Thanks for all your help! - Waiting on Delivery of my first Hawk...Tahiti Coral 1959

[pbrown]

Thanks for all your help during my Hawk hunt!

Because of recommendations from various members, I have sent my check off to the current owner of a Tahiti Coral 1959 Silver Hawk and am waiting for Pegs Trucking to pick it up and deliver it to me.

Duane Miller pointed me to Don Brewer, a longtime Studebaker guy that is getting too old to work with his 2 Hawks (he also has a 56 Golden Hawk for sale, BTW). I'm sorry for Don to have to give up on his hobby, but I hope to make him proud to be passing the torch to a new member, and plan to give one of his babies a good home.

Reading the forum and all your responses have pointed me in the right direction, and so now I can't wait!

I'll put up more info and pics in other posts.

Thanks again!

Phillip

[BobPalma]

Congrats, Phil. I bet you'll like the car, but this is from a devoted Tahiti Coral fan!

Duane Miller will have described the car honestly to you; there should be few if any surprises. BP

[warrlaw1]

Attaboy! Hope it turns out better than you imagined. Mine took over four years but the end result is what I wanted. Cheers.

['66Commander]

That's awesome! Congrats!
(I didn't help with the hunt, but I'm sure happy that its done)

[GThawkwind]

Fantastic! I can't wait to see pics of her.

[pbrown]

Here's a contact sheet that I put together with the pics that led me to buying it. I have high res pics if you would like to see individual ones

[57pack]

Congrats on your new Hawk!
Duane is a excellent gentleman to deal with.
Guess we are just caretakers of our Studebakers and Packards.
Putting them together and keeping them running for the handoff to the next generation.

[Deaf Mute]

Don has a really nice 56 Golden Hawk for sale as well. Gee, I wish I could find a local buyer, so we can add to our chapter membership! Gotta get out to the shop and finish prepping the Avanti for its drive to St. Louis and the Upper Mississippi Valley Zone Meet tomorrow (leave BEFORE breakfast).

[Washtubman]

Looks nice; hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy my 57!

[JoeHall]

Congrats on your purchase !

I've known Don a long time, and have seen his 56J. He is a straight up guy, and a real pleasure to talk to. Sorry to hear he is getting out of the hobby.

[pbrown]

Here are some notes from Don about the car. I'll be asking about some of these in individual threads. In the meantime, I invite comments from all your learned masses so that I will know more about what to do/not do/expect/not expect when she gets here...

This car has always had lots of personal care, always been good to me and fun to drive - after I installed the 289 engine.

The 10th picture shows what the underside looks like all over the body. Underside metal was sandblasted, where needed - badly rusted metal replaced and all surfaces painted and covered with rust preventive undercoat. Looks the same all over. Black and more black

The car started right up today and ran just fine. It restarted three times with no problem. No indication of any problem so far, but it's been awhile since I had the points checked, so it might be a good idea to have them checked

One time recently the battery to solenoid wiring shorted out. Moved the wires around and the starter worked fine.
Rear brake light does not work. Changing the "switch" doesn't seem to fix the problem

Wiper and heater motors ran, ran the air conditioning, real cool too!
Temperature gauge is not accurate. The car has never gotten too hot.

I have never turned the hot water valve on. It probably works, but I have heard of stories that the control valve could then leak. I've avoided this potential problem by never turning it on. Don't need it anyway. Prefer cool air, and that works great.

[pbrown]

And here are his comments on the brakes:

In our "road salt" region I don't drive it in winter. Also I haven't been able to drive the car much for two or three years, which doesn't help any. The brakes get "squirrely" when the car sits for several months. Carefully drive it around for a while and they should come back to working as they should.
I never use the hand brake. It worked several years ago when I worked on the brakes. I have been reluctant to use it recently: it may well be frozen, and I've been afraid it could stick in the "on" position.

[StudeRich]

Congrats, Phil. I bet you'll like the car, but this is from a devoted Tahiti Coral fan!
Duane Miller will have described the car honestly to you; there should be few if any surprises. BP

How about this for Tahiti Coral? Still not enough Brown.

I think Don did exactly the right thing getting rid of that partial flow 259 and the Model 27 rear axle, the '64 Power Train is the perfect fix for those not-so Hawkish '59's.

[GThawkwind]

Here's a contact sheet that I put together with the pics that led me to buying it. I have high res pics if you would like to see individual ones
[ATTACH=CONFIG]26824[/ATTACH]

Looks really nice. The A/C will be nice as will the upgraded powertrain.

[pbrown]

How about this for Tahiti Coral? Still not enough Brown.

I think Don did exactly the right thing getting rid of that partial flow 259 and the Model 27 rear axle, the '64 Power Train is the perfect fix for those not-so Hawkish '59's.

Actually, even more of exactly the right thing than you think...He said it started out as a 6!