SeventhSon
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Posts posted by SeventhSon
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Last night I was fooling around with the old bumper, working on getting enough of the mounting points in shape to hold the bumper in place while the other bumper goes back for chrome re-do. I got a piece of threaded stock with the intention of sawing a couple of pieces off and using JB Weld to affix the pieces to the wrung off studs by utilizing an oversized nut as a coupler. JB Weld all of it together. I'm not sure if I will continue along that path - I'm just messing around with the bumper, it's something to do while the old car is far away at the storage unit. I got sidetracked with the side mount bolt that wrung off below the bracket hole - I was able to drill a hole into the wrung off portion. Then, against my better judgment, I got an extractor out and started fooling around with that. FAIL. It broke. Of course.
So now I will try to drill around the extractor piece. Or keep trying to break the bolt remains loose from the back side of the bracket using vice grips. To that end, I sprayed more Kroil on the piece and left it for the night. Tonight I did not get back to it - more pressing things to do (not really, just lazy).
On the daily driver front, I came out of my building at work yesterday to get something from the trunk and noticed that the passenger side taillight assembly was hanging loose! What?? I investigated and found that the mounting studs were broken from their moorings in the assembly. Jeez - how did that happen? I ran it around in my head for several hours and seemed to remember that one day several weeks ago I backed into the garage a little too far and heard a slight crunch. Oops. Nothing appeared broken - I guess the mounting studs needed a few weeks jostling around to finally break free, having been damaged. That's all I can figure could have happened. The assembly is now being held in place with three strips of shipping tape. Yeah, I know, ghetto. I'll have to try to fix it this weekend.
That's all I got - Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope it's a good one!
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I started cleaning up the old rear bumper tonight to stick on the car while the recently re-chromed one is sent back for a re-do. The original bumper is rough and even has some rust through on the left side, which I plan on covering with some chrome tape just to cover up the rust. I'll just spend a little time cleaning it up and seeing how presentable I can make it - it feels good to be back doing something on the old car. I made some progress tonight, I scraped a lot of the chrome off the inner surface, which was peeling away from the bumper like a birch tree. Then I turned my attention to removing the wrung off bolts out of the side mounts. I had sprayed Kroil on them yesterday and let them sit for 24 hours.
I tried Vice Grips on the broken off bolt on the right side, but it was a "no go". So I dug my bolt extractors out (the ones I bought when I was battling the exhaust manifold bolts that had broken off so long ago). I found the right size, it scrolled right down onto the bolt and dug in. I grabbed the breaker bar and the bolt remains came out. Wow, that's the best result I have ever had with those extractors. On the right side, unfortunately, the bolt broke off below the bracket. So I will have to drill a hole in what remains of the bolt and use an internal (E-Z Out type) extractor. I just had a discussion with brother Brian at Thanksgiving about how those extractors like to break off and make things even more difficult. I will have to proceed with caution....
I also have two mounting studs that broke off, as you can see in the pictures. I am formulating a plan in my mind on how to deal with those. One step at a time.
To finish up tonight I shined up the bumper with some chrome cleaner - an OK night. Feels good to be back in the saddle working on the old car
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Bill, I found the attached PDF on Bob's Studebaker Resource. The last page of the PDF touches on the repair of seat mounts.
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Hey Paul! I've been wondering where you were - glad you like the color. It gets attention out on the road, for sure. I still have lots to do on the old beast, I've been tied up with work and holidays, etc. Last Friday I stopped by the storage unit to see how the new antenna fit. I turned it this way and that and couldn't figure out how to get it in it's spot without drilling a hole in the trunk and running the mast up through to hit the mounting hole. So I did the only thing I know to do - I put the antenna aside, fired the old car up, and took her out on the road! Felt great to take a run!
Afterward, the Answer Fairy came to me and helped me figure out how to install the antenna. I need to run the mast all the way up, drop a string down through the mounting hole, tie it around the ball on the top of the mast and gently bend the mast to come through the mounting hole. We'll see if that works, soon.
Yesterday, I stopped by the unit and picked up the old rear bumper, which I plan on spiffing up a little and sticking on the car while the shiny bumper is being re-done. I'll be posting some pics of the old bumper cleanup later.
Anyhow, welcome back Paul - glad you're still watching!
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I came home tonight and found that my Christmas present to myself came early! I had decided to spring for the expensive (but correct) antenna for the Avanti. I had looked around for an inexpensive unit just to fill the spot but could not find one that would fit the smaller mounting hole of the Avanti. Most of the antennas require a 1" mounting hole, the Avanti is 5/8". And I was certainly not going to make the hole bigger! So I gave up trying and ordered the reproduction antenna - I am glad I did, as this unit is a very nice piece of work. It should fit nicely and look really good with the new paint. Since we are having a warm wave for a couple of days I hope to head over to the storage unit and install the antenna. Of course, I'll have to fire the old beast up too.
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I'll say! Who knew John has a first rate contractor right in his own family! It's hard to find someone who can do the work and will show up to do it - too bad he lives 3000 miles away.
