Hot Rods The (mis) Adventures of a Compulsive Tinkerer

I had no idea when I typed in the title of this thread that it would be so apropos, it was supposed to be sort of tongue-in-cheek…..
With a little help, the starter got installed and the old Stude is running again.
I was supposed to meet my sister and B.I.L. at my Moms house to start figuring out what to do with the contents since her passing. About a block away the engine shut off, like someone turned off the ignition. I did a couple simple checks but the big indicator was, no headlights. No electrical power anywhere. I figured that the battery cutoff switch failed. I got a phone call.
It was Bruce, a buddy who lives a block over from Mom’s place. I bought my Austin and my roadster from him. His wife drove by and asked him if he knew anyone with a dark blue Studebaker pickup, she saw one broke down over on Baldwin. So he called me and brought a few tools so we could bypass the big switch. No help. I didn’t have the courage to spark across the battery terminals because of its location. Main fuse, good, no disconnected wires or cables. IDK. So Bruce went home and I called AAA for only the sixth time in 37 years! Really? 37 years? Holy moly. Did I mention it’s hovering around 100 degrees today. Ugh.

A view I haven’t seen very often. Just lucky I guess.

 

Bummer Bob...im sure you'll figure it out quickly.

 

I haven’t looked into the Stude malfunction yet, I really wanted to try to move forward with the Austin.
I made the straps and bracketry required to mount the new fuel tank. I also took some Scotchbrite to the shiny surface. Much better.


I finally got the tank installed and bolted down, now I need to install the gas filler cap and run some new lines.
This is how I filled the old tank, with a flexible “trough” that my wife found on Amazon and a gas can. It worked great but eventually died from exposure to modern gas.


I don’t think that a gas station nozzle will fit in the space available so I’ll add the flip top cap. It’s old so it shouldn’t look out of place.

I’m pretty happy with the results.

 

I’ve been moving kinda slow but I’ve made some progress on my junkers.
The Stude is back on the road. Turns out that when I tightened the battery cable to the solenoid, the main power wire that shares that terminal rotated and made contact with the exhaust manifold. The wire burned in two. I also found that I had forgotten to tighten the solenoid mounting screws so I pulled the starter out again and fixed everything. No pictures, just a red old face…. Doh.
With the fuel tank, filter and pump mounted I was able to attack the fuel lines on the Austin. I used Jeg’s Push-Loc fittings and hose for the lines on intake side of the pump and 1/2” aluminum hard line
going to the front to the regulator. A little too modern looking for my taste but if it does ever make it to the track it will look safe and familiar to the tech guys.


Although it doesn’t look it, the clamps and standoffs securely hold the fuel line a minimum of 3/8”away from anything harmful. The fuel line runs outside of the frame rail to avoid transmission or flexplate mishaps and it’s high enough under the body to avoid muffler heat if I get ambitious and build fenderwell headers and run the mufflers under the rockers.
With the lines done, I’ll be able to install the new floor, so I’ve been looking for anything that needs to be done before I cover it all up. I ground the old ladder bar brackets so they weren’t just torched and slaggy. And I cleaned the transmission again.


I had to weld an extension on the flip-up cap to extend down through the inner structure that supports the latch area of the body. I used Riv-nuts again due to the awkward access under the new cap.


So the filler cap and hose are installed. I made a thick cork gasket for where the cap and body meet. Next will be the wiring for the electric pump.

 

The brake pedal and master cylinder are back in and tight and the brake lines are installed.
Now if I can only remember the sequence for assembling this jigsaw puzzle…..

 

How’s it going?

 

IKEA floor kit...

 

^^^^ LOL…. All it needs is about 50 weird cam-lock fasteners.
I figured it out and started installing the screws only to find that I needed about 20 more than I had on hand. They are stainless steel with large diameter, low profile heads. The better part of a week waiting for another batch to be delivered. It’s in there.



While waiting for the screws I decided to tackle the ugly job of cleaning up the remnants of the old roll cage. Sorry for the crappy photo, my phone didn’t like the strong afternoon sun.



It’s been high nineties to over 100 each day and the car is outside right now so I work in the morning and after sundown. Also, the fire danger is very high so I have to be extremely careful cutting and grinding outdoors, it’s been the cause of at least three fires in our county so far this year. I wet everything down so the worst that could happen is I’ll electrocute myself.
I cut the stubs off below floor level and cleaned everything up. I painted the areas with Rustoleum flat black and made new close outs. I used the old floor material so it kinda looks like it’s been there for a while. Way better!

