Almost there...

Had some time between dinner and sundown so went out and proceeded to yank the old carburetor and put the "new" one on the manifold. I also put in the new NOS hard fuel pipe from SASCO; we'll see if it leaks or not (the first one I got leaked like a sieve. Probably a bad flare).

Tomorrow morning I'll head over to NAPA for one small bit - the vacuum nipple that mounts on the front of the carb base and actuates the distributor advance. I was able to get the old one off the old carb, but it's so crusty I didn't want it on my nice new one .

Hopefully tomorrow I can sneak a few minutes from work and fire it up.

New carburetor!

Look what the UPS man dropped off today - a beautiful "new" Carter WCFB carburetor, courtesy of Bob Stone, the Carb Doctor. It's so beautiful I almost feel bad bolting it to the car!

The 2219 that's on Barney right now came from a 1955 President V8 with a manual transmission. It's pretty crusty, and I haven't been able to make the car stay running at low idle, due to the lousy springs and nasty fuel gum buildup all over the unit. So when this 2214 came up on eBay, I jumped on it. WCFB 2214s are specified for cars with automatic transmission, and since Barney has a Flight-O-Matic, this carb ought to give a little better performance (aside from the fact that it's in much fresher condition).

I'm going to try to swap out the carb tomorrow, as well as install the new fuel pipe I got from SASCO. I'd love to get it lit and ticking before I leave town.

Don't tighten the bolts until you're sure!

OK, I'm a moron. I've always known this, but just had it reconfirmed.

My son and I went out last Saturday to reinstall the hood on Barney. I was smart - I'd marked the location of the hinges by outlining them with Sharpie before I removed the hood. So all I had to do was match the hinges up to the marks on the hood and bolt 'er down.

Here's where the moron part occurs. I forgot to allow for the 1/16" of gap between the nib of the pen and the actual placement of the hinge. So my boy held the hood in place while I tightened things up and then gently closed it. Can you guess what happened?

The hood was aligned 1/16" too far back. So when I tried to raise it again it snugged up against the cowl and would not open.

I tried tugging on it from the front to try and skooch it forward. No go, I'd tightened the bolts just a little too much. I tried running a plastic Bondo spreader in the gap, hoping to coerce the metal of the hood UP. No go. I tried sticking a long board in the opening between the grille header and the hood to push the hood up from the inside. Similar results. And of course there's no way to loosen those bolts from the engine compartment, even if you could get an appendage up that far from underneath. I had visions of having to cut the hood off at the cornes

Thank God the body gaps in Studebakers are so wide, for that was the only thing that saved me. It occurred to me that the sheet metal "wrench" on my Skil circular saw was the same size as the bolt head. So I flattened it with a couple of sledge blows and levered it in the gap between hood and fender. Got it! a few turns on all four and the hood slid forward enough to lift it without damage.

So let my stupidity be a lesson to any other rubes and noobs reading this: never tighten 'em down until you're sure the alignment is right. I escaped with just a barely noticeable kink in the hood where it meets the cowl, but it could easily have been much worse.

I posted this at the Studebaker Forum, to which Jeff Rice (owner of one of the sweetest trucks ever, a yellow custom '37 Coupe Express), posted a simple, elegant solution:

Next time, when disassembling, try drilling a lil' 1/8" alignment hole and stick the drill bit in there to use as an alignment pin on reassembly. Dab of filler in the hole and a touch up and no one will ever know...

Thanks Jeff!

Take a ride in a Golden Hawk.

One of the Studebakers that people remember most is the Hawk, specifically the Golden Hawk. Goldens were produced only for 3 short years, as 1956-57-58 models, yet they made such an impression that when you say "Studebaker", that's what comes to most folks' minds.

Sure, all Golden Hawks are special; they were the ultimate offerings of performance and luxury from Studebaker. Based on the seminal hardtop coupe body created by Bob Bourke for the 1953 model year, they were classy, stylish, sporty and fast. But the 1956 models were extra special: for that year only, you could have a Hawk with the big-cube Packard 352-cubic-inch V8 - a rocket ship if there ever was one. And although there was a full nest of Hawks in that inaugural year - Golden, Sky, Power and Flight - the Golden was the only recipient of that big Packard engine. And only about 4,000 were built, in Studebaker's South Bend and Los Angeles plants, making the Golden a rara avis indeed.

Frank Ambrogio has been in love with "56J" models (shorthand for the factory model code that designates these birds) for a long time. In fact, he began the Golden Hawk Register, to track known survivors - running or not - in 1989. His site also features technical information, manuals and authenticity guides, and personal stories, including the tale of how Frank found his first Golden (he owns two) under a pile of garage dung in 1983.

As these cars have become both rarer and better known, some folks have tried to fake them. So Frank has put together a series of YouTube videos showing what to look for when scouting for a potential purchase; very useful -- you can find them by searching YouTube for username 56shgor. What's excited me, though, is Frank's recent posting of a ride-along video in his manual-transmissioned 56J. It's a great ride, and you really get the feeling of the power and grace these cars posessed. Frank's a pretty funny narrator, too :) Take a look:



If you're interested in finding out more about these wonderful cars, check out the Golden Hawk Registry pages at www.1956goldenhawk.com.

We've got a new President

Well, not me, but fellow Studebloggers John & Tracy Smith of Arizona recently traveled out to the Left Coast to pick up a beautiful "new" 1957 President sedan. It's their first President, so they've named him George (first president... george.. get it? get it?). Here's a peek at Tracy's first drive:



Just goes to show that you don't have to be an old coot to love Studebakers, and also that you can find some really nice ones out there if you put your mind to it! Read more about John & Tracy's Studes on their blog.

Winter doldrums.

