Body / Glass: Replacing Vent Patch and Hinge & Shroud Collar Attached

[1953champcoupe]

I'm repairing the fenders for my 53 Starlight Coupe and have the repair parts coming from Classic Enterprises and have a question, I did a template on the one side as to layout from the fender crease above to the trailing edge of the fender. I guess I don't trust my template, nor do I have one for the other side. I guess I wasn't thinking Anyway, for you guys that have done it, how did you do it?

I thought of mounting the fender and then cutting in the vent but I am a little lazy. I thought about eliminating the vent but my wife said "don't you want it original as much as you can?".

Thanks for any insight you folks can give me and a couple of pictures so you can say "yep, that's Studebaker rust"

[1953champcoupe]

This car came out of Minnesota, it was a rusty hulk, somewhere along the line someone booger welded the vents closed, tacked in some tin here and there and then bondo'd over it all and shot it with red oxide primer. I ground out 10 pounds of bondo I couldn't get one bolt out (someone had put a "wrong thread" bolt in and I knew that the fender needed repair, lots easier to get a bolt out when you can see it

[thunderations]

The craftsmanship of those patches are typical of a $150 used car needed to get back and forth to work. Years ago, this is what it was, so spending ANY money to properly repair was unheard of.
Now 40 or 50 years later we tear down a "Classic" and are flabbergasted at the shoddy job that was done to fix the problem.

[Jeff_H]

My '53 was also a rusty MN hulk but fortunately I was able to get replacement fenders. The replacement passenger side one had previous old fiberglass and lead work around the vent I had to remove and repair but it was still there so I didn't need to figure out where its located like you do!

Access to another pair of fenders to make templates and measurements from seems like the way to go in getting that vent properly located. Maybe someone local to you has a car you could measure? It does not have to be a '53 as those vents and the outer skin of the fender are the same for '53 to '64.

[thunderations]

I could tape a piece of masking paper over my 55 President fender and trace the vent opening for you. If the bottom and back of the fender are used as reference points, you should be able to position the vents correctly. PM me with address if interested. Happy to do it. Ken

[1953champcoupe]

Thunderations--Thanks you for that offer, (and I may take it up with you) --would you check to see if the vent on yours is the same distance down from the decorative body crease and forward of the trailing fender edge on both sides. I made a template of one side and should have done so on both sides even though the fender, as you could see was pretty rough. What I think I will do assuming Classic sends no template is to mount the fenders (then I can ascertain if the fabricated bracing/cowl mounting piece is "right') and "rough cut the hole with the template. Thanks so much, We are going to get to 60 degrees today, I am a little envious of anyone in Arizona this time of the year. I lived in Las Cruces NM for a few years and I am thinking that this was about the time the desert bloomed Good memories.

[1953champcoupe]

One more question......I have the Champion coupe, with the lightest frame of all of the C/K cars, I plan on putting crossmembers in to stiffen the frame, one person said he added 11 gauge sister'd to the side of the frame. Any other suggestions and pictures of improvements would help me "not invent the wheel again"

I am on another car related blog post, and have to say the Studebaker folks are the nicest, thanks for being so helpful!!

[brngarage]

Marv, if you are missing the vent 'door' and the associated parts that connect the vent to the heater blower, I may have them. Let me know (PM or post).

[thunderations]

5 3/4" from rear of fender to rear of vent opening, measured at center of vent; both sides are the same. 5 1/2" from fender crease to top of vent opening measured at center of vent. Both sides are the same within a 1/16" from crease to top of vent opening, but the chrome molding covering the crease line may be the reason for that.
We will only get to 60 degrees today with a chance of rain this evening, but that is because of the storm front that has flooded California coming this way. After that it's back to clear and sunny. Some of my trees have been blooming since just before Christmas. It's a different world, for sure with only 3 seasons: this summer, next summer and road under construction.

Thunderations--Thanks you for that offer, (and I may take it up with you) --would you check to see if the vent on yours is the same distance down from the decorative body crease and forward of the trailing fender edge on both sides. I made a template of one side and should have done so on both sides even though the fender, as you could see was pretty rough. What I think I will do assuming Classic sends no template is to mount the fenders (then I can ascertain if the fabricated bracing/cowl mounting piece is "right') and "rough cut the hole with the template. Thanks so much, We are going to get to 60 degrees today, I am a little envious of anyone in Arizona this time of the year. I lived in Las Cruces NM for a few years and I am thinking that this was about the time the desert bloomed Good memories.

[Jeff_H]

So, went out and measured the vent door's on my '53K. Both sides were the same as for fwd/rev location. Agree's 100% with thunderations. The edge of the door opening (not the actual door) is 5-3/4" from the rear edge of the fender.

For the top location from the contour line/crease. I got 5-5/8" for passenger side and 5-3/8" for driver side from center of crease to opening top. The differences could be there is some filler on both sides around said crease due to some dent repairs so maybe things wandered a little.... The driver side fender was and is never rusted but had been on a GT hawk so I had to weld up the trim holes and used some filler afterwards. Passenger side had some old repairs and dings to deal with so some filler there too.



Pictures for these look a bit off due to camera angle...





The duct work on the inside is not too precise and the door actuation hardware has a lot of adjustment available so if things are a hair off I would not worry too much.

[1953champcoupe]

Marv, if you are missing the vent 'door' and the associated parts that connect the vent to the heater blower, I may have them. Let me know (PM or post).

Thanks for your note, everything was there, and actually the vent door. after I used "surgical" precision grinding techniques I was able to get both of them free, one only had a half dozen spots welds, and the other had a head cold of booger welds, that took a little longer to "release" from the housing. One housing has some rust through and maybe, if I was careful I could have saved it but I have chased so much rust I thought I would fix it correctly. I've ordered fiberglass (vent shrouds)replacements to connect the inside/outside vent area(they should have been shipped today) If you had good ones I certainly would have purchased them from you. Thanks again for the note, I hope I can get this one up and running before I croak

[1953champcoupe]

So, went out and measured the vent door's on my '53K. Both sides were the same as for fwd/rev location. Agree's 100% with thunderations. The edge of the door opening (not the actual door) is 5-3/4" from the rear edge of the fender.

For the top location from the contour line/crease. I got 5-5/8" for passenger side and 5-3/8" for driver side from center of crease to opening top. The differences could be there is some filler on both sides around said crease due to some dent repairs so maybe things wandered a little.... The driver side fender was and is never rusted but had been on a GT hawk so I had to weld up the trim holes and used some filler afterwards. Passenger side had some old repairs and dings to deal with so some filler there too.

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Pictures for these look a bit off due to camera angle...

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The duct work on the inside is not too precise and the door actuation hardware has a lot of adjustment available so if things are a hair off I would not worry too much.

THANKS for taking the time to measure, I will keep track of this info, that is very helpful. This group is really nice about helping guys like me figure stuff out when we have never done a restoration like this before.!!!!!

[48skyliner]

I suppose everyone does it their own way, but here are photos that show how I did it. The 47-49 Champion fenders are really short, hence the diagonal cutoff. I have a flanging tool, so the joggle was easy. I drilled a lot of holes in the flange and used rosette welds from the back.

[tsenecal]

Here are a few photos of my Hawk, rust repair.

[1953champcoupe]

Tsenecal.....looks like you had my fenders Can I assume you did not further welding after the myriad of rosette welds? Did you use seem sealer on the back? I have done different styles of patches on the body and fenders, I did as many as I could as butt welds but.........well.....I had to resort to variations as my fab skills didn't get everything matched properly. Your fenders look good, I hope mine will look as nice, THANKS for the pics!!