tough summer with my lark

[studebakerjoe]

getting pretty discouraged this year about driving my car, honestly, i feel like pulling it off the road. had a long rainy season here, and i dont drive it in the rain, due to decals i put on i dont want ruined and its been too hot now to drive it. my lark runs hot when its humid out. never figured out why. up goes the temp guage. so ive been driving my chrysler convertible which isnt as much fun as driving the lark. two days ago a wasp crawled up my front when i was driving the lark and i panicked, i thought i was going to get stung, and i hit the curb really hard. did a job on my nice wide whitewall tire. im pretty discouraged at the moment . tomorrow my husband is going to look underneath to make sure everything is alright. cruise ins have been rained out so we havent gone to many this summer. am thinking of just putting the car up for the season, its not going well for this lark this year. i hate the car just sitting in the garage the majority of this summer .

[JimC]

Hang in there. Remember, stuff happens. It's part of life. Yesterday I was heading out with my wife and son to a cruise-in about 20 minutes away via interstate. My new carb has had a couple little glitches, and it was a long drive, so I entertained the idea of skipping. But I rarely get Thursday nights off, so I decided to go for it. Of course, not 1/4 mile away from home, my car died. I got it going again, but it once again died a few more paces down the road. At this point I was about to give up, call it a night, and order out for pizza instead of going to the cruise-in. A gentleman saw me working under the hood, and we had a chat about the car while I was tinkering. It was actually encouraging that this guy stopped, as he kept saying how cool my car is. It turned out that my choke linkage was acting up, and when I was hitting the gas, the choke was springing shut. I rigged the choke to stay open, and we made it to the show. After dinner (we ate at the cruise in location), we were getting ready to leave, and a guy came up to me. Turned out, he had a '64 Commander he inherited from his grandpa. We talked about the cars, and I invited him to one of our Saturday morning Studebaker breakfasts, as he lives literally right across the street from where we meet.

I guess the moral of that story is that had I given up on driving my car last night, I'd have missed out on at least two good interactions with people about the car. Sure, it was a little discouraging to have these problems, but we're driving 50+ year old cars here. Problems are a part of life.

Get the underside checked out. See if there's anyone locally who can help troubleshoot your temp problem. Solve the problems you can, and then, as another forum member says, drive with impunity.

[rknight89]

It finally stopped raining in the mid-west. Been to a few cruises. Hotter that @#*$% for a couple weeks. Looking forward to my Lark being done soon. Don't hang it up just yet for the summer. Take the car for an evening drive after the heat of the day has subsided. You don't have to go to shows and cruises to enjoy your Lark...JUST ENJOY YOUR LARK!!! I don't think I'll ever be hired as a motivational speaker....

[jclary]

I can understand your reaction to the wasp. One of the funniest family tales around here is about me and a wasp. I was out in the back yard washing one of my cars. Somehow, a wasp found its way up my pants. The little devil climbed my leg using his blasted stinger like those utility workers use spikes to climb poles! My wife, and (at the time) teenage daughter, were in the house watching television. By the time I blasted through the door...I was in my BVD's still dancing with moves neither had ever imagined I was capable.

After a couple of awkward seconds, we all erupted in hysterical laughter. Both, my wife and daughter claimed that they laughed 'till it hurt...so did I...'cept it stung as well.

I know you folks don't have as long a fall season as we do here in the south. However, relax and roll with the punches. I have found that the memories are easier to construct, when they are experienced without stress. A couple of cruise-ins, in good conditions, is better than a dozen filled with uncomfortable heat, embarrassing breakdowns, and unfulfilled expectations. The year's not over.

[studebakerjoe]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. Joe is going to look underneath it tonite. And test drive it. Am unhappy about my tire the way it looks not perfect like the others. If he can't clean it to look good again I guess I will replace the tire use it as a spare. Next weekend there are two cruise ins will shoot to go to them.the weather cooled down a lot today. If the underneath is OK I will take it out for a Sunday drive.I like cruise ins to spend time with Joe as he works tons at work. Its fun though taking the car out and getting pictures taken of it'and old timers coming up and talking about when they had them back in the day. My car may not be a guy color but a lot of guys love it. I do enjoy my car not because of the attention but because my husband did it out of love for me and I made it an expression of what I like. Am anxious for Joe to figure out the linkage in his car,last thing to be done before he works on my camper.bought 50s and 60s things, cool things to glamourize the camper.

[Pat Dilling]

Hope he finds that nothing is wrong underneath. To clean the white wall try using 500 grit wet sand paper. That is a recommended method from the folks at Diamond Back Tires. Good luck with it. I have had my share mechanical challenges while on the road, it is part of driving an old car around. Don't let them get you down!