Hi all and thanks for the "welcomes and greetings", glad to be here! Here are the pics of our '57 Stude Scotsman for those who were interested. Just as a recap, its been nosed, decked, shaved, channeled 5", lowered 2", trimmed, hand formed tail light opeinings and lenses, fuel filler neck in trunk. Less motor and trans now, so she rides a bit higher in the front in these shots. Thanks for the interest, and write if you have any questions, comments or compliants, I'll take 'em all!
belated welcome, thats a fine looking machine you got there!! whats your drivetrain combo going to be?
That top needs a good chopping. (Just my humble opinion.)That's a pretty unusual car as it is,cool,too. What's going to power it?
I can only remember seeing one Scotsman back when--someone in my high school had one in the early sixties. I think it had no chrome at all--I think it was industrial green with trim painted cream? Interior was all pressed fiberboard or somesuch--an amazing display of thorough, detailed penny pinching. It somehow exuded a sort of old New England farmer kind of personality.
Thanks! We built our own engine mounts and tranny mounts for the Buick 430 /400 tranny, with no mods to the firewall. But theres only a 1/4 inch clearance from the carb to the top of the hood. Thats one of the drawbacks to channeling, you loose a lot of space. Thats why the tops not chopped, cause we'd have to pop two holes out of the top for our heads! We decided the 430/400 was way too much motor for this car, so now were working on a chev 350/350 more practical and cheaper too! Or to keep it weird, we may go with a 250/6(?) what do you guys think? any suggestions?
That little jewel needs one of 2 tops...either a super loooooooow carson style top or.....[and I really like this idear] a top from a Silver hawk, which is the top my 53 Chmpion coupe has. Now, THAT would look swoopy as hell!
I was thumbing through a book at the B&N, and I saw a pic of a '58 Scotsman, first time I'd ever heard of one, no chrome, cheapo interior, said it listed for $1789 it think (semi-photographic selective memory). light colored car in the B&W picture so I couldn't see if the bumpers were painted white or body color. Iffin it's the same basic car as a Stude Lark, wouldn't the V8-4sp. driveline from a Daytona be a bolt-in? ...or switch out your nose and tail with a Daytona and get a hardtop roof out of the deal.
Yea, to answer most of your questions, it had no chrome to speak of, except bumpers, headlight buckets and the original taillight rings. no chrome down the side or even around the windows. the original door panels were just a step above painted cardboard. The headliner material was obviously ideal for making a rat hut, since thats what we found when we bought the car out of an old farm. Didnt come with seats, but Im sure those couldnt of been much better. It was your basic bargin basement car, and they're still cheap, if you can find one. But theyre weird and different and most people dont have em, thats why we like em.
yea, we like it too. We figure, we gone this far out into weirdsville, why not go the full mile and put something in it that has way LESS hp than anyone else! hahaha
no they dont, theyre fixed. I kinda like that too. I've had a '68 and a '72 nova in the past, and those of course did and the always seemed to take abuse, never rolled just right, the tracks would get gummed up, bent or rusty.
Love your Stude Monster. I wanted a '53 for awhile, but gave up for now. I settled in on a 63 Falcon which leads me to the next topic, powerplant. I went for the straight six figuring it's nostalgic looking, cheap to run, maintain and not another V8. If I see another 350, I'm gonna...opps just did! Unless you're making a fast car, no need to go with an 8, not to mention plenty of sixes can whoop ass if you told them to. Nice work so far. And yeah, you HAVE to do something with that top.
Ok heres the story on the roof. The B pillars dont just go up straight like say a shoebox 55 chev. they tapper out. no big deal, just add some material to the post after the chop to blend the tapper. But what we've been throwing around is this nutty idea: We have a '53(?) caddy top amongst other odds and ends in the yard. The top is 4" too wide for the stude, but would add an impressive sleek look. So we thought we'd section the top, but then youd need to cut the glass. So we thought about sectioning and widening the body. Leaving the hood and trunk original, and adding 2" of material to either side of the hood and trunk. Cause even if you chop it its still a studebaker roof, it just gives it away. who knows, these are all just thoughts we chew on.
Welcome The Monster everyone. Man honestly no offense, but those Studes that came out after their merger with Packard were beaten mercilessly with the ugly stick. They're not completely 100% ugly, bits and pieces are quite lovely on their own but all together it's a beast. It's almost as if the designers were isolated from one other....just like the musicians in The Plasmatics during the solo on their cover of 'Dreamlover.' The ass end end looks great without tailights, I'm thinking you could probably make some elegant flat pieces out of red Lexan. The front end needs lightening up a bit too. Kudos to you for nurturing the poor unwanted child, keep us posted with progress pics.
If you're gonna use the Caddy top...and narrow it...why not use the stock Stude rear glass...maybe sink it a bit...the front shouldn't be a problem for a good glass man to narrow(trim the sides)...and chop. However, I think the bigger problem would be side glass...Caddy's only built hardtops...not two door sedans...so you'd have to fabricate side glass and vent windows to fit the Caddy top...not an easy job!!! Besides, widening a car...any car, is akin to sectioning one...one hell of a lot of work! R-
Yea, true comments by all! I dont know, I think I enjoy punishment, I mean, look at the project I chose, right?! ha! So the thoughts of sectioning the body would be major, but I also find it very exciting and challenging. It maybe more than I can handle right now, but I never pass off a good idea. And very good input about the caddy side glass. Looks like either way I go there with the top idea, I'll be running into glass issues.
That car just screams "60's gasser"!!! How big is it? I'm thinking it's about the size of a Lark...just has the Caddy looking front and rear end that makes it look a tad "bigger"??? I'd radius the rear wheel wells... jack the front end up... remove the front bumper... fenderwell headers... pizza cutter fronts... big old rear tires pokin' out about an inch past the quarter panel... maybe a Mopar 440 with a cross ram intake... velocity stacks... M/T valve covers... red tinted windows... fiberglass buckets... racecar lettering... and of course... ladder bars that are about five feet long, painted yellow... and a tach on the dash... shit... you do this to ANY kind of car and it would look BITHCHEN'!! Kustoms are just soooo over rated. Sam.
Why not a stude motor? I know they are kinda hard to find, but if you got a good core, it would cost about as much to build as a decent 6 (which is not a bad idea either).
very true about the stude motor, but like you say, i havent came across one that looked like it was worth rebuilding, let alone make a good campfire conversation piece. And everyone knows how often heads crack, just trying to find decent parts to START on the rebuild can be a chore. But I wouldnt kick the idea out the door just yet, like I say, I'm open to most suggestions.
Monster welcome. Where are in Ptown? I am in sw..Did you see my post for this friday night at pir you gotta come out fo that...Danny
Yes Danny, I did read your post, and I'm really excited to hear about that! I hope it catches on and it becomes a regular meet. Lets hope the weather holds up. Im in the SE portland area, near Mall 205.
When it comes to stude v-8s, the hardest part to get is the block. If you can come up with a decent block, you can buy a NEW crank, NEW heads, NEW cam and all that stuff for relatively cheap (I think the heads go for $60 or $80 a piece). However, there is one disadvantage to putting a stude motor in a stude...people think its stock. I get that crap all the time...they think "oh, it's still a studebaker motor" instead of "wow, they built a hot rod stude motor" oh well good luck Jake
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