Silver Hawk Major Modifications

[Treblig]

That seal is available from Studebaker vendors.

Hey, you're right!!! I looked in the Stude International web site and found it for only $18.50. That's not bad at all. I'll order one as soon as I can get the complete list or parts I need (mostly rubber and a head liner).

thanks for your help!!!

Treblig

[Treblig]

So I had this dome light sitting on the shelf:







I designed and cut out a metal holder for the dome light:




I figured since my daughter will be going off to College in this car it would be best if the car had a trunk light so that she can see what she is doing at night when she's loading and unloading the trunk. It's also a safety thing at night:





I found a spot in the trunk where the light wouldn't easily be hit by luggage and such. I also picked a spot where there was already a factory hole in that support brace:



Now it's tucked away where it can't be damaged and if the trunk seal just happens to leak (although it shouldn't) it won't get wet!!





I have a brake light switch that I'll mount so that when you open the trunk the switch will ground the light so that it turns "on". I'll also have to install one more small bolt/screw so that the new bracket doesn't start to rotate/sag/fall when you hit a bump in the road.

treblig

[Treblig]

Before I put the new (overhauled) evaporator back under the dash I'd like to connect the windshield washer nozzles. I can see them just above the wiper arms (under the dash). It looks like a 3/16" OR 1/4" OD pipe/tube. I can buy some rubber hose to run out to the engine bay but the nozzle ends exit about 3/4" above the wiper arms. I can't see a hose bending that sharp. Did the '59 Silver Hawk come with a 90 degree rubber fitting to get the hose turned toward the front of the car so that the hose doesn't get hit by the wiper arms??

Thanks,
treblig

[Treblig]

I also need a good close up of the door latch (the one on the body) because mine is hanging up when I try and close the door.

Besides that I worked on the AC evaporator today. When I picked it up from the AC guy (he had been checking it out to make sure everything was OK) he said that the fans didn't seem to blow very well. He said that it seemed like a lot of air was being blown towards the rear. I took the whole thing home and put 12V to it and the fans did seem to blow a lot out the back so I cut a template to make a metal shroud to cover the area that was letting the air escape::




Then I used the template to cut a metal shroud:




Once it was installed it kept a lot of the air from escaping out of the topside of the fan assembly:



The evaporator works just fine but the design was not as good as it could have been:




No more room for pics...more later....

treblig

[r1lark]

Treblig, that is a really cool retro-looking evaporator unit! It should look great inside the Hawk.

[Treblig]

Treblig, that is a really cool retro-looking evaporator unit! It should look great inside the Hawk.

Yes it is pretty cool looking, I feel bad that it took a 16 year old girl to convince me to "not" replace it with a more modern evaporator. I wanted to modernize the steering column and wheel along with the AC evaporator but my daughter wouldn't have any of it. I'm glad that she's as stubborn as I am!!!


Here are the rest of the pics that I couldn't post last night:




I have since made the a shroud for the other fan and used some sheet metal screws to attach the shrouds to the assembly. I still need to remove the shrouds one more time to sand and paint but otherwise it's ready to install.

I also think I've come up with the solution to the windshield squirter hose problem. I'll post pics later if it works out as planned. I wanted to get the nozzle tubing installed before I put the evaporator back under the dash. the evaporator takes up a ton of space when your trying to connect stuff under the dash!!

Treblig

[55 56 PREZ 4D]

http://www.studebaker-info.org/tech/Ranco/rancotb/rancotb.html

google ranco heater valve. There are numerous sites with a lot of information.
The valve is very basic, not much to restore beyond replacing the rubber disc.
BEWARE the bellows.
It is thin and fragile. DO NOT puncture it. Whatever gas is in there stinks to high heaven, and will stay in your nostrils for days.
Work in a ventilated space just in case, I didn't.
Break the bellows and you have to find another valve assembly.
The assembly is available at S I

[Treblig]

http://www.studebaker-info.org/tech/...b/rancotb.html
google ranco heater valve. There are numerous sites with a lot of information.
The valve is very basic, not much to restore beyond replacing the rubber disc.
BEWARE the bellows.
It is thin and fragile. DO NOT puncture it. Whatever gas is in there stinks to high heaven, and will stay in your nostrils for days.
Work in a ventilated space just in case, I didn't.
Break the bellows and you have to find another valve assembly.
The assembly is available at S I

Thanks for that link PREZ!! It gives a great explanation on disassembly and repair!!
I wonder if my valve has similar guts??:



I don't think there's a bellows in mine but until I take it apart I won't know....maybe someone else will recognize the one I have on my Silver Hawk?? I honestly don't know if it's working, leaking or what? I know that I had to lube the pivot points on those little arms, it was frozen solid and wouldn't move initially. Once I lubed the pivot points the valve moved up and down pretty easily. I guess I could connect the water lines and see what happens but I really didn't want to make a big mess under the hood with water/antifreeze if it happened to leak too much.