 

your stude truck is gorgeous

 

I needed to have the seat in place so that I could remount the gas pedal and the shifter. The seat seemed a little out of position so I added a slider mechanism that I had. It raised the seat 3/4”. I’ll have to see if that helps or hurts. The mechanism didn’t have a handle so I had to make one.

You can see the lovely angle iron (old bed frame) shifter bracket. I made a new one but forgot to take pictures.
I also pruned the gas pedal assembly and made it pivot closer to the floor. It had an awkward feel and all the extra metal limited my options as to where I could mount it. I may still cut off the tip and weld on a new tab. We’ll see.

In general: my wife’s office has been slow lately so she’s home more. I feel a little guilty heading for the shop when she decides to do yard work or home stuff so that has been affecting my shop time a little. Happy wife…. You know.
Also, Doctors orders, “walk briskly each day, you need to get your heart rate up”. So we’ve been going over to the lake to walk the trails regularly. That lead to the inevitable,”What are you going to do with the white boat?” A few years back we bought a very clean, little- used 18’ SeaRay. We took it out once, then I had open heart surgery, then Covid hit, then my Mom required care, so like many boats, it sat unused. So I added, “Get the boat cleaned up and running” to my To Do list. I’ve always loved boats so it’s a labor of love. Drain the old gas, change the oil, clean it thoroughly and hope the old Rochester 2 bbl remembers what to do with fresh gas. It will be running tomorrow and off the list.

 

I always clean the stud contact very well and add some silver solder , dress it down and it’s good for many many miles and years

 

Been a little while….
Here’s the new shifter bracket, strange looking but it will get a cover. It’s not bolted in yet, I’m still futzing with the seating position

I decided to try lowering the seat so I shortened the existing seat bracket. I cut it loose, cut 1” off and reattached it with a sleeve. Now it’s removable. Before:

After:

After several iterations I finally hit on what I hope is the right combination of seat brackets. It’s lower and tilted back slightly. With the new slider I can fine tune it. Now I can position and mount the gas pedal.

 

It looks like I need a longer steering column so I ordered a 28” long one from Speedway. In the mean time I mounted the gas pedal. Since it’s bolted to the .062” aluminum floor I made a 2.5x3”x1/8” backup plate for the back side.

The pedal position is way better than before and after a little rework, the pedal is smaller and looks better. I managed to keep the integrated pedal return spring too.
I ordered some linkage parts and bell cranks from Speedway. I’m not a fan of cable throttles, takes away all the fun of figuring angles and ratios and stuff.

 

Yes Bob, last week the heat was a killer.
Now we’ll just be in the low triple digits, feels like fall weather after 109-113!

 

The new steering column arrived today so I yanked out the old 26” column and put in the new 28” one. Funny what a huge difference two extra inches makes. Now I need to drop the column down towards my lap a little and it’s perfect.

I’ll probably revisit the steering column support, maybe I can come up with something better. Without the benefit of a roll cage dash bar there’s really only the bottom of the dash to work with.

As you can see, the remaining upper firewall leaves a lot to be desired. Just one more can of worms to open….

 

Worm stew ain't all that bad if you spice it up right!

 

Well, I made the conscious decision to start down this particular road. I could have just got it running, gave it a big bath and put up a classified ad. But noooo.... I just had to "tidy up" a few things. LOL .
Do me a big favor and stop me if I start sanding body panels, will ya....?!?!?

 

I was running low on energy this afternoon so I looked for something that I could accomplish sitting down with NHRA.tv on. The new master cylinder means new lines and a repositioning of the brake light switch. I traced the wires to where they joined up with the original ’49 Austin wires and sure enough, they spliced them to the old cloth wires. The factory brake lights never worked but it had a big trailer light down low to conform to bracket racing requirements. It’s gone now so I need to make the factory taillights work. The old cloth wire crumbled with any flexing.
I pulled out the taillights and cleaned up the sockets and the contacts. I expected to have to replace them but they were fine. I made new pigtails with wire colors that match the newer wires coming from the front.
I don’t know what the taillight gaskets are made of but I thought I’d try soaking them in Neatsfoot oil to soften them up. If it doesn’t work, I’ll make new ones from cork.

Two new pigtails….

Those clever Brits. Spring loaded, solder-less connections. A little careful cleaning and they work like new.

One thing I did notice is that the pins on the bulb are symmetrical so the bulb can be installed either way. So you have to pay attention to get the bulbs in correctly.
I’m looking forward to seeing those cool little glass taillights light up.

