Good Studebaker day.

Made some major progress on my current '58 Hawk>'53 coupe project.

Removed the rear bumper and the two valance panels. Had to use the acetylene torch to persuade the bumper bolts to undo, but had to cut none.

I then proceeded to remove the rear quarter panels. I figured "might as well" have them off and rust-proof the inner quarters, etc. Those "might-as-wells" will getcha every time.

Before I removed the quarters, I took a 1/8" drill and drilled dowel holes, or witness marks, if you will, through the quarter panel mounting flanges at few different points, so the quarters can be re-installed in exactly the same position as they were originally, seeing as they appeared to fit well. None of these holes are in places that will be visible when the car is assembled. I'll probably use 1/8" pop rivets in them when I reattach the quarters.

Woo-hoo, ZERO rust-through revealed when the quarters came off. Just a little powdery surface rust. There was a small dent in the back of the RH quarter, I worked out most of it, and the body guy can finish it off.

Yesterday was a snow day here, so I went to Calgary, and did some shopping for tools etc. One item brought back was one of those folding work stands for doing body work on loose panels. It came in handy. I scraped all the remaining hardened undercoating off the inner side of the quarters, and out of the wheel wells. Some I scraped off dry, some I used a heat gun or torch to soften and then scrape. Depends on how thick the stuff is, and where it is as to which works best. Once all the crap was off, I used rags soaked in the "forbidden solvent" to remove the residue.

Then I got out the sandblaster, and did the underside of the roof in part, the trunk interior in part, and all of the RH inner quarter / wheelwell. The sun was low in the sky by this time, and you need a good light for sandblasting, so I quit that, and got out the POR 15, and painted the entire RH inner quarter area, and as much of the frame rail as I could reach from there. Looking good!

I did find a little rust-through in the trunk gasket channels, but it's very minor; I think a narrow strip of fiberglass mat glommed in with POR-15 will take care of it.

So nice to work on a car, that aside from the floor, is basically rust-free.

I took a bunch of digital pics, but have yet to download them.

Gord Richmond

Reply to
Gordon Richmond
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every time.

different points, so

You might want to consider temporary fasteners such as:

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I use the things all the time if I'm looking for an accurate fit.

tools etc.

off the inner

is, and where

in the sky

got out the

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

I've got Clecos, JT. The purpose of these alignment holes is simply so I can reinstall the quarter panel in the exact same location as it lived for last 49 years. It was right when I got it, so I figured that would be a simple way of ensuring that it doesn't shift on the bolt holes when I reassemble the car.

Gord Richmond

Reply to
Gordon Richmond

reinstall the

shift on the

Update:

Got more work done today. Sandblasted the inner side of the roof, and most of the inner parts of the window frames. Also sandblasted the inner side of the firewall, and some exterior areas, and some of the floor, too. The inner roof and firewall I consider to be done. Got both doors off, not without busting 6 of the 7 screws in the lower hinges, and that despite heating the screws red hot with the acetylene torch. No biggie, as I'm going to use coupe doors anyhow, but I have that problem to look forward to when i get them off the coupe.

The old seam sealer was dried up and curled, so I've chipped and torched off any of it that seals joints leading to the exterior, and will renew it after shooting DP40 on the sandblasted metal.

The wind came up something fierce, so I had to quit sandblasting. I did get a couple yards of gravel moved into the floor of my new shop with the tractor and loader before calling it a day.

I'll have to go buy a few more sacks of sand. Looks like another day of sandblasting will get me where I want to be. I tried sweeping up used sand from the floor of the car and recycling it, screening it through fly screen, but it was so darn slow as to be scarcely worth the trouble, and I got a clog in the nozzle despite the screening. Easier to "waste" the sand, I guess.

Gord Richmond

Reply to
Gordon Richmond

Gord-

I also found some fairly minor rust through in this channel of my GT, and used that method of repair. You might want to try the silver POR 15 for this project, it has some fibers in it which thicken it and make it a good match with fiberglass matt strips, as it does not run as readily as the black product. I used it with fiberglass where the channel had rusted through, and painted the entire channel with black POR 15 before the car was painted.

It seems like most of this rust problem could have been avoided if Studebaker had installed the gasket in the trunk lid rather than the channel, as they did in the Larks. Maybe they'll do it differently on the next production run. :-)

Dave Mc

Reply to
The Other Dave

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