I had reason to go to StudeKen's place yesterday. Ken lives in the lower mountain community of Three Rivers, CA. I wanted to deliver the derusted and painted R-series oil pan for that overbored V8 that he's reassembling for me.
Ken's always got something Studebaker going on in his shop and this visit was no exception. There was Costatlc's 55 Commander sedan getting some things addressed in preperation for it's first road test. There was Ken's 62 Lark racer - in a holding pattern. There was my V8 going back together and one other V8 as well.
That other V8 is part of an interesting story. After I left the '30 meet in Sacramento, I got off Hwy 99 in Merced to find a cool drink. The temps were right around 100 that afternoon and so the hot wind swirling thru the Transtar's windows caused me to dehydrate in quick fashion.
A block west of Hwy 99 I found a convenient convenience store to get a beverage. Imagine my surprize as I saw a local dairy delivery truck that just happened to be a STUDE![:0]
After walking around it once, I went inside and met the driver - who turned out to be the owner of the truck as well. Turns out, that 1960 Stude refridgerator truck had been delivering for Producers Dairy products since it was bought new in 1960! Pretty cool (pun intended) for a refridgerator truck, eh?
Anyway, the guy that I spoke with was happy to have me as a "lifeline" to parts and info as such had grown thin thru the years. I've provided a few parts and lots of technical advice since we met. He'd been running his delivery route as an independent contractor to Producers for about 15 years when we met and he was looking to sell his route AND the truck along with it. A couple years after we met, he finally found someone to take it over.
Producers dairy has liked the publicity that the Stude truck has bought them thru the years and they'd recently put a nice, new paint job on it. Very recently, it's aging V8 has had weak oil pressure and was getting tired. The new owner called me about 2 weeks ago to ask whether I might have a replacement engine he could buy or maybe know where one could be found.
While I do have a core engine here of unknown worth (I was told it ran good), I didn't want to sell it to the guy only to have it prove to be no good. So I suggested that he have Ken overhaul his existing V8 instead. Two days later, the engine was delivered to Ken's shop.
Ken's since dismantled it and noted that a couple of the rods are really loose. In typical StudeKen fasion, it'll get completely gone thru and made as good as, if not better, than when it was new.
Anyway, here's a photo of that workhorse Stude engine and a shot of some Studes (ALL DAILY DRIVERS I MIGHT ADD!) around the StudeKen homestead.
Miscreant at large.
1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS
Ken's always got something Studebaker going on in his shop and this visit was no exception. There was Costatlc's 55 Commander sedan getting some things addressed in preperation for it's first road test. There was Ken's 62 Lark racer - in a holding pattern. There was my V8 going back together and one other V8 as well.
That other V8 is part of an interesting story. After I left the '30 meet in Sacramento, I got off Hwy 99 in Merced to find a cool drink. The temps were right around 100 that afternoon and so the hot wind swirling thru the Transtar's windows caused me to dehydrate in quick fashion.
A block west of Hwy 99 I found a convenient convenience store to get a beverage. Imagine my surprize as I saw a local dairy delivery truck that just happened to be a STUDE![:0]
After walking around it once, I went inside and met the driver - who turned out to be the owner of the truck as well. Turns out, that 1960 Stude refridgerator truck had been delivering for Producers Dairy products since it was bought new in 1960! Pretty cool (pun intended) for a refridgerator truck, eh?
Anyway, the guy that I spoke with was happy to have me as a "lifeline" to parts and info as such had grown thin thru the years. I've provided a few parts and lots of technical advice since we met. He'd been running his delivery route as an independent contractor to Producers for about 15 years when we met and he was looking to sell his route AND the truck along with it. A couple years after we met, he finally found someone to take it over.
Producers dairy has liked the publicity that the Stude truck has bought them thru the years and they'd recently put a nice, new paint job on it. Very recently, it's aging V8 has had weak oil pressure and was getting tired. The new owner called me about 2 weeks ago to ask whether I might have a replacement engine he could buy or maybe know where one could be found.
While I do have a core engine here of unknown worth (I was told it ran good), I didn't want to sell it to the guy only to have it prove to be no good. So I suggested that he have Ken overhaul his existing V8 instead. Two days later, the engine was delivered to Ken's shop.
Ken's since dismantled it and noted that a couple of the rods are really loose. In typical StudeKen fasion, it'll get completely gone thru and made as good as, if not better, than when it was new.
Anyway, here's a photo of that workhorse Stude engine and a shot of some Studes (ALL DAILY DRIVERS I MIGHT ADD!) around the StudeKen homestead.
Miscreant at large.
1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS
Comment