1953 Studebaker / Studillac project...

[53 Studillac]

I don't want to bore y'all with a lot of editorial and no pics but bear with me. Hope its worth the read!
Like a lot of Studebaker folks, it's just in my blood. My grandfather bought a new 1950 half ton pickup
because the Chevy dealer had sold out, and well here I am! When I was a kid back in the mid 70s I
remember helping (more like watching) my dad as he built a 327 Chevy engine to put in that same
truck that his dad had bought back in 1950. I drove it to school some, eventually wrecking, sub-framing,
and eventually parking in a field. That poor old truck would have been better off if dad had not let me
drive it. I loved it and the facts that it was pretty quick and drew a lot of attention had me hooked on
Studebakers, Chevys, and hot-rodding. I learned a lot while swapping parts and adding the Trans-Am
front clip. I went to college and had other obligations so the truck got parked. Today it remains parked
in a shed in the back yard awaiting another chance to be on the road. Someday?

Dad has always been on the lookout for Studebakers and has been a member of the Studebaker Driver's
Club for as long as I remember. I got to see a lot of Studebaker cars in the pages of Turning Wheels,
their monthly magazine. Currently dad has four nice drivable Studebakers, 1950 and 1952 pickups, a
1950 1.5 ton truck and a 1965 Cruiser. The 1950 pickup is red and all original with a Champion six and
overdrive. The 1952 is black and has a 259 Studebaker V8 with a T5 transmission and air conditioning.
The 1950 big truck has a 289 Studebaker V8 with a truck 5 speed and a big custom flatbed. His Cruiser
originally came with a 283 Chevy engine and has been upgraded to a 300 horsepower 327 Chevy engine
with the original automatic trans. There have been many cars over the years that I have wanted, but a
53 or 54 hardtop was always high on the list. When I saw Jack Chisenhall?s Cool 200 car in Hot Rod
magazine, I knew that was the car I wanted. I actually called him and talked for a while and even got an autographed poster in the mail from him with best wished on my project! Mom had it framed for me and
it's been on the wall ever since.

I worked my way through school and finally graduated from Mississippi State University in 1999 with a
BS degree in Mechanical Engineering. While still in school, I began looking for a decent car, under-
standing that I should probably not cut up a nice original. I found a 1956 Skyhawk on eBay in Arizona
and bought it. The car had sat a long time in an impound yard with the windows broken out. I was
hoping the arid climate would provide me some rust free floors. They were in decent shape, but the
car would need several patch panels. Over the next couple of years I bought a 1954 Champion Starlight
coupe for the front cap and another 1954 Starliner shell from Houston, TX. At that point I had a yard
full of cheap, junked Studebakers. But when I got out of school and had a good paycheck I wanted
instant gratification! I realize this is a flaw of my generation. I found a 1953 Champion Starliner that
had already been hot rodded listed on eBay in Houston, TX. It looked amazingly like the Vintage Air
car I had been dreaming about. The car had a 500 Cadillac, TH400, 9" Ford drivetrain, which was not
exactly what I wanted, but being different was interesting. Four wheel disc brakes, Vintage Air AC,
leather interior, digital dash, smoothed firewall and slick as glass black paint all added to the smile on
my face. Twice I was the high bidder, but both times the auction did not meet the man's reserve.
Finally we agreed offline to a price and I headed westward with a trailer. I had asked the man if I could
fly out and drive the car home. He assured me that I could, but hesitated declaring that it had never even
been wet since it was painted four years earlier! The car was very clean and amazingly rust free and was
only showing 460 miles on the digital odometer! The floors were as rust free as I had ever seen on a
Studebaker! Remember that he said that it would have made the 500 plus mile trip. I drove the car around
the block and all seemed well, but the alternator wasn't charging. No problem as I had a trailer with me
so we loaded her up and I wrote him a check. And coincidentally he had the same Cool 200 poster on his
shop wall! Finally on July 3rd, 2004, I had my Studebaker hardtop!

Dwayne

[TheSilverBuick]

Golden! That thing is clean. So what have you done to or with it in the last five years??

[JOES66FURY]

...damn....got to go change my pants now...

