First drive in my 55

[warrlaw1]

Put the license plates on and drove to the gas station. Turned right and lost the left front hub cap. My co-pilot jumped out and retrieved it. Pull up to the pumps and some guy yelled "Nice Car!". Drove to the coffee drive through and it was starting to show warm at the temp gauge. Headed for home with coffees in hand and it flooded out when I put her to the metal. My co-pilot pushed, then we both pushed and found a route home that was mostly downhill. Coasted about ten blocks into my parking lot. Co-pilot jumped out and the car started. The guy's a jinx! The garage next door finally found a 6v timing light. It runs fine now and seems to stay cool. The advance is working now. Tried to install the pertronics and no signal, but it runs fine with points and standard coil. The test comes Sunday when I take mother to the Chinese buffet. She's 89 and paranoid. This should drive her crazy

[BobGlasscock]

Wow! All you did was put license plates on and it ran? That's awesome! Even with the problems you had on the drive, most of us have to do a lot more work on our cars than just put on license plates....................

[warrlaw1]

Thanks, Bob. It's been a three year mission and the grief is mostly behind me. Everything, literally, has been replaced and now it needs to be driven. The shakedown cruises are a bit nerve bruising, but it's getting better! I have some tasteful graphics to go on it, too, but not if it's going to be on a hook or at the side of the road. I have the SDC license plate surround on the rear plate. That's enough for now!

[ceecab]

Congrats!!
And I feel your pain
My '55 went to its first cruise in quite awhile last week, and much to my amazement, never missed a beat coming or going

That may not sound like much, but this is the car that has a much storied history of going 5 miles- or 5 feet depending on its mood that day
And it HATES brand new parts so much it often refuses to leave the garage lol

Keep tuning--it'll get there

[55s]

Well Done and have fun!

[Jack]

Got the plates for my 55 yesterday. Drove it around the block, no problem. Needs some fine tuning yet. Yahoo!

[Milaca]

Warrlaw, the car will run much better on the road if you sing Gordon Lightfoot's "Carefree Highway". If you don't know all of the words to the song, I suggest that you learn them.

[BobGlasscock]

I do believe that special license plate frames are an anti-jinx. I have "My other car is a Studebaker" frames on both my other cars and they run fine. haha.

Maybe I need to find frames that say "This is my other car" for the Studebaker, huh?

[studeclunker]

Actually, dear old Mum might be delighted to see a car from her youth, her golden days as it were. Especially if said car has been completely re-done as you suggest. As long as the interior is nice and the car sounds good, the old bird just might have the time of her life. I hope you both have a wonderful time.

Post us a picture! Beautiful cars are always a delight to behold. Even some that aren't so beautiful... LOL, like mine!

[warrlaw1]

Well, Mom was able to see it Saturday. I took the two lane for the 25 mile drive and the car performed well at 55 / 60. Mom watched the car from her balcony and remembered my other 55 from 30 years ago. Coming home on the four lane the tranny started to slip about five miles from home. Stopped at the hardware store four a few bottles of tranny fluid. First trip and I guess the torque converter wasn't quite full yet. Hope I didn't smoke anything. Will refill and adjust the bands and if all else fails, trailer the car to the tranny shop that did the rebuild. It rained, Sunday, anyway so we did the buffet in the Acura. Would rather have driven the Stude!

[warrlaw1]

Bump! Pic below under 55K

[studeclunker]

Bump! Pic below under 55K

Um... pic below what? No picture.

[warrlaw1]

Next thread titled "55K". Some things I learned: when first getting the car to temperature, when the thermostat first opens, the radiator may no longer be full. Once the anti-freeze fills the engine I needed to add more. If I open the heater valve and the heater core fills, I may need to add more. That cooled it down quickly. I think that was also the problem with the transmission fluid level. Driving 25 miles was enough to make sure the torque converter filled, but that left the tranny too low. Here's hoping a couple more quarts, once up to temperature, smooths it out. I also came to a conclusion about hubcaps going flying. Full wheel disks with the gold centre... flew off both time from the left front so I swapped out that wheel with the spare and it now seems fine. Wheel flex? I only had the gold paint redone on five caps, but I have 14. Seems the ones I had painted were the prettiest, but not the smartest