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  • Originally posted by Lynn View Post
    Gil;

    I doubt you are going to need the hi flow WP. I think you have it handled with the larger radiator (well, at least now that the fans are turning the right direction. I sure wouldn't be messing with the WP unless the present set up proved inadequate. Worst part about working alone: no one else to blame. I always said that is why I had kids.

    Looks like you are in the home stretch on this deal. My hat is off to you. Congrats on a tasteful and successful build. Keep us posted on the progress.

    I view this thread from time to time, and marvel that you are able to pause and take pics as much as you do. I get on a roll, and can't remember to eat, let alone take photos to document the process.

    You're probably right on the high flow pump. Thanks for the praise!! I am getting very close to completing everything on my list. I had to stop working on the interior (passenger's seat belt, CD player, remount seat, etc) but these are minor issues because they are already solved and won't take long to complete. The passenger's shoulder harness seat belt will be easy now that I know how to do it. The seat mounts are already in place I simply haven't put the seat back in to make it easier to work under the dash. I still haven't received the calibrated fuel gauge ( should be here soon) but but I can install that blind folded. I plan to remount the seat so I can drive the car in the street. I've driven it in the street already but I had to come home as soon as the engine would get around 220 degrees.

    Yes,I screwed up on the fan connections!!! The pics take a lot of forethought, I try to keep the camera in my pocket most of the time. I do my best to take as many pics as possible to help other members in case they decide to copy any of my ideas/efforts. I also take lots of pics to document "the build" for my daughter. Maybe 30 years from now she can come to this site and see how her car came to be???

    I also still need to tackle getting the 60s (Lark I think) smaller steering wheel to work on the '59 upper column. I say upper column because the whole lower part of the steering column is off a '63 Lark. I kept the turn signal portion off the '59 Silver Hawk. I'll show how I plan to make the two work together. The Ford 8 inch rear end has been done before so I don't think anyone want to see that??

    On another note....I had the evaporator checked out by my AC guy and he found that the 2/3 speed switch was no working. It's a very small switch and he couldn't find a replacement because there's very little space and all the newer ones won't fit. The Silver hawk came with an "Arctic Kar" AC unit and I imagine that there are very few replacement switches. In any case I found some on ebay that I think I can adapt to the evaporator, we'll see???




    treblig

    Comment


    • Tell me more about the engine, shape and what your looking to get out of it.

      Originally posted by Treblig View Post
      I recently purchased a very nice 59 Silver Hawk. I bought it for my 15 year old daughter (it was the car she wanted). Before I can let her drive it I plan to make many modifications. Mustang II cross member w/power disc brakes, Chevy 350 w/700R4 trans, center console with shifter, bucket electric seats. The car must be dependable and safe and she has to be able to get it fixed wherever she might go. It currently has a perfectly good running original V8 with good two speed automatic which will be removed and sold. My plan was to take pictures and document the transition for others on this site who might be interested. I know that some members here will say "leave it original!!", but the only way my wife will let my daughter have the car is if has a newer drive train, power disc brakes, overdrive trans and shoulder harness seat belts (another modification). Oh yes, modern AC unit, it's very hot and humid where we live. As per my daughter's instructions I plan to keep as many of the original body parts as possible because she really likes the original look of the car.
      I'm posting here today to see if there is any interest in what I am about to do. If there is sufficient interest I will do my best to document everything and post it all here. I will post pics of the car as soon as possible.


      PS - I couldn't find a title that read, "Engine/Transmission swap", could the moderators help with that??? Anyway, I had to select "Engine" for the title.


      treblig

      Comment


      • Thanks for the tips! I am not sure I will need a radiator, but if I do, I want an aluminum, not the original sold in Studebaker Intl...

        Comment


        • Originally posted by kejordan View Post
          Tell me more about the engine, shape and what your looking to get out of it.
          The engine is a completely overhauled Chevy 350. I requested a RV type cam for torque since my daughter won't be doing any racing (I hope). The engine has Aluminum heads (9:1 Compression) and a high volume oil pump. '93 GM factory type serpentine system, AC, PS & PB. All I was looking for in the engine has good economy (700R4) and reliability. The motor is .030 over otherwise mostly stock. Holley 650, aluminum intake, mechanical fuel pump, Accel electronic distributor, GM exhaust manifolds. There are many pics of the motor and installation in this thread. If there's anything you would like to know just ask, I'll be outside connecting wires under the hood.

          treblig

          Comment


          • I think he was inquiring about the original Stude engine that you removed...
            ~Matt Connor
            '59 Lark 2-door

            Comment


            • Originally posted by Peanut View Post
              I think he was inquiring about the original Stude engine that you removed...

              You may be correct???

