Technical Stude Pickup Warehouse Find

Harmon will have EVERY piece you would need. Good people. They also have the factory test bench to check the results of the rebuild.

 

Thanks, that’s good to know.

 

View attachment 5576418 Sorry for the long delay between updates but a lot has happened just not to this truck. Family issues, we lost our caregiver and had to arrange to move my 93 y/o mom to assisted living. Sucks.
When things settled down I finally decided to make a solo run to LA with my own trailer to fetch the Stude. I fired up the big van to hitch up the trailer and heard a horrible grinding sound. The water pump or one of the idlers has a bad bearing. I decided to skip the trailer and head down in the little van.
I had several non-automotive tasks to do in LA but once I got those done I decided to look for a shipper to move the pickup. After a few false starts, I ended up using Montway to get it moved. I can’t tell you how many hours I wasted waiting on responses from other companies. After contracting with them I assumed it would be hours before I heard from them so I volunteered to help my buddy move the Pisano and Matsubara nostalgia funny car to the Lions Drag Strip museum.
The move went well with Darr Hawthorn directing the move into the exhibit area. The museum is growing nicely and if anyone is visiting the LA area, it’s worth a detour to visit. Call first for visiting hours. Here’s a couple pictures from there. We were busy moving and cleaning the car so I didn’t take many, besides, the museum was closed and dark for the most part.
The ass end of the F/C while waiting to unload


The Stone Woods & Cook Willys and some dragsters. ( a blown Olds next to the SWC car)

My favorite TriFive gasser, the Scribner Bros.

Anyone for a donut? The good old Helms Bakery delivery truck.

All of these cars were big influences in my formative years.
On my way home from the museum I got a call from the trucker saying he was an hour out from picking up my Stude! Yikes, I was 35 minutes from home and starving. So much for stopping for lunch.

 

I hit Jack in the Box when I saw there was no line, grabbed a Bonus Jack (another artifact from my misspent youth, and currently available as a Fall special) and arrived before he did. So with a burger in one hand, I pushed the old truck out and onto the driveway, lined up for loading. I ran a cable through the hood and core support to prevent an unintended hood opening and made sure that I didn’t leave tools or anything loose. Then I sat back, ate my cold fries and waited.
That’s a ‘51 Cad hydro on the cherry picker - parts for fellow HAMBER Phil A.

The driver was from my NorCal neck of the woods and we had plenty to talk about while we loaded it up. Soon it was on its way. He dropped it off safe and sound the next morning with the help of my daughter.
Away she goes.

So we’ll push it onto the hoist tomorrow and now I can get some real work done!! The weather has been nice so I can work on the truck during the day and my roadster in the evening.
Now I’ve gotta get off my ass and put that Treadle-Vac back together. (I got a kit, waay too expensive to have someone do it with shipping and all). I started a thread on the rebuild, I’ll post the progress there.

 

Good deal Bob. Let the fun begin.
Sorry to hear of your mom’s circumstances.

 

Thanks, some of us are at that point in life where health issues and aging parents start playing a bigger part. Living out in the boondocks makes it very difficult to find trustworthy, quality live-in caregivers. It was a very difficult decision.
I’m glad to have the old truck up here where I can use the hoist. Most of the work is underneath now, brake booster, gas tank, new fuel lines, etc. The downside is that I don’t have an indoor spot for it. I’m gonna have to figure something out. We get way too much wind up here for Costco tents.

 

That would be cool, but I don't think so. No evidence of any white paint inside or under the hood, no frame horns out front on this one. The headlights look identical as do the wheels and tires. What's with the super tall core support?
Love indoor car shows!

 

One of the other two maybe?

 

Could be that the race truck got retired and spiffed up for the show circuit. I sure hope so.
I know where the other one is, and it was never a show truck.

 

The "show car" has the stock split windshield.

Mike

 

I cleaned off my benches enough to reassemble the Treadle-Vac.

The details are in the other thread: "Need help with Treadle Vac fix"
I removed and cleaned the brake line while it was easy to remove. Then I weaseled the T-V unit back in and bolted it up.

I didn't like the old headpipe routing, it layed on the starter and the Pitman arm was smashing it, so I'll make a different one. I cut it off about 3/4" from the flange.
On day soon, I'll scrape all of the dirt off of everything and shoot some low gloss black on it.

