49 2R5 freebie....Turbo time

[Pop's Chariot]

Update W/ Pic,s

This weekend was fun I went to the Sequoia chapter Swap meet @ Studebakers West and found the elusive rear bumper for my truck It even matches the rest of the truck. Exciting stuff right there. On Sun. I was able to get more of the exhaust done in stainless, I figured I would continue the stainless theme all the way out the back. Also I made a simple aluminum bracket to connect the new downpipe to the original exhaust to starter brace. It came very close to the original location of the stock exhaust just a bigger pipe in its place. I hope to get the exhaust finished up this week.

[Pop's Chariot]

Exhaust is done.....

Well I met my goal for the week I finished up fabricating the stainless exhaust it will out live the truck. What I like most is how subtle it looks from behind with just a hint of what's going on under the hood.

[52-fan]

Your truck is coming together nicely. Well thought out and done with real craftsmanship.

[mbstude]

Nice work and very cool truck.. Keep the updates coming!

[Pop's Chariot]

Progress feels good

In the last two weeks I have been getting a little done each day after work. I finished up the fuel delivery system I have a holley blue pump rubber mounted next to the outlet of the tank that feeds into a nice Fram canister fuel filter (Sorry no picture) I was able to put two nice bends in the factory fuel line to take 12" out of it in a zig-zag fashion and plug straight into the filter with no rubber hose so that was nice to use the factory hard line. At the other end the hard line plugs straight into a 0-4 Adj. pressure regulator which will feed straight up to the Mikuni carb (Very important to keep the pressure low on this type of carb). Also I found a Beautiful stainless German made 0-3psi industrial pressure gauge so I made a bracket from aluminum channel and painted it green. I like how its coming out Its really fun for me to do a build like this.

I have been also been making progress on the gauge cluster I redesigned it to fit more gauges as to prevent adding any holes to the dash its a little crowded but I think its looking ok.

The empty hole is for Manifold Pressure (Don't have it yet) and from Left to Right of the Ign. switch the 3 holes are for Choke, Overdrive, and Lights respectively

[Pop's Chariot]

Champion 6 Full Flow Filter & Turbo Drain

Well I finished up the Oil filter hoses and mounting bracket, all lines are Stainless braided Teflon so they wont be affected by turbo heat. I added a Stewart Warner Oil temp. gauge to see where my oil temps. land. If need be it will be easy to add an oil cooler later. Also in the first picture you can see my oil feed line for the turbo and my Pyrometer probe I mounted this week. Things are coming along.

[Pop's Chariot]

Just got off the phone with Fairborn Studebaker and had the great news that he has the patterns for the finned aluminum head. An order is placed at the foundry for a run of heads, but since everything in the Studebaker world is a small order. It may be awhile before they are ready. Im just glad they will be available again.

[Pop's Chariot]

Gauge madness

Well I finally am OK with the gauge arrangement. Its a mix of old, new, and NOS mostly Vintage Stewart Warner made in USA. The air fuel ratio gauge is digital but I did Rebezel it with a classic stewart warner bezel and glass to make it "fit in" with the other gauges a little better. Most of the gauges were Debezeled and the needles painted full white as to match each other. Also I filled in the cigar lighter hole with an old red ruby glass warning light which will be a Boost warning light maybe to come on at 15 or 18 PSI. It looks a lot better than the hole that was there. ....Hope you guys like it ...Fun Stuff

[Aussie Hawk]

Lookin' good James

[dean pearson]

WOW! You have more brains, talent, and $ than I have. Keep up the good work & keep us posted!

I'll second that nice job! And very interesting.

Dean.

[dean pearson]

You should get that all figured out, kit it up and sell the set up as a unit.
Providing it doesn't pop your motor that is.
It's really impressive.

Dean.

[SN-60]

Love your truck....especially the turbo install. A fellow here in Mass has a similar setup on a Chrysler 'slant six' which he powers his '50 Studebaker 'R' truck with!

[Jett289]

Wow this is a great project .. Cant wait to hear what you have to say about its driveability of this set up ..
What transmission are you going to use ??

[Andy R.]

Beautiful design and fabrication!
I was just through your neck of the woods yesterday. I hope to see/hear it someday.
The sound of that turbo wisp from under that patina will surely cause some double takes.8D
Keep us posted on your progress - it's an inspiration.

Great color choice. Only color I like better than Oliver green is Allis-Chalmers orange in my eyes. Learned to drive on both of 'em!

[ScottyB]

Great job!! I really enjoy all the pictures, it is coming along nicely!! I am excited to see further progress. I will have a project like this shorty....

Keep up the awesome work!!

Scotty B