Projects 51 Studebaker business coupe to South East Gasser rules.

Sorry I've been slack on this build thread lately but I've been covered up and the South East Gasser deal has been taking all of my spare time. I have my part finished, the owner now has the car getting the chassis painted and doing brake lines, wiring and that sort of stuff. I'm going to post a few pic of it before it left my shop and will post some as they get things done at his shop when I get time to go take them.

 

A shot of the fire wall from the front, never mind the modern valve covers and distributor, y'all know they won't stay if he's going to run with the South East Gasser's.

 

The finished gas tank mounts, this thing was close on room because of the way the front end rolls back at the bottom, so we had to mount the tank to the radiator mount . Note rubber radiator mount.

 

Another angle of the tank and radiator mounts. You can also see other things in the pic's that I didn't get close up's of before it left the shop. Again don't look at the valve covers, I didn't even like them being in the shop.

 

A close up of one of the rubber radiator mounts. Of course the radiator will be painted black to look correct when finished. I didn't do the bad aluminum welding that's the way it was. .

 

Bracing and pivot for the front end. Note the cables to hold it up. You can see in the bottom pic why there was no room for the gas tank, when the front end is down the cross bar is almost touching the tank mount.

 

That's all I have the owner picked it up about a month ago. the chassis is painted and final assembly is started I'll try to get time to go take some pic for y'all as it goes along. Be looking for this car and many more at a South East Gasser race in the future. Thanks for all the kind words and I hope y'all have enjoyed this as much as I have.

 

Another great build Quain, thanks for showing us all how it's done.
Ray

 

Awesome work! Any chance the Stude will be at Knoxville Saturday?

 

No Tony it's a long way from being finished yet. you know how that final assembly goes, figure a week and it takes a month. He said it would be out soon tho. Looking forward to Knoxville this Saturday see you there.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this thread.
Very cool, and some great info.

 

Thanks Quain !
Another beautiful Hot Rod built, very well done.
Glenn

 

Great fab work man I like the tubing work on the tank mount.
That always seems to be my go to.

 

posted pics from Knoxville there is a link to the thread in my signature.

 

Nice fab work and always some little tricks to pickup in your build threads

 

I promised some pics of the studebaker as final assembly goes along so here we go. These next few are actually before it left my shop doing a test fit of the aluminum. The crazy humps all over the trans cover are for some way offset shifter linkage David had so we made it work. The master cylinder cover was hand hammered out earlier in the build thread.

 

The car is now at Mike Suhy's shop in forest city NC for final assembly. This is the chassis now painted sorry for the bad pic I just took them with my phone.

 

This is looking in from the back, the paint is flawless on the chassis the rough spot that is in view is the over spray on the body. You can see the silver rear end housing setting on the floor.

 

The home made ladder bars. and another shot of the housing.

 

The petals and trans cross member.

 

The radiator support.

 

It's in the body shop now and should be back to mike's shop for final assembly in a few weeks. I'll try to keep y'all posted. It going to be ready for the fall South East Gasser race in Greer SC.

 

Looking real nice, have you set the date for the Greer race yet Quain?

 

I'm still waiting on the track. all I have been told is end of October or First of November. I hope to know something by next week people are starting to wonder if we are really going to have the fall race. It's our biggest race of the year, but I can't promote it with out a date.

 

Quain, I'm just gonna come right out and say it, no sugar coat. Lots of us down in GA, especially The Sock Fuckers are involved with both SEG and RWYB @ Reynolds, GA. And our 10th Annual RWYB has been scheduled for Nov. 7th since early in The Spring and announced here on HAMB on May11, 2015. Also, I believe if you'll research it, you'll find Brad O'Cock also has a swap meet on 11'07/15.
The 2 tracks are far enough apart to not interfere with each other on the events as such, and I doubt the fans of either event are a big share of Brad's faithful.
But there's a lot of people, including the SFCC, and many others, that wouldn't appreciate being forced to choose between 2 of our favorite events, and not only as fans, but participants and crew.

 

Thanks for the update Quain ...... you have done a great job once again.

 

Looking good
Putting paint on it is like the the gal pulling her skirt back down. you know hiding all the purtty parts.

 

Quain that is a beautiful car and you are a real craftsman. I don't know if you included more pics of the steering stabilizer but I was wondering if you could and also what part number you use. My 46 Pontiac has done it a couple of times to me- it has a 4" dropped axle with about 11 degrees of caster and all the steering is parallel and I think I am using those same steering arms you are. I have experienced the death wobble a couple of times and it scared the sh* t out of me. It sort of came out of nowhere like you say and then won't do it for a long time. So I would love to add this to my car for sure. Any extra info would be great. Thanks and great job again! I wish I was closer I would love to race my car with you guys.
Thanks- Adam Castle

 

Adam it's part # SSD 58 at auto zone. You can get it cheaper from Jegs but takes about 2 weeks to get it. So-cal has them chromed. They are for a early model Volkswagen so they are era correct. One end is bent and don't need to be, so I cut it off right at the bend and rose bud weld a female 3/8 rod end on it. Take care to let the shaft cool and spray water on it or what ever to keep the inside of the shock from getting hot. Make sure to have your wheels straight and center the shock in it's travel before mounting. I just mount one end to the tie rod tube (remember you have to be able to turn the tube to set toe end) and the other to the axle. I have mounted them to the steering arm coming off the spindle and the other to the axle. The mounts don't have to be strong because there is very little load on it but your problems will be gone. I'll have to get you some pics, if i forget remind me.

 

Yea it was a problem last year, and I have to deal with this everywhere we go. No one knows what i go through trying to keep this deal going. It's a lot harder to book around everybody else when we have 10 gasser races a year and the others just have one.. As a matter of fact I posted on a website here on the hamb for someone in charge of the Reynolds race to contact me over the winter so we could work this out. I never heard a word from anyone and this is the first I have heard about the race date. As for my end i have no control of the final date, that's up to the track and they still haven't told me when it's going to be. i do know they are not liking the end of Oct. because of it being Halloween. And they don't like later in November because it could be too cold. Like you say we are far enough apart from each other that i don't think it will hurt ether of us but it still sucks that some will have to choose.

As a side note our fall race has always been in November but nobody cared a few years ago.