              I sold the engine to another SDC member about 4/5 months ago. It was a good running engine and I sold it compete. I ended up "throwing away" the transmission because there are no Studes in my area. The only original parts I have left are the shroud (which has been modified) and the under body heater pan/ducts.


              treblig

              Comment


              • Then the Grinch had an idea.......a WONDERFUL awful idea!!!


                What if I route the heater hose to the heater (manual valve switch) and rig it so that when it's cold the hot water flows into the cab to the heater but when the valve is shut off the hot water is re-routed to a nice heavy duty oil cooler (with fan). I have plenty of room to mount an oil cooler in the grill area. This way when it's cold outside (and I'm not worried about cooling the engine) the hot water goes into the cab where it's needed and when it's hot (which is 10 months of the year) the water will flow through the extra oil cooler and will help keep the engine temps down, especially when the AC is running??

                treblig

                Comment


                • Got the CD mounts in place. I was looking for a spot that was easy to get to by the driver. I used captured nuts so that I can easily remove the CD player to get to the fuse area:


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                  All those extra wires will eventually be connected as I close everything up!!





                  Here are the pics of the extra holes I put in the firewall for the heater lines, the two lower right holes were already there for the AC lines:

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                  Here's a pic from the inside:

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                  Treblig

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                  • Got all the wires connected under the dash. Now the heater and heater switch are connected along with the stereo. I also got the fuse box wired up so now all I have to do is connect the wires at the fuse box. That's easy work under the hood compared to being scrunched up under the dash for hours running wires and checking connections. I have it rigged so that when you turn the ignition to the "on" position it engages two 40 amp relay which power the new fuse box. The two relays take less than one amp to engage (altogether). So the two relays will carry all the load from the battery to the fuse box. I ran all new wires from the fuse box to the stereo, heater, clock, clock light and AC evaporator. In the end the old Stude fuses/wiring will carry less amperage than they ever have!!
                    Since I've almost caught up with the dash stuff and I'm still waiting for the fuel gauge (should be here next week), I decided to save myself some time and prepare the passenger's seat belt for installation. I already had the shape drawn on the other seat belt anchor so I started trimming it down to fit into that "confined space". If I remember correctly I rushed through everything the first time because I wanted to know if it was possible to get the anchor in there. This time I took my time and got some good pics of the captured nut and how I installed it into the seat belt bracket:

                    Here's a good view of the semi-circular slots in the seat belt bracket:
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                    Here's the second captured (grade 8) nut. Those little ears are a bear to get lined up and welded because they're so small. But once you got them aligned they pop right in:

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                    I used that long bolt to "suck" the nut up against the bracket and to also align the bolt in the hole before I bend the ears on those tangs:


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                    Remember to bend the upper portion of the nut cage down around the nut so it can work it's way out as you install the bolt from the blind side!!

                    Once the fuel gauge gets here I can install it/test it then put the front seat back in the car since the seat brackets are completely finished. Then....I can drive it in the streets to make sure it's going to stay cool. If it stays cool I can start driving it quite often (shake down), I can also let my daughter drive it a little to get her used to it.

                    GETTING SO CLOSE!!!>>>>>>>


                    Treblig

                    Comment


                    • I spend part of yesterday building the passenger's side upper shoulder harness assembly (the part that mounts up in the overhead). The completed piece is the anchor plate with two T-nuts, the thin plate that is used for a washer and a place to permanently attach the thick spacer. Then a washer, a spacer, washer then bolt. The silver spacer serves two purposes, it gives the seat belt a place where it can rotate/pivot freely and it gives the bolt a surface to "tighten up" against so that the bolt doesn't put a bind on the belt bracket (keeping it from rotating freely).



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                      I can't say enough about these factory seat belts. As I was digging through all the stuff that came in the seat belt box and found this inventory sheet:


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                      I only paid $35 for the the two belts which came with at least $20/$25 of extra GRADE 8 bolts and lock nuts, SAE washers and numerous brackets/braces. I can only guess that all the metal brackets/braces are used to install these factory belts in a HUMVEE which is the actual application for these belts. The belts work super smooth and "lock up" very smoothly/quickly.

                      Now all I need to do is drill three holes in the overhead (passenger's side), fish the anchor plate up in there and bolt it up. The driver's side took about two days but the passenger's side should only take a couple of hours now that I know what I have to do.


                      Treblig

                      Comment


                      • Is there an osteologist in the house???



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                        I started removing the 1/4 window and the trim around the passenger's headliner. Once I got the headliner free of the trim I found this^^^^^ up in the headliner.

                        Now I know what happened to the wire that used to run from the passenger's dome light door switch to the dome light. I imagine this little guy ate the wiring on that side shorting out the whole door light switch circuit. that must be why they had the dome light and the door switches disconnected when I bought the car???