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Thanks John - I'll know more in a couple of weeks when the bumper comes off.
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Thanks John, but I was talking about the rear bumper. Sorry for the confusion - I should have taken a couple of pics up close of the right and left side. Below there are some pics that I just took while installing the rear bumper - it's kind of hard to see the gap from left to right and the difference, but there is a noticible difference. I figure it's a good time to correct it since I'll be working on it again in a couple of weeks.
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Well, I found myself in the vicinity of the storage unit today so I dropped in. I knew I was going to be in the area so I had a hankering that I would fire her up and take her out. However, on the drive over I noticed several areas where the recent snow and ice had melted and re-frozen, along with some areas of road salt wetness. That coupled with the building Christmas frenzy that is possessing a lot of the folks around here made me reconsider wanting to take the old car out. Then I remembered that it was Friday the 13th and I slammed the door shut on any driving today.
So instead I examined the recent paint job and bumper re-chrome and I decided that I am going to go ahead and pull the rear bumper back off and send it back to Jerry Forrester to fix that one area. It's a pain, but I'll feel much better when the bumper is back on and looking right. I also need to investigate adjusting the left side bumper bracket - I hope the brackets are adjustable where they mount to the frame, because the left side of the bumper is further away from the body than the right side. On the right side I can just stick one hand in between the bumper and the body of the car. On the left side I can put one hand on top of the other and fit them both between the bumper and body. Not good - one hand width is all it should be, so the left side has to adjust toward the body a half inch or more. I'll check the shop manual to see how the brackets fit to the frame, unless unimogjohn has some insight he can share with me.
So, having ruled out driving and decided to remove the bumper sometime in the next couple of weeks I wondered what I could do to at least make some progress. I decide to epoxy the side "Supercharged" emblems on. Hey, the epoxy worked well on the "Studebaker" emblem on the trunk lid and the sail emblems. What could go wrong? So I mixed up some Gorilla epoxy glue on a piece of cardboard and set about roughing up the posts on the emblem. I also scuffed up the mounting holes - then applied some epoxy to the posts on the emblem. The emblem went on until it got about an eighth of an inch from the body, then wouldn't go any further. Seems the wonderful reproduction pieces have posts that do not quite match up with the mounting holes at the body. The mounting posts can be manipulated at their ends, but at their fixed positions where they meet the emblem they appear to be too close together. They pinch, in other words. I believe they can be filed to fit, and I did try to file them down as the glue waited for me. I filed some, returned to the car, and having wiped most of the glue off while filing, looked for my cardboard glue "mortar". What did I do with that?? Oh, I'm standing on it. Did I mention it was Friday the 13th?
I sprayed some WD40 on a rag and wiped the glue off the emblem, the car body, and my shoe (as best I could on the shoe). Then I got the heck out of there - I know when to retreat.
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I figure I better check in before folks think I have checked out! Nothing much has been happening besides Thanksgiving, a birthday (my wife's), work, and life's other requirements. Along with a couple of ice/snow storms. I did manage to get to the storage locker last Wednesday and fire the old girl up. I drove to the gas station, threw in some SeaFoam and premium, then took her around here and there. Only 20 miles, not nearly enough to call real fun, but still fun nonetheless. I leave the old car running while putting gas in, and listening to the steady rumble of an idle is music to my ears. It sounds so good - runs just as good too. I opened her up a couple of times during my drive just to see if there are any misses or hesitation. None so far - when the secondaries open she is like a race horse at the gate when the bell rings. She's off! I don't go far like that, there being speed limits and all. But it is nice to hear the secondaries open up while the supercharger whines - nothing like it, really. This car is a real gem, I believe.
I'm still looking around for an antenna, with no luck. I guess I'll have to pry the wallet open and spring for the $140 unit from S.I. It's not the money - just the prospects of more money coming along and calling my wallet home. Still touch and go at work - hopefully things will iron themselves out and I can regain what they call "consumer confidence". If that happens I'm gonna spring for a nice set of hog troughs. What fun that will be! Right now I still have a few things left to do to get the old car all the way back together from its paint job experience. Side "Supercharged" emblems, the aforementioned antenna, the glass headlight covers, the windshield washer chrome spout, the cowl seal and door seals. Still lots to do - hopefully all this icy stuff will go away so I can bring her back home for a while.
And, oh, I contacted Jerry Forrester about the chrome flake off on the bumper. He said to send it back and he would make it right. After thinking about it for a few days I decided to leave the bumper on the car for now. I would rather live with the small area of flake off than pull it off, crate it, and ship it back and wait for it to come back.
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Pat - very cool. It sounds like you have a very nice daughter. Of course, she comes from a very nice father, so it stands to reason. You've done history proud by saving your father's car - congratulations!
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Wow is right!
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Thanks John - I couldn't have done it without your help! (Plus the help of a couple of dozen other folks) I will send Jerry an email and let him know about it and see what he says.
Roger, you have a good point - the chrome does look too thick at that spot. I didn't think about it, but it sounds about right that that would flake off there. Of course, it does look like it has been hit on that end, probably being thrown around in shipping.
