ssnowden

I got the engine and transmission and radiator back in the P15 this weekend. A new Rebel wiring harness and gauges are next.

Since I got the Wagonaire, and the B4B is in better shape than I expected it would be when I bought it, I've got a new plan of what I want to do with each one. I'm all but certain that I want to put a Mopar small block and automatic in the B4B and make it more modern driver. My wife wants to be able to drive it and she is no longer able to drive a manual due to back issues. The Studebaker will be a full frame off restore. So that leaves the P15. I don't want to spend much on it so I can spend more on the truck and Wagonaire. I did a quick inventory in the garage, and I pretty much have all the parts I need to put it together and just enjoy it while I focus on the other ones. So that's what I'm going to do. I have a few days off during the holidays and have been working on the P15. I've really spent some quality time learning welding and grinding. I now have repaired all the floor pan and repaired the rocker and bottom of the totally rusted out area behind the passenger door. I did the same repair to the outer rocker on the driver's side as well. It will be a while before I am ready to do body filler so I wanted to prevent the rust with the primer.

Yes it is. They build F150 trucks there. You can take a tour too. https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/ford-rouge-factory-tour/ i remember the Top Gear where they went to all the shuttered car factories in the UK. It was a sad thing to see.

I don't know, that might buff out.

Some nice aftermarket parts, especially for A and B body Mopars. Finally Mopar is producing some Plug and Play crate engines like Chevy does. Maybe someone there is getting tired of seeing SBCs in old Mopars. http://www.hotrod.com/articles/29-new-mopars-products-can-buy-1-cant/?wc_mid=4035:4229&wc_rid=4035:917573&_wcsid=8900C17BD1AE9D8C83205018AFE44CBDCB93831D0A24CAD8

Well, I did my first sheet metal welding. Really it's the first welding I've done of anything that matters. I figured I'd start where you can't see it. I learned a lot and I think the other side won't take nearly as long as this one did. I found it to be pretty satisfying. I decided to make the area around where the cab mount is a bit thicker so I added an extra layer. Before: After:

No power steering so she'll be parking in wide open spaces if the engine is good.

I still need to look at the engine number and figure out for sure what it is and where it was made. My preference is to keep the original drivetrain as long as I can make it reliable. My wife intends on essentially daily driving this one to run errands around here.

Link to my photo album. I have a few more pics in there now. https://goo.gl/photos/Lrm65wkQ1RQUR54J8

I'm going to do some more research on the engine to see for sure what's in it, but I think it has the 259 with an automatic. It's locked up and I'm soaking the cylinders now. I like the Studebaker trucks too!

It certainly is different. I am somewhat surprised so far that there are parts available for it. I guess they did sell quite a few Larks, which this basically is except the cargo area.

After we visited the Studebaker Museum a couple of years ago, my wife and daughter only talked about one car. The Studebaker Wagonaire. I've been casually looking for one and found a 1963 one in Mississippi that was worth the drive to go get it. If you are unfamiliar with the Wagonaire, it has a retractable roof in the cargo area. It was designed by the same guy that went on to design the Jeep Wagoneer. This one needs a new floor pan and some rust repair on the fenders, but the frame is in excellent shape and the retractable roof is in near perfect shape, which is unusual for these due to the drain tubes getting clogged.

On a related note, I saw a 53 B4B with a fresh coat of paint and a regular, nothing spectacular, restore on CL. But it was a nice, running truck. I was talking to a guy about it and he said he happened to be at a local car auction and that truck went through. He said the owner turned down an $18,500 bid. I don't know if that means he just loved the truck that much or he thought he could get more. If he's running it through an auction, I'm inclined to think he thought it was worth more.

Does rolling the cab on the firewall hurt anything? I need to coat mine underneath.

I finished up blasting today. There are just a few spots to patch and overall the cab is straight. I have the KBS chassis coater kit for the floor, so I got all the scaly surface rust blasted off of the interior floor and I will let the KBS kit convert and encapsulate the remaining rust in the floorpan. The HF 110lb media blaster did a good job. I will make a couple of changes to it. The dead man's valve tip that covers the nozzle is too soft and my media ate a hole in it. I'll get a piece of ceramic and glue to it. Luckily I was able to complete the blasting and was just finishing up when the rubber hose burst down around the valve where it connects to the tank. That's understandable since I've shot quite a bit of media through it. I consider it a wear item and a lot of grit went through it. Also if you get one, change the cheap hose clamps to regular ones. The one on the dead mans's valve slipped off and the hose with media shooting out and the cheap hose clamp flew up and hit me in the throat. Kind of like insult to injury. .

What does it say under selectrolux on the tag?

The soda works great on paint, but I got the 110 lb HF media blaster and used aluminum oxide and garnet from Tractor Supply for the harder blasting. As expected, the soda wouldn't cut the heavy rust in the cab. It's funny, the heaviest rust on the truck is on the dash. It is deeply pitted and far worse than anywhere else on the truck. With dry air, the HF media blaster worked great on the heavy rust. I was able to blast the heavily pitted rust on the dash down to bare metal. In a couple of hours, I just about got the whole interior of the cab down to metal. With a 20% coupon, I got the blaster for about $100 and surprisingly it came nearly fully assembled. It took about 10 minutes to put the handles and wheels on it and I was ready to blast. It will push so much media out with the media valve fully open, it was just pumping the media out full hose. I had to close the valve to 2/3rds closed to throttle it down to get a good mix of air and media.

I'm missing a few things on the truck. I found the inner fenders and a seat from a 1949 locally, will they work in a 53?

I did a test fit of the new driveshaft. It fits great. I'll be getting the rear end cleaned up and painted.

I got the doors and windows off the cab this weekend. Boy, those doors didn't want to come off! They've obviously never been off. The rubber on the rear window was so hard, I thought I was trying to cut metal at first. I had to get my oscillating saw (one of the best tools ever made) and cut it like I was cutting hard wood. I also tested out my HF soda blaster to see if it was possible for me to do the blasting or have to plan on having it done. It did really well as long as my air was dry. I just have a couple of small air dryers on that line and as soon as the desiccant turned pink from blue, the soda just about stopped flowing. I will say though as long as my air was dry, it was doing a great job. So, I have to upgrade my air drying, which I already knew I had to do anyway. I was able to strip several coats of paint and primer off down to metal in about 10 minutes from the inside door. The doors are in pretty good shape, except the bottom of both doors are completely rusted out. However, the door skins are in really good shape and straight, with just a little rust at the bottom.

That's what I was looking at on mine too. No carrier bearing cross member space. I ordered the single drive shaft.

Thanks. His calculator said it would top out at 3000 RPM. That's not a problem, right? What's the max RPM on a flathead?

I'm getting my driveshaft made and the guy at the shop had a question because he said that the driveshaft is really long. It measures 72 inches from my drum to my yoke on the on the rear, so he asked me if this thing had a two piece driveshaft. Since it never had a driveshaft I don't know that answer. The truck is the 116 inch wheelbase so did those have two piece driveshafts?

Thanks. They are obviously very different, aren't they? I don't believe I've seen one before up close.

I got the new clutch, pressure plate, release bearing, spring and transmission installed. I also got the pedals back on and testing my clutch. The clutch works, so that's good. I also got a new thermostat and water pump installed this week.