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**52hawk** · 08-07-2005, 06:52 AM

Nice pics! I see you figured out how to post them. I'd also like to put up some pics sometime. My Hawk was rusted over more area of the floor than yours,bnut the seller had spent over a $1000 on Class-ent panels,I got them with the car,and as I said,it was a virgin as far as any butcher work being done to it. So,it was easy enough to install all the patch work. Are you trying to save the paint job?

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**Kdancy** · 08-07-2005, 03:24 PM

As far as the paint job, I will paint the entire car after I get all the rust repair work done. I already stripped and did rust repair on the bottom edge of the drivers door (cut out the rust and weld in new metal) and then repaint it. I put in a new rocker panel on that side. I also put in hood stiffeners and did a repaint on the hood as well. The passenger side door will require rust repair and a repaint. The quarters show really poor body work underneath the paint so I am going to do the whole car. So far the only things we have not had to repair is the transmission, rearend and front end--did have to re-weld the sway bar end brackets as the welding job looked like my wife did it and found that some of the body to frame bolts were missing. The front and back glass were missing the moldings and both leaked. I purchased new rubbers and used moldings and have already polished the molding and re-done the rear glass. I will have to make a list of all the things we have done to a car that was advertised as "just finish up and drive". I feel responsible to my son for this because he is paying for the car, as I am older and should not have trusted any one like I did on this car. I feel by posting my experience with this, it may help prevent some one else from making the same mistake in the future. This car will have a Zillion dollars in it by the time I am finished, if you add up all the money that has been put into it.

53commander HDTP
53 Champion HDTP
61 Cursed Purple Hawk
64 Champ long bed V8
64 GT

**N8N** · 08-07-2005, 05:33 PM

I have to say that looks like you got some killer parts on that car though. That rear end is just incredible looking. Too bad whoever started it cut some corners on the bodywork, but look on the bright side, when you are done you will have a truly awesome car that will be truly unique yet incredibly cool.

At the risk of starting another possibly painful line of questioning, what size/offset are those rims? Any rubbing?

nate

--
55 Commander Starlight
62 Daytona hardtop
http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

**Kdancy** · 08-07-2005, 06:17 PM

What makes me mad is that I don't feel that some one just cut a few corners (they cut a hell of a lot of corners) but tried to disguise it with a whole lot of spray undercoating over the rusted out panels. The first time I put the car on a lift I knew we were in trouble. You could not see it in the pictures that we saw that were taken of the car on a lift. I will never buy another old car without being able to get a visual inspection underneath the car. Another thing that really gets my goat is that the car was supposed to be professionaly appraised by the bank that loaned the money for the car. How come the "Professional" didn't catch any of this?
I will have to check the offset. The wheel wells have been rolled in a little in the rear to allow them to work. There appears to be no sign of rubbing that I can tell of. The car does handle and track very well when we were actually able to drive it! One of the first short trips in it produced an under hood wiring harness melt down. The prior owner's just built harness had not been properly fused for the electric cooling fan and I had to rebuild the complete harness. At least it didn't catch the car on fire!

53commander HDTP
53 Champion HDTP
61 Cursed Purple Hawk
64 Champ long bed V8
64 GT

**JDP** · 08-07-2005, 06:59 PM

I can tell you that no appraiser looked at the car before you did. I guess we both wish I'd parted the car out for the high dollar items the P.O. had purchased. I figured with his 27K invested you could not get hurt buying it for 13K. He had almost that in the wheels rear and brakes. You mentioned the poor body work when you looked at the car before buying it, and short of me cutting the car apart there was no way either of us could know about the hidden rust. We both knew it was a project car, and was priced as one. Looking at the shiny paint and expensive bits, it never would have occured to me to shoot the car in the head nor did it to you when you looked at the car in person.
I'm sorry the car was a disappointment to you, but I only installed the engine before selling the car to you and had no way of knowing the quality of the work done by the PO. I'm actually suprised it turned out to be such a turd, the PO was a long time SDC member and had a hell of a home shop.

Studebaker On The Net http://stude.com
64 R2 4 speed Challenger (Plain Wrapper)
63 R2 4 speed GT Hawk

**Kdancy** · 08-09-2005, 05:24 AM

I had to cool down for a day before replying to this post.
At no time did we ever have the impression that this was a project car. We were not looking nor did we want a "project". I was told by you and by reading the post you had posted about the car
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...433736c1ad4e66
"It still needs the stock seats recovered or replaced, speakers
added for the stereo and some tweaking."
This is the same thing you told me on the phone and that is what I expected. I don't blame anyone but the body shop that did the body work for the shoddy work they did. I do find it very "suspect" that a long time car guy that has restored, shown and sold cars, never ever mentioned the body work was not up to par and of course we could not see that in pictures. I just find it very hard to believe that some one that was underneath and installed the drive train, exhaust and other stuff didn't notice the floor repair work while working on the car. And it's very suspect to have had so much undercoating sprayed on the bottom as you can't see those kinds of details in pictures. (how many times have I wished that we had put the car up on your lift before loading it)
It is very optimistic to believe that the rearend and drive train alone would have sold for 13,000.00. And even at that the buyer would still have had to rebuild the engine.
The really sad thing is that the car was worth doing, it just wasn't done with any sort of skill at all. It was like some kid in high school got it for his first car and was learning how to work on one. Not just the body work but all the little stuff like running the fuel line and battery cables properly or installing the radiator and improperly building a wire harness without fusing so that it would burn up and potentially burn the car to the ground (kind of wish it had) . The center support bar cut into so that the doors just droop, this being a major problem for any Hawk. In looking back over the old post, I see where you said it had new rear springs. Zach and I put in a NOS set that I had bought at the national meet in 97 and got an instant rise in the rear to proper height. The springs we took out looked like old used springs- I would have never guessed they were "new".
It has been and continue's to be a bad dream. When we get it re-done it will be a worthy car, not a show car as I just don't have the time or money for a frame off but it will be a fun car to own and drive.
And Zach and I will be much wiser next time.

quote:Originally posted by JDP

I can tell you that no appraiser looked at the car before you did. I guess we both wish I'd parted the car out for the high dollar items the P.O. had purchased. I figured with his 27K invested you could not get hurt buying it for 13K. He had almost that in the wheels rear and brakes. You mentioned the poor body work when you looked at the car before buying it, and short of me cutting the car apart there was no way either of us could know about the hidden rust. We both knew it was a project car, and was priced as one. Looking at the shiny paint and expensive bits, it never would have occured to me to shoot the car in the head nor did it to you when you looked at the car in person.
I'm sorry the car was a disappointment to you, but I only installed the engine before selling the car to you and had no way of knowing the quality of the work done by the PO. I'm actually suprised it turned out to be such a turd, the PO was a long time SDC member and had a hell of a home shop.

Studebaker On The Net http://stude.com
64 R2 4 speed Challenger (Plain Wrapper)
63 R2 4 speed GT Hawk

53commander HDTP
53 Champion HDTP
61 Cursed Purple Hawk
64 Champ long bed V8
64 GT

**JDP** · 08-09-2005, 08:27 AM

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one, since this is not the place to debate a sale of a Studebaker from 4 years ago. I know we both wished you'd passed on the car when you came down here to look it over and that's the last I'll say on the topic.

Studebaker On The Net http://stude.com
64 R2 4 speed Challenger (Plain Wrapper)
63 R2 4 speed GT Hawk

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