Of course, the wheels are already starting to turn in my mind, starting at 3:30 AM this morning (I do some of my best thinking in the middle of the night - who needs sleep?). I think I'll start researching the repair of the original bumper and see if the rusted out piece can be replaced and the whole unit can be rechromed. Then I'll just switch them out in the future. My original bumper fits this car much better - the replacement bumper has more of a gap between the body and bumper on the driver's side than the passenger side. Original bumper fits nice and even all the way across.
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Some more pictures, starting with another one showing the disappointing damage that I did not see when I first received the bumper from the re-chromer. Oh, what a shame - the bumper has a mirror finish, everywhere except on that damaged end. Truly a disappointment. Oh well, I finished installing the bumper, then this morning I re-installed some bolts and nuts I had removed from the front bumper when I was getting ready to take it to the paint shop. After I had done all I could do I fired the car up and headed out into the frigid cold that swept into the area last night. As I started down the street I noticed something out of the corner of my eye - water dripping from under the dash. Ah, that's the heater control valve going bad, I figured. I pulled the heat control lever back to the "off" position and the water stopped dripping. OK, I can take a hint - time to put the old girl away and think about something else for a while. On the way back to the storage unit I took a few pics at a business park. She's looking pretty nice, if you can overlook the flaws.
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Yesterday morning I fetched the old Avanti and brought her home to finally work on putting the rear bumper back on. It was good to see the old car back in the garage, especially looking all sharp in her new paint. I started fooling around with the vertical guards, until I realized that the brackets had to be separated from the chrome guards themselves. No big deal - I just removed the two nuts holding everything together and proceeded to install the brackets that hold the vertical guards. I installed the lower bolts and finger tightened them. Then I got the main bumper piece and positioned it in place. I left the original wrapping on the piece during the installation to protect the finish. Things went well - I only had to back up a couple of times to get this or that aligned or set in place. Before long I had most of the nuts and bolts in place and tightened.
If something like this is compared to music or a song I guess you could say it was like "Try to Remember (The Kind of September)", sort of an easy listening tune that illustrates how things were going. Until I sat down on the garage floor to bolt the passenger side end of the bumper fast. Then the record player needle screeched all the way across that nice easy listening song, even bouncing back onto the record and screeching a couple of more times. Since this is a family thread I will use the PG-13 version of the popular text missive, "WTH!"
There, on the end of the bumper, unseen prior to this moment, was a fair size chip of chrome missing and a crack in the chrome that ran from the missing chip to the bottom of the bumper end. Oh crap! Where did that come from?!! After staring at the area for a few minutes and realizing that it wasn't a bad dream and I wasn't going to wake up from it, I just proceeded with the installation. What can I do? I don't want to pull it all off again and ship it off again. After thinking about it for the last 24 hours I began to realize that it was probably banged around during shipping and that end was knocked around in the wooden crate it was shipped in. Probably too late to put in a claim for shipping damage. I can't figure out how I missed it when I first received the piece. But I looked back at the pictures I took when I got the bumper back and in one I can just make out the chip at the edge of one of the pictures. Arrrrgggghhh - missed it!
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Another day, another Avanti visit. It seems like old times again. I took a few hours off from the job today and headed to Maryland to visit my aged mother for Thanksgiving. It was good to get out of the megatropolis and cruise a little bit. Still lots of cars around and driving a bit frenzied. It gets this way every time we get close to the holidays - wild on the roads! It was good to see my mother again - something else that has gone by the wayside since I've been working double duty. Enough about me....
On the way back from the visit I stopped in the storage unit. I had the Studebaker emblem with me and I set about installing it. No pal nuts, no speed nuts, just epoxy, since the mounting posts are of varying widths. I hope it holds - it is a really tight fit and awkward to get to the mounting posts from underneath the raised trunk lid, so I just glued it in place. We'll see how she does. I laid a heavy weight wrapped in a rag on top of the emblem while the glue set. Meanwhile I busied myself with some chrome cleaner on various bits. After a half an hour I removed the weight and gently closed the trunk. We'll see if it's still in place tomorrow.
Remembering my father, who departed this life 24 years ago this night. He had a full life in a short amount of time, left home at age 15 during the depression and worked in an envelope factory in Philadelphia, entered the Army Air Corp in WWII and dodged death more than a few times in the jungles of the South Pacific. I can't remember if it was him or someone else who said that the Japanese bombed them at night and strafed them during the day. Kept them all nervous all the time. Fathered 8 children, had a few Studebakers, enjoyed the fact that he was alive after some of the things he went through. So Dad, job well done, and I miss you every day.
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And more glitter today, Pat. I got to a good stopping point on the big job, so I headed over to the storage unit. Yesterday I went searching for some JB Weld Kwik at Home Depot. Sold out. So I picked up some Gorrila Glue epoxy - haven't tried it before, but I figured I would try it out. At the storage unit I decided to try the roof side emblems. The pieces are very nice, the posts on the back of the chrome retainers are straight and uniform. They came