My 54 is on its way, (updated 10.24)

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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (01.07)

Postby Stu Cool » 2013 Jan 11 Fri 9:11 am

Yes Frank is a very helpful guy. He is providing a quality adapter kit to mate a GM automatic trans to the Studebaker V8. In my case it is a 200-4R. Will be nice to have an automatic overdrive, let alone a trans that starts in first gear.

Pat
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'54 Conetoga Retirement Project starting 2012
'53 Custom Starlight
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (01.07)

Postby Mike » 2013 Jan 11 Fri 11:46 am

Oh yea...I also bought one of Franks trans. adapters...forgot about that..!

And again...yea, I also am bolting up an Art Carr, T-200-4R to my Stude engine. This trans. is mostly a stock trans., compaired to my other 54 wagons trans. It's got some VERY heavy duty parts in it along with a "trans. brake". Isn't much in the way of normal Stude power that's gonna break that trans. ..!


Pat -
Are you going to run a "lock-up" converter or a standard converter ?

Mike
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (01.07)

Postby Mike » 2013 Jan 21 Mon 11:04 am

Didn't do much this week.
Spent a little of Saturday and all of Sunday working on getting my S1000RR BMW back together after a valve clearance check. What a pain. The Germans really know how to stuff a 3lb. bag of "stuff"...even better/cleaner than the Japanese do!!

Anyway, out of three front bumpers, the best one was on the 54 parts car. So I pulled it off to put onto the wagon. I noticed that the mounting "spring" bracket corners were different. So I pulled and yanked till they were somewhat the same. Then only after loosening ALL of the bumper bracket nuts and bolts could I get the bumper on straight and even...done.
One thing I found about the original chrome...it's "soft". I'd be willing to bet..it's not even chrome...just "nickle" plate. I used a "used" light, Scotchbrite pad to clean off some junk...it scratched the "chrome". Real chrome is in the 62/65Rc hardness area..., that's pretty hard folks. Even a new, meduim to rough Scotchbrite pad shouldn't have scratched the chrome like that. I tryed the same old/used up pad on the other two bumpers...same thing. I then tried it on my other 54's bumper (underside!) that I know has been replated...not hardly a mark..!

I also actually found a few more holes to weld. Seems the factory put holes all over these cars. NOW...I see why the floors are so badly rusted...all the da** holes. I did those and double dipped some of the original holes from the inside of the car. A few were looken like they needed some help..!
Depending on next weekends weather and if or not a friend comes down to go to the Grand National Roadster Show, if I get the under hood ready to paint or not.

I also bought some Dynamat insulation. I know my Lark is pretty noisy in some conditions, so I decided that I want a little quiter car now that I'm over the hill..! Engine and exhaust noise is still fine, but the road/tire/fan noise isn't good. That stuff is "heavy". The firewall and maybe small pieces in the doors. The instructions (yea, I mostly read them..!) say you don't "need" to cover 100% of a given area to work.

Mike
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (02.11)

Postby Mike » 2013 Feb 11 Mon 8:08 am

Well, nuthin done to the car the last coupla weekends, but I started cleaning up the engine from my Lark to go into the 54.
I got the adjustable gear drive swap complete. This weekend I started to remove all the grime... With only 23,000 miles on it, it's really not too grubby. I also did some cast iron flashing removal. Beside being...well just plain ol ugly, some of it's sharp enogh to cut the skin. So...everything obviously visable is now gone.

Something for others to think about...Even though the core/freeze plugs looked nice and clean, leak free, I decided to replace them anyway. Ha...good idea...the rust behind them was up over the top of the plugs..all 6 of'em. So with some digging with a piece of weld wire and air pressure from my compressor, most of it's now all over my weed laden back yard. Can't see any of it..all back into nature now..!!
I'll give it another go round of cleaning and press some new plugs back into place.
And the core plugs....even with all the rust, even the water side of them looked really good.

The original engine color appears to have been silver, it's gonna be...cast iron color this time, cast iron colored paint..
Aluminum rocker covers with tall Offenhauser breathers, an aluminum valley cover, stock iron intake for now, not sure about the exhaust yet. I have a set of the R3 manifolds, but they are scheduled for my other 54...!?!? No oil filler tube, just a cover to remove to fill the crankcase with.

No work for a coupla weeks, gonna be "working" solid for a coupla weeks at work...no fun here..!

