Projects "Saving" a Studebaker

So, while fiddle-fartin' around the shop, I've gotten a few things ironed out...
The gas tank is in...

The exhaust system is all but finished...

The front seat (what there is of it) was installed & upholstered with the finest quality fabric that a '70's moving blanket could provide. Unfortunately the slider tracks are locked up & won't budge. Marvel Mystery Oil to the rescue there... however, the retracting seat backs are functional! You can lay these babies flat out & flush with the back seat. Very handy at the drive-in, I suspect...
The tach found a home...

and the alternator bracket got a haircut.

 

That is a lot of progress. Great work.

 

The tail pipes are all welded except for the very last sections which will be 3" stickin' out the back. I've got the reducers required to finish the tail pipes, but I need to flip the shackle bolts to clear the 3" tail pipes. The leaf spring bushings are pretty fried, so they'll need to be replaced before I can do that.
I had a new driveshaft built and the work is exceptional. However when I gave it a trial fit, the yolk won't go into the trans far enough. Grrr... I've got a new seal and bushing (not yet installed) and they fit the yolk perfectly, so I know the yolk is correct. It seems that there is just enough gunk on the splines of the output shaft to hold it back. For the time being I'm soaking the splines with good ol' PB Blaster to soften what ever the hell that gunk is, using a needle hook and and a gun barrel brush to clean out the grooves.
Man if it ain't one thing it's three others.

 

In the interest of having a bit more useable space, I moved the Lark to the center bay.
For a change of pace I decided that I'd start the clean-up & upgrade of the engine, so out it came...

With the block cleaned and a coat of paint done, the head studs are installed. Engine mounts got a set of Mr. Gasket bolts I found in the bin...
More parts are on order and for giggles I ordered the rear tires.

 

Got the cam in, waiting for a button to check end-play.

 

That will make some noise, very mechanical.

 

It is (supposedly) a "quiet " version... we'll see. I really don't mind the noise though, it reminds me of my ol' Pan-Head.

 

While wondering through the Auto Parts section of CL, I stumbled onto an add for a '60 Studebaker Lark 2 dr. sedan being sold as a parts car... It was very in-expensive due to the lack of an engine and a major "ge-duge" in the back. It had, however, a bunch of stuff I could use to improve my project car. Turns out it was about a mile & 1/2 from my house. (Really??)
I called, set up a time to look at it, and, well...

 

The front looks good. You can never have too many Studebaker parts. A least that is what my son & I tell my wife. She's not buying it!

 

That close = 99% chance of coming home with it....maybe higher.

 

I had to take a minute to wrap my head around the price and the close proximity to my place! I guess even a blind squirrel finds a peanut once in a while!

 

So here's the scoop; In '77 this 6 cyl. 3 speed/O.D. daily driver was on it's way home from work. While waiting to make a left turn 2 blocks from home, it got ass-ended by a drunk driver.
The impact was brutal, broke the back of the driver's seat and put him in the back seat! The frame was broken off in front of the right rear rear spring shackle.
The car was dragged home, parked in the back yard and didn't move 'till I put it on my trailer. With only 57,000 miles on the odometer, there are still a lot of great parts here to make my car better:

 

Wow, nice find.
I wish I could stumble upon something like that around here. The 259ci in my Champ is a bit loose on the bottom end. I have a few leads on a replacement engine, but dang! It would be great to find something with that low of mileage on it.

Of course, my ol' lady would have a few things to say about it.......LOL

 

Be careful with that attitude. One Studebaker begets two, then a parts car or two, and those fenders, and soon you have 22 Studebaker's in 4 counties. At least that was me in the 90s.

 

I have 2 Larks and 2 Conestogas in the yard. There are 10 or so 359 engines and a few OD trannys at a friends in Texas. If I ever get my flatbed back on the road I've thought of picking up the Texas stash and distributing them to the needy in my way back to Nevada. A really cool road trip? Probably won't happen.

That parts Lark was a great find. I hope the engine & trans find a way to someone's driver. Being an inline guy I know there is a home for it out there. Do the front fenders have the usual rust by the doors? Maybe Arizona saved them.

 

Yeah I agree, I feel lucky to have found this car... The engine is long gone but the trans is in the back seat. I've toyed with the idea of using it, but I doubt it would be stout enough for the V-8. I'll sell it if someone can use it.
As for the fenders, (& doors) they are absolutely rust free! The floors have surface rust but are basically solid. It has the complete clutch pedal & linkage including the cross tube. All the glass is excellent. The dash-board is a cream puff. The dash in the green one is funky and all the switches and so forth are locked up, so I'm swapping out the whole dash & steering column.

