Cleaned the front undercarriage on the '63 Daytona

[PlainBrownR2]

Just to rub it in with a few of y'all that are still looking for a vehicle, I have completed cleaning the front of the undercarriage on my heap, er my Daytona. I may have gone a little over the top though .........






I think that a little Missouri came back with the car, because in the places where grease has collected, there's grease, sand, and large chunks of gravel. Any use with the wire wheel brushes, just turned the gravel to chalk, so it had to come out with a screwdriver in most cases.....






What can I say, like in many instances, I didn't opt for an easy way out with this one, plus the price of 500 dollars was right! If I want it, I have to work for it!!

[Warren Webb]

I've found all kinds of bolts & fasteners on that front cross member lip. Cleaning it off makes it easy to find the ones you might drop. Looks like a good buy you have there! How are the upper control arm bushings? Now would be the time to replace them-really easy.

[PlainBrownR2]

I'd say they look like they're in pretty good condition, they certainly do need to be greased though. I'll have to replace the snubbers underneath the upper A-arms, because they disintegrated pretty fast under there. Anything made of rubber and was exposed to the elements under there, had dry rotted pretty badly. The suspension components seemed to have fared better, because the years of grease jobs seemed to have protected alot of those components. What I'll probably do, is once the engine is out of the Commander, I'll use the good rubber components in that car on the Daytona.

[PlainBrownR2]

Lemme put a little more perspective on this. This was a before shot from the front about a week ago.

Before:



Not much to look at, a whole lotta hardened grease up there in front, with some rust and scale......

After:


As you can see, there's a frame under there, with a whole lotta easy to see bolts and fasteners too!

I'll check on the suspension upper A-arm bushings, endplay, and sloppiness later on, probably tomorrow. I have alot of time to find that out, because it will be awhile before the car sees an engine again. From this point though, I'll take a hose to it, wash off the dust, and put some paint on it. I intend to start at the front, and work my way to the rear, by wire wheel brushing the frame, and then painting it in segments, which is what part of this exercise was about.

[PlainBrownR2]

Well, what can I say, except it's now come down to this. I'm halfway finished with the front, then we can start working our way toward the back!



I checked the steering assembly today, and there's almost no play between the steering wheel and front wheels. It's very responsive for its age. There's only one way to check the upper A-arm bushings, and that's with an engine in the bay, as there needs to be weight on the cradle. For now, I'm gonna say they are in good shape, but it will be awhile before I need to worry about it.

[garyash]

Looks like a Rose Mist car. I recently had to buy some '63 Rose Mist paint for the interior of my '63 Standard wagon. The Dupont people (1-800-3DUPONT) cross-matched the Studebaker code to a modern equivalent: code H8880 for Centari acrylic enamel. It may also be available in other formulations. Some of the paint supply shops will put the paint in a rattle can for you, and maybe you can buy as little as a pint. Centari may go away in about a year or so, since DuPont sold the auto paint business.

Interestingly, the match was to 1987 Porsche "Cassis Red". A quart of Centari runs about $50-$60 custom blended. My body shop guy recommends spraying the color coats and finishing off with clear (maybe with just a little of the color added) to protect the paint and avoid fading.

[Paul K.]

My body shop guy recommends spraying the color coats and finishing off with clear (maybe with just a little of the color added) to protect the paint and avoid fading.

If the color "Rose Mist" is metallic and you do as your body shop recommended then you will not be able to colorsand the clearcoat. Adding a little color to the clear is called an integrated clear coat. A lot of production paint shops uses this method for extra gloss and durability.

[PlainBrownR2]

Yep, it's a Rose Mist color alright! Even though it looks a little faded on the exterior, the trunk, firewall, and the area under the intake grille in front of the windshield are Rose Mist. As a bonus, the interior door panels and seats were that same Rose Mist color, with white inserts in the seats. It's a really sharp color, despite being what amounts a Metallic Pink .

As far as repainting, I'll save everyone the grief from the other thread, as I intend to buy the correct system and components from TCP Global, and do the work myself. I'm looking at repainting the Rose Mist color back on it, along with a recoating of primer. I did my own painting on the Lark and the Commander, so none of this is new, just a fancier process compared to what I did before. I'm not going for show quality, just sand down the old color, clean it up, prime it, and repaint it. I'm looking at Restoration Shop AE enamel for the paint, Kustom Shop 2K high build primer, and Kustom Shop Polyester Primer Surfacer. I did all of the legwork to find out what I needed a couple months back, including paint compatibility, and I have all the information for the day when I get to painting it. The priorities right now though, are the undercarriage, because I want some protection from our Chicago salt, the floors, and the trunk, or all the classic Lark rust places. The trunk and floors will need to be cut out, and have new material welded in. I also have some fiberglass fenders from Tom K., that I bought in South Bend this May, and a couple of new front fascias to replace the one that's banged up.

[Corley]

He said------"As far as repainting, I'll save everyone the grief from the other thread..."

I say------Spoil sport!

We all say------Good on you for doing your own paint thing!

[PlainBrownR2]

Hahaha, yep, I'm one of them there guys. My fuel injection thread can attest to that, as I did almost all of that myself, save for having a second hand in moving that 289 and transmission into it's new home. I adore the work the engine, paint, and body shop guys, but as I can't afford to go that route, I pick up the paint gun, and do the work myself. I have been around cars for most of my life thanks to two generations of parents who did the same things(Dad was into Studebakers, and Grandpa was into a myriad of cars including Studebakers, but mostly Model A's and T's). I do practically everything by myself, except for a few things. One example was I had to drive my '64 Commander over to Scott Statsny's place a few years back, because my flexplate on the Powershift transmission had split, he had a lift in a nice heated garage, and I didn't wanna crawl under there to drop the transmission in the cold and the snow, to change that out.

[Corley]

Some of us were born with the ability to become rich, some of us were born good looking... Us good looking guys have to work harder.

JMHO...

[showbizkid]

I've found all kinds of bolts & fasteners on that front cross member lip. Cleaning it off makes it easy to find the ones you might drop.

That lip is also a great indicator of whether you've got a coolant leak from anywhere on the water manifold Ask me how I know.

[PlainBrownR2]

Another good reason to clean your undercarriage, it helps you spot the problem leaks from the engine above it!!

[SScopelli]

Another good reason to clean your undercarriage, it helps you spot the problem leaks from the engine above it!!

What are you planing to put in this Gem?

[PlainBrownR2]

Some of you might remember that I had a daily driven '64 Commander R2/Powershift up until last year or the year before. Well, the frame on it went bust from the Chicago salt(which is why I'm doing the frame on this one), so I intend on switching the internals and all of the good parts on it from that vehicle into this one.