Saying hello from Belgium

[redbaron]

Hi,
just wanna introduce myself and hope i can be of help with anything.
Name is Jo Willems, 57 year old ex army officer, ex HR Manager, turned hobby into work 25 years ago. Run a garage specialized in race and rally-preparation of British Classics(Triumph TR, Healy,Morgan etc) Running TRs since 1978.. Bought the ex Adrian Thiele/Gary Rapp 54 wagon. Great car and great work on modifications by Adrian and maintained like a baby by Gary. 13 years since build so I will renew suspension bushes,brake fluid and pads. Already fitted 15 inch American Racings and new tyres. First of all coz of vibration and I like oldfashioned wheels better and the guys from technical inspections don,t like bigger wheel diameters. They don,t like electric doorpoppers either so I have to re-install
manual doorhandles inside and out. Suits me fine coz doors stick when too cold and rubbers also stick when too hot. Sticking doors were probably reason why handlers in NewYork Docks damaged doors,seats etc and left keys in, on contact, dead battery etc; seeing the damage when I picked her up I almost turned into the hulk from anger.
Had insurance, but damaging a car like that is just a shame and I am still not payed...Oh yeah, she doen,t have a heater and fogs up so I called my supplier for an electrically heated frontscreen. I use them in my race/rallycars and they make driving when cold/rainy a lot easier and safer
He can make em for 1500 toolingcost and 235 a piece in british pounds. Costprice when I have 10 made 370 pounds a piece is about 600 dollars; anybody interested?
Will fit a compact heater unit and demisting nozzles under dash coz spending almost 4000 pounds for a windscreen just for myself is crazy.
And why did i buy a Studebaker? I like wagons, looked for a 55 wagon or Nomad coz i had one before and when I deal in Canada didn,t work out I rembered seeing this great Studebaker wagon that I couldn,t afford. Lucky for me the price dropped into my range and I bought it just befor the dollar got abouit 25 % more expensive in relation to the euro. Best decision of the year. Can,t stop smiling when I drive the car. That.s it for now.Will keep you posted and will send some pics when my daughter takes pictures with her phone and puts them online, coz I am hopeless with these things.

[Mike]

Red -

Welcome. Sounds like you've got plenty of background to do the job.
Post some pictures of your wagon when you can.
Have fun with your rebuild. Always fun redoing someone else's work...

Mike

[redbaron]

Hi Mike , thx for reaction and sorry it took so long to get back.
I am better with spanners than with PC, and have ben terrribly busy. My best mechanic suffered leg injury and was gone 10 months...So I diddouble shifts and pretty much fell asleep as soon as I got home. Racing season ended october and been removing/inspection engines etc since then to get everythinh ready for testing at Spa march 20 th.
Drove the wagon at 100+MPH and she rumbled/vibrated. Traced noisy wheelbearing and had propshaft straightened and balanced, Fitted EBC Yellow Stuff pads on the discs front and rear. Hell of a difference. Also removed lowering blocks at rear and corrected geometry front suspension( thx to fatman subframe). Better still.
Have not installed doorhandles yet Can,t make up my mind. Have Triumph 2500 saloon , but Pontiac GrandPrix 69 look better. Problem is I am not sure if I can hook these up to available mechanism.
Wouldn,t call my fiddling and maintenance redoing builders work though. He did a great job. But 14 years or so ago and car has never been driven realy hard since. I do however.Coz been racing for almost 30 years.
Engine is extremely well built. The builder picked just the right combo of cam lift and timing,valve sizes,inlet,carbs etc. It idles at 700 rpm and can do that for hours. It willpick uprevs at any speed in any gear. I can probably drive itupthe racetrailer in fifth gear. I,ve built a few race engines myself. This was a fine job! Now it has brakes and handling that fit my driving style better. I will probably istall a panhard rod or watts linkage at rear, put acetal bushes in leaf spring locations and will stabilize springpackage with extra straps round the leafs, Bit more suspension travel and riding height at front as well. With these mods that rear axle can only move up and down and stiops twisting/trampling. And like that I can drift her in full control. Stiffer and lower is NOT always better; especially not for a road car on leaf springs.
Going fourlink/fully adjustable spring/shox etc at rear will ultimately work better if you wanna go racing. For road use it is nonsensical, most people will never get near the cornering speeds possible with a well sorted leaf sprung beam axle. Check out You tube on board camera of130+ MPH Beam axleTriumphTR4 (0neI built) at Nuerburgring chasing and passing lightweight Etype and ultra wide 911. And the TR4 is on skinny 50s style Dunlop Racings,,, Have fun. I will keep you posted.

[Mike]

Didn't notice what power you have in the wagon...Stude, Chevy...other ?

Mike

[redbaron]

Hi
the car has a blueprinted 355 chevy with sportsman heads, roller cam and rockers, special crank and rods, forged pistons , headers etc. Fed by 2 500 cfm twin barrel webers on edelbrock inlet, 2 custom made 2,5 inch exhaust to rear. Sparked by MSD. Didn,t have it on dyno yet , but expect around 400 HP from this setup.
Wil let you know what dynoresult will be. kind regards,

[Mike]

Cool...sounds like a fun car.

Watch the welds and around the welds around the spring pockets in the front. They sometimes crack/break with more than 150hp..!

Mike

[redbaron]

Hi Mike,
thx for tip. It has a Fatman subframe etc but I will check and reinforce if necessary. Better be safe than sorry.
Hope to be able to do rest of jobs before end of march but am very busy for my customers. Also sold my 55 chevy and promised new owner to rectify some small but timeconsuming problems, that I never really cared about.. Noisy speedo. Rebuilding upper steering coulumn, new bushes, wiring, original hornpush, etc. What a load of crap they fitted in there. Got it working and ajusted steering colum shift mechanism/rebushed etc. These jobs really suck...No wonder 9 out of 10 55 chevs have a pushbutton on the dash for the horn....
(so did mine). Anyway; I guess I can better spend my money on a car than in a bar. Used to be other way round 15 years or so ago; must be getting old. Cheers, Jo

[Bert Cheney]

Hi Redbaron, sounds like a great car. Bert

[TaylorIsaiah]

Have not installed doorhandles yet Can,t make up my mind. Have Triumph 2500 saloon , but Pontiac GrandPrix 69 look better. Problem is I am not sure if I can hook these up to available mechanism.
Wouldn,t call my fiddling and maintenance redoing builders work though. He did a great job. But 14 years or so ago and car has never been driven realy hard since. I do however.Coz been racing for almost 30 years.
Engine is extremely well built. The builder picked just the right combo of cam lift and timing,valve sizes,inlet,carbs etc. It idles at 700 rpm and can do that for hours. It willpick uprevs at any speed in any gear. I can probably drive itupthe racetrailer in fifth gear. I,ve built a few race engines myself. This was a fine job! Now it has brakes and handling that fit my driving style better. I will probably istall a panhard rod or watts linkage at rear, put acetal bushes in leaf spring locations and will stabilize springpackage with extra straps round the leafs, Bit more suspension travel and riding height at front as well. With these mods that rear axle can only move up and down and stiops twisting/trampling. And like that I can drift her in full control. Stiffer and lower is NOT always better; especially not for a road car on leaf springs.



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