'56 Power Hawk lost to Florida Flooding Found.....

[Mrs K Corbin]

There's a '56 Power Hawk in Shelbyville TN at a used car lot with a State-Farm Sticker on the windshield that states it was from Florida has Water/Flood damage.
Anybody know anything?

BTW the car is a red or burned orange color with a black top. Looks restored at some point to factory condition. Too bad it was flooded. I stopped and looked, told them to removed the carpet, seats and trunk mat. Gave what other advice I could, but it's a flood car anyway. Not sure how to mitigate that from probably salt water.

[shifter4]

Here in Florida , we do actually have fresh water , and also a whole lot of Brackish water , that varies as to salt content . There are many rivers , so maybe it was not coastal flooding ???
There is often a lot of inland flooding . The St. Johns River e.g. is notorious for much flooding .
Any indication of the previous owners location ? It is a big State .

[swvalcon]

The one good thing about a flood damaged Studebaker is if all the fluids where changed and the upholstery dried out good there's not that much electrical to worry about. Which is your biggest problem on a flood car. You could very easy just replace the whole wiring system and what electric components that couldn't be cleaned .

[mbstude]

I “know” the car. The previous long-time owner is an SDC member in Port St. Joe. The car had water above the floor boards during a hurricane this past October. It was coastal salt water.

It’s a fairly low mileage car with an old repaint and decent original interior. Was a nice driver before it went swimming.

[TWChamp]

I'd buy it with no worries if I was in the market for another car. Over the years I've had to put 3 flood victims back on the road and these were from the 60's and 70's, with two of them completely submerged. One was a Dodge ram that fell through the ice and turned upside down as it sank to the bottom of the lake. Hard to believe some people never learn about thin ice. The main thing is to change all fluids ASAP, repack wheel bearings, grease all the fittings, and dry everything out ASAP, then drive it.

[mbstude]

Whatever may need to be done mechanically, there’s still nasty hurricane salt residue on the inner body structure and inside the frame rails. As nice as that car appears right now, it’s going to start rusting from the inside out.

[Mrs K Corbin]

that's what I'm worried about is the salt residue on the inner body, is there a way to mitigate that?
I'd love to have that car, but the salt residue scares the CR4P out of me. She was beautiful and appeared to be a nice car, and really still is.
There is surface rust already forming on top of the paint on the trunk floor which was still wet as of Tuesday, due to no-one removing anything. Probably still that way, but I advised them to remove everything soft.

[qsanford]

You would probably have to resubmerge in fresh water to flush the salt water out. Lather. Rinse. Repeat!

[jimmijim8]

You would probably have to resubmerge in fresh water to flush the salt water out. Lather. Rinse. Repeat!

Yes that would be a good plan.

[swvalcon]

So rust from the inside out. What your saying it would be on par with a rust belt car. They all rust from the inside out.

[Dick LeRoux]

[black56hawk]

At the Apalachicola Florida Boat show 2013

[PackardV8]

So rust from the inside out. What your saying it would be on par with a rust belt car. They all rust from the inside out.

For true. Since the water was no higher than the floors, one could remove the carpets, door panels and seats, flush several times with hose water, then put on a hoist and rinse underneath in every possible direction. Then, I'd clean and repack front and rear wheel bearings and thoroughly flush the engine, transmission with diesel fuel before refilling with the correct lubricant.

After that, it might be no worse than a driver from the rust belt.

jack vines

[S2Deluxe]

It was a really beautiful example, in the before picture! Can anyone show us an after photo?

Mark

[STEWDI]

Same colour as the Power Hawk in the '56 brochure!

l remember that the ORIGINAL art for that Power Hawk illustration was for sale at Gettysburg in 1980. Price was $110.00 and already framed.

OF COURSE l didn't buy it ("roll-up" radio antennas were about $20.00 at the time and NOS '56 wheel discs maybe $15.00, just to give you some perspective), and yes, l still give myself a butt-kicking once in a while over it. Especially since my son now has my "old" Power Hawk!