Luckily the few cold days of winter are very, very far away (like 6 months away) so I'm in no rush. My biggest concern is to get the defroster hooked up because where I live the front glass fogs up pretty quickly when the weather changes. We have such high humidity that you have to have a defroster (at least).


Treblig

[Treblig]

Here is my solution to the windshield squirter issue. Like I had said before the squirter nozzles are just above the W/W arms up under the dash. I went to the auto parts and found these 90 degree rubber fittings that fit perfectly over nozzle ends. The 90 degree angle allows the fitting and the hose to clear the arms:





The fitting at the bottom of this pic is the only one (of the four) that fits really good and tight. The pack came with four different fittings but only one fittings fits properly so I had to buy two packs:



I ran the hoses (5/32") from the 90 degree fittings through exiting holes in the firewall. I also bought the plastic "Ts" in the first pic. I use one of the "Ts" to connect the two lines so that I can connect the washer pump line to the third "T" outlet.
Now it's a simple matter of finding a washer/pump/reservoir that fits well in the spaces inside the fender????

We're headed for the Frio River and I won't be back for three days, this will give my hands a chance to heal from all the abuse they get working on the Stude!!

treblig

[Treblig]

I took the kids out of town to the river for a few days and also spent some time in San Antonio so I haven't been able to work on the car. But today I went out there to move the distributor and change the timing. Every time I go cruising I have this "hesitation" when I first depress the pedal. I thought it was the Holley power valve so I checked the vacuum then changed the power valve....it didn't help at all. I have the timing set at 10 degrees ATDC because the car will "diesel" (when you shut it off) after it's warned up. It's also is hard to start if I advance the timing once it's warmed up. Anyway, today I got tired of fighting the "hesitation" and advanced the timing to 10 degrees BTDC where it should be and the hesitation is GONE!!!

I also ordered a high torque starter to overcome the "hard start" issue that I'll have now that the timing is correct.

Lastly....here are some pics of my driver's door latch. The door closes loosely and sometimes doesn't latch properly. I had asked for someone to post some good pics of their Silver Hawk latch but haven't had any takers. I need to see what a good working latch looks like so I can figure out how to make mine work better.:





That little "thingy" that hangs off the right side of the first pic is spring loaded, the spring isn't very stout but I don't know how strong it should be??? Maybe some one can look at mine as see a problem. The service manual doesn't address the latches so I have no way to know how they should function or how to tell when a particular part is worn out, broken or damaged??

Treblig

[Treblig]

Well it was a very interesting day!!! I had been fighting a "hesitation" and it was fixed by advancing the timing. I hadn't wanted to advance the timing because it made the engine hard to start once it was warmed up. I took the car out for a longer drive today and noticed three things. First the "hesitation" is gone (which I had already noted) also, the power brakes are much more responsive (more about that later) and lastly, the engine is running cooler than ever before (175 degrees). Today was a very hot day (97 degrees). I checked the vacuum after changing the timing and found that it had gone from 10 in of vacuum to 15. So changing the timing increased the vacuum which is why the power brake works so much better. The engine runs cooler because it's more efficient now which also keeps it from getting hot. Because the engine is running cooler it's not as hard to start when warm.
I basically solved all my engine problems by putting the timing where it should have been from the beginning. I know it sounds "stupid" but when I first got the engine running (break in) I set the timing where it ran the best. But now it runs perfect and runs super cool. It also didn't try to keep running when I shut it "off' but I'm installing the anti-diesel solenoid just in case. The high torque starter will be here next week so everything is coming together.

treblig

[allstateguy]

You have done a great job on this car for your daughter. Lots of pictures, lots of solutions to issues when they came up. Since it seems that you are getting really close to giving this car to the young lady to start her next semester of school, I for one, would love to see some video of the whole car doing something awesome, like driving down your driveway and around your neighborhood. Is that on your list of things to do?

[Treblig]

You have done a great job on this car for your daughter. Lots of pictures, lots of solutions to issues when they came up. Since it seems that you are getting really close to giving this car to the young lady to start her next semester of school, I for one, would love to see some video of the whole car doing something awesome, like driving down your driveway and around your neighborhood. Is that on your list of things to do?