                        WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!! What unusual item have you found in your old Stude????

                        I think I might immerse this skull in some clear liquid plastic (you know, the kind that hardens) and hang it from the rear view mirror. It will give my daughter something to talk about when she's driving around with her friends!!LOL


                        treblig

                        Comment


                        • Here's the outline of the passenger's side hole I'll need for the seat belt reel:

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                          After tracing out the hole (first pic) I noticed that someone had cut a pretty good sized hole near the rear of this same metal panel:
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                          I couldn't figure out why someone would cut such a large hole in a panel that contains "NOTHING"??? So I got my light and started looking for drugs (or something??). After doing a little searching I found this:

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                          It might be a little hard to see in the pics but I could see that it was POOP!! Pretty large poop, like a medium sized dog's poop. Then it hit me....since I had found that mouse cranium I postulated that a good sized possum must have crawled in there and died. Then it stunk so bad that the one of the previous owners must have cut that large hole to remove the stinking carcass, leaving behind the poop????


                          Anyway, I cleaned it out scraped and vacuumed out all the junk. But then, never to pass up an opportunity, I found that there's an open space between the 1/4" window space and the trunk. Since my battery is in the trunk and I have a clock and radio that will need power 24/7 I got some convoluted tubing and ran two wires to the battery in the trunk through the open space then through the 1/4 window space:

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                          I ran the wires through the factory opening at the bottom of the metal panel:

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                          I also plan to run the radio antennae through this same space because I had planned on mounting the receiver (antennae) on the package tray. So knowing that there's a open space there I won't have to cut any holes, I'll just run the antennae cable along with the wires!!


                          Once I close up the 1/4 window area I'll lift the carpet and run the wires along the threshold gutter.

                          treblig

                          Comment


                          • Well...I'm not going to say that it very easy but it wasn't very hard since I had already done it once before. Here's the piece of plastic tube I had left over from doing the driver's side. As you can see I cut some small slots on either side of the tube to wedge the tube in between the reel and the metal panel:


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                            Then I installed the upholstery panel into the correct location and (using blue painter's tape) marked the path that the seat belt will take. Then I marked the height of the slot after measuring the driver's side so that they are at the same height:

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                            I cut the tube to length and left it long:

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                            The upper seat belt anchor came out perfect. It swivels nice and easy even though the bolt is tight!!

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                            I mounted the tube onto the belt and made sure the plastic tube mounted over the raised boss on the reel. This raised boss will keep the tube from ever moving since it will be trapped between the upper metal panel and the reel:

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                            Here the reel is in place (bolted into the panel with tube over the boss).


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                            Here's a close up of the how the slots in the plastic tube slides onto the metal panel. You have to drop the reel (with tube installed) down into the 1/4 window space then raise it up so that the slots engage the panel thus trapping the plastic tube.

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                            You have to look close but you should be able to see the marks left on the upholstery panel after I reinstalled it and whacked it with my fist to get the imprint of the "reel" bolt head and reel alignment tang:
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                            No more room for pics.....The driver's side took me about 3 days but the passenger's side only took a few hours!! I'll try and post the rest of the pics later tonight...........

                            Treblig

                            Comment


                            • Once I got the seat belt slot cut I removed some material to create an entrance ramp for the belt so that it can easily slide in and out of the panel:


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                              Then I took the left over section of upholstery material and siliconed it down covering the top of the slot. I taped it down so that it stayed firmly attached to the slot hole while the silicone sets:

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                              I'll have to let it sit overnight so the upholstery bonds to the fiber panel. I'll install it in the morning and see how it looks. Now I'm looking for something to use for a seal between the 1/4 window and the widow opening. Someone had used silicone and some other type of sealer both of which didn't work well. I'm thinking about some 1/2" wide one sided tape, you know, the one that's sticky on one side. This way I can stick it to the 1/4 window so when the upholstery guy removes the windows to replace the headliner it won't be bonded to the body but it should still seal against the elements. What do you use of the 1/4 window seal???? Remember...the windows will be removed in a month or so but the car will be driven in the interim.

                              treblig

                              Comment


                              • Boy!! The passenger's side turned out nicer than the driver's side:


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                                I hate to use the word "perfect" but it did come out nice!!


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                                On to the seat belt mount that goes on the outside of the seat (on the floor). Again, I used my center punches to pop a hole through the carpet and through the floor. You don't ever want to try and drill a hole through carpeting and/or jute!!! This method raises a burr on the underside of the floor but a quick grinding and it's flat again. The seat belt kit came with these shouldered bolts that ensure that the belt metal lanyard can turn freely at all times:


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                                Treblig

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