Technical Stude Pickup Warehouse Find

I think it’s time to send the Austin gasser on down the road. I haven’t done much with it lately aside from dragging it to some shows. I could use the space and I can always use the money.
What’s happening with you? Any new projects?

 

TOO much work, though glad to be working, the A is sitting no time, been looking for a little beater to cruise for now, I enjoy your pick up progress postings.

 

Thanks. I moved the Stude to the top of the list at the expense of the other projects but now that it’s pretty reliable I’m trying to get back on the Morris and the roadster. I’m trying to get some paint on the Morris.

 

Kool you got some nice stuff...

 

Just when you thought that this thread had flamed out, new stuff happens…..
The second pickup, Frankie’s 413 powered one is lost to time… But the third Stude pickup in this saga is still in the Pisano family, the one built by Carman for his own use. It’s been significantly upgraded, it looks bitchin and it’s running although not being driven.
I recently bought the Pontiac engine that powered it way back in the ‘60s.
While the Pontiac engine in the Stude pickup that I bought is a mild mannered daily driver, Carman’s Studie had some serious balls. This engine has an M/T stroker crank, 12:1 compression and a roller cam. According to the casting numbers he started with a ‘59 block and ‘61 421 big valve heads. Although it was freshened up a few years ago it still has the same components in it. It was pulled and replaced with an LS.
It has an Edelbrock 2x4 intake with two AFBs, a factory F.I. distributor, a deep sump oil pan and an adapter for 55-60 Pontiac engines to Chevy automatic transmissions. One interesting point, although it’s built on a ‘59 short block it has ‘61 heads and intake and doesn’t have the earlier reverse flow water system with the elbows on the front of each head.
I have no idea what I’m going to do with the new engine at this point as I have a ‘62 389 all machined and just about ready for assembly that I was going to install in my truck, but the original ‘59 389 is running great.
I just couldn’t let this piece of history go to someone else. This engine was thumping around our town in that shortened Studebaker pickup when I was in high school.

I also got the old homemade headers…..along with some other odds n ends.

 

Oh-oh. Sat nite Spl will be making it's' appointed rounds... Quick-change front clip w/wing-nut motor mounts, anyone??? . Do I fore-see the Poncho FI units finally getting to hit the street?
Marcus...

 

Right now I’m focusing on cleaning up my Austin and making it a less menacing driver so the Stude will just stay as it is as long as it continues to run reliably. I do need to improve the brakes a little. I have a to-do list of improvements but none are mandatory at this point.
I’m down in LA for another week playing catch up on maintenance (and getting a little relief from the scorching NorCal heat). I’m also putting some time in on my buddy’s 29 sedan.

 

One of the items on my list of improvements is the tailgate. The Stude has a custom made smooth tailgate that is bolted in place. No hinges, so it really doesn’t open without wrenches to remove it. I was thinking about candidates for tailgate hinges. I think ‘49 Ford trunk lid hinges might work. I envisioned them mounted vertically. Both the tailgate and bed closeout are flat. I thought that I had a pair in my stash to try on but apparently I sent them down the road with the old Vic-chero and it’s parts car.
Does anyone have a pair that they could take pictures of and maybe some basic dimensions?

 

I went to the machine shop to check on my ‘62 389 that I dropped off for some work. I’ve been bad about getting over there and hanging out with my friends, life gets in the way sometimes. Rummaging around upstairs looking for gauges and stuff I ran across the roller rockers that I had bought for the 400 Pontiac for my Tempest. I got one out and took it to the machine shop to see if we might use them on the other engine. We found some rocker studs that should work well. We need to pull out the stock studs, thread the openings to 1/2-13 and spot face or mill the head surfaces. Since they are pretty busy right now, I offered to take the heads home and extract the studs and pull out the oil passage plugs.
Got one done last night, pretty easy.
No big hurry on the new engine, the old ‘59 389 is still running strong but I’m kinda committed at this point.

 

I sure enjoy driving it around, it never fails to get conversations started. Even the gal that manages the local Oreilly came out to check it out. Folks out our way appreciate old pickup trucks.

 

I love that truck !

 

Thanks! I haven’t had much to report lately. The old truck just keeps running fine. I am moving slowly forward with a new engine and transmission but with plenty of other projects I probably won’t swap it in until the current engine or transmission stumbles (or I have a bunch of spare time, lol).
I probably should dress the front frame horns and put a front bumper on it.

 

Hopefully your place and folks you know in LA are safe. Those thumping ponchos are cool, my older brother ran one in a 60 Catalina stock car in the late 60's.

 

They did good in the stock and super stock classes in the early ‘60s. I was a fan of Hayden Profitt, Ramon Lowe, Jay Hamilton, all local Pontiac racers. Dempsey Wilson ground a mean cam for Pontiacs back then. Art Carr built up some bullet proof automatics for them too.
We put a rebuilt ‘60 Pontiac Trophy 425A 389 (4 bolt mains!) in the flatbottom ski boat that my Dad built for our family. We eventually switched from the TriPower setup to a 780 Holley on an Edelbrock intake because my Dad got tired of having to freshen up three carburetors at the beginning of each waterskiing season. It ran better but didn’t look as cool. I’ve always had a special attraction to Pontiacs.