Nothing much happening here? You're right - Winter (even here in California) has kept me from doing much with the Lark. Anything, actually. With the days too short to tend to the car after work, and NAB approaching, I've got precious little time for anything else.

No, I don't have snowstorms or torrential rain showers to keep progress at bay. But that sunset up there came at 4:30 P.M. (I know, cry me a river...)

Checking specific gravity on a sealed battery

While I was sussing out my battery troubles, I came across a formula to calculate the specific gravity of a sealed battery (an indication of the water-to-acid ratio in the cells, which indicates its state of charge. You used to be able to perform this test with a hydrometer on open-cell batteries, but those days are gone. So, just for reference, here is the process:

1. Disconnect the battery cables.
2. Measure the voltage between the posts.
3. Divide the voltage reading by 6 and then subtract 0.85 from the product.
   

So, say you measured 12.6 volts at the posts. Dividing by 6 equals 2.1. Subtract 0.85 and the result is 1.25, is the specific gravity of the battery.

The Studebaker Shop Manual helpfully lists what the specific gravity test reveals:

• 1.260 = Fully charged.
• 1.220 = 75% charged.
• 1.170 = 50% charged.
• 1.120 = 25% charged.
• 1.070 = Discharged.

The manual also suggests that any battery that measures below 1.220 specific gravity should be recharged.

How's it going?

Status update: Here's what's going on with the Lark. After getting him running for the first time, he sat a few days while I figured out how to deal with a fuel leak at the fuel pump output elbow. After many tries at reinstallation and with the help of the SDC Forum... I gave up and ran some fuel hose from the pump to the carb on a temporary basis. I suspect that the NOS fuel line I have has a hairline crack. Once he's on the road for real, I'll have a local shop fab a new hard line.

After getting the fuel leak dealt with, I fired the engine up again and quickly had him running at around 1,500 RPM. After running him a couple of minutes, I bumped the carb off the fast idle cam and the revs came down... to zero. A re-start attempt was unsuccessful - my new Sears DieHard battery had - well, died. Not so hard, either.

Not having had enough running time to inspect any gauges other than the oil pressure gauge installed under the hood, I had no idea whether the alternator was charging properly or not, so I charged the battery up overnight and stuck it in the next day. The engine fired right up, and after tweaking the distributor angle a bit, the revs were up to about 2,000 RPM. The ammeter in the dash showed that the system was charging - that was reassuring.

Again, after a couple minutes at high idle, I bumped the throttle to get to low idle so I could adjust the timing and ... he died. A couple of attempts to restart at low idle proved unsuccessful. Also, once the engine shut off, light smoke began issuing forth from under the driver's side exhaust manifold. Dunno if this is the factory coating burning off the manifold, or if the Smoke Faeries left me a gift smudgepot? I made sure the starter cable was safely away from the manifold (it was); now I'll have to watch and see if it occurs again.

Sunday funday.

I got a little bit more work done today. Tried to fix the fuel leak I talked about in the last post, but the pipe godz were not smiling. I removed the pipe and reinstalled it several times, fiddled with the angle of the brass elbow, but everytime I cranked it over, gas began to dribble out of the joint where the pipe exits the nut. (At the current price of gas, I figure I spilled about $4.52 onto the concrete.)

So I moved to another small project (that means: I gave up for a while) - making the heater work. When I got the car, the heater was bypassed, and for good reason: the control valve is corroded half-open. With the heater hooked up, you literally couldn't shut it off! Plus, the tubes from the heater plenum that go to the defogger vents were just done. The original tubes were made of cloth with a spiral wire inside; someone had wrapped them in duct tape just to keep them together. Over time, the duct tape remained while the cloth rotted and the wire rusted! So I got those pulled off and replaced with some new rubber/plastic spiral tubing from Studebaker International, and I pulled out the old Ranco heater valve, green and ugly with corrosion. At some point I'm also going to have to drop the blower motor/heater core assembly to remove the rat's nest built on top of it and have the core pressure-checked.

It's ALIVE!!!!

Today was the day Barney came back to life!

We had a couple of false starts. I tried to start him up last Saturday after filling up all the fluids, but the new Sears battery I had was defective... The solenoid just clicked when I tried to turn it over. So, after getting a replacement on Monday, I turned the engine over once without the coil wire - just to make sure it would turn! (I'd worried myself silly the two days before thinking about what could be wrong besides the battery. Engine too tight... bad head gasket let coolant leak into the cylinders and hydro-locked the engine... bent pushrod...)

The week has been busy at work, and the couple days I'd wanted to try to start it were filled up. Today, I vowed to put the spark to work.

As you can see from the video, it took a few tries, but that's to be expected. Once he got running, revs came up smooth and strong to about 1,500 RPM; the duals were both blowing hard and sounding good. That's when my wife noticed the leak: gas pumping out of the 90-degree fitting on the output side of the fuel pump. I shut him down and disconnected the battery, careful not to make any sparks...!

Tomorrow I'll fix the leak and re-clock the distributor (when it's rotated to the proper position to run, it's about 90 degrees off from where it should be, and the vacuum advance is hitting the firewall - d'oh!

B-I-G thanks to my lovely wife Terry for encouraging and supporting this project and being a cheerleader whenever I got discouraged. And to Bob Kabchef, Bob Palma and Rich and Dave Gahlbeck and everyone else on the SDC Forum for answering my questions, no matter how stoopid they were :^) And to my buddy John Dick, who pitched in and helped time after time.

Driveshaft Away!

A gorgeous day in SoCal was a great opportunity to get out and under the Studebaker today, and I determined to get the Lark's driveshaft and starter put back in. These are literally the last couple of things I have to do prior to starting her up.

