We all love our Studeabakers. Sometimes, however, we put our cars on such a pedestal (figuratively speaking) as models of perfection that we forget that they were built by real people. These real people had bad days, came to work hung over, got tired and sometimes just didn't pay attention. For those and a hundred other reasons, they sometimes made mistakes. I found one of these mistakes (a rare example, I'm sure), that I thought that some Stude enthusiasts might find of interest.
I was replacing the old (I'm pretty sure that they were original equipment) heater hoses in my 1950 Champion. When I pulled them out, I noticed that one of the hoses was crimped and cracked. As anyone familiar with this style of car knows, the heater hoses pass through a slot in a bracket that connects the firewall body panel to the right fender, and they're a pretty tight fit.
When I looked down into the slot, I noticed that there was a rusty old washer standing up against the slot. The washer had pinched and crimped the hose. As far as I could tell, the hose didn't leak, but hey, it could have.
The washer is the same size as the washer on the bolt that connects the firewall and fender panel (visible in picture below). My theory is that the factory worker who put these two panels together dropped the washer and just grabbed another one to put on the bolt. The worker who later installed the hoses didn't notice the washer, setting the stage for a catastrophic hose failure someday in the future.
Does anyone know who was in charge of quality control at Studebaker? They need to know about this problem, just in case they restart the 1950 Champion production line.
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