My Half A$$ Studebaker Rebuild

[Topper2011]

The nut is only captive by a couple of tangs on the sides. I was able to bend them back enough to get the nut out.





Voila! It's saved. Yes, I'm too lazy to drive all the way to the hardware store to get another square nut. Seeing as how I'm doing these little repairs, I have to fix the broken parking brake cable stay.



This clamp fixes the cable to the floor board and the nut was frozen with typical results of rusty parts. I tried to bend a new one with the bolt, but it just broke instead, I don't have a torch to heat hot enough to bend another one, but I do have a welder.



Time to call it a day.

[Topper2011]

Guess the car was a mouse house. This was taken about a month ago.



Time to get after this rotted section.





This opening gave me access to one of the broken bolts for securing the lower part of the fender.



I tried drilling this out upside down, but that didn't work so well.

[Topper2011]

More trimming, more welding and more fitting. It was pretty close and time to POR-15 the rusty bits hidden once things were welded together.





I am planning on putting in retracting three point set belts so I added a reinforced mounting hole.





This is a reinforcement bracket at the end of the door opening. Hope I "dead reckoned" it well enough.

[Topper2011]

It drizzled in the morning and didn't clear until around 1pm. I did make it out to the car as I wanted to POR-15 the rust spots and coat the inner rocker.



I used Eastwood's Frame spray with the long tube. It sure beats cutting this open to treat the rust or taping a bunch of aerosol straws together to get in here. Really messy process though. I should have taken more pictures, but it was getting late.

[Topper2011]

Hi Mike! You made it over here.

Well, guess what? More floor work. Doing a little grinding, cutting and massaging of the floor.



Looks like it meets up with the trough.







It looks weldable now.

[ChampCouple]

Time to drag everything out into the light.

I emptied the slurry from the tank getting it ready to send out to have cleaned and coated.

Between all that junk in the trunk and the cut out trailer support, I've lightened this car by over 150lbs. Now that the tank is out. I'll be looking into replacing the trunk floor. I'm done for today, time to catch up on my Tour De France watching. Work tomorrow.

Wow! I can't believe the hitch bar was solid, no wonder took so long to cut out. And the fuel sending unit, double wow.

Mike

[Topper2011]

Where the heck is my rust penetrant?




oops

[Topper2011]

Yesterday it rained and my plants were happy. Today started cloudy, but the sun did make an appearance.



Of course, more floor work.



The rust looks worse than it is, you should see what I cut out. Mostly surface rust.





It's going to need a bit of trimming before it fits well enough to start welding.

[Topper2011]

Roland, what are your plans for the car once it is finished?

Simple, drive the heck out of it. Although, it may never be finished.

[RadioRoy]

Roland, what are your plans for the car once it is finished?

[Topper2011]

You know when you wish you had something the day before you needed it?




So, hobbling around, I didn't get much done.



Cleaned up and filled the rust pits on the passenger side vent door.



Well that turned out terrible. The paint ended up getting little blisters that have to be sanded and repainted.

[Topper2011]

Of course I mis-measured the opening I needed for the Turner master cylinder





Viola! New location! This should allow me better access to the dual master's rear reservoir now. I also primed the underside so I can seam seal the bottom and throw some paint on.

[Topper2011]

Surprise! More floor work.



I try not to waste scrap metal and used this disc, I cut out of the new trunk sheet metal, just fits the old master cylinder access.




In the middle of this, I ran out of Mig wire. Good thing I had some laying around.



This stuff seemed ok and I'm not good enough to tell the difference between the Forney or Lincoln I've used in the past. It did seem easier to grind down though.


Almost there.

[Topper2011]

I don't know how others have the patience to chase all the little rotted metal. The more coating I removed, the more holes I found. This floor was undercoated pretty well, but maybe that just held the moisture in.








This small project took me all day to get to this point. Still need to finish tack welding, seam sealer and punch the holes in it for the mounting bolts.

[Topper2011]

Today, I cut some more from the car.



As you can see, I removed the passenger door as well with my newly broken #4 Posi-drive, 4 screws short of removing the hinges.



Less and less floor. Waiting for more rust treatment to show up so I can do the trough before the floor goes in.