Thanks for the complement!! I've never posted a video but I'm sure I could try. I'll put a short video on my list of things to do. I'm really starting to enjoy driving the car now that it's running so good and staying cool. There are very few of these types of cars in my city (area) so it gets a lot of attention.
I did have one little problem yesterday while driving around. I made a right turn and started hearing a LOUD clanking noise, like a tail pipe hanging and dragging on the street. It sounded like the noise was coming from the front. I slowed down and it got worse. Then I increased my speed to get home and the noise went away. It was confusing?? I stopped at the next light and when I took off the noise started again but went away when I got to about 20 MPH. I finally got home and checked the whole front end but found nothing loose. The noise seemed to be coming from the front left wheel so I removed the hub cap and found the wheel bearing dust cap loose inside the hub cap. Now it all made sense....when I would slow down there wasn't enough centrifugal force to the keep the dust cap pinned to the outside of the wheel so it would start flopping around. Once I got to 20 MPH the centrifugal forces would pin the dust cap to the outside of the wheel and the noise would go away. It was really loud, I would have never imagined that a dust cap could make that much noise!!! It must be a cheap Chinese cap because no matter how much I push it onto the spindle (Mustang II) it still comes off very easy. I even used a pipe that has the same outside diameter as the cap to hammer to the cap on there. Once it bottoms out I just "tap" it lightly and it falls off. I'll probably have to get another one.

The next project is to get a smaller steering wheel modified to work with the current steering column!! I'll have plenty of pics on how I accomplish this task.

Treblig

[Treblig]

Well today I finally got around to addressing the steering wheel issue. When I first started this project one of the big items on my "to do" list was to install a smaller steering wheel. Since the car now has power steering the school bus wheel is no longer necessary. I received many suggestions on what other wheels would fit and input about after market wheels as well. But my daughter loved the look of the old Stude wheel and didn't want me to replace it with anything newer or fancier/modern. Fortunately SDC member "Garrilla" offered to send me his Lark wheel at no cost to me. It was extremely generous of him but I still sent him some money. The wheel is 16" as opposed to 18" but still retains the old Stude looks.
Unfortunately it's designed a little different so I'll have to make some modifications to make it work:



This is a pic of the backside of the original '59 Silver Hawk wheel. You'll notice that it has a bronze or brass semi-circle attached to the hub. This semi-circle returns the signal switch to the neutral position when you turn the wheel:


The Lark wheel doesn't have a semi-circular bronze ring. It cancels the signal via a spring that clips onto the hub. It also has the horn ring which I don't need on the '59 column because I'm using the '59 horn set up:.




Once the spring ring and the horn ring have been removed you're left with the bare hub:




This swap would have been really easy and cheap "if" the hubs were the same size but as it turns out the Lark hub is smaller by 1/8". So even if I could some how remove the semi-circular bronze collar it still wouldn't fit on the Lark hub. So I have two choices.....first, I could try and remove the bronze collar and have a sleeve made for the Lark hub or...I could make a drawing of the part I need to press fit onto the Lark hub. I need the original wheel to drive the car so I picked option number 2. I drew a rough sketch of the part I need and got my son (who's studying to be an Engineer) to draw a proper blueprint for the machine shop:



My plan is to spend around $100 to get this part machined so I can heat it with my propane torch and press fit it onto the Lark hub/wheel. Luckily the hubs are exactly the same height and are located exactly the same with relation to all the other wheel components. The machinist should be able to bore out a bronze sleeve then cut the notch out on a milling machine. I could do this myself if I had a machine shop at my disposal but alas....I'm poor!!


I know that replacement "original" type smaller wheels are very expensive and I needed the money for all the other expenses on the car. I also know that many Stude owners would like to have a smaller wheel without spending and arm and a leg so this scheme of mine should help at least one person???

PS - Does anyone out there know how the semi-circular bronze ring is held or attached to the Silver Hawk wheel hub???????????????? It almost looks like it was brazed on there?????

treblig

[Treblig]

I completely forgot about the other things I'm working on. I ordered the driver seat "tilt" mechanism but I'm not real sure how it's supposed to be attached to the seat?? I can weld but this looks like cast or pot metal which isn't easily welded?? Has anyone ever replaced this part on a '59 Silver Hawk or similar car???:





I also ordered (direct from China!!) and received the 90 degree pipe to replace the upper radiator hose which is now too long since moving the radiator towards the rear. There are no hoses the correct length so I'll use two short straight 1 1/2" hoses and use this piece to make the turn:




treblig