I got started around 11AM (yeah, I know, but it was Sunday!) and began by jacking up the rear of the car and placing jackstands (I know you can't see them in this shot, but believe me -- they're there) under the car.

I got the shaft out of storage in the garage and blew out the yoke end with compressed air. Previously, I'd installed a new Zerk fitting on the front U-joint and lubed it up; I also shot some lube into the tiny port on the rear U-joint so it wouldn't be dry when I put it back on. Then I cleaned up the saddle bolts and got new nuts and lock washers out of my stash (it's amazing how many fasteners you accumulate when you're working on a car!).

Here, I ran into my first minor roadblock. The Shop Manual says to lube the interior splines and exterior machined surface of the front yoke with some ATF before sliding it onto the transmission output shaft. This I dutifully did. Then I removed the painter's tape StudeRich had me put over the rear U-joint caps when we removed it oh those many months ago, and wrestled it under the car. I lifted it over the parking brake cable, slid the yoke onto the output shaft... for about 1/2". It went no further.

Yanking the yoke back out of the trans, I noticed for the first time a thin film of rust coating the output shaft splines. Seems those months of sitting in my driveway had moistened things up a little! One of the hazards of living near the coast.

After brass-brushing the rust off of the exposed splines, it occurred to me that lubing the output shaft, as well as the interior of the yoke, would be a good idea. But how to get ATF up there without lubing myself in the process?

My wife laughs at me for saving old stuff, but my mind went to the pint-sized ATF bottle with the squirt nozzle I'd stashed in the garage a couple of years ago. Perfect! I filled it with new ATF and wiggled it above the output shaft, dripping little dribbles of red all over the shaft and spreading it into the splines.


Another try: I lifted the driveshaft into position, mated the splines and gave a little shove -- and it slid home, pretty as you please! Woo hoo! A minor problem solved! I was feeling pretty good about things and took a few minutes to slide out and converse with my wife, who had just come back from the store and was beginning to talk of lunch (a favorite recurring subject in our house).

After a little break, I got back under and proceeded to mate the rear U-joint with the flange on the axle input shaft. That's when the second problem asserted itself. The bearing caps on the U-joint must fit between little "ears" cast into the saddle of the axle input shaft. But they didn't want to! They were about 1/16" too wide. What was going on here?

What was going on was, even with my careful attention to keeping the bearing caps on the rear U-joint, one had still managed to come partially loose; four of the little roller bearings had fallen out of their race and were stuck in the old grease at the bottom of the cap.

Luckily, none were missing, so the fix was easy: use some forceps to retrieve the bottom-dwellers and put them back where they belonged. With that done, the cap slid back on as it should, and the U-joint seated between the ears like a nice, proper little part.

After that, the hardest part was torquing the nuts at the top of the differential, but with the car's butt hoist high in the air, I was able to roll in from behind on my stomach and torque them down reaching over the axle.

A note here: Because the nuts are so close to the diff housing, you can't use a regular socket with your torque wrench here - there's no room for the socket alone, let alone the head of the wrench. This is where a crows-foot socket comes in handy; just keep it at a 90-degree angle to the wrench handle and you'll be able to set the correct torque.

With the driveshaft successfully installed, I set the Lark back on all fours and proceeded to jack up the front wheels so I could put the starter in. This would be the 2nd time trying: the first time I was stopped cold by a problem that needed answers from someone smarter than I.

Studebaker starters are held on by special bolts as described in this post. They must be inserted through the bellhousing into the starter, and the nuts torqued on from the starter side, because the bolts are too long to go through the starter flange (they are interefered with by the starter snout casting).

Well, my bolts didn't want to go through from the bellhousing side. The threads would enter, but the shoulder portion of the bolt stopped hard against the bellhousing.

Reversing the bolts and sliding them through from the starter side worked... but as previously noted, it's impossible to mount them in that position.

Guys on the SDC Forum suggested that maybe the transmission inspection plate was misaligned, and that I should loosen its bolts and, after aligning the plate and bellhousing holes using a brass drift, try again. That was a couple of weeks ago; trips out of town kept me from revisiting the issue until now.

So I took the inspection plate off altogether and tested the bolts. Nope! Not gonna work! Curious, I got my micrometer out and started measuring things. The bolt shoulder clocked in at 0.437"; the engine side of the mounting hole at 0.439". So far, so good. But the bellhousing side of the mounting hole measured 0.435" - just two-thousandths too small to allow the bolt shoulder through!

I have no explanation for why this is, but I guess I'm going to have to ream the holes a little to let the bolt slip through. Maybe this explains why common bolts were on the starter when I removed it, instead of the Stude starter bolts!

Giving up on the starter, I did accomplish a few more things before quitting time. Like many '60s cars, Larks came with heat riser valves on one exhaust pipe; these have a thermostatic spring that keeps them closed when the engine is cold, sending exhaust gas up to the choke heat stove and helping speed warmup. When the engine is warm, the spring unwinds and the valve opens to let the exhaust flow freely. Well, mine was gone altogether.

A post from on the Forum advised that one from a '60s Caddy would swap in with some small modifications (NAPA part # 600-1824). Specifically, a portion of the butterfly must be removed to clear the Studebaker exhaust manifold opening (shown marked in the adjacent photo). A little Dremel work and it was ready to go in; fit like a glove and worked freely.

While I was under there, I also sanded the rust off the dent the exhaust pipe made in the oil pan when we reinstalled the engine, primed it, and painted it with black Rustoleum.

So now the starter is the only thing keeping me from firing it up! Hopefully I'll be able to solve this problem quickly and next weekend we can bring it back to life.

Here's to Buddy Romine

Found a great story on John MacDonald's Studebaker photo pages about a fellow rebuilding his '54 Champion 2-door sedan. These weren't popular models back in the day but I think they hold up very nicely now, especially when compared to contemporary GM and Mopar products.

