My Half A$$ Studebaker Rebuild

[Flashback]

ALL I can say is WOW !

[Topper2011]

Turtling along as usual.





As usual, I have to modify this support to reach both the mounting hole and the back panel.



A little modifying and it's fits a lot better.



Tacked in my support bracket and it really stiffens the center up. Too hot for any more work, time to have some cold watermelon.

[junior]

Your turtle pace is at least 10 times faster than my snail pace. You have made a lot of progress on this project...keep going! Cheers to your retirement as well. Junior

[Daan]

Your car is gonna be 400% better when you’re done here!

[Topper2011]

I had an epiphany to hiding my ugly welds and seal the floor. Get some brushable seam sealer to act as a smoothing agent for the welded edges



Craigslist score! $15 for both. The seam sealer was opened and some used, but seems still usable. The undercoating is unopened, but requires their gun to apply.



Well, my bright idea is a fail. Instead of a brush, I should have used a putty knife. If you want to know how ugly everything you've done looks, paint it. My only hope is to get a trunk mat to hide this mess.



Underside undercoated and hopefully installing the fuel tank soon.

[RadioRoy]

Congratulations on retiring Roland. Last April marked the 15 year anniversary of my retirement. Much better!

[Topper2011]

Congratulations on retiring Roland. Last April marked the 15 year anniversary of my retirement. Much better!

Thanks Roy, it's wonderful!

[Daan]

Your trunk coating pics answered a question I had about my trunk floor. It was pretty rusty when I got it from water sitting in it for 20 years-it’s treated and coated now but it’s still all pitted and textured from the rust. I was wondering if I could use undercoating (or maybe bedliner) on it.

[Topper2011]

Your trunk coating pics answered a question I had about my trunk floor. It was pretty rusty when I got it from water sitting in it for 20 years-it’s treated and coated now but it’s still all pitted and textured from the rust. I was wondering if I could use undercoating (or maybe bedliner) on it.

Hi Daan. I too have some pitted spots that I tried to fill with the POR15. It's still noticeable to me though. I thought about filling them in with Bondo after coating them, but my lack of patience forced me to move on. Have a look at Cus thread on his car for an excellent job on his car. He used something like bedliner coating, but did not seem available here. Looks really nice.

https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/forum/your-studebaker-forum/members-studebaker-pictures/112300-61-hawk-resto/page2

I'm interested in how you fix yours.

[Cruzzar]

Topper, I sent you a PM, Cruzzar.

[Topper2011]

Topper, I sent you a PM, Cruzzar.

Thanks, will PM.

[bensherb]

When I got my car, my hood had some fiberglass crap glued to it that wouldn't stay up. I replaced it with Herculiner bed liner on the underside. It worked and looks great, to me at least; it did take a while to dry completely though. I would use it in the trunk too but my trunk is nicely painted and carpeted to match the car.

[Topper2011]

Fitting up the new Stephen Allen fuel tank. The left side has two frame mounted brackets that bolt to the flange holes of the tank. The right side has one bracket that comes down from the trunk floor. There is a reinforcement plate that strengthens the floor that I would have to fab up. Also, the original bracket does not reach the flange hole on the right side.





I may modify the left over Vstrom bracket that came with the original Hepco Becker brackets for the turn signals to fit.

[Topper2011]

I have a major set back that goes to show my ploughing ahead is coming back to bite me. I'll get back to that later.



I need to assemble the original parts in order to get some reference on where to move on. That would involve placing the trunk lid back, but I wanted to address the loose fitting pins on the trunk hinges.




These three pins are the worse and I'm going to use a repair posted on this forum to fix it.




You drill the hogged out holes to the next size up. In my case, 1/4" to 5/16" and the 5/16" to 3/8".



It works great, nice and secure with very little wobble. I did have to grind these clevis pins down quite a bit so the springs sweep past the pins.

[Topper2011]