Welding / Grinding / Painting!!!

Well it was the long Memorial Day weekend and I started to get the frame ready for painting. Lots of welding & grinding going on!

First thing I did was weld in my rear leaf spring adapters. These will allow me to use a simple 1/2" bolt to hold in the rear leaf springs versus the proprietary Studebaker bolt that was attaching them previously.

When the car was subframed with the Camaro front end, the previous owner did a real hack job with a torch, cutting off the front of the Studebaker frame. I decided to clean it up a bit before painting.
All three severly hacked spots cleaned up with sheet metal.

Passenger's side cleaned up.Driver's side cleaned up.

Frame was then primed with POR-15. This was the first coat of primer. I'll flip the frame over and prime underneith and any spots I may have missed next.

I realized that the spring that would pull the brake pedal back into position after being pressed was originally hooked around the hacked off frame. I quickly fabbed up a new spring mount that looks a little better as shown here.

Sandblasting The Frame is DONE!

The frame has been completely sandblasted! Now it will be prepped for paint. 1 coat of POR15 and 2 coats of Stirling Silver! I'll hopefully clean up some of the poor frame hacking that was done when the '69 camaro front end was welded on to the Studebaker frame.

Leaf springs have been dropped off at ThruWay spring to be trued up.... lets hope they don't break them when bending them back into shape..... after all, they are 68 years old!

New Used Engine - Chevy 350!

I posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a Chevy 350. This is what I found for $250 bucks :) 65k miles on it when it was pulled from the mid 80's Chevy Suburban. We found a reman sticker on the engine, so it may have even less than 65k!

I'll use some engine cleaner to clean it, and then repaint the engine. Possibly install a Comp THUMPR cam, new lifters, and new valve springs. It came complete with Starter, Alternator, and Power Steering Pump!

Sandblasting The Frame Has Begun!

I setup my carport in the back corner of my lot. This is going to serve as my sandblasting tent for any of the larger pieces I have. Since the sandblasting process will be rather dusty, this will hopefully keep the dust as far away from my house and my neighbors house.
Frame fits perfectly in the car port with plenty of room to walk around all 4 sides. Sawhorses keep it raised up high enough to work on without having to bend over and strain your back.

It's going to be a very slow going process, but it is coming out nicely. I'm borrowing my neighbors sandblasting equipment, my compressor JUST keeps up. Takes a while to keep picking up the sand and reusing it.

Cleaning Up The Front of the Frame!

When they subframed the car, they litterally shortened the frame by hacking it off with a blow torch. I decided to clean it up a bit using a cutoff wheel on my grinder.

New Rims! Chrome Cragars!

Poking thru the auto parts section of Craigslist as I do on a daily basis, I found these Chrome Cragar rims. The guy was asking $80 without the centercaps. After talking to him on the phone, he decided to throw the center caps in. When I went to look at them, I surprised at how good of condition the rims were in. Some slight pitting but with a little wax they will look pretty damn good. ESPECIALLY for the $50 he took for them :) Can't beat that deal! Fronts came with decent tread BFGoodrich tires, 7" wide. Rears are 8" wide and I'll need to find some tires for those. May have to widen the rear fenders to get them to fit properly.

Taking Apart the Chevy 12 Bolt Rearend!

I received this rearend free from a guy in my car club. Very good shape, but I noticed it was leaking from the pinion seal. We pulled the pinion seal and realized the inner and outter pinion bearings were going to need replacing. With this being said, we dismantled the rearend.
When I was welding on the spring perches, I must have heated up the axle too much on one side and the bearing started to grind. New bearings for the pinion and axles were purchased.

Differential & pinion shaft waiting for re-assembly.

Backing plates removed. These will visit the sandblasting cabinets soon and get repainted with some POR15, as will the entire rearend.

Empty rearend waiting for sandblasting and repainting.