And you thought STUDEBAKERS got rusty...

I wish I knew how many cars provide parts for most of my restorations. I know the 57 Golden Hawk I did was built from at least a half dozen. Hood overlay off one, one front fender off another, rear quarters off a third and so on. The R2 GT Hawk may well be as many. For example, I don't know how many cars the replated chrome I've been buying came off of, nor how many cars donated parts before I bought the car.

Bob wrote:

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John Poulos
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Grumpy AuContraire wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@GrumpyvilleNOT.com:

We lived in the Kansas City area when my parents owned Studebakers. Now our cars were usually not more than 2 or 3 years old, but I do not remember seeing one speck of rust on any of them. They were garaged at night, but given no special cleaning treatment.

Reply to
Dwain G.

We lived in the Kansas City area when my parents owned Studebakers. Now they were usually only kept 2 or 3 years, but I don't remember ever seeing one speck of rust on any of these cars. Garaged at night, but no special cleaning treatment given.

Reply to
Dwain G.

From a forensic point of view, a ghost image of the original stamping probably remains long after the original is unreadable. Some very anal customer probably would be pissed...

JT

(Not at all that fussy but others may be..)

John Poulos wrote:

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Grumpy AuContraire

I intent to inform the buyer about how the car was restored with pix of both the donor and wrecked body. I did the same with a 66 Corvair Turbo a body shop wizard worked on. I gave him a rust free coupe body thinking he'd cut out patch panels. When I went to check on the car, I noticed the front tires were the nasty ones off the donor car, same with the dash and steering wheel. He'd cut off the back third of the turbo at a factory seam just in front of the back seat and welded on the front

2/3rds of the coupe. He cut the top off, even replicated the rag top header and moved the hog troughs and chassis braces over. Since the vin was in the engine section that was saved, that stayed. The new owner has won a bunch of trophies with the car and even the Corvair experts could not find a hint that it was two cars welded together. I gave him all the pictures from the body shop so he could show the sceptics how the car was saved. BTW, the Corvair judges agreed that it was a restoration and nicely done.

Grumpy AuC> From a forensic point of view, a ghost image of the original stamping

Reply to
John Poulos

I bought a '62 Fairlane in Buffalo from the little old man who bought it new. I was in high school, and he had all the original papers, with his name on them. Sharp car, black over red interior. He claimed it had

16K miles on it, the odometer said 16K, and the repair record (every receipt since new) said 16K. This was maybe 1971 or 72. Except for a cracked exhaust on the little six it ran great. I didn't get two blocks and the brakes went to the floor. Pulled into a garage, they put it on a lift, and Oh man, I,ve never seen rust like that. Everything destroyed. The steel brake line let go. We just replaced that one line (I was mopping floors for money at the time) got the brakes to work and drove it to the junk yard. Good news is I paid $100,which I thought was a steal. The frame was so thin I expected it to break in half. I think I got maybe $30 from the wrecking yard. And a good lesson.

KM

Reply to
kelmbaker

That's far too much effort for me but routine for others.

I know that a lot of coupes (all makes) from the thirties ended up as convertibles when both were plentiful and becoming desirable.

I haven't followed the Corvair much lately and when last checked a few years ago, these cars were not bringing a whole lot of dough. Is this still the case?

JT

John Poulos wrote:

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Grumpy AuContraire

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John Poulos

My '53 is built up out of several cars. About 75% of the body tub is original along with the hood and rear bumper. Right hand side of the trunk came from a parts car, rear panel, floors, and rockers were new metal. Deck lid and RF fender off a different parts car, each rear fender from yet two other different cars, doors from yet another car. LF fender yet another. Front bumper yet another. Various other smaller parts and trim from some of the same and yet other cars. Would not be suprised if >20 cars contributed in some way. The frame needed fixing but it is original and the SSN is still there and matches the door post tag.