Being a header guy, I can't help but look up in there and imagine building some kind of headers for it in the future.

 

While the driver's side was apart, I replaced the freeze plugs on that side of the block with fresh brass ones from Melling, via eBay.
Now I have to pull the other exhaust manifold off to get to the passenger's side freeze plugs. First, off comes the generator and its massive bracket. The bracket bolted to the head bolt studs and the exhaust manifold bolts, capturing the manifold. Of course, the manifold bolts have the locking washers with the "bend-over" locking tabs, always a joy to get undone. Those kinds of details lead me to believe that they just pulled a complete low mileage engine and trans from a '59 Pontiac and dropped it in. Even the factory transmission cooler lines are in place although they are just looped together without a cooler.

I've gotta admit, I'm tempted to replace that big ol' generator with an early GM alternator and regulator that I have lying around. I know, I know, nothing wrong with a good working generator, but it would clean up that busy side of the engine compartment and make spark plug access much better.

 

Moving to the rear, I pulled out the gas tank with the intention of cleaning it out and re-using it. Believe it or not, it had about 1/4 tank of old rancid gas in it. Stinky, to say the least.
I just cut the fuel gauge wires with the intention of adding a plug/socket arrangement to make it easier in the future.
Once it was out, I decided to just replace everything with new stuff. I ordered a new tank, sender and cap. Turns out it's a '59 Chevy (Pontiac?) gas tank with the filler tube cut short. The license plate folds down to fill the tank. Very nice.

If you look closely, you can see that they replaced the pickup tube with 1/2" copper. There was 1/2" line going all the way to the engine. Always the racers.
The line had broken loose from the mounting flange. That would have leaked...

 

I ran the exhaust manifold to the sandblaster today, along with the 4 bbl manifold I intend to use when I start up and break in the Olds engine in my roadster. He said to pick 'em up Wednesday.
I'll make a new headpipe, run a new fuel line and install the passenger's side freeze plugs in the meantime. (I might get out that alternator and do a little figuring)
Oh yeah, while I was messin' with the tank, I got to looking at the rear end and look what I found....
Positraction case.

 

Keeps getting better Bob! I am surprised that the previous owner let that exhaust pipe linger like that.??

 

The parts came trickling in... the last one to arrive was the fuel pickup/sender, it got here yesterday. The fuel tank is an exact clone of the one that came out of the truck so the installation should be a snap. They had used some old industrial carpet between the frame and the tank, so I looked around for something I could use. Years ago, my tenant moved out and left behind a huge WW II cargo parachute. It had to weigh 300 lbs. Eventually it rotted from SoCal moisture, and I had to cut it up to get rid of it. I kept some of the lines just 'cause I'm weird like that.

My new tank was glad to see me. Hard to believe it made it here without any damage!

I knew someday I would find a use for it....
The truck is ready for the new tank.... 24" pieces of parachute line made nice insulators.
Right about now I told myself that it would be a good idea to install the new flex brake hose before installing the tank. So, I went in the house to get a cup of coffee and.....

I came back and got the tank ready with the new pickup/sender. (one of the few places where I use stainless Allen head bolts)

I cut off the filler tube and added new hose and the old neck.

I installed the tank. (I've been trying to re-use the bolts and/or use old bolts but I had to use new stuff on the tank straps because the old ones broke)

Nice welds. I'm sure glad the license plate hides it!

The tank is all done. And yep, I forgot to install the brake hose. Damn, it was a bitch to get wrenches on everything and break loose those old lines and stuff.
It was a good idea to replace the 50+ year old flex lines though.

 

While waiting for parts I did dig out my alternators and did a little research. This truck was built in the '62-'64 time period and GM started using alternators about that time. I have two alternators that fit the era, both use the external regulator, one is a 63A from 1962, and the other is a 37A with a 1963 date code. I'm going to use the 37A because I have a good used regulator that will work with it. To use the 63A, I will have to buy a regulator that is made for the greater amperage. It will be easy to upgrade to the higher amperage later if I want to.
(Pardon the mess on my bench - been busy)

 

I made up a new bracket to mount the alternator right where the generator was. Quite the little exercise in cutting out paper dolls. Six individual pieces all welded together. It bolts onto the stud on the front head bolt and the two bolts that hold the water elbow to the head.