Buddy got an Ohio car and has proceeded to rebuild the engine and get it back on the road. Lots of pics and excellent explanations of the rebuild process here. I love it when another Stude hits the road!

A fruitful day at the Studebaker Archives.

I did a lot today in South Bend! Got up and went to SASCO, drove around the perimeter of the former Studebaker manufacturing facility (where they're currently tearing down the remains of South Bend Lathe, which occupied a huge portion of the former Stude plant), found the Studebaker Administration Building, went to the Studebaker National Museum, and finally to the Studebaker Archive next door.

I'd been told on the Forum that the archivist could look up the Sell Card for my car. Sell Cards were old IBM punch-cards that dealers filled out and mailed back to Corporate every time a new car was sold; they contained the Dealer name, salesman's name, trade-in, selling price, and... name and occupation of the buyer! I hoped that this would give me more insight on where my Lark came from.

I buzzed at the door of the Archive building and was met by the Archivist, Andy Beckman. I gave him the VIN number of the car, and he said "Oh... 1963 is the least complete of all the years." He disappeared and came back a short time later with the bad news: a block of cards for about 8 VIN numbers - with mine smack in the middle - was missing.

Andy apologized and I told him I'd hoped to come up with the buyer's name, having gotten the build sheet and found that the car was originally shipped to San Francisco.

"Well," he said, "I could look in the Drive-Away Shipper reports. We could try and find the dealer's name that way." That lifted my spirits! Andy disappeared again and came back presently with a wispy slip of carbonless paper.

"You have a Standard?" he asked. "Rose Mist with Chestnut interior, V-8, Flight-O-Matic and not much else?" I nodded and he showed me the slip: Barney had been a California car from the beginning, delivered and sold by Waters Studebaker, 1701 Van Ness Avenue, in San Francisco.

Thanks to Andy, I'm one step closer to finding out who had Barney when he was new. If you want to do this sort of research on your Studebaker, you don't have to do it in person - call the Archives and ask for help. The number is 574-235-9983.

Greetings from South Bend, Indiana!

Here I am in downtown South Bend! I added an extra day to a business trip and came to make a pilgrimage to the Studebaker National Museum, and then to SASCO.

It was about a 4 hour drive from Cleveland to get here yesterday, along I-80, the Ohio Turnpike. It reminded me a lot of driving I-5 through central California -- lots of farms, very few people. Just substitute corn fields for almond groves.

The window of my Holiday Inn room looks out on the scene to the left, apparently the city hall / courthouse complex. With an actual, lighted courthouse clock! In the distance I can see the Norfolk Southern moving through town on an elevated right-of-way; nearby are several very old stone churches surrounded by cool old Craftsman-style homes.

Amplification: turns out that elevated rail line is the remnants of the NYC route that once served the Studebaker plant. It runs immediately adjacent to the now unused South Bend Union Station and the former Studebaker Administration Building. More to come!

Getting closer...

Got a lot done yesterday despite some ongoing physical discomfort... fuel pump, fuel filter and hard line to the carburetor are in; genuine Studebaker Viscous Drive clutch fan bolted on, freshly recored radiator installed and upper hose on... not much left to do now.

Nearly there!

Things are getting done now at a pretty good clip. The last couple of weeks, I've been messing around on the car as much as possible - an hour here, a lunch break there. Parts have come trickling in from all sources, too.

A couple of days ago, I got a new PCV valve from NAPA and installed that; the pre-assembled water manifold (with pump, thermostat and water neck) and alternator went on last Saturday. Today my fuel pump arrived from Studebakers West and I made another trip to NAPA for fuel line fittings (a right angle was needed for the output of the fuel pump and the carb inlet). I got new throttle and transmission control swivels from Chuck Collins, which still need to go on.

I also replaced the old, clogged Zerk fittings on the driveshaft and got a needle adapter to lube it up, since they're at such weird angles. The driveshaft is ready to go in now.

Last steps are to get the transmission shifter rod and new throttle pressure rod connected, install the radiator and clutch fan, and get lube in her. We're almost ready for Firing Day!

Wait for the kicker.

Recently Jim McCuan, one of the regulars on the Studebaker Driver's Club Forum, acquired a pristine, 7,900 (yes, seventy-nine hundred) mile '63 Avanti with the supercharged R2 engine. (The car was found on Craigslist Seattle by another Forum member; if you want to read the car's whole story, click here.)

Anyway, Jim just put a video on YouTube; he set his camera beside the road and captured a few high-speed passes. Listen to the sound of a low-mile, blown Studebaker winding up and watch it get plenty of rubber! (Oh, and stick around for the surprise ending.)

I'd love a garage like this!

Dick Steinkamp is one of the senior members of the Studebaker Drivers Club Forum (that's not a comment on your age, Dick!), from beautiful Bellingham, Washington (where cars don't rust - they mold!).

A little bit ago, Dick posted a video walkaround of his garage with various Studies in progress. Worth sharing - so here it is!

More progress.

It's getting closer to Firing Day! I'm getting work done catch-as-catch can. There's not too much left to do now.

A couple of weeks back I began installing the intake manifold according to Jeff Rice's tutorial on the SDC Forum (thanks Jeff!).
Jeff's method allows for removal and replacement of the intake if necessary without tearing up the manifold gaskets. In a nutshell, here's the process.

Jeff recommends using Permatex Ultra Copper for its heat-transferrance properties. Using the thick composition (not metal) gaskets, you put a bead around each of the ports (intakes and heat stove crossovers) and press it onto the intake. You want to use enough of the Permatex to make a seal, but not so much that you have globs of it running all over the place! A light touch is desired here. Press them down tight a wipe off any squeezin's.

