Home again, home again

[LeoH]

Lots of jiggety jigging. Man, the wagon needs front shocks No major new issues. Brake light, turn signal shenanigans. I plan to check out the wiring condition and connections Saturday to see if there's anything obvious. When I test drove it, we did check the turn signals and brake lights and they all worked, but I didn't test them at the same time. Live and learn.

Scheduled a brake bleed and clean out session Sunday and we'll see how those results turn out. I'd appreciate any recommendations for shocks for the fronts. If possible, I'd be interested in any choices that would be lower riding, if that is possible. I know lowering the car takes much more that front shocks, but, if there's a style and type that rides lower than standard, I'd be interested. Otherwise, it tracked straight, just when I braked or hit some notable bump would it move off track. Braking pulled to the right, but it was manageable and consistent. Drove it 50 miles or so home on the freeway. Ahh, learning to drive an old car again.

Aside from the brake and tail lights, the only other new wrinkle was how the speedo apparently reads high for the vehicle movement. I can't say if it's consistent ALL through the speedometer, but once I was moving, I needed to be doing 65 indicated to be traveling around 50mph. My wife and I paced each other on a quiet highway stretch. This was consistent on up the speeds. For those of you who say flatties can't move, I can tell you I was doing 80 in mine today on the way home!

Pics uploaded in my profile, whenever they start to appear....

[StudeRich]

Shocks only smooth out the ride by SLOWING the up and down motion, they have absolutely NO effect on ride height unless they were Air Shocks or HD Coil Over type which are really not made any longer for Studebakers, especially not Fronts.

A ordinary Gabriel Gas Shock available at Studebaker Vendors at: http://studebakervendors.com should be all you will ever need for a Lark Six.

[63 R2 Hawk]

As far as the speedometer reading high, you might check and make sure you have the correct size tires. Smaller diameter tires than OEM will cause the speedo to read high. You can correct it to some extent by changing the speedometer pinion gear to one that has 1 or 2 more teeth. Takes about 5 minutes to change, and SI has them. Use a GPS to check your actual vs indicated speed and a little math will tell you how many teeth to add. If you want the front to ride lower, avoid gas shocks as they will add a very slight amount of lift. Maybe you just need to add helper springs to the rear if the front is pointing up???

[LeoH]

Thanks StudeRich.

[LeoH]

As far as the speedometer reading high, you might check and make sure you have the correct size tires. Smaller diameter tires than OEM will cause the speedo to read high.

Interesting. I'll double check the tires, but I did notice they were 195/15 sized radials which I was under the impression that that was the radial size that was closest to the original bias tire size. Is that not the case?

[jackb]

if you are 15 mph off, I'd suggest that somewhere in the cars history (BTW-what car are we talking about...year?), the tranny or R/A were changed....either that or the small gears or both...or less likely the speedo is off. Was the speedo needle jumping around at all ?

[LeoH]

if you are 15 mph off, I'd suggest that somewhere in the cars history (BTW-what car are we talking about...year?), the tranny or R/A were changed....either that or the small gears or both...or less likely the speedo is off. Was the speedo needle jumping around at all ?

No, the speedo seems to be pretty smooth, not twitchy. Who do I contact and what do I look for in order to order a build sheet? The wagon has been repainted and the seats and headliner redone. Nice job on the seats and liner. I'm not sure the color is correct to the car. It's the light blue color, seems correct, but the carpet and the door panels are a darker/medium blue shade.

Also, were split front bench seats that recline included in a 6 cylinder 4 door 1960 Lark wagon? I just know that my 1960 4 door sedan had a front bench seat, but that doesn't mean there weren't options or that different models had different seats.

[LeoH]

if you are 15 mph off, I'd suggest that somewhere in the cars history (BTW-what car are we talking about...year?), the tranny or R/A were changed....either that or the small gears or both...or less likely the speedo is off. Was the speedo needle jumping around at all ?

I was wondering about the rear end, actually. The trans seems like the 3 spd/OD. How might that be different or changed so that the speedo would be off? I'll look again, but I don't think the tires were 14".

[StudeRich]

Leo;
The Studebaker National Museum is here: http://www.studebakermuseum.org/
You send them the Serial Number from the Drivers' Door Post: "60Sxxxxx" with the fee for a Production Order.

The Reclining Seats and or Split Bottom Cushions were an OPTION like everything else, and not related to Model, Body Style or Trim.

The Overdrive could have been swapped in where a Standard 3 Speed Trans. was originally.
OR, the Rear Axle or Speedo Pinion changed, or NOT causing the overspeed indication.

[Roscomacaw]

There may well be an embossed tag on one of the rear axle's rear cover bolts. That'll tell you what ratio rear you have. With that confirmed, you could loosen the one clamp bolt that secures the lower end of the speedo cable. Extracted carefully, there should be a part number on the shaft of the speedo gear. There's a chart odf what gear went with what trans and rear axle that we can check the numbers against to see if it's got the proper speedo drive gear.

[LeoH]

Thank you two. I saw where to get the production order sheet and I plan to do that this weekend sometime, and thanks for the pointer to the gear ratio. On that tag is it the ratio, or is it a number that calculates out to the ratio?

The more I noodge around the inside of the car, the more I'm interested in just what the original interior colors were. It's been a white and white car, but there are 3 colors of blue interior items, Bahama Blue seats, a medium blue dash padding and kick panels, and the carpet is possibly closer to the medium blue than the Bahama blue, but I don't know if there was a tendency for the single hue interior or contrasting elements. The door panels were the medium blue, as opposed to the lighter blue shade like the seats.

It'll be interesting.

[StudeRich]

Pictures would say a THOUSAND words, it could be the original Studebaker Seat Material, Door Panels, Dash Pad etc. OR NOT.

The Stude. Interior Colors of each different material component actually did not match, but we could tell by the material design, color and texture if it is reupholstered or original.

It would also make a big difference if we knew if this is a 2 Door Lark VI Wagon that only came in the "Deluxe" Trim, or if it is a 4 Door Wagon that came in Both Deluxe and Regal and which is it; a D4, P4, or P6 on the Cowl Tag.



This Car is reupholstered but shows the Original Pattern, pleat width, etc. of a '60 Regal.
The dash chassis (Metal) shows the Correct Interior Color Oasis Green, which is not the prettiest Color being actually Avocado Green.

The Turquoise Green Color is wrong but very pretty.
This particular Car was for sale on eBay and was a modified car with a Supercharged '57 Golden Hawk Engine.

It was the only '60 I had that had a even close to original looking Interior to show you how a '60 Regal Looked.
Because it is a Hardtop, the top of the Door Panels are Padded.



This one is a '59 Regal that is a little different than a '60 but does show the pleating correctly, as you can see '59 Door Panels were much Different and were Cloth or Vinyl depending on which Seat material the car was ordered with.

[LeoH]

I hadn't seen this particular style of interior panel, is part of the reason I'm asking. I do think it's original, but maybe not to this year? It's a P6 60 P6 1447
Looking at the car closer, and talking with someone else, I notice that the car was likely Laguna Blue and as the seats and headliner have been redone, I'm not sure if they were Bahama Blue as now, or also matching Laguna.

[LeoH]

As for the rear end, I found out that the car has hill holder and it works, the rear end says 4.27 47 11.

[StudeRich]

The upper and lower dash padding has been replaced and the Dash and Column repainted a color never used at the factory on Cars, Pure White, Refrigerator or GM White.

That rear axle ratio would make it a pretty serious Hot Rod or Trailer Toter!
All wagons have the HD Model 44 Dana.