Mike

P.s. - The radiator from the new wagon was donated to the 4dr. also this weekend. I have a 55 wagon that has a three row radiator (Commander) that will go into the new 54. NOW....all I have to do is fix the stuck/dirty inlet needle in the carburetor so it quits puking gas all over everything...! Never ends....
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (02.11)

Postby Mike » 2013 Mar 04 Mon 7:09 am

Back from a coupla weeks on the east coast working. Obviously no work done.

This weekend, I did manage to finish cleaning the engine, install new freeze/core plugs and dig out all the aluminum goodies to put on the engine.
I also took the pan off to oil up everything. The engine's been sitting for about 10 years, so I figured I'd better fill the under side of the pistons to oil the wrist pins, put some oil on the cylinder walls and cam shaft. Then after I get the engine painted, I'll flip it upright and oil the lifters and cam again from the valley chamber...get any areas I missed oiling from the underside.

Bout it for now.

Mike
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (03.29)

Postby Mike » 2013 Mar 29 Fri 9:56 am

Well, I've actually doing little things to my wagon over the last few weeks, but nothing huge.

Like yesterday, I played hooky from work and worked on my 59 Lark 2dr. wagon. First I rebuilt the original 2 barrel carb., cleaned the manifold and put it back in place of the Offenhauser/Edelbrock intake. Still have to come up with some sort of air cleaner.
So now I can put the manif./carb. on the 54 wagon. Though the Edelbrock carburetor is pretty worn out, so I'll be replacing it after the car is running.
Then I had a core/freeze plug to replace in the 59. Luckilly is was a fairly easy one to get at. Pass. side, behind the dipstick. I started the carb. swap Wednesday night and finished the core plug about dark last night...though there's still no water in it...gonna try a radiator cleaner before I put any high dollar antifreeze in it..!

I had to have a tool made to make my damper pusher/puller tool work with the Stude crank. It's an odd 11/16"-16 thread is not common to any other normal auto engine (that I know of..!). My puller didn't have that adapter...it does now. So I finally got my custom crank gear, properly in place. Now to tackle finishing up the crank-trigger (distributor replacement) assembly. Gotta wait for a couple more custom parts...hopefully next week.
I dug up all my aluminum stuff for it (valley cover and rocker covers). I may put a coat or two of paint on it this weekend.

Mike
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (04.08)

Postby Mike » 2013 Apr 08 Mon 8:38 am

Well...while doing some final work on the 54's engine (intake, carb. linkage, setting up a distributor, final attachment of the pan and front cover), I've decided to pull the heads off...!
When I originally removed the engine from my 60 wagon, I had no forseeable plans for it. It sat outside for sometime...sorta covered,..!
Well, looking down one intake port, I noticed one valve/port pretty cruddy from rust. It appears that valve was closed so hopefully the cylinder is ok.
While the drive from Prescot AZ. (where I picked it up) to SoCal was uneventfull, (no smoke, no real over heating, etc.), the valve stem seals ARE...at least...53+ years old...so, I think I'll pull the heads off, which I wasn't gonna do.. and give them some light port massaging, check the seats for how well they seal, clean the valves and ports well, and put it all back together with new seals. I started thinking...for a person that does Hi-Perf. Stude head work for people...to NOT have a set of at least touched-up heads on his own car...is pretty bad..!

Though I'll probably do a good set eventually, I at least wanted give these a quick going over while removing the probably hard stem seals and cleaning up one rusty valve..!

Oh yea, the distributor.. I didn't realize that there is a GM distributor that "looks" like the "other" distributor that no one wants. It's a GM but no window and the weights were "below" the point plate...! Anyway, this came out of the 232 in my 55 wagon. All this "distributor" is going to be is a "disrtibutor"....yea, sounds funny , but there are no advance weights, no springs, no movement in the advance mechanisim (will be weleded next weekend!), no points (or Crane or Pertronix units)...JUST a cap and rotor.
The firing sequence/timing will come from the trigger wheel mounted to the damper hub.

Not much, but all for now.