Deburr, clean and some semi-flat black paint.


And it looks like it has been there all along…..

Hey, I can get at the front two spark plugs without having to be double jointed! A little more natural aluminum looks good. I’ll mount the regulator and run some new wires next.
I decided to pull off a front brake drum and check out the brakes, I need to order wheel cylinders and hoses for the front.

 

I got a front drum off, everything looks pretty good. The drum is smooth and not rusty. Mother Mopar really went outside the box with these brakes. Dual backing plates and dual wheel cylinders. You pretty much have to take it all apart just to change the wheel cylinders.

The wheel cylinders slide over the edge of the inner plate and stick through the holes in the other one, effectively trapping them so you have to separate the plates. Oh well.

If anyone has experience with this type of brakes I’d love to hear any tips or tricks helpful when working on them. It looks like it all came from a ‘59 Plymouth or Dodge.
One question comes to mind: How do you get the return springs out? More importantly, how do you get them back in?! As you can see, I didn’t remove them. They are strong little bastards.
One observation: when you reassemble everything, particularly the hydraulic line from cylinder to cylinder, you have to pull the drums again after bleeding the brakes to make sure those lines aren’t leaking. Bad design.

 

That's some weird shit. Think I'd throw them away and adapt a set of discs.

 

Amen to that ^^^^ !! But I’m not sure that disc brakes will like the rebuilt Treadle-Vac as a master cylinder. Plus, I’m $400+ into repairing the existing system, laboring under the delusion that it drove and stopped well before the FI crapped out.
I ordered a pan gasket for the old Jetaway transmission, along with the front and rear seals from Fatsco. I guess I’ll drain the ATF and clean out the pan once the parts come in. Which reminds me that I need to find or create the throttle pressure/kick down linkage, and rework the throttle lever at the firewall. If anyone has the linkage from a ‘58-‘60 Pontiac automatic, please PM me. I would even be happy to have good pictures of the linkage and dimensions.
I picked up a few wiring bits today (fuseable link and 10 ga wire ends) so I can finish up the alternator conversion tomorrow.
I’m trying to be patient and methodical getting this poor old truck back on the road, keeping it looking like the survivor it is. But I’m getting anxious to drive it.

 

Bob, this might give you some insight
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...y-hydramatic-kickdown-operation.599420/page-2

 

Looking at the picture of the Olds stuff, I may have one of those upstairs in the shop. I’ll take a look. Thanks.

 

This is the tool for the brake springs
2010 Proto . There are some listed on e-bay around $20
I think those were called "Huck" brakes, could be wrong on the name now but they were hell to work with
Need to precisely fit the drum as in (grind to fit). Do NOT throw the shoes away, you will need to get them relined by an old brake shop if you need replacements. Thought I had an old motors manual but no more so no info.

 

Center Plane Brakes they came out in 1957

 

Well thanks for that photo, I’ll check eBay….

Edit; I got a K-D set for $20. It had some other handy tools in it too.

 

Getting old. It’s funny how it shows up in little ways as time goes by.
I’ve wired all kinds stuff over the years and it’s always no big deal but for some reason I just couldn’t sort out how I wanted to wire the damned alternator. I finally found a diagram for the early style alternator/regulator and figured out how to apply it to the current Stude wiring (there’s wires going every which way) but the next day I couldn’t remember what diagram I found, or where, and had to research it all over again. This time, I made a drawing.
Part of my indecision is because it has idiot lights (from a Corvair) and I’d like to keep them working, also I wanted to incorporate a fusible link but the diagrams are conflicting as to where it should go. I usually put it nearest the battery. Do I need a diode with idiot lights? Where?
I think I’m finally on the right track but I can’t believe it’s taken me three damned days to get my head straight. It’s been sorta cold here (for us Californians), I’ll blame it on brain freeze but it’s really just old age, I guess. Any and all comments or suggestions graciously accepted.

 

It’s the cold Bob. I’m not stepping out until after 11am when it creeps into the 40’s

 

Me too ^^^^. Plenty of time in the frosty morning to do research and catch up on my HAMB surfing. The concrete floor in my shop was 40 degrees yesterday, not flip flop weather for sure.