Filling Holes

[Dick Steinkamp]

The Ute doesn't have any rust, but sometime after Lee sold the car, a subsequent owner installed a Brand X engine and transmission in the usual manner done in the 50's and early 60's...that is rather crude. The floor was hacked to install a floor shifter and a mickey mouse hydraulic clutch set up. These holes had to be patched. We chose to clean up the existing holes and the metal around them and surface weld patches. They won't show when the carpet is installed, and we'll use seam sealer underneath to prevent water from getting to the sandwich and to make them nearly invisible to someone under the car.

Here's the patch for the hydraulic clutch access hole...



Here's the one for the floor shifter. You can also see a patch fabricated for the original access hole for the auto trans dip stick. The big new hole is access to install the Jeep floor shifter to the Stude OD trans. Also visible is the fabricated block off plate for the underseat heater (real hot rods don't have heaters [8D]...



Here's a patch for another random hole cut on the driver's side. No idea why it was cut...



The firewall, on the other hand, did not have any non stock holes punched in it. We ended up filling a lot of un needed stock holes in both the fire wall and the inner fenders...



You can see the number filled on the driver's side in this shot from the cabin...





Dick Steinkamp
Bellingham, WA

[41 Frank]

First class job of forming the patches Dick,how did you do it?

[Dick Steinkamp]

quote:Originally posted by 41 Frank

First class job of forming the patches Dick,how did you do it?

I didn't. My young friend Jon Falcon is doing the body and paint on the Ute. He's a Wyotech grad and 4+ years in a restoration shop. He got smart and is currently a full time student in an Industrial Design program. I've got him for the summer (the car needs to be in final paint by the time school starts in late September [:0]).



Jon has a rare combination of artistic and technical skills. He can make anything out of metal and just loves to do it. It just baffles me to watch him take a dent out or to feel and see imperfections in the body that I never would. Magic. [^]

Dick Steinkamp
Bellingham, WA

[Warren Webb]

Nice work Jon. I especially like the contour in the panel for the old shifter on the driveshaft tunnel. Cant wait for the show so I can witness the fine work you guys are doing.

60 Lark convertible
61 Champ
62 Daytona convertible
63 G.T. R-2,4 speed
63 Avanti (2)
66 Daytona Sport Sedan

[studegary]

It is nice to see such fine work, especially where it will never show. However, please make and keep a schedule that will get you to a timely conclusion (build in some buffer/oops time). You don't want to be rushing on the finish work when this type of work could have been rushed with no ill effects.
The guy sitting there reminds me of a guy that worked, for a short time, in the shop where I worked part time. It seems that he was always taking a break. When questioned, he would say that he was waiting for the putty/filler to dry. Not like there was nothing else that he could have been doing.

Gary L.
Wappinger, NY

SDC member since 1968
Studebaker enthusiast much longer