Gram's 27

[danoz]

Hi all new member to AACA, and the forums. what led me here is we recently lost our beloved mother, she lived a long wonderful life. and she was a car gal from way back. when it came time for the services we honored her with a grand traditional irish funeral and mass, music, lots of green flowers, bagpipes the whole nine yards. when preparing going through old pictures etc., i came across "her plate" i had restored her 74 maverick probably 30 years ago now,she loved it  two tone white and blue , blue vinyl top and new blue interior. i had made her a hand lettered front plate in gold leaf with simply "Gram" i knew i had saved that plate, it went on to her next two and last car before she stopped driving, everybody knew and remembered that plate. 

 

i decided i would mount the plate on my buddies 1930 model A i had restored probably 8-9 years ago she loved that car and had always told me she wanted to go for a ride in it when her legs got better. that never happened so i took the A to the wake where every body could see the plate and car and i led the funeral procession to bourne national cemetery, one last ride.

 

when it was all over i couldnt get out of my mind i wanted to do a 27 in honor of her birth date 4-19-1927 and give the plate a permanent home to be mounted. i figured what a great way to honor her, pass the car to my kids then theirs, and when the story of gram's 27 will be told her memory lives on and not forgotten.

 

so now to the car! i started looking for 27's had a couple appointments to look at two T's, them i bumped into a 1927 Studebaker EU 4dr sedan. the more i researched the Stude's the more i wanted one. i cancelled the T appointments, i was lucky i picked up that 27 in Connecticut , a unfinished project that had been well taken care for 4 decades by this previous steward. the car had alot of work done to it back in the 80's then stalled when it came to body paint and interior. engine rebuilt by a local old timer long since passed, complete rebuild, bored, aluminum pistons, babbitt etc etc. chassis completely rebuilt from bearings to brakes, tranny, clutch, new tires up on blocks would only set her down when switching bays in his garage. she fired right up sounded sweet, lots of chrome already redipped, rebuilt refaced  gauges, new glass, restored and painted parts i was impressed. wood has been done lower only top wood is in outstanding shape, some metal work on cowl and rear body all which i inspected and will pass, lower front doors will need to be done over it was out of the bodyguy's skill set back in the 80's i will reskin them from lower bead down. overall i couldnt be happier, only drawback i didnt take it apart and this is my first Stude so a learning curve is expected, but we've all done it before. so far all parts are supposed to be there with exception to inner door handles he never received them with car.

 

so this 27 has a new proud owner and a new name, from now on it will be "Gram's 27". she raised 7 children i'm the youngest, 8 grandchildren, 9 great grandchild's. the last 30+ years of her career she was a professional nanny and raised two additional families children basically from birth to college. known by so many as gram.

 

sorry for the long rant but it's another car story and it's how i got here, looking forward to getting to know the studebaker family. if it ever stops raining in mass i will be able to bring her home!