I've decided to start a thread to try and keep me on track for the next few months as I build my 1957 Silver Hawk's engine to its fullest potential. I've been an SDC member for a little while now but I mostly just read the forums looking for helpful hints. I've been a mechanic my whole life, professionally for 15 years, and a pretty decent fabricator.
First, I feel a little back story is in order. In 1980 my dad rescued a reasonably solid 57 Hawk from a local salvage yard and began the job of getting it back on the road. Money was tight and the bare minimum was done to get the car running and driving. The 259 was pulled, pistons beat out with hammer and chisel, block bored .040 (a cylinder sleeved). He sourced a 289 crank and rods,cleaned up the heads and put it all back together. At the time it was hard to find a decent Studebaker 3 speed so he did the only logical thing, take some measurement sand find something else that would work. That just happened to be a Chrysler A833 4 speed out of a big block car. He had a machine shop whip up a 3/4"adapter plate and Viola, drivetrain done. It didn't take long for dad to decide this car needed a supercharger so he searched around and bought what he thought at the time was a set up for a Golden Hawk. Turns out it was a VS57 kit for a yet undetermined engine. Maybe someone out there can help me ID those parts someday. I have since sourced everything I need except for a Golden Hawk crank pulley and spacer.
Now there were a few big holes inthe floor, nothing a couple old stop signs and some scrap duct work from thejob site can't fix. Now Dads no body man and considering the car had been onits roof at one time or another, it actually came out pretty good. I guess with enough determination, a torch, and wet rag you can fix even the most out of shape roof shells. He needed a parts car to get few missing pieces and found arough '59 that just so happened to have this amazing 90+ louvered hood on it .One of my favorite parts of the car, other than every time you wash it you have to polish the engine again.
After trading some drywall work for a paint job the car was as good as it was going to get for the next 25 orso years. So from 1982 until somewhere around 2005 the car was only brought outa few times year to go to a couple car shows or to take for a short drive and that was fine. In 2007 my dad decided he might need to sell the Studebaker to make room for a couple other projects. Well I have as much love for this car ashe did and there was no way it was going anywhere so I asked the wife how much she would let me spend on the family treasure. Instead of selling me the car dad told me to just take it home and put it in my garage, as long as I was willing to finish all the little things that had been pushed to the back burner and finally getting that blower bolted on. The car I had spent my entire childhood helping put together and sitting in the basement jamming gears and making Varoom sounds was coming home with me. Well it's been a few years now and I have done some things, mostly suspension and brakes. Now it's time to get to the important stuff.
I hope this isn't too much of a story but I wanted to get it all out there. My did has built several cars over the years and continues to today, he just brought home an all original '55 New Yorker with a running 331 Hemi last week. Cars/trucks have come and gone but the Stude has always stayed and always will. I'm going to have plenty of questions to ask on what route to take as I try to get this thing ironed out and back together.
First, I feel a little back story is in order. In 1980 my dad rescued a reasonably solid 57 Hawk from a local salvage yard and began the job of getting it back on the road. Money was tight and the bare minimum was done to get the car running and driving. The 259 was pulled, pistons beat out with hammer and chisel, block bored .040 (a cylinder sleeved). He sourced a 289 crank and rods,cleaned up the heads and put it all back together. At the time it was hard to find a decent Studebaker 3 speed so he did the only logical thing, take some measurement sand find something else that would work. That just happened to be a Chrysler A833 4 speed out of a big block car. He had a machine shop whip up a 3/4"adapter plate and Viola, drivetrain done. It didn't take long for dad to decide this car needed a supercharger so he searched around and bought what he thought at the time was a set up for a Golden Hawk. Turns out it was a VS57 kit for a yet undetermined engine. Maybe someone out there can help me ID those parts someday. I have since sourced everything I need except for a Golden Hawk crank pulley and spacer.
Now there were a few big holes inthe floor, nothing a couple old stop signs and some scrap duct work from thejob site can't fix. Now Dads no body man and considering the car had been onits roof at one time or another, it actually came out pretty good. I guess with enough determination, a torch, and wet rag you can fix even the most out of shape roof shells. He needed a parts car to get few missing pieces and found arough '59 that just so happened to have this amazing 90+ louvered hood on it .One of my favorite parts of the car, other than every time you wash it you have to polish the engine again.
After trading some drywall work for a paint job the car was as good as it was going to get for the next 25 orso years. So from 1982 until somewhere around 2005 the car was only brought outa few times year to go to a couple car shows or to take for a short drive and that was fine. In 2007 my dad decided he might need to sell the Studebaker to make room for a couple other projects. Well I have as much love for this car ashe did and there was no way it was going anywhere so I asked the wife how much she would let me spend on the family treasure. Instead of selling me the car dad told me to just take it home and put it in my garage, as long as I was willing to finish all the little things that had been pushed to the back burner and finally getting that blower bolted on. The car I had spent my entire childhood helping put together and sitting in the basement jamming gears and making Varoom sounds was coming home with me. Well it's been a few years now and I have done some things, mostly suspension and brakes. Now it's time to get to the important stuff.
I hope this isn't too much of a story but I wanted to get it all out there. My did has built several cars over the years and continues to today, he just brought home an all original '55 New Yorker with a running 331 Hemi last week. Cars/trucks have come and gone but the Stude has always stayed and always will. I'm going to have plenty of questions to ask on what route to take as I try to get this thing ironed out and back together.
What StudeRich said in Post #7, Adam: A stock V8 setup with 1957-style supercharger mount and drive, which you appear to have, will not clear the underside of a stock 1957 Silver Hawk hood unless you use the shorter R3 engine mounts...and if you do, be prepared to deal with potential driveline vibration issues until you sort out the location of the center carrier bearing for the two-piece driveshaft, in that you will have changed the driveline geometry ever so slightly. (There might not be a problem after all, but if there is, that's where you'll want to start looking.)
BP
We've got to quit saying, 
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