OT the other project Studebaker long post and big pics

[greg g]

Not much progress for a whole winter but we have had a couple of nice days 70 and low humidity to day so I took advantage of the situattion to do a little painting and other stuff. So this trick started as a swiss cheese erector set and I have been piddling with the bed. It will be a 50/50 truck, looks good at 50 feet and 50 mph. It had a lot of issues and studebaker sheet metal is scarce and dear in these parts. So I did the old shade tree stuff with patches and bondo. So far four fenders and the bed have used 3/4 gallon so not to bad condidering I removed about 40 lbs of the stuff. Any way I decided to roller paint it and give it a flattened finish. I am two toning it like it would have been when new. Using the XO rust paint from true value and foam rollers.

I found that the gloss goes on easier than the flattened stuff as far as coverage goes so devised a system where by I put on f coats of gloss, followed by a scuff pad and then two top coats of flattened color, saves on usage of my gift flattenre also. The mis I am using is 2 ounces of flattener to 3 ounces of paint and one half ounce of thinner. No hardener for which I will likely pay for down the road. Any way here are a coupe shots of the bed, the pass side is almost complete, I may put another coat of flat on the bottom, and the drivers side still needs some gloss dark color and then the flattened top coats.

Those gravel gaurds are a 20 dollar item (repops available at 95 a pair) tha I got on ebay. My body shop friend has a plastic welder, snap on deal that looks like a cross between a soldering iron and tig gun. so we put on a chunk that was missing, and welded up some cracks. Some sanding and some semigloss black makes them look quite presentable. Biggest bonus is the cover up an area where the tin worms were very busy and my body work was less than thrilling.

hopefully I can get it finished and placed up on the frame to get some working room to get the P15 out of it hibernation place. I have the car the frame and the bed snoblower and assorted other goodies in the garage so tis a bit cramped. The car is shoved all the way over against the wall and she ain't moving till this other stuff does.

here is a before with the crushed box side and motheaten fender corner,

The "repaired" box side in the new colors seal brown and pebble.

and the before and afters of the gravel gaurds

and for you truck guys, I am doing on the tail gate what I did to a lisenceplate to paint the letters. 6 coats of base color for the letters the pebble, then when I paint the field the dark brown, I will remove the top coats with some thinner on a rag as the coats go on to reveal the letter color.

then when all is dry some 600 wet to clean up the details.

[Jim Yergin]

Looks good Greg. I have followed your Studebaker project with much interest. Thanks for the update.

Jim Yergin

[Don Coatney]

Looking good Greg;

Is the mechanical end ready to roll?

[greg g]

Still have some things to do. Like fab the rear X memeber for the trans. then ther is a little casting on the trans the interferes with a bolt onthe adapter plate, so I need to do a bit of grinding. I have a friend that is going to put a refresh kit in the trans. Still gotta do something about a driveshaft, Got tires and wheels lined up and the wiring harness to install, But I shuld be able to mount the radiator, and see if I can get it to fire up. I need to cut the exhust and have some pieces rebent to clear the new cross member. A bit of cleaning and detailing the frame. Hoping to get it drivable by summer time.