 

The pilot bushing part of the pilot shaft is different for L6 & V8. There are different sizes for the bearing retainer too but they both fit the case.The BW OD is fun to drive. It is probably a T86 & R10 OD. My son went through a few of those with the supercharged 289 in his Conestoga. I'm putting one in my roadster with a 153 Chevy 4 cylinder.

 

I've been shoveling ap-kray from the interior of the orgin donor... looks like I've got me some floor board replacement panels. Ha-ha I bet they fit better than aftermarket panels!
The O.E. sound / heat shield is in remarkable condition. I'm going to attempt to surgically remove it for aesthetics.. Wish me luck, it seems pretty brittle.


I'm changing the steering column and dash board as well.


I also got a closer look at the broken frame... man that had to have made a gruesome noise!

 

Although my main objective is to move forward toward getting this car up & running, I'm still taking it apart.
The original dash is very rough and has a fair share of rust. After determining that the dashboard controls are all inoperable, I've decided that a dash transplant would be the best option. The dash on the organ donor is pretty nice, all the controls (except the heater control) work very well. So...
In typical Studebaker form, the wiring is a rat nest of tangled confusion. Wiring is not my strong suit, but I'll sort it out and get some organization... Ugh, sometimes it seems like I'm trudging through quicksand.

 

I rewired my 55 stude with a Painless wiring harness. It was a pretty simple install and has been trouble free for years. Best money I ever spent on that car. I’m no electrical genius either but the instructions were easy to follow and I got through it.

 

Yes, I agree that Painless kits are the standard these days.
Since the wiring in both cars are in remarkable condition all things considered... not brittle and completely intact, I'll see if I can just comb them out enough to not look like spaghetti.
Swapping the dash and getting the controls working will be a big step forward.

 

We used a Painless set on my son's '54. Some of the stock Studebaker wiring was nit as straight forward as I was used to. The turn signals were down right weird, but if you are just cleaning up and swapping controls you should be fine.

 

It appears to have sat out in the open without a windshield, and the paint was baked away by the sun? I think you made a wise decision to swap dashes, if so.

 

Yeah it does appear that way... I was told that the windshield was laid in place... with the rubber on it, but not actually installed. I do know that it sat out for around +/- 40 years in the Arizona sun. (Coincidentally, the white one did also)
The white one faired much better. It may have been at least partially shaded judging by the lichen around the side trim. What ever the case may be, I'm using the best parts from both cars to attempt the "Saving" of one.

 

The rear tires arrived today. After mocking them in place, I've determined that I'll need a deeper back space on the wheels so I don't have to mess with the openings to mount them... Wheel Vintiques has what I need so I ordered a pair from the nice folks @ Summit.

 

UGH! The wheels came in, but they are not going to work... My intention was that a deeper back-set on the same size wheel would afford the extra clearance between the fender-well and the tire. Turns out my wheel gauge is out of whack; I thought I had 7" wheels, but they're actually 6-1/2" wide. So when I ordered 7" wheels, the increased back-set is mute. O.K., pain is how we learn.
Back to the drawing board...

 

There's a MOPAR wheel that came on a van I think that worked well on my son's '55. when it had the stock rear end in it. They were not easy to find. They are shallow in the front with a good offset on the backside. Pretty sure they are 7".

 

Thanks, 6, I'll talk with W.V. on Tues. and get what I need... now that I know what that is!

 

What are the rear tires? Towel city it looks like? I have been looking at those for my '54 in one of the skinnier sizes.

Still running the stock rear end, but things are getting too wide, right? That's what I was running into on mine. Could always pop the center out and increase backspace?

Or I will come visit you and narrow an 8.8" if you come visit me and put exhaust in our Lark? Looks amazing by the way. What size of tubing and brand of ball and socket joint are those? I've never used them before, do they work good?

 

Yeah, those are Towel City 15 x 8". I need 1/2" more room between the fender lip and the tire. Deeper backset on the wheel will do it.
I'm sticking with the Dana 44. I've got two of them, one's a 4.56 for bar hoppin' and one's a 3.31 for road trips.
I'm using 2-1/2" pipes because they fit nicely on the header collectors. Probably a smidge too big, but I can live with it. The tail pipes after the diff are 3" for obnoxious effect. (should sound bad-ass)
I got the ball & socket joints right out of Summit. I used them on the coupe and they work quite well with no leaks at all. The sweet thing is if you need to you can just un-bolt them, pull the trans, or whatever, then bolt 'em right back on when you're done... no gaskets or anything else to fuss with.
I mounted the front bumper from the white car on the back of the green one and it fits like a glove. The original got bopped along with the right rear quarter panel many moons ago.
Kind of ironic; both Larks had 1973 Az. plates on them, they both got hit on the right rear and they both sat outside ever since...