It's been awhile, but I believe this part of the story on the C/L car warrants putting some detail and finality on the story. The vehicle in question is a 1963 Studebaker Daytona Hardtop. It started about this time last year. I had taken notice that my daily driven 1964 Studebaker Commander R2 was starting to show its age. The car had been driven by me since 1999, when I got it as a junior in high school. It had taken me through high school, community college, university, and graduate school. In that time, the car had been driven through literally everything; sun, rain, snow, salt, you name it. The vehicle was my primary transportation. If it broke, which like any regular antique vehicle, would do on occasion, I used one of family's backup vehicles, which we had in the event one of the main vehicles broke. I'm the only one who would regularly drive a car this old, and as such, it was subject to old car problems, particularly Midwestern rust. Anyway, last February I began looking for another body to transplant the drivetrain into. A few months prior, my bumper mounts on the frame had rusted completely through, which upon discovering the problem at the gas station, warranted in what should be a five mile drive back to the house at 60 mph, became a five mile limp back to the house at 30 mph, so as not to make it any worse. But more on that later.....
The owner who had the vehicle was mainly a Brand X parts vendor. We knew him well, and we would see him at the shows. He transported cars around the region, and he sold transmission and transmission yokes at the shows up here around Chicago. Well, last year I was at one of the regular shows up here at Kane County Fairgrounds, and I had mentioned the ailments on the car, and he said he had a Lark that he'd like to sell. Originally, he wanted to make a gasser out of it, but over the year we would ask him about the car, and it finally culminated into that he needed to sell it, because he needed the space. There was some more back and forth over the next few months, until last month he said he'd bring it up here to St. Charles, IL because it was stored in Freeport, IL. Great, I'd be able to see it in February. Well about a week before, the C/L ad showed up. That wasn't a problem, because all we had to do was contact the owner for photos of the car. We got the photos, looked them over real good. I then made the judgement call to get the vehicle, and we set up a time where he could drop it off at the house. Well, a couple evenings ago, he pulled into the driveway, my Dad and I went out there and looked it all over with our flashlights, paid him, received the title, and he unloaded it.
The way he had acquired the car was rather admirable. The story with the Daytona is that it was in the care of someone else before he got it. The man was having the car restored, so the body was at one shop, and the engine w/trans was at another place. Well, the original owner had died, just like that, no warning, nothing. So the widow, not knowing where all of the pieces of the car had went, had the car go to the scrapper. Now I don't blame her for that, I mean if my significant other just died, leaving me with this "thing" in my lap, without giving any knowledge of where the vehicle went, or how many pieces it was in, and I didn't know anything about it, I'd do the same thing, that's just the way the world works. Anyway, when the car at the scrapper arrived, our buddy had seen this car come into the yard. He knew what it was, so he flagged the scrapman down and said that he'd purchase the vehicle, and the title. The scrapper agreed, so he purchased it, and had it for a couple years before I got it.
About the car itself: The vehicle, although appearing solid, does need some work, which I knew would be a necessity when I got it. It is missing some trim pieces and other bits aside from the engine and transmission. It was also a Midwest car after all. It appears to have a solid frame, which is what I was looking for, and does have SOME solid floors and trunk. It will need some rocker panels, floorpans replaced, trunk floorpans replaced, a fascia, a driver's front fender, and maybe another trunk lid. It is Rosemist with Rose colored split bench seats. After all of that, the car will need to be repainted. I'd like to mix up some new Rose Mist, and see about locating some other Rose colored seats and interior panels, but that's going to be awhile yet. The body needs to be tended to first. The car may have had a 259 w/Flightomatic column shift, and it has a Dana 23. The car was sold through Audrain dealership in Mexico, MO and had spent a great deal of time in Missouri. It has also had a tire replaced at some point, as I have the tire receipt sticker for a Foremost bias ply from March 1970, through a JC Penny outlet. The car also appears to have 83,000 miles on the clock, although that might also be 183,000 miles, so like my own Commander, I may never know the story on that. The car will be stripped down, the metal will be repaired, and all of the R2 parts, interior, wiring and anything else that's good from the Commander will be transferred over, as I have been without a driver for at least six months or more.
