Projects 51 Studebaker truck build

Nice Project. I"m doing up a 52. Always interesting what you find out on a ride that's been customized a few times. Mines been interesting. At least you have the body plates to reference off of.

notch looks good. With all the outside work and inner plating you should be fine.

 

Jimbacca, I've been subscribed to yours and excited for you that yours is back on the road! Keep up the good work, it's been keeping me motivated to work on mine, haha!

 

Here is a link to a discussion with great info on notches and frame strength. Good info!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=813383

 

Thanks, nice to see the pictures motivate people. Still sorting out some engine leak issues but it runs and drives so just need to sort the leak issue and its a cruiser again.

Good luck with yours Keep up the good work

 

Ok, I've been kinda slacking a bit but things are happening, just slowly. I decided the more I looked at and realized the amount of fabrication and custom work needed to run the Chrysler 400 and the 727, that, " why not just run what was in there before a Cadi 390 and hydramatic! All the motor mounts were there, the crossmember was already notched to clear the oil filter, the tailshaft mount was already there, and I already had a balanced drive line with the yoke for hydramatic! So a 25minute drive to Los Osos to see a fellow HAMBER (CHEIF) and a Cadi 390 was scored with a hydramatic mated to it. Also, my 56 Pontiac 9.3" rearend is back from getting a new pinion seal from a buddy of mine so I hope to have the rear mounted and box plates welded and rear frame rails painted by the end of the week and the motor off to the machine shop for a full rebuild.


Looks like she belongs in there ;-) plus it keeps the build 50's era specific like I was going for...

 

I like your notch reinforcements. Ive never seen it done that way. Sems like it should be plenty strong.

Old stude trucks are so cool!

 

Thank you. I should have put them INSIDE the frame and they would have never been seen once the frame is boxed. Oh well, it's not a show truck. Not going to see it with rims and tires on.

 

I got a couple of quotes from engine builders and machine shops. $4500-$5000 for a basic rebuild of my 390 Cadi motor...ouch. I was hoping to only spend $2000-$3000 on engine rebuild. I'm not building a NASCAR motor just figured hone, rings, bearings, tanked, magged, mild cam, and assembly.

I'm a fairly decent mechanic with chassis stuff... I wonder what it would take to tackle doing a basic rebuild on my own. I'm sure I would need some specialty tools and a shop manual. Can anybody chime in a give me a list of what I would need and how I would go out this adventure? I'm confident I could do it, but I would definately need some direction...

 

for that money you can buy a complete new 350/350 chevy crate motor and trans from places like jegs

 

Good lookin truck, seems like a pretty straightforward project. How is the rust situation in the cab? Doesn't look bad at all from here...

 

The rust is super minimal, a quarter sized soft spot on each of the rocker bracing channel underneath the cab. I'm just gonna clean the spots up and load a bunch of POR 15 inside the channel and be done with it. It won't compromise any cab strength at all.

 

Nice old Stude..I run a SBC,but I like the caddy idea.machine shop rates are high up here too.

 

I've never built a Caddie, but for that kind of money I'd learn how.

And people wonder why SBCs are so popular.

 

You have great start going there wish you the best.

 

Studebakerdave the reason I'm building this truck is because I found a picture of yours on this site! Hahaha! Mine will basically look like yours but in a satin white when done. Thank you for the inspiration.

 

I like the 1-ton wheels.

 

Okay, I've been super busy with work and family stuff lately but managed a little bit of work lately. Not much but just enough to re-motivate me... I got the lowering blocks built and the rear axle and freshened up leafsprings installed in the rear. Now back on the ground I checked all my angles (pinion, carb mount, and frame) and I'm 1degree or less on all of them. I'm extremely happy about that. Then today after fixing my father-in-laws headache rack I mounted my rims and tires, its even lower now and the stance looks killer in my opinion!!! Here is some eye candy from today...

 

Forgot to mention I pulled my gas tank the other week and took it into Paso radiator and they boiled it out and welded up some leaky spots, a new gasket for the sending unit and all pressure checked...$95 bucks, can't beat that! A little POR 15 and it will be good as new.

 

Got another quote for rebuilding my hydramatic tranny today...$3485. Ouch again...but it will be build by an old gent up in Salinas who has been working on these transmissions since 1966. Knows em inside and out and guarantees em for 5 years. Of course if I use him I hope he even lives that much longer... Lol. Ok, not funny. But he sounds like the best in the business, and the two most important things are motor and tranny right?

 

Building an engine isn't that difficult. You should be able to get a book covering basic engine building at your local library. A ring compressor and some plastigage are probably the only special tools you will need. Shouldn't cost more than $360 to have the block hot tanked and bored, heads redone and new pistons installed on the rods.

 

That's 8G for a stock engine and tranny. I think I'd look at alternatives.
I bet someone makes adapters to bolt a Caddie engine to some other trans.

 

I have a friend who is going to help me with building the motor so that build should be fairly reasonable. The trans is another issue....exceptionally different of an animal. I could get an adapter for the Cadi motor from speedway to bolt a th350/400 or 700r4 for $550... That might be a more affordable route.

 

Ok, slow progress but just a little bit more done the other night... Boxing plates burned in and a bunch of random drilled and torched holes at the ends of the frame rails welded up too

 

Found a rebuilt th400 200 miles away with the Cadi engine adapter already mated to it for $750... Not a bad deal...I'll call and offer $600 and I should be good to go for much less than $3500 for hydramatic build! Wahoo! Now I just need time to go get it.

 

Got a piece of "L" welded in today to brace up the rear frame horns. Also did some little things like removed some broken off bolts in the cab from removing the fenders.
Pics of rear





Also I picked up a th400 from a 64 Cadi that already had the adapter plate mounted to it for mating it to my Cadi 390 engine...and it's already built so just the engine needs to be gone thru and cleaned up and I will have a completely built drive train. Slow but sure...

 

I like what I see.

 

subscribed.
Please continue to keep us updated on your progress!- L7

 

So we are anticipating a move in two months so little has been done on the truck due to home projects, so I figured I'd throw all the sheet metal on the truck so my side yard and garage doesn't look like a junk yard when people come to look at the house since it is for sale. Talk about inspiration and motivation! Wish I woulda done it sooner now all I want to do is get the thing built and driving! I think I nailed the stance that I was hoping for...


This is the stock stance as delivered a year ago...

 

COOL! Another Stude Truck!

I am building a 1950 here. Just need to get it outta the shed and back into the garage.......

Here's a pic when I went to look at her and where she was 6 months ago.

Keep up the good work, looks great!

 

Ok, so it s been a long time since I've worked on this project,. We moved a year ago to a new place and I've had a big honey do list that is dwindling so it time to get back to work on this truck! Woohoo! I ordered a Mustang II front end kit from JW Rod Garage last week and waiting for it to show up. So ripped everything off the front end and sanded down on the frame to fresh metal to welder up when it gets here this week. I'm pretty excited to be back to work on it. My goal for this summer is to get front suspension sorted, rear suspension sorted, motor mounted and rebuilt, firewall smoothed and in paint, interior smoothed and in paint, and finally wired and fired to start driving it. I will post pics tomorrow of today's progress.