Jeff in ND

John Poulos wrote:

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JH

Reply to
John Poulos

A friend has two T-Cabs, one a 1/2 ton and the other, a 3/4 ton. The half ton is what he wants to get on the road but the cab is in terrible shape while the 3/4 ton has a real decent cab.

Looks like there will be a serial number swap in the wings here as it would be foolhardy to fix the 1/2 ton cab and a number of 3/4 ton stuff will be for sale...

JT

John Poulos wrote:

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Grumpy AuContraire

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John Poulos

Reply to
Jessie J.

No frame in those Mopars

Reply to
Jessie J.

been biting my tongue on this thread but can't hold back any more. either nobuddy here lived in the rust-belt, or you're too young (or too old) to remember rusty Studes before we all got busy glueing them together.

NOTHING American rusted worse than a 53-66 Stude. I can barely remember our '50, but seems to me it held up pretty well. But the '55 President hardtop was an education. I can remember its annual trip to the dealer to have the front & rear fenders patched and the heater tube replaced. and not when it was an old car - we got rid of it in the Fall of '61 and it only had 50,000 miles on it. That's when we got one of the first GT Hawks in Cleveland.....can still hear the salesman going on about the "perfected" rustproofing. It was totally rusted out (front & rear fenders, trunk floor & rockers) by Spring of '63......think it only had the body redone twice because my parents were so disgusted - 'specially when the seats split. Got rid of it for a '66 Riviera - and got $200 trade-in.

While I'm raving:

Mopar - Plydodges were always tinnie......DeChryslers were built like tanks until '57 when they all went to hell. Then when they went to unibodies - wow. Had a girlfriend with an early Duster......sure spent a lot of time looking for metal to relocate everthing dangling loose under the hood onto.

FoMoCo......average or above. They had problems with the frame torque boxes in '65;;;;every now and then you'd see one going down the street dragging the side rails on the ground......but that was when they were 10+ years old. They were weird with their unibodies........when they were on 3 year body cycles for the T-Bird and Continental, the first two years would be loaded with rustproofing on all the inner panels......then none on the 3rd year of the body.

Packards.......probably better than average - nobuddy took care of them when they stopped making them......front fenders on the '56 were apparently designed by Stude, tho.

Hudsons.....couldn't make them rust.......'51-'55 Kaisers, too.

Nash/Ramblers.......always seemed to hold up well, until the front suspension came flying thru the hood when the aprons rusted thru!

And in case anyone is still reading this - remember FIATS???? Probably the only major brand that rivaled Stude for tin worm. About the only ones that didn't rust were the ones consumed by fire when the fuel lines broke because the engines bounced around so much.

There used to be a cute little 950 Spyder in our neighborhood.......always parked in the same spot down the street. This was when it was only a couple years old......the body appeared pristine. Then I noticed that it never moved......a couple months went by and the tires started going flat.....I kept wondering why it was being neglected.......until I noticed that the entire floor.....seats, tunnel and all .....were on the ground under the car!

now I'll shut up.

Reply to
I'm Nowizer

donor.................................................... Jessie J.wrote

I wrote a long reply the first time, but I'm out of practice posting here, and my computer ate it. One of the reasons that I prefer Studebaker's is that they DO have a real frame, though oft maligned, they are better than the "tin-foil" unibody construction that was employed by most of the brand-X compacts during the '60s and '70s. My last Dart rusted out so bad that the rear springs came up through the trunk floor.

Jessie J. '64 Daytona 2dr HT Strato Blue, (unrestored driver) '64 Daytona 2dr HT Bordeux Red, (frame off in progress) '64 Daytona 2dr HT Golden Sand, (compete but rusty, parts car) '64 Daytona 2dr HT Bordeux Red, (waiting for me to get around to it) '62 Lark 2dr sedan blue " " " " " " " " '62 Champ SWB copper " " " " " " " " '48 M-5 1/4 Ton "patina".....original title still in the original buyers name, and original bill of sale ($1356 total) from J.C Steinman Inc. Studebaker of Toledo Ohio

Reply to
Jessie J.

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