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Swimming in a tar pit !!

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  • Swimming in a tar pit !!

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  • #2
    Well worth the $25 in my opinion. I cracked the one in my 50 when I went to re-install it. $500 later I had someone else do it. The $500 was just for the glass and shipping. Granted this was 30 years ago.....


    Mark

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    • #3
      You need to post some more pics of that truck!
      Dave Nevin
      Corvallis, OR
      1953 Champion Deluxe Coupe
      Stud-e-venture blog

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      • #4
        Get it done and by the 11th and come show it off at our meeting!!!!
        Carey
        Packard Hawk

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        • #5
          There are some things that are best left to the guys who do it every day.
          Lesson well learned.
          Good Roads
          Brian
          Brian Woods
          woodysrods@shaw.ca
          1946 M Series (Shop Truck)

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          • #6
            Indeed Brian which is why local experts will be restoring my car when the time comes. Of course, you also have someone to blame instead of yourself :-)~
            John Clements
            Christchurch, New Zealand

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            • #7
              Twenty-five bucks sounds like a deal.

              Oh, and I too would love to see some pictures of that truck.
              Joe Roberts
              '61 R1 Champ
              '65 Cruiser
              Eastern North Carolina Chapter

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              • #8
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                The Champ is practice run for restoring my Speedster setting in storage.It has been a pretty steep learning curve! When I finish it will be a freshly done 50 footer. Accordingly, I'm making my list of re-do's as I go. I'm getting better as I go at welding, bondo, painting, stainless, sewing and installing windshields but I have a long way to go. Original target was 10/31 but maybe 12/31 weather permitting.
                Attached Files

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                • #9
                  It won't make the 11th. Your at the Willshire right? Today's weather sends me to the basement and interior work.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by mmagic View Post
                    [ATTACH=CONFIG]12490[/ATTACH]



                    I’m not a mechanic or a body man but rather a CPA by training. However, I was raised to believe I could do anything I set my mind to. So, I didn’t think twice jumping in to restore my newly acquired Champ.

                    My idea of restoring the Champ was doing almost everything myself… body work, mechanical, paint, upholstery etc. However, last week I began to suspect I had overreached.

                    My Waterloo was re-installation of the windshield. It all seemed simple enough in the book… apply bedding compound, install the rubber to the windshield, insert stainless trim, wrap the rope around it, set the rubber over pinch weld, pull rope…. The only use for three men that the book called for that I could see was two to laugh and hold the beer.

                    Four tries and 6 hours later I hadn’t broken anything. But my hands, clothes the Champ, the windshield, the rope and my tools looked like we’d all taken a bath in a sticky tar pit. I had been humiliated. I just put a tarp over my mess so all the neighbors who had been admiring and marveling at the transformation of my Champ couldn’t see this disaster.

                    Monday morning, with winter weather moving toward Colorado, I relented and called my glass man. He’s about 20 miles out so I figured I should have a good day to clean up my mess before I’d fit his schedule. Wrong ! He was in town and waiting for a part from the NAPA warehouse! He’d be right over.

                    Great! He was the last person I wanted to see how big a mess I’d made so I ran out and started scrubbing the black goo with paint thinner. I hardly got started and a neighbor stopped by and suggested “Goof Off”. Wow, I just happened to have a gallon on the shelf and it worked. By the time Mr. glass got here most evidence of the big booboo been removed and he could do his magic.

                    For the record his approach deviated from the book in two respects. First he positioned the glass squarely where we wanted it to land instead of setting it over the bottom lip. Second he crossed the rope at the top instead of the bottom. More important he placed the setting compound in front of the pinch weld instead of on the pinch weld as I had done.

                    20 minutes and $25 later the windshield was installed. I still contend the extra two guys called for in the book are just to make snide comments and hold the beer.
                    mmagic

                    How else will you ever know how far you can go if you don't push your comfort level. You found one, cleaned up the mess and got through the issue.

                    There are a lot of us on the forum that have learned the same way and found we could do more than we ever thought. That probably came at a price much higher that yours though. Welcome to the club.

                    Nice truck, post more if you will.

                    Bob

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                    • #11
                      When I was doing my '55 coupe in the 70s, I felt confident I could do the glass reinstall in it. I decided I'd do the rear glass first - I had a couple extras layin' about. T'was a good choice of strategy. I broke two in succession and let a seasoned glass guy install the last one.

                      What I've encountered in recent years is a reluctance / refusal of the installers to use the tarry sealer "rope". I've had several assure me: Nah, you don't need any of that stuff. Heck, you got a nice, fresh gasket!" I remember those words every time I drive Pete in rain and get some water in my face.

                      BTW, there ARE more creative ways of breaking a windshield, but I am too ashamed to tell about the time backed over one with a tractor.
                      No deceptive flags to prove I'm patriotic - no biblical BS to impress - just ME and Studebakers - as it should be.

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                      • #12
                        Great project. I would have left it orange, but I am sure that is just me since orange is my favorite color.

                        Glass can be done, but it is definately one of those things that is you have access to a pro like you did, you will save time and often money having them do it.

                        I like that you are jumping in and doing as much as possible yourself. I respect that alot.

                        If you are still doing the interior work, and it is cold out even in your basement, remember that the seat covers go on much easier when they are warm....not HOT just warm. They usually set them out in the sun to soften them up and make them more pliable. You being in Co in the cold you may want to set them near a heater of some sort, not a flame or not some really hot, just warm them up.

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                        • #13
                          Basement, (2nd light duty shop) is nice and warm... sewed up a new headliner, buffed the hub caps, finishing sewing the seat and stating work on door panels and kick panels next few days. Wish I had pulled the dash pad to make a new dash pad while the weather is cold next few days. Waiting for bottom window lift channels from SI so I can seal the cab and start to install interior. Original color was Apache red... I added the Parchment White (option)
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                          • #14
                            Have you pulled out those nails in the 2x4s yet?
                            Allen

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by sweetolbob View Post
                              mmagic

                              How else will you ever know how far you can go if you don't push your comfort level. You found one, cleaned up the mess and got through the issue.

                              There are a lot of us on the forum that have learned the same way and found we could do more than we ever thought. That probably came at a price much higher that yours though. Welcome to the club. Bob
                              Indeed, Bob; well stated. I remember installing two convertible tops myself one day: the first one I ever attempted, and the last one!

                              Ironically, they were one and the same!

                              What respect one gains for good trimmers by attempting such a stunt. ('Did get it done, though...but never again....) BP
                              We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

                              G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

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