nvonada

Good to hear! We would love to see pictures of the project...

On my 41 Champion it was on the passenger side between one of the motor mount bracket bolts and the frame crossmember. No idea if that is the right place or if your Dictator had it in a similar location.

A 6V relay could be hidden up front and then none of your light current will go though the headlight switch. I am putting a Lark Works harness in my car as well and I am considering it. Even if the relay is under the dash it would still reduce the load on the 80 year old switch. I bought some 6V yellow scooter turn signals I am going to try mounting behind the grille for turn indicators. Not sure if that will work out yet. Nathan

I can imagine but I don't have to . This was my pan. The sludge was 1/2" thick...

Nice car! If you do drop the pan realize it that the oil pan gasket is a huge PITA on an engine stand. I can't imagine doing it in the car. If you do remove the pan any competent welder should be able to weld a new boss in there. Or use the self-tapping plug. Nathan

I picked up a copy last year. It is very nicely done. They must have printed a LOT of these...

Even without a compression boost the extra octane lets you advance the timing which helps. I am running mine a few degrees ahead of what the book says.

Wow. That last one looks like someone went after it with a backhoe!

I found the John Deere "Corn Head" lube grease in tubes at the local dealer. I keep it in my least-favorite grease gun and just squirt it in. Do the same with the front knuckles of my Jeepster. I think they were around $4 each.

My 41 calls for hypoid lube. I am not sure when Stude started using Dana axles though. I use standard 80/90 gear lube and it seems happy. OK, I should have read the post more carefully Sorry...

I am impressed you are doing it with the engine in the car!

You might get lucky. On my car if the dipstick rotated to a certain angle it will hit a crank counterweight when the engine is hot. Sounds just like a rod knock. I about had a heart attack! Now there is a line painted on the dipstick to keep that from happening...

I am so glad nobody was hurt. It seems to me worse cars are pulled out of barns and fields and restored all the time. I am surprised your insurance is not for an "agreed upon value". If that were the case they would just write you a check and walk away. They still might be willing to do that... Nathan

You will need a parts book (both chassis and body). A lot of what you need is available but some will be hard to find. I think I have a horn stashed and maybe some of the other parts. The plastic parts like the shifter handle used to be reproduced by Shrock Brothers but they have closed up shop. I think someone has the inventory and molds, check on the SDC boards. The SDC site also has links to a bunch of vendors. Not sure why your wiring is disposable, but wiring harnesses are reproduced too. Just bought one for mine.

Gary, I had not seen that closeup of the carbs. The throttle linkage is a work of art! I also like the low-tech choke cable solution. Nathan

If all else fails Apple Hydraulics will rebuild them for $275 a pop. https://www.applehydraulicsonline.com/collections/studebaker-lever-shocks.

If it were me I would get it running and not change a thing. Except taking off those turn signals on the fenders. And maybe the windshield... Great find!

Two quarts seems like a lot. Can you feel it if you stick your finger in there? If it were running out past the axle seals you would have seen it by now.

Sorry, my car is a 41. But the wheel mounting is the same!

I went back through my notes and could not find the ohm range. I sure wish I had measured that! I am pretty sure the gauge is just measuring the resistance between the two terminals. The gauge has two terminals marked 1 and 2 and those are connected directly to terminal 1 and 2 on the sender. In the factory harness the 1 wire was black/red and the 2 wire was black. Both were 16ga wires. The base plate should be grounded as well. At the factory they just assumed it would ground though the fuel tank but if you are painting everything you should run a separate ground wire to one of the bolts holding the sender in.

Engine pans are often missing, mechanics would remove them and just leave them off. It took me a while to get a complete set for my car.

Coils tend to be OK. Mine is at least 35 years old and could be 80 and still works fine. Wires, points, caps, rotors, and plugs are the big ones and you can get those. If the coil is bad any 6-V coil should work but if you have that armored cable from the key going to the coil it may have no place to attach to. Here is a screenshot from a scanned 1939 AutoLite catalog I have, might help in the parts search.

+1 on the simple stuff. Even with a couple of weak cylinders the car should idle and run well, you will just not get as much power. And yours look pretty good. Check your ignition, then check ignition again, then maybe start messing with the carb after you check ignition.

Your 37 wheel is probably very similar to my 41. You do need a puller, not hard to make. I used a Harbor Freight bearing separator, some threaded rod, and parts from a pitman arm puller. (tape was for protecting the paint) Worked perfectly and total cost around $20. More/larger pics here: https://stude.vonadatech.com/wp/steering-wheel-removal/

+1 on the truck place. I found a shop that does about 50% trucks and farm equipment. Alignments on the Stude and my tube tires did not phase them a bit.