Spent some more quality time on the old Flxible motor coach today, and yesterday, too. Finally got done the tearing-down in the present work area, and got into building up. Welded a piece of 1 1/2" square steel tubing into the lower channel of the crossmember supporting the front end of the spare tire carrier (and also the floor and outer wall, not that they matter).
Got the outer end of that crossmember securely tied in to the threshold of the spare tire carrier, and to the vertical rib that supports both inner and outer skins.
There is a stringer that runs between the above-mentioned rib and the front wheel well, on the same plane as the interior floor. This piece was quite loose owing to it having rusted away from the inner floor support rail AND the mid-level skin piece. I pulled the skin back and peered inside, and found a whole mess of water-warped corrugated cardboard, apparently factory insulation. Spent an hour or more dragging that crap out with a wire hook, until the remainder was well-distanced from the area I'd be welding to secure the stringer. Don't need a fire inside the wall!
Once the fire hazard was eliminated, I was able to weld the skin to the stringer, and then weld a piece of light steel angle to bridge between the back lower edge of the stringer and the outer floor support rail. Makes that area into a structural box again; good for body stiffness.
Next step in the process is to do the square tubing splint job on the crossmember between the wheel well and the one I just finished; then get in and POR-15 all the areas that will be hard to reach once the new inner skin piece goes in there.
To get back on-topic, I made a road trip Wednesday - Friday, with the intent of fetching a pair of '39 and '40 Champion body shells from a storage yard in Grande Prairie. I got as far as Mayerthorpe, and got a cellphone call from the fellow who was selling them to me. He'd been in touch with the new owners of the storage yard, and they wanted $125 per month, per car, storage charges, back-dated to January. He told the clowns, "Well, you are now proud owners of two scrap Studebakers." While I'm disappointed to miss out on a few parts, there's no way I'd pay $1000 storage to get body shells with at best a hundred bucks worth of salvageable parts. Getting that phone call saved me a day's driving and a hundred-buck tank of fuel, on what would have been a wild-goose chase.
Anyway, I got some quality visiting done, and scored a Morris Minor rear spring, which will yield up some 1 1/2" leaf spring stock to enable me to beef up the front springs in my little Crosley.
Gord Richmond