 

I picked up the other 389 block and heads from the machine shop the other day. The heads now have screw in studs and Comp springs and retainers to go with the new cam. It’s been cold and raining so I couldn’t do much but today the sun was shining so I got the the block outside and gave it a good scrubbing with soap and water. After drying I shot some primer on the outside.
I’m having trouble deciding what color to paint the new engine. Part of me always defaults to the factory color but this year engine should be the powder blue that Pontiac used for a few years. It used to be available from Plasti-Cote but I’m not finding it. What they sell for “light blue” is just the generic medium blue, not the real powder blue. If you hadn’t noticed, I’m a rattle can artiste. I’ve never broke out a spray gun to paint an engine. Paint brush, yes, but never the spray gun. Lol
So I’ve been thinking custom. After all it is a mild custom truck. Fusick sells a nice metallic blue used on certain 70-72 455 Oldsmobile engines. It’s not correct for a Pontiac, but I think it would look good with polished aluminum valve covers, aluminum intake manifold, 3 chrome air cleaners, and a few chrome accessories. The engine compartment will be semi-gloss black.

 

I have always liked the late 60’s light metallic blue on Pontiac engines. I even painted the 400 in my 78 TA that color when I rebuilt it since I didn’t like the correct color for that car.

 

That blue looks great!

 

That Blue looks really good... and then again so does the Gold... aw hell, I'm no help... you can't go wrong with either one!

 

I sprayed my extra intake manifold with the light metallic blue from Duplicolor but it was too silver-y. Then I tried it over their primer, it was still not blue enough.

I’ve got a gold Olds and a gold SBC but with the gold-ish tan seats in the Stude it just might fit the overall look.

Ever since I first saw it at a car show, I’ve wanted to use the Olds blue on something. I didn’t know it was a factory color. I think it’s because when I was young I bought a ‘58 Olds engine for my ‘47 Ford coupe that I painted with Cal Custom candy blue over silver base. With the chrome Isky valve covers, two new AFBs on a Weiand manifold and white headers, it was beautiful. Looked just like the blue on the Olds above.

 

I notice that no one seems to like the stock Pontiac powder blue, lol. It was an unusual choice by Pontiac back then but those engines were distinctive looking. I’ve always liked the appearance that a hot rodder just bought a factory performance engine and dropped it into their old car or truck.

 

That "new" pontiac engine you got is amazing. As a die hard pontiac guy. I'd love to stumble on something like that. I'd build a car around it.

 

If you mean this one….

Yeah, it’s got some interesting but unverified history. Starting as a ‘59 389, it powered one of the three Studebaker pickups that the Pisano Bros built in the early ‘60s. It was in Carman’s truck with a Carman built 4 spd hydro. It was reportedly a part of Mickey Thompson’s stable of engines when he was under contract with Pontiac. It supposedly has a M/T stroker crank and pistons, roller cam and reworked heads but I haven’t cracked it open to verify anything. I can attest to it sounding mean and hauling ass because the truck made regular appearances at my parents house when I used to do custom headers out of their garage. (Much to the neighbors dismay) It was loud and fast.
Carman’s son Danny inherited the pickup and started a rebuild. He had the engine gone through by a trusted family friend, refreshed but not changed. They did incorporate the thickest head gaskets they could get to try to lower the compression a little. But he caught the RestoMod LS disease and abandoned the old Pontiac. He had quite a bit of money invested in it so it ended up under the workbench. Planning to downsize, he asked me if I wanted it…. Of course I did!
I would love to put the old thumper in my Stude pickup but I’m really enjoying the peaceful stock 389 and I had already committed to the new 389 that I just got back from the machine shop. It might find a home in my ‘33 pu eventually.

 

Yep! Too cool!

 

Fusick sells a nice metallic blue used on certain 70-72 455 Oldsmobile engines. It’s not correct for a Pontiac, but I think it would look good with polished aluminum valve covers, aluminum intake manifold, 3 chrome air cleaners, and a few chrome accessories. The engine compartment will be semi-gloss black.
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Reminded me of this little hot rod with a Pontiac engine done in almost the same color.

 

Yeah! It’s even got the cool chrome water elbows on the front of each head. I might have to retrofit my new engine with the front cover, water pump and elbows from the ‘59 engine.

 

I did a paint test with the Pontiac light metallic blue to see if the undercoat would make any difference. I sprayed it over the light gray primer, over flat black and over the common Pontiac blue like that on the 2x4 equipped engine I posted above. There’s enough solids in the Duplicolor Pontiac metallic blue that the undercoat makes no difference at all. And it’s too light for my taste. So I ordered the Olds blue from Fusick.

It looks even more silver/gray in the picture.

 

Now comes the ugly part of messing with old engines, cleaning dirty and rusty parts. The cast aluminum timing cover has several coats of old paint and a layer of stinky old sludge. The valley cover presented the usual sludge and a bunch of rust from sitting in the weather. I don’t feel comfortable bead blasting things like the valley cover with the breather chamber incorporated into it. I masked it off but still didn’t feel good about it so I used a paint stripping disc on my 4” sidewinder. It worked fine on both sides. A little hand work with some sand paper and it was good enough to wipe down and paint. The inside was clean enough that some carburetor spray cleaned it just fine.
I scraped and cleaned the timing cover and deburred the outside. I’ll take it to get bead blasted tomorrow.
Next, clean and prep the heads. Part of me wants to get in and do a little blending in the bowls under the valves and knock out any ugly in the ports, maybe port match with the intake manifold.