Here's some more indepth photos of the car itself. Those of you that know my '64 Commander, it's sitting behind the Daytona.
This was the tire receipt for the Foremost bias ply, which was affixed under the trunklid.
Now why all the hubbub for this car? It's because of the state of the Commander. Remember, before I had found this car, the Commander's bumper mounts came apart. Well, I can't afford another car, so out came the MIG welder, and I patched the frame back together. I did both sides, and that lasted about a year. I had to keep the car together, because it was my only transportation, until my employment situation was resolved, and I could get a much more modern vehicle. That didn't last, because last August I had to pull apart my passenger brake drum because of an incessant clinking noise. The pivot block that positions the drums had split in half, and part of it was lying at the bottom of the drum. The drum was good, but it was replaced with another one from our spare parts brake pile. While I had the drum off, I also replaced the shoes, because the shoes on that side were not replaced yet. I did the driver's side a couple years back, but never did the passenger side, so I finished the job. When I had completed it, and I cleaned the drum off and painted it, I decided to inspect my work on the frame. Everything was still holding together, until I felt around the bushing that goes the inner frame rail. There was no frame there! It had rusted that area out! At that point, I buttoned the car back up, and said the car is unusable now. After 10 years of daily driving, the Chicago salt had killed the car. It ran just fine, but the body and frame were in bad shape now. A critical structural component that affixed the suspension to the chassis wass now comprised, and any further driving may result in the suspension coming apart, putting me or other motorists at risk. So it was parked, until another car could be located, which currently is now the Daytona. Here's a few pictures of the Commander's rearmost shackle bushing. To this end, I say, there's rust (eww surface rust) and then there's structural compromising Midwest RUST, which can also be defined as "scary rust".
Here's the driver side bumper mount:
Here's the passenger side bumper mount:
Finally, here's the culprit that sidelined the car, the rear passenger shackle bushing, and whatever's left of the inner framerail. If you look at the left side of the picture, you can see that there's no more metal around the bushing, so the only thing now holding the rear part of the leaf spring in place, and preventing the axle and suspension from parting from the body, is the outer framerail. I can repair alot of things with a welder, but since I don't trust the tensile strength of my own welds on a critical mechanism like this, or repair ships hulls, I'm not going to mess with it.
And that, is the rest of the story.......
The owner who had the vehicle was mainly a Brand X parts vendor. We knew him well, and we would see him at the shows. He transported cars around the region, and he sold transmission and transmission yokes at the shows up here around Chicago. Well, last year I was at one of the regular shows up here at Kane County Fairgrounds, and I had mentioned the ailments on the car, and he said he had a Lark that he'd like to sell. Originally, he wanted to make a gasser out of it, but over the year we would ask him about the car, and it finally culminated into that he needed to sell it, because he needed the space. There was some more back and forth over the next few months, until last month he said he'd bring it up here to St. Charles, IL because it was stored in Freeport, IL. Great, I'd be able to see it in February. Well about a week before, the C/L ad showed up. That wasn't a problem, because all we had to do was contact the owner for photos of the car. We got the photos, looked them over real good. I then made the judgement call to get the vehicle, and we set up a time where he could drop it off at the house. Well, a couple evenings ago, he pulled into the driveway, my Dad and I went out there and looked it all over with our flashlights, paid him, received the title, and he unloaded it.
The way he had acquired the car was rather admirable. The story with the Daytona is that it was in the care of someone else before he got it. The man was having the car restored, so the body was at one shop, and the engine w/trans was at another place. Well, the original owner had died, just like that, no warning, nothing. So the widow, not knowing where all of the pieces of the car had went, had the car go to the scrapper. Now I don't blame her for that, I mean if my significant other just died, leaving me with this "thing" in my lap, without giving any knowledge of where the vehicle went, or how many pieces it was in, and I didn't know anything about it, I'd do the same thing, that's just the way the world works. Anyway, when the car at the scrapper arrived, our buddy had seen this car come into the yard. He knew what it was, so he flagged the scrapman down and said that he'd purchase the vehicle, and the title. The scrapper agreed, so he purchased it, and had it for a couple years before I got it.