 

You’re getter me motivated, Bob!!

 

Once again life gets in the way. Clearing out Mom and Dad’s house, Dr appointments, repairs and service for the family cars and of course the heat all conspired against me. Trying to absorb some of my Dad’s tools and equipment into my already packed shop was time consuming.
With the Austin in the shop with the A/C I decided to address the front brakes. They have always dragged making the car hard to push. I cleaned the rotors and hubs, repacked the bearings and put them back on. I was cleaning the calipers and noticed that they were frozen up. The driver’s side retracted with a little help from a C-clamp so I cleaned and painted it. But the passenger side caliper was really stuck. The poor C-clamp really groaned before there was any movement. So I ordered new calipers. They finally arrived today.

Now everything rolls nice and smooth, no more dragging. On to the next task, bleeding the new system.

 

I though for sure your next post was going to be

"So I started sanding the body........"

 

Its been hard to fight the urge, real hard….. My brain keeps saying, “Just one panel at a time, piece a cake”. Uh huh.

 

That can be "Plan B"... Job #1 can remain "Running & Driving".

 

Sorry for the long break, lots going on and none car related. My Mom’s house is all spiffed up and on the market. Big job - done. I haven’t been down to check on my LA house since forever it seems. So I did a twofer. Work on the house and chase car parts in SoCal.
My Studebaker pickup is one of three that the Pisano Bros built in the 60s. Mine has a mild ‘59 389 Pontiac in it. One had a 413 Mopar and the third one had a stroker, roller cam, nasty high compression ‘59 389. I bought that engine this weekend. That truck currently has an LS in it.
This one started with a ‘59 389 block with ‘61 421 heads according to the casting numbers. It has an Edelbrock 2x4 intake and a factory fuel injection distributor. As you can see it also has an adapter for 55-60 Pontiac engine to a Chevy automatic transmission. All good stuff. It was recently gone through but had valve train noises. We’ll see, I think I know why.

I also picked up a couple SBCs and some miscellaneous parts.



The carbs for the Pontiac are in the box. I like the old headers…..

The old van is earning its keep this month.

 

Nice haul!

 

I also found time to finish cleaning my buddy’s banjo rear end for his ‘29 Tudor and got some primer on it. Hopefully, I’ll paint it tomorrow along with the PSI rear radius rods and I can get his chassis back on four wheels before I head back up north.

 

Final coat. He wanted the rear end and suspension to be white. I thought, ugh, white? But I got it and the rear radius rods painted and reinstalled and I like it! I wish I had my can of red 1-shot and my brushes with me, I would have put a few lines and flourishes on it before installing it. The body is a ‘29 sedan with a 5” chop. It has the potential to look great if he doesn’t get carried away, he has “cartoon car” tendencies….. I forgot to take a picture with the rear end installed.

 

Back home on the ranch, I unloaded the engines and the shop absorbed all the extra junk that I hauled home. I had to make a quick engine cradle for the new Pontiac. I didn’t have any casters that would work so I guess it calls for a trip to HF. When I get the casters I’ll pull the engine out of it, weld on the casters and paint it. (Low gloss black). For now it’ll sit on the movers dolly.

 

I got out the carburetors, turns out they are different numbers but both are from an early 60s Cadillac. I found a matching one on eBay and bought it. When it arrives, I’ll check them out and order kits.

My buddy ran it with two Edelbrock carbs, I think.

 

It’s been a while since I drove the Stude pickup so I fired it up and gave it a much needed bath. It’s time for the semi-annual deep cleaning of the chrome wheels, so, being an old guy, I put it on the hoist and raised it to a comfortable working position. My usual routine is to clean them with soap and water when I wash the truck, then clean them with good old fashioned DuPont chrome cleaner, then finish with Meguire’s pure carnauba paste wax. For a set of wheels that live outside, they are staying pretty nice.
Wax on….


Wax off….

Pure drudgery, but then I absolutely love the look of those wheels and knock offs, so I will endeavor to persevere. The front wheels are from the wheel guy in LA, a custom pair that he made and were never picked up. I snapped them up. The rears are older, from Wheel Vintiques. Man, they did a nice job on the plating.
Which leads me to some questions…..
Did Wheel Vintiques ever recover from Covid and get back to shipping chrome wheels? Last I checked they weren’t making chrome Series 64 wheels, only smoothies.
And what do others do to clean and preserve chrome wheels? I’ve been doing this process since the old Blue Coral days, is there something better?