Mike
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (04.08)

Postby Mike » 2013 Apr 24 Wed 6:17 am

Cylinder head update -

Well...it's very good that I decided to take the heads off.
That valve WAS stuck in it's guide. I layed the head on its side and filled the bowl with WD-40 and let it sit, hoping the WD-40 would wick its way into guide, just as the water did. Every night after work, I tapped on it, in both directions hoping it would come loose.
Finally, Saturday (yea, a week) it broke lose. It still took some work to get it out, but it's out and doesn't appear to have hurt the guide much. I'll have to measure it, but hopefully just a quick, light hone will clean it up and still be a good fit to the valve stem.

And...since I have them all apart, I have a set of larger valves I may as well use, and have a set of hard seats installed....so....I guess I will be doing a full number on them...! It'll be interesting to see how well the engine runs with a lot of head work and a stock cam...!?
The chambers are done, started on the exhaust ports last night.

Also..trying a new machine shop...!? This is the scarry part..

Mike
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (05.12)

Postby Mike » 2013 May 11 Sat 9:21 pm

Ok...got a call from the machine shop, ready... after a few phone calls asking me questions about what I wanted to do about a coupla things rather than just forging ahead and doing what "they" thought was best, I can't wait to stop by Monday night to pick them up.
Enlarged the intakes to 1.800" and installed hard seats in the exhaust side and installed all new guides. Put three angles on all seats.

And yes,I wrote and you read correctly, 1.800" on the intakes. This was an experiment a few years back to see just how well this valve size would flow. With the heads that were originally worked on, they flowed 191cfm in one port and 192cfm in another port (134 is stock). BUT, as I found later, the intake roofs were too thin in one area and would certinlly crack in short order. So my odd valves have been sitting...till now. I'm not going to flow test these new heads, as I've learned a few things since I did that pair, so I'm confident they'll flow very simillar, even with less work in the roof areas.

On the car front, I worked all day today cleaning up a few "more" welds that I did on Friday (yesterday) and spent the rest of the day sanding all of the panels that make up the engine compartment.
I bought a cheap little "wood only" orbital sander. Kind of-a triangle shape, along with a big handfull of sanding pads from Harbor Freight. When the sales girl asked me if I wanted to buy an insurance deal for longer return if it quits....I told her, it's only a 15 dollar sander. If it does this one job for me, it will have more thAn paid for itself... Just a little touchup tomorrow and I can finally put some paint on the sheet metal panels.

Then it's time to finishup the frame and steering and paint that too.

All for now.

P.s. - Finally....paint on all the sheet metal. I was going to fill all of the pot holes from the battery acid...but decided, this isn't a show car, just (hopefully) a clean street car..! So, the left side fender panel...is pock marked with a ton of smallish pot holes..! But...is clean, sorta smooth and shiny, medium grey. I've done most of my cars in a medium light to medium dark grey since my first car, back in 1968...I see no reason to change now..!
Now to finish cleaning the frame and steering and paint that. It's mostly clean, just a little touch-up. THEN...I can finally begin putting things back together..!
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Re: My 54 is on its way to being a daily driver, (05.19)

Postby Mike » 2013 May 19 Sun 9:06 pm

Got a few small things done.
Sanded out a few runs in the firewall and repainted that area.
Cleaned (touched up actually) the frame from the mid-crossmember to the core support, and painted all of that (semi-gloss black).
Cleaned and painted a pair of V-8 frame..motor mount brackets, and got one installed. A real pain with one person..!
I wanted to get the bellcrank cleaned, painted and reinstalled...but that didn't happen.
I looked close at the drag link/reach rod. It's in good shape, but needs new rubber protectors. So I can save a few bucks by not having to buy a new one.
Removed the front body mount bolts to properly clean the pockets at the firewall (were REALLY full of garbage), got those bolts cleaned, painted and reinstalled....upside down...or rather nut side..down. Beside looking better, if the nut were to work loose and fall off (!?), the long fastener would still be in place to....sorta hold the body in "side to side, front to rear" alignment. Stock it'll fall out...!

In case anyone's interested, the I-6 and the V-8 frame, motor mounts....are actually formed by the same dies. The only difference is that the two hole frame mount holes...are a mirror image...! So if you make a pattern of the existing holes and flip it, realign the holes...mark the location of the new hole location and drill them...you now have V-8 mounts. The left I-6 mount goes on the right for the V-8 and the right I-6....you get the idea..
Don't know why Stude didn't do this...woulda saved them money in storage if they'da done the paperwork properly.

I think I have a 4 day weekend next weekend...so other thAn the La Palma Park Stude show, I'm hoping to make some real headway.

Later
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