[53 Studillac]

All was well for a time, even though the car was running hot, and eating alternators and electric fans
like candy I was having a blast winning car shows and enjoying my new hot rod. But the hot rodder
in me wanted more. As time went by the more I found little things that drove me crazy. I couldn't
drive around with rear seat passengers or the exhaust and driveshaft would scrub. I never got more
than 20 miles away from home without the engine temp hitting 230s. It was always something. But
this was my dream car and I had to fix the nightmare! I drove the car for two years changing almost
everything except the engine to get it to run cooler with no luck. Over that time I also had to rebuild
the rear axle. A mid sump 425 pan had been used and in high vacuum situations it sucked up against
the 500 crank and sounded like a rod knock, which wasn't very impressive when cruising either! But
the straw that broke the camel's back was a trip I had to shorten because the temp was at 270! After
a cool down I drove it home and began an epic tear down and rebuild. It was exactly 2 years to the
day after purchasing the car. July 3rd, 2006.

I was tired of lying in coolant looking up at stuff I didn't like, so finally I decided the only way for me to
truly be happy with the car was to start over or sell it. And selling it wasn't really going to cure my itch...
Being a fairly well read hot rodder I had good ideas of what I wanted changed. At first the engine was
on the chopping block in favor of a BBC. But everyone at the car shows just liked the Caddy power so
that I decided to leave it, a decision that I often regret! All the parts of this car just kinda blend together
so the project steamrolled.

First on the list was more power. I found Potter Automotive (aka Cadillac Performance Parts) in Soddy
Daisy, TN and decided to go with one of their engines. They recommended a girdle on the mains for over
600hp which required a different oil pan with more clearance. The car already had a MII front suspension
copied from a FatMan front stub, but my existing oil pan was almost riding on the rack not to mention
the 1 7/8 header tubes needed hammer dings to miss the upper a-arm pivots. These issues led me to
order up a new frame stub with changes to remedy the clearance issues. The front stub was attached
high on the frame to get a low ride height with stock spindles. So I ordered a new FatMan stub with the
center dropped 2" with plans to run 2" dropped spindles to get the same ride height and giving me a LOT
more oil pan clearance. I also got the a-arms moved out 5/8" each side for more header room and am
running narrowed a-arms to retain the track. I discovered later that the narrowed arms wouldn't work
with the FatMan top spring hats so I converted to coil overs. In the end I am changing this again to have
shockwaves all around...still working on that one... After all was worked out I was able to move the engine
back a little farther and lower in the chassis also with plenty of clearance. If I were doing it all over today
I probably would have cut into the firewall to move the engine back even farther.

With a lot of time to think about what I was going to do and little money, I modeled the entire chassis in 3d.
This comes in very handy when I contemplate changes and I can generate patterns for my parts....

Dwayne

[seanm]

Don't let Dwayne's modesty fool you guys. This Stude is one serious quality piece that he has invested several years of work and talent into.

[53 Studillac]

The next item that needed changing was the rear suspension and tire combo. For the same reasons as
not cutting the firewall I didnt want to chop on the wheeltubs or floors too much but I wanted as large
a rear tire was would fit in the stock wheel wells. I also wanted a 3" exhaust to the back bumper so I had
to keep that in mind while changing the suspension. Originally the dream was C4 suspension but the
reality plan was to keep it simple. So after a lot of measuring and CAD time I developed a 3 link rear
suspension that mounts 285-60-16 tires on 16x9.5 rims in the wheel wells with ample clearance. The
rims I chose are appropriately American Racing Salt Flat Specials with 15x6 used on the front. I have
retained the stock frame rails, just replacing the rear shock crossmember with a heavier shockwave
crossmember. I decided on the shockwaves after seeing how much the car sagged in the back with
passengers and having plans for pulling a small trailer and toting luggage on the Power Tour. I ordered
the wheels and tires and positioned them in place to measure for the braced Strange 9". My suspension
uses BMR adjustable lower control arms for the 4th gen Camaro along with a custom wishbone single
top arm that should allow for axle pivot but retain the axle side to side so I won't need a panhard bar.
I also built a rear adjustable anti-roll bar so the suspension can be pre-loaded as needed to keep the
car going straight when I finally make it to a track. We'll just have to see how it works when I finally
drive the car...

And yes if you haven't noticed I am building this car with minimal tools under an open carport...
Whatever it takes man!

Dwayne

ps. Thanks Sean, nice to be among friends over here already!

[milner351]

NIIIIIICE!

[SuperBuickGuy]

Love it!!!!

Did you ever figure out the overheating issue? I ask because I've heard that putting the 425 heads on the 500 block without drilling the steam holes in the block will cause the overheating issue (which is something I'm doing with my Studebaker).

[White Monster]

Keep the story board going Dwayne ...
Awesome job !
;)

[TheSilverBuick]

*whistles* where is the drooling smiley?