rain drops and get the grill surrounds and surrounding pieces pulled today.

 

Sinister; I walked around that car at the Albany Swap meet. Keeping my eye open for a good builder myself. That one was to far gone for me but I also was thinking a Good parts car.
The Wizzard

 

Agreed, P-n-B. My friend Harold Walton stopped by to drop off my extra splash apron and when he saw the car he said he'd done two full floor replacements on these and it would cost at least $6k to have this one done right.

Are you looking for a coupe or HT? I'd be happy to keep my eyes open for a good candidate for you. Come to think of it, I think Bob Drury has a very useable '53 coupe he'd drug out to the PIR swap the last couple years. I bet he still has it.

 

I know Bob, I used to help him. I probably should stop by and touch bases with him. I really like Hardtops but here in Rain Central a post car makes better sense. They tend to be more water tight. I'm now semi retired and have done way to much reconstruction surgery to want to start with a Rust Bucket. It's also about Time. I'd rather spend a little more $$$ for a real nice project than have another never ending project. Thanks for the lead.
The Wizzard

 

Pretty cool read and glad to see you found a car to honor your dad with.

 

Thanks much, swade41- I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm really close to having a complete car. I hate missing parts.

Today was beautiful. Probably the best weather we've had in several weeks. I took advantage of this and got most of the interior out of the HT. The dash gave me some trouble since my body doesn't work like intended but with a helping hand from Jim we got it handled.

Just need to get this stripped of all it's hardware and it's off to get coated. Then I can install it and get my gauges wired up!

 

Progress...

Had time today to get the HT dash stripped of everything. One thing I noticed was the area where it wraps around to meet the dash. My coupe dash has some "wrinkles" in each corner while this one got stamped clean, as in no waves or wrinkles anywhere, so this one will get the treatment.

I was able to make a complete useable set of dash trim with all the factory knobs and switches. It's got some serious pitting issues but the parts cleaned cleaned up nice.

I also disassembled the instrument cluster to pilfer the speedo lens (mine had a crack) and fish out this tach. No clue about it but it fit good where the clock goes.

If it still works I think I'll put it back in.

Weather permitting I'll be pulling the grill surrounds and misc stuff in that vicinity on Sunday.

 

Just a heads up...if you don't use the original Stude radio, they made two slightly different blockoff plates. The Stude dash opening is an odd shape and a "no fit size" for aftermarket radios.
So a filler plate will have to be made if you do decide to use that location.
Or...what I'll be doing here soon, is to make a mounting plate/box to put an after market radio where the original Stude speaker grill is. And I have the original blockoff plate for the actual radio location.

Mike

 

Thanks for the info, Mike.
My coupe came with I would call "what's left of a radio" but the HT has a nice one that after inspection looks like it could work. My radio plate is probably the nicest dash piece I have with the least amount of pitting.
My plan was to use the extra parts to make a dual- gauge pod to match the originals and mount it to cover the hole where the speaker hole is. I'll be able to show more once i get to that point.

 

Progress...
I got my dash dropped off at Russ' shop on Friday for the ceramic coating. I'm looking forward to the finished results. Fingers crossed...

A few months back I'd brought my gauge cluster home and disassembled, cleaned, and/or painted everything as best I could. The piece that all the bezels screw to is a piss-thin piece of aluminum that had seen better days. I covered it in a hammer finish to try to hide the flaws but the color of grey had too much blue in it. I set it aside and figured I'd change it once I had picked a dash color.

Today I re-disassembled it and painted that piece black along with the two gauge pod covers that go underneath, replaced a cracked speedo lens from the parts car, installed that funky tach in the empty clock hole, and put it back together will all new screws. I'm happier the second time around.


The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow so it's back to pulling parts for this guy.

Chip

 

Progress time again....

The sun was out in force today so I gathered up some tools and headed out to the shop. I was greeted by this face when I arrived...



... and many hours later I was left with this...


It never looks like much progress but damn rusty bolts, mis-matched nuts and 50lbs of undercoating takes time to get through.

This lower pan is MUCH nicer than the one that came with the coupe.

Needs some love and I'm ok with that (we could all use some love, right?)


I got what I was after right here...

So that's it for today. Just a couple things left up front and i'll be good to go.

~Chip

 

Don't toss the other pan. It may be a good spare for you, or a helpful part for someone building a kustom.