Once they're pressed onto the intake, let them set up overnight. You might note from my photo that I have the early-style intake with the sealed tube for the choke heater; this style may require modifying the gasket slightly to allow the tube to be positioned properly. I had to gently remove some gasket material for a good fit here. In Jeff's tutorial, he blocks the heat passages using the Permatex to adhere a piece of sheet steel; I elected to leave mine open.

The next day, smear a light film of chassis grease onto the gasket and the heads, taking care not to get any in the bolt holes, and torque down the intake, going clockwise and starting with the middle bolts (the ones that use the steel clamps.) It doesn't take a lot of torque; I think the manual calls for 24 - 28 lbs./ft. Why the chassis grease? It helps form the needed seal but makes it so that the manifold can easily be removed if need be without tearing up the gaskets. Smart trick!

Speaking of those clamps - two of mine cracked upon installation. I guess the 50-year-old metal just couldn't go any further; luckily, NOS replacements are available from Studebaker International. A few days later, I had a handful of shiny new clamps (well, they were shiny after I cleaned them) that I shot with engine black and bolted on.

So the engine compartment is looking a lot more full now. Carb is mounted (it was working well when removed, so I'll do the rebuild after she's running again), throttle rod in place, and new battery cables are on. More to come!

Studebakers at Vista Rod Run

Yesterday I went to the Vista Rod Run, an annual event that happens in downtown Vista, California every August. I've been going to this show for years, and it's one of the highlights of my Summer.

There are always at least a couple of Studes at this show (over 300 cars at this year's Run), and this year ran true to form. First up was this nicely-done mild-custom '55 two-door wagon. Two-toned in the original style but with a nice, modern paint job; this is a very smooth ride and one any rodder would love to be seen in. Dave Gahlbeck says it belongs to a member of the San Diego County SDC chapter; I look forward to finding out who - I'm always scouting for new members in North County!

The other Stude at the show was this smoooooth black 1950 Champion Starlight Coupe. One of the most stunning body styles any American car manufacturer has ever made. This particular Starlight was owned by a young lady in her 20s who told me her grand-dad had 3 more Studeys! I like the nosed-and-decked look; it's got that authentic '50s custom look to it.

How'd you like to see that run up on you in your rear-view mirror?
There were lots of gorgeous automobiles, of course. Among those that caught my eye were this stunning, perfect 1958 Buick Caballero 4-door hardtop station wagon, an insanely rare car and one of the finest examples of Detroit excess. A four-door hardtop wagon! Only in America!

There was also this Polo White, apparently original and unrestored '58 Corvette...
...an imposing, immaculate 1929 Packard convertible club sedan, replete with factory tool kit and vintage golf clubs...
...and this awe-inspiring Hudson Hornet with Twin-H Power, looking big and bad enough to eat anything that got in its way.
A 308-cubic-inch straight six! You've gotta love that.

It was a great show! I look forward to having Barney there next year.

Found! Barney's former owner.

Well, one of them, anyway :) The fellow who owned the Lark prior to the guy I bought it from. A little digging online (aided by the back cover of a Studebaker International catalog that had his name on it) led me to a phone number in Escondido and, sure enough, that was him.

His name is Grant, and he is an SDC member (although he's primarily a racer, so isn't a member of the local chapter) with a '53 Starlight Coupe and an R3 Avanti set up for drag racing. He seemed pleased to hear from me and said he often wishes he had the Lark back.

Grant told me that he'd bought Barney from a Navy guy who had to ship out of San Diego, and that he'd had it for a couple of years before he sold it to Mitch, the guy I bought it from. He said that the Twin-Traction and 4bbl. were on it when he purchased it, but that it had been painted dark blue and he'd shot it with the white it now wears (in his garage, no less). He also told me that "it needed everything" when he sold it to Mitch. I allowed as how I'd gotten it pretty much the same way ;)

So now I know the Lark's history back to around 2000, at least. Next time I talk to Grant I'll ask if he remembers the name of the sailor he bought it from.

That damned transmission spacer.

It's a little piece of metal that's one of the most overlooked bits in Studedom - the transmission mount spacer, better known as Part Number 523427 (when it's known at all).

This little bit of metal doesn't appear in the Shop Manual, but it does show up in the Chassis Parts Manual, on page 19 in the Engine section, called out in the illustration as Group # 0101-40. On left-hand drive cars (for countries that drive on the right side of the road) with automatic transmissions only, this spacer is placed between the driver's side transmission mount and the transmission cross-member; it imparts an angle to the transmission output shaft to decrease vibrations under load. It's prescribed for use in all cars from 1961 through 1964.

Most Studebakers that have had transmission work have, over the years, lost this part. Or, it may be installed on the wrong side of the car - mine was, thanks to the illustration in the Chassis Parts Manual that shows it mounted on the passenger's side of the transmission! (And in fact, if the car is right-hand drive, the spacer does go on the right side of the car.)

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts to get it on there correctly, my crew and I installed the spacer on the wrong side of the car. Today I spent the last day of my vacation under Barney, getting it out of there with the intention of swapping it to the correct (driver's) side.

Well, I did indeed get it out. I don't own a transmission jack or a four-post lift, so this is a driveway effort, and it was rough going, compounded by the fact that I was constantly cussing myself for being so stupid :) By jacking up the trans with a 1" plank on top of my floor jack's saddle, then loosening all of the cross-member's mounting bolts, I managed to get enough space between the transmission mount stud and the cross-member to wiggle the spacer out.

"Installation is the reverse of removal", as the saw goes, but in this case... not quite. The transmission mount stud on the driver's side of the car is actually 1/2" longer to accommodate this spacer, and pry, pull and sweat as I might, I could not clear the stud from the x-member. Short take: no way was that spacer getting on there the way I was trying to do it.