About the car itself: The vehicle, although appearing solid, does need some work, which I knew would be a necessity when I got it. It is missing some trim pieces and other bits aside from the engine and transmission. It was also a Midwest car after all. It appears to have a solid frame, which is what I was looking for, and does have SOME solid floors and trunk. It will need some rocker panels, floorpans replaced, trunk floorpans replaced, a fascia, a driver's front fender, and maybe another trunk lid. It is Rosemist with Rose colored split bench seats. After all of that, the car will need to be repainted. I'd like to mix up some new Rose Mist, and see about locating some other Rose colored seats and interior panels, but that's going to be awhile yet. The body needs to be tended to first. The car may have had a 259 w/Flightomatic column shift, and it has a Dana 23. The car was sold through Audrain dealership in Mexico, MO and had spent a great deal of time in Missouri. It has also had a tire replaced at some point, as I have the tire receipt sticker for a Foremost bias ply from March 1970, through a JC Penny outlet. The car also appears to have 83,000 miles on the clock, although that might also be 183,000 miles, so like my own Commander, I may never know the story on that. The car will be stripped down, the metal will be repaired, and all of the R2 parts, interior, wiring and anything else that's good from the Commander will be transferred over, as I have been without a driver for at least six months or more.
Here's some more indepth photos of the car itself. Those of you that know my '64 Commander, it's sitting behind the Daytona.
This was the tire receipt for the Foremost bias ply, which was affixed under the trunklid.
Now why all the hubbub for this car? It's because of the state of the Commander. Remember, before I had found this car, the Commander's bumper mounts came apart. Well, I can't afford another car, so out came the MIG welder, and I patched the frame back together. I did both sides, and that lasted about a year. I had to keep the car together, because it was my only transportation, until my employment situation was resolved, and I could get a much more modern vehicle. That didn't last, because last August I had to pull apart my passenger brake drum because of an incessant clinking noise. The pivot block that positions the drums had split in half, and part of it was lying at the bottom of the drum. The drum was good, but it was replaced with another one from our spare parts brake pile. While I had the drum off, I also replaced the shoes, because the shoes on that side were not replaced yet. I did the driver's side a couple years back, but never did the passenger side, so I finished the job. When I had completed it, and I cleaned the drum off and painted it, I decided to inspect my work on the frame. Everything was still holding together, until I felt around the bushing that goes the inner frame rail. There was no frame there! It had rusted that area out! At that point, I buttoned the car back up, and said the car is unusable now. After 10 years of daily driving, the Chicago salt had killed the car. It ran just fine, but the body and frame were in bad shape now. A critical structural component that affixed the suspension to the chassis wass now comprised, and any further driving may result in the suspension coming apart, putting me or other motorists at risk. So it was parked, until another car could be located, which currently is now the Daytona. Here's a few pictures of the Commander's rearmost shackle bushing. To this end, I say, there's rust (eww surface rust) and then there's structural compromising Midwest RUST, which can also be defined as "scary rust".
Here's the driver side bumper mount:
Here's the passenger side bumper mount:
Finally, here's the culprit that sidelined the car, the rear passenger shackle bushing, and whatever's left of the inner framerail. If you look at the left side of the picture, you can see that there's no more metal around the bushing, so the only thing now holding the rear part of the leaf spring in place, and preventing the axle and suspension from parting from the body, is the outer framerail. I can repair alot of things with a welder, but since I don't trust the tensile strength of my own welds on a critical mechanism like this, or repair ships hulls, I'm not going to mess with it.
And that, is the rest of the story.......
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