A good Studebaker day in Trochu.
- Got set of tires mounted on "the spare Suburban". The used ones off the #1 Suburban. At least now, hopefully, I won't have to air 'em up every week or so, thus leaving more time to devote to Studebakers.
- I set up the manual tire changer I bought a week ago at Princess Auto. Typical made-in-China junk, but cheap enough that I couldn't resist it. I bolted it to a large sheet of 1/8" steel plate left over from another project. So I CAN move it around, but I have a "floor" to stand on while working the tire iron. I soon discovered that the floppy stud provided to anchor the wheel against rotation was too thick to go through the lug holes, and ill-placed as well. Out came the cutting torch, and the little piece of channel iron that held it captive to the underside of the table was gone, and the stud with it. I also used the torch to lengthen the slot inward toward the center about an inch. A used Chevy 6.2 Diesel head bolt (got a million of 'em) dropped down through the lug hole and the slot serves very nicely to lock the rim against rotation. KISS principle in action.
I didn't actually mount any tires today, but I did use the bead breaker. My 2R truck chassis, with box on it yet, serves as a scrap metal bin, and it had several flats. Left front is 15" Buick rim, with a tubeless tire on it. It was losing air because the valve stem was broken. I busted down the bead, knocked out the bad valve stem, and inserted one salvaged from a loose rim. It's been holding air for a few hours now.
The right rear is a stock 16" Stude truck rim, and that tire was flat because the inner tube was punctured. I busted down the bead, pulled the tube out, and stuck in a
15" tube I had lying around. This thing isn't going on the road, BTW. Aired that one up, and it's still holding air, too.Looks like the manual tire machine is a success, once I fixed the anti-rotation anchor. It's worthwhile for me to have, since I'm 3 miles from town, so getting a tire fixed is a bit of a chore. Nice to be able to fix one or two flats right on the spot, or to simply bust garbage tires off rims to dispose of them.
- Tire work completed, I got back to welding floor patches in my '58 Silver Hawk that is to be restored as a '53 Commander coupe. I have now finished the entire section of the right side floor forward of the heater box and seat mounts. I figure that's at least a third of the needed repairs, as the left side is much less rusted. I have about a one square foot area in the rear on the right side, and about twice that on the left remaining to do. I've been using pieces of metal salvaged from the floor of a scrapped 2R truck cab, and from other cut-up Hawks. That way, I can place ribs where the factory placed ribs. This sort of fell apart in the area just outboard of the body-to-frame bolt just forward of the heater well, but elsewhere, the ribs indeed do look factory. Once insulation and carpets are in place, no one will see the floors anyhow. I've got pictures of this job up at: and will add a couple tonight. Looks like I will have to add one piece of hat channel to the underside of the floor to stiffen a piece that tends to "oilcan" when I stand on it. Otherwise, the repaired area is rock-solid, even if it does look like a patchwork quilt. It probably would have been easier to use Classic Enterprises patch panels, but I wasn't on the ball enough to order them. Anyway, the hardest part is now done.
- Once I was done welding for the evening, I fired up the bead blasting cabinet, and cleaned up a Lucas distributor for a buddy's Triumph Spitfire. The mechanical advance was seized; got that fixed, and I THINK I've also managed to fix a high-resistance connection at the primary terminal. The primary terminal was getting too hot to touch. Weird. I also glass-beaded a Studebaker starter armature, and an old 120/240 volt transformer I had lying around, just because it was there. Done for the night, now.
Gord Richmond