About 4:30, I decided to button the car up and seek help from the SDC Forum. One of the forum members had, a month or so ago, posted about solving this same problem (a missing spacer) by welding together a stack of washers and cutting a slot to slide the spacer around the trans mount stud (kind of like using body shims). I might go this way and cut a slice out of the Stude spacer to accomplish the same thing; haven't quite decided yet. Stay tuned...

BTW, if you're R&R-ing your trans and you find this spacer missing, you can get one from SASCO, Studebaker International, Chuck Collins or nearly any Studebaker vendor.

Update: I did in fact saw out a slot in the spacer and got it under the car last weekend (8/2). It slid right around the stud and I lowered the trans and torqued everything down to spec. With 600 pounds of Studebaker V8 plus trans sitting on top of it, it shouldn't move... but I have an original spacer that I'll most likely have the transmission shop slide in when appropriate. (Let them bust their knuckles on those stupid mount-to-bellhousing bolts!)

More Than They Promised... a very good read.

For Christmas, my wife got me Thomas Bonsall's "More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story". I just finished reading it, and I enjoyed it very much.

Bonsall is a very thorough historian, combing through old company documents, accounts by contemporaries, and all sorts of auto-related lit to piece together the life and death of the Studebaker corporation. There's also a nice chapter on the post-Studebaker Avanti, and an analysis of why that effort was so successful for so long, only to join its predecessor on the dustheap of failed companies.

Check it out if you really want to find out more about the company and the men who built and ran it. (One note: if you never liked James Nance and placed the blame for the demise of Packard and, consequently, Studebaker at his feet - prepare to hear another side of the story!)

Check out more at this link.

1963 Lark Vent Seals still available!

A while back, after looking through the Studebaker International catalog, I was grousing about vent window rubber for 1963 Larks not being available. I guess it's understandable, since the '63 Lark was a one-year body style from the cowl to the backglass; Brooks Stevens freshened the '59 - '62 sheet metal to make the greenhouse crisper.

Anyhow, on a whim I poked the part number in on the SASCO website and lo! They were in stock! That's right - original factory rubber parts for '63 Larks. Needless to say, I snapped 'em up, since Barney's original weatherstrips are, shall we say, a bit used.

Bottom line: if you have a '63, get a set while you can - who knows how many Dennis has left in his stash. Here's the particulars:

• 1353340 Weatherstrip, Left
• 1353341 Weatherstrip, Right

Price at this writing is under $30 each, a bargain if you ask me.

Progress!

Some good progress on the Lark yesterday. I spent almost all day on it, and I got a lot done.

The SDC Forum advice on how to get the engine back into the mounts nice and square paid off. I hooked the engine hoist to the block, loosened the transmission mount-to-frame bolts, and used my floor jack to lift under the trans pan. After a few cranks (about 8" elevation), the forward engine mounts were aligned above the frame brackets.

I could've used another hand, but since it was just me I wedged a crowbar between the firewall and engine and pulled the block forward a little more, holding it in position with a rubber mallet. Then I let down the hoist and the engine settled into the mounts like it should have been from the beginning! Torquing down the mounts fore and aft made it permanent.

It was early in the day, so I took the opportunity to get a few more things done. With the engine finally seated, I could mount the torque converter inspection plates. Then I torqued the new A-Arm bushing bolts to spec, reconnected the exhaust pipes to the manifolds, and installed the transmission filler tube. After that I installed new front shock absorbers and began reassembling the front anti-sway bar components.

Tech Tip alert: when installing the anti-sway bar, there are 4 rubber bushings that must slide into position along the (freshly painted) bar. If you try to put them on dry, you'll wind up frustrating yourself to no end. Instead, use a pure silicone spray lubricant on the bar; the bushings will slide on without any effort whatever.

There's a few more things to do to get the engine ready to start. I need to install a new speedometer cable (the core is missing from the old one), reinstall the driveshaft, mount the starter, and attach the engine accessories - intake and carb, fuel pump, water manifold, alternator and fan, etc. I'm starting to get excited!

So close I can taste it...

I got to spend some Stude time last weekend. The Lark's been untouched since Christmas; we put the engine in but trapped the driver's exhaust between the oil pan and the tie rods. Boy, did that hack me off! But we were running out of daylight when the engine went back in, and none of us noticed (although we thought we'd tied the pipes securely out of the way). I wondered why it was so hard to steer afterward! Yes, it put a nice dent in the pan, but it's at the sump end, and fairly shallow, so no internal problems.

Anyway, some time opened up, and I hooked up the hoist to free the trapped pipe. All went well - my son cranked up the block about 3/4", I slid the pipe free from underneath, and all's well.

Almost. The engine, mounts freed of their frame brackets, decided it wanted to slip backward about 1/4" - the thickness of one of the mounting studs. Try as I might, including "persuading" the block forward with a 2x4 between the head and firewall, I could not get the studs to slip back into the mounting holes.

So I turned to the SDC Forum for answers. Most of the suggestions were to loosen the transmission-to-crossmember bolts and then lift the engine slightly to move it into position. But one poster told me something that put fear into my heart: the transmission mounts, though visually nearly identical, are not interchangeable. And if they are, in fact, installed opposite of what they should be, the symptom would be exactly this.

He advised that I may need to jack up the trans slightly, swap the mounts (which as you may recall were a booger to get in), swap the mounts and then tighten it all back up. I hope to tackle this on the coming weekend (the last weekend was too hot to work outside). Stand by, Lark fans!

Studebaker pix on Flickr.

