Projects '53 Studebaker Cpe W/354 Hemi Build

Very nice.

 

whatta beauty!..... Hope you drive the wheels off it!....

 

Another shot.

 

Man I love these sleek little cars. And a Hemi powered coupe is really special. The Hemi motor has about as much "awe power" of any mill out there. What a great find on this solid little baby, thanx for sharing such a cool build, miles and miles of smiles ahead for you!! ~sololobo~

 

Hey Frank........beautiful job! Lovely car and great engine choice....enjoy!

Ray

 

It looks like it came with a Hemi. The firewall and both inner fender panels are untouched.

 

If youre going to beat on it you might want to buy up all the wagon axles you can find. I once had 17 left side axles for my 427/425 FE powered 57 custom 300 Ford. It never broke lefts, just rights and you had to buy the set. Probably wont be a problem if its an automatic but you didnt say

 

It has a 700R Turbo trans so I shouldn't have axle problems (hopefully).

 

Yowza; sleeper extraordinaire!! You are going to blow some peoples minds when you pop
the hood on that baby. Hard to believe the larger Hemi fits that well within the confines of
that narrow and low engine bay. Hats off to the guys who did the install.
Really like the look!

 

Man thats nice, looks factory in there.
I have a 53, love the looks of those coupes.

 

This is the original radiator that came in this car in the original location. But I had it recored with a thicker core.

 

Very,very nice.

 

I was very surprised that everything worked out to keep the car stock enough to put the original 6 cylinder back (hahaha.....haaaahaha) but what surprised me the most was the hood will close with both air cleaners on. The slope of the hood made it seem unlikely....even impossible to me.

 

Frank it is very surprising that you can get the hood closed one of the hardest things about building the '53-'54 is getting the hood to close with anything but the stock setup.

The car came out real nice. Those old bullets are about as good as it gets.

 

Very nice build.

Assume you used the largest front disc brakes Fatman offers. The '53 Champion brakes were dangerous when new.

Since the Studebaker V8 is as wide, tall and heavy as any US car OHV8, anything and everything has been dropped in there at one time or another. I've seen or done Mopar hemi and wedge, Olds, Cad, Packard, BBF, BBC - the SBC and SBF are so small, they look lost in the Stude engine compartment.

jack vines

 

Another obsession of mine was to keep all belt driven items low. No one offered anything so I had Richard Hartman machine the needed pulleys out of billet aluminim (very expensive). You might recognize the name from his Fuel Funny Car days and current crew chief for the Terry McMillan T/F team. I did not have room for a power steering pump and A/C compressor but will stay cool.

Thanks for all the comments. I will post more pictures as the interior is finished.

 

Fantastic!! Your car has the best of both worlds, classic looks, and strong performance. I have owned several C/K models, and am hoping to get to my dads old 56 power hawk sooner than later. This one however has been blessed with plenty of rust.
Again, great work, and a big thanks for bringing one back to the streets.