This car finally showed up on Friday. At this point (4 months later!) I was surprised that it showed up at all, but I'm happy to see it. Apparently I bought a car in the middle of nowhere. Per my initial inspection, a couple things surprised me. 1) it actually has an IFS. I was ignorant and thought I needed an M2 suspension to get that. 2) the trim on this car is trashed. I mean, it's there, but it's got pits all over the place, ditto for the top (dented badly).. Apparently this is why people post cars on eBay. Still, no complaints, the only local car I could find was missing tons of unobtainium trim and this only cost $1500. Does anyone have some glass or door handles (interior) I can buy? How about a non-broken 6 cylinder hood emblem? Also, I've got 1 windshield, 1 cracked door window , 1 corner window + trim and 1 coupe rear post window. Fortunately replacement window glass is still available. After a lot of penetrating oil I've got the the transmission shifting and the plugs out. Still no idea what is trashed in the stock drive-train, I don't have a socket to turn the engine with, that thing is huge (1.5"?)
Very cool find - nice shape and just about unlimited potential to build it any way you want! For a driver, If it were mine, I'd probably use a 250 or 289 Stude V8 with a mild cam and a newer 4bbl carb on a factory intake...or maybe, just for fun, keep the little flathead 6.....but it and stick a T5 5spd. behind it! But if ya' have to go and do it and end up putting SBC in it....*at least* get some original (or now, available in reproduction, I think) "283 Studebaker Thunderbolt" valve cover decals from a '65 or '66 Stude to stick on it! 'Back in the day- circa -70's, when these valve covers with nice intact decals. were common in the boneyards, a high school buddy of mine put a pair of Stude "283 Thunderbolt" valve covers on the built SBC in his '61 Canadian Pontiac- just to screw with peoples' minds and keep them wondering what the hell he had under the hood! Mart3406 ==============
----------------------------- IFS was standard on Studes since the mid to late '30's Studebaker used the same basic IFS layout right up to the end, even to the very last Studebakers in 1966. One noteworthy thing about the Stude IFS is that it uses actual king-pins rather than ball joints. Mart3406 ==================
Like I said, I was ignorant. I'm so used to seeing old Studes with M2 IFS I assumed that's the only way I'd get it. Hell, my 65' Dodge doesn't have IFS and it's 12 years newer. It's a perfectly nice truck with all the options they offered that year, just no IFS. I guess that wasn't something trucks had until the 70's. Anyway, I've had the car apart now. Unfortunately there's a lot more rust than I'd originally hoped for. The frame rails are solid but the front fenders, hood and roof all need a lot of work (ignoring all the chrome/stainless, some of which I'll paint. The front and rear trim is in good shape but the bumpers and pot-metal side trim will need re-chroming for sure) It was also missing several non-repro parts (drivers vent window, interior door handles) but I've managed to secure replacements thanks to the kind folks at the drivers-forum. It's still missing a few interior bits but I'm not concerned about that. It's all easy enough to replace if you don't care about having an original restoration. Given the body situation I looked to see if the original drive-train could be retained, and after a fair amount of persuasion/torch-work the original flat-head 6 is basically sound. Ditto for the electrics (generator/starter/distributor) after a bit of oiling and contact work. Now I'm about to tear apart the DG-150 transmission and hope for the best. They're a bit finicky so it's kind of a crap-shoot, but the engine went back together pretty easy so we'll see how it goes. I still need to pull the tank and replace the hard lines/brakes, but that will all keep until this other stuff is working. I won't say that I won't mess with the drive-train (the whole reason I wanted this was to have a nice car that I could play with. California won't let you touch anything post '75 without major league headaches) but if I can get it running with what it has I can tinker with that later. Maybe a 5.3/6.0 swap so I can make it a really fun daily driver. I was never intending to make this a show car, just something sporty and different than the standard Camaro/Mustang/Chevelle that everyone chooses to resto-mod. -David
You should go to the SDC Forum. Lots of good info there specific to your car. I am doing two c/K cars myself. Brian Woods SDC avitar is WOODYSRODS OR E-MAIL me @ [email protected]
Good to know. Mine was a sad 6 cyl. Champion, built in Ca. and rusted a bit in Ore. A rebuilt '56 259 ci (plus whatever .030" bore adds) v8 studie resides there now. Very mild, but good to know. BTY, I have an S10 T5 behind it, thanks be to Bob Bendtsen of Bendtsen Transmissions in Ham Lake, Mn. It's not on the road yet, but I'm pretty jazzed about the cruising potential, if that means anything. Many Thanks.
Not sure where the picture was taken but that is Merv Adkins old Stude. We had for sale here on the HAMB forever. Glad to see he finally got a buyer. I had a 54 that I miss dearly. I've got a guy in town with a 55 in his back yard for the last 12 years now that he swears he's going to restore one day. I'm keeping my eye on it just in case.
Another SBC conversion? Ho hum~! A Chevy power plant saves 75 lbs over the Stude ( Stude 650 lbs vs. Chevy 575 lbs). You can have massive torque and still save 50 lbs up front by using a Buick 430cu in to 455 Buick (wt 600 lbs.). The difference in torque can blow the tires off your car (350 Chevy with 370 ft lbs vs. 455 Buick with 510 ft lbs)
The Jalopy Journal