One of the fellows from the SDC Forum has started a group for Studebaker photos on Flickr. There are over 800 pix and counting! Restored cars, survivors, artsy shots, junkyard photos, you name it - there's something for every taste. Check it out here. And in the meantime, dig this gorgeous reverse-angle shot of a '58 Provincial station wagon :)

A long winter's nap

Yeah, I've been hibernating, but I'm not dead. I find it hard to work on cars when it's raining or blowing, so the winter set me back a bit in working on Barney. Hopefully, I can get back to him soon - stand by for pix and stories.

Happy New Year!

Hello and welcome to 2008! It's been a while since I logged in - that's because there hasn't been much going on here. Barney the Lark hasn't been touched since the day the engine went back in, for a couple of reasons. First is a little home improvement project that took first priority over everything else, and second is the advent of winter and the rainy season. (I usually work on my car after work or on weekends; hard to do when sunset is at at 4:30 and it rains every Saturday.)

But my wife did give me a lovely gift for Christmas: a beautiful new set of reproduction 1963 taillight lenses from Chuck Collins of Studebakerparts.com !

These are really great reproductions, commissioned and sold by Chuck himself. They are injection molded the same way the originals were, of two-part clear and red high-impact plastic, with the separate "spider webs" that were unique to 1963 Larks ('62s had a simple chromed plastic ring in the middle). Although my old lenses were in good shape, they had lost their "spider webs" as most originals have - being separate castings, they tend to detach and fall off the car at speed. Chuck's repros are perfect, right down to the casting numbers located on the inside of the lens.

So the one thing I have accomplished was to change out the lenses, and they look gorgeous! Here's a "before" shot with the old lenses:

And here's the car with the new shinies:

Nice, eh? Now it looks like it ought to!

Soon as I get a dry weekend, I have to get under and hook up all the drivetrain stuff, so I can fire the engine. I'm gettin' antsy to get it running!

1963 Standard TV Introduction

My post about the introduction of the Studebaker Standard has brought a couple of interesting comments. Warren Webb of Riverside wrote:

Boy do I ever remember the introduction of this model! I was watching "Mister Ed" & heard at the beginning of the show the teaser that Studebaker was introducing a new car. Wow, I thought, could this be a follow up to the Avanti? Perhaps a new Hawk? I don't remember the show, but when John Cameron Swayze announced the introduction to the "new Studebaker Standard" I was really disappointed. Now, as the years have gone by, along with Studebaker's demise, I often think why did they do it that way?

Good question. The history of Studebaker is filled with "what if?" questions. What if they'd built the '53 Roadster? What if they hadn't given Lark franchises to Big Three dealers in '59, just to see them drop the Lark when GM/Ford/Mopar came out with their own compacts the next year? What if they'd built the Sceptre, or the other Brooks Stevens prototypes that were done in '63?

Interestingly, the John Cameron Swayze commercial Warren refers to has been posted on YouTube. Here it is:

Also, Heather writes:

This is an interesting story I haven't heard. I wondered why parts for my '63 Cruiser are so hard to come by. All is falling into place now! Strange to contemplate a car without carpet, and it sounds like a noisy, unpleasant ride.

Yes, 1963 was a real transition year - lots of one-year-only trim and soft parts - and not a high-production year either, although they did build a lot of "inventory" cars at the end of the model year in order to keep production lines running.

In fact, Bob Palma theorizes in the October 1993 issue of Turning Wheels that one of the reasons the Studebaker board shuttered South Bend in December of '63 relates directly to this unneeded, last-minute production of '63-model cars. Because dealer lots were so full of unsold '63s when the newly restyled '64 hit showrooms, dealers offered "fire-sale" prices on last year's model - torpedoing the sale of a new '64, and causing the sales slump that finally prompted the board to close US production lines.

A cautionary tale for US automakers today if there ever was one.

Engine Drop!

Yesterday was the day - the engine and transmission went back into the Lark (almost exactly one year after they came out). WOO HOO!

I started around 9AM, getting all the pieces together and putting the exhaust manifolds on the block. It's amazing how many parts you accumulate (and how many different places you manage to store them!) for a project like this. One thing that helped was having all the proper fasteners in little labeled Zip-Loc bags, ready to go where they were needed.

I finished with the manifolds just about the time John Dick arrived, and we shot the bull a little before starting to reunite the transmission with the engine. Since the trans came back fully assembled from Vista Transmission, we first had to remove the torque converter and mount it on the engine.

I should point out here a note for anyone doing this work for the first time: the flex plate and stiffener only mount to the crank a certain way. You'll have to rotate the plate 1/6-turn at a time until the bolts and the holes line up; same with the stiffener. Once that's done, no worries.

Also note that the slotted locknuts that were on the crank-to-flex-plate bolts from the factory are NLA (John sayz that some aircraft supply houses may have them, but I had no luck); the modern replacements are called deformed-thread lock nuts - these are not Nylock nuts!

Once the torque converter had been loosely attached to the flex plate, we attached the bellhousing (remembering to first drive in the two locating dowels that hold the housing in alignment to the block).

On Studebakers (and some other cars as well), the bellhousing must be positioned so that the transmission input shaft is centered with the crank. If it isn't, vibrations from the offset of the two rotating assemblies will crack the flexplate (at best) or fry the torque converter (at worst). If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll remember that that's exactly what happened with my car (see evidence at left), since the trans service shop that last worked on it neglected to reinstall the dowels when they bolted the bellhousing back up to the block.

I am lucky in that the trans/bellhousing/engine combination in my car is original. If it weren't, I'd have had to align the bellhousing to the crank (a topic thoroughly covered in the manual and on the Studebaker Drivers Club Forum, so I won't go into it here). All I had to do, though, was get a set of the correct dowel pins from Rich Gahlbeck at Studebakers Northwest in Seattle.

So we got the trans back on the block and had lunch, provided by my lovely wife - a little sushi for appetizer (mmmmm... sushi) and some big honkin' sammys for the main course, after which we headed back out for the big drop.

Over on the SDC Forums, John Poulos (one of the country's biggest resellers of Studebakers) had warned me that getting the transmission crossmember back in would be a bitch. Boy, was he right.

We bolted the crossmember in loosely so that we could guide the tailshaft over it as we dropped in the engine. This went well (except for a little messing with the drop-in angle); the problem occurred when we tried to line up the transmission mounts with the crossmember. It took nearly two hours of pushing, pulling, jockeying and grunting before it all went together and snugged up (most of it with poor Dave lying sandwiched under the rocker as seen here).

JDP says that the easier way to do the engine/trans R&R is to leave the crossmember bolted in and simply ease the combo out over it, with a helper under the car making sure everything clears. Think I'll try it his way next time (if I ever do this again!).

One other note about reattaching the transmission crossmember: there are body spacers that sandwich between the member and the body at the extreme outside edges of the crossmember. On some cars these are made of rubber; on others metal. Don't forget to put them back in! If your rubber ones have deteriorated, you can make new ones; Studebaker used squares cut from the sidewalls of old bias-ply tires (true!). Some thicknesses are also still available from SASCO. Also, the manual specifies 1" bolts to attach the member to the frame; these are ridiculously short, since you have to maneuver the nut into a hole cut in the crossmember and it's nearly impossible. Use 1 3/4" bolts instead; this greatly simplifies starting the nuts and can easily be tightened with a deep-well socket.

Anyway, we muscled it all together and rolled it back to its resting place about 45 minutes after sundown. I'll take the next few days to do all the little stuff - starter, exhaust, intake, radiator, etc. Thanks to Dave and John! It was a good Stude day!!

Just Yer' Standard Photograph.

Whilst trolling the 'net, I came upon an auto lit vendor offering an original Studebaker press package on the announcement of the '63 ½ Studebaker Standard, complete with glossy 8x10" photo and accompanying slug line.

I've found out a lot of Standard-related info lately. The car was a mid-year introduction, basically a last-ditch effort at capturing more sales ('63 was a terrible year for Studebaker sales; it's arguably the straw that broke the camel's back for the Stude board of directors) from the lowest possible stratum of auto buyers.

What Studebaker did was to take its most basic fleet-sales stripper and release it to the dealers for sale to the public. And when I say "stripper," I mean the sort of car that was used to justify base-price claims in newspaper ads! Essentially, the Standard was a Lark (although there was no Lark branding anywhere on it except the horn button) that had been thoroughly de-trimmed. Subtle and not-so-subtle differences included:

• Deletion of all side and trunk-panel trim. Regular Larks had the word "L A R K" in individual letters on the front fenders; on the Standard it was replaced with "Studebaker" script that dated back to 1956. The stainless steel dress-up trim was omitted from the trunk lip and the individual letters that spelled out "S T U D E B A K E R" were left off the trunk as well as the emblem that would have adorned the top of the trunk lid.
• In the front, the hood ornament was deleted, as was the small badge at the lower right corner of the grille that denoted a V8 or Six engine choice.
• The insulating pad was not installed under the hood, and only one horn - the high voice - was installed.
• Inside, the changes were abundant. There were no carpets, just a rubber floor mat; an armrest and sun visor were provided for the driver only. The horn bar was replaced by a horn button only. There was no cigarette lighter or ashtray. Upholstery was all-vinyl, with a very plain pattern on the door panels and seats. Even the courtesy light that would normally illuminate automatically when the doors opened was replaced with a manual lamp - they left out the door switches! The biggest change in the interior was the removal of the swanky Vanity glovebox with pop-up mirror that other '63 Larks had; instead, Standards came with a vinyl-covered cardboard "mailbox" bolted in its place. Nasty.
• All brightwork was omitted from the windows - no stainless around the front or rear windows, on or on the door window frames.
• Straight-six with column-shifted 3-speed was the standard mill.
  
• Although the lenses for backup lights were installed, the lights themselves were optional. Most Standards had no sockets inside those housings!
  

In spite of this austerity, nearly everything could be added optionally. Side-view mirrors, passenger's arm rest and visor, clock, b/u lights, windshield washer, Climatizer (Studebaker's temperature-maintaining heater system), etc. could be specified. You could upgrade the powertrain too; the only two options my car was delivered with were the 259 V-8 and the Flight-O-Matic 3-speed automatic trans. There are even some documented R-Series Standards; there's a well-known red 63V F2 (2-door sedan, the lightest body style) that was ordered with the R-2 Jet Thrust supercharged engine and Power Shift automatic!

Somewhere in my Standard's history, a previous owner decided to upgrade it, keeping the original engine and transmission but bolting on a 4bbl carb from a '57 President, adding dual exhausts, and swapping in a Twin Traction limited-slip rear axle, as well as reupholstering the interior. I'm looking forward to running it as the ultimate sleeper!

My girl...

I know this isn't Studebaker related, but indulge me please.

On Sunday morning, my Sydney passed away from liver cancer. Surgery five days prior found she was riddled with it... she'd shown no symptoms, even though the vet figured she'd had it for months. We hoped she'd recover enough to be with us for a few more weeks at least, but her liver failed a couple of days post-op. With her breathing coming harder all the time, refusing to eat and finally even to drink, I drove her to the animal ER at 2AM on 10/7 and let her go.

Syd was a wonderful, gentle, loving girl, and we miss her terribly. We saved her from the pound, so each day was precious to her. I've been carrying her collar in my pocket for days. We were blessed by her love for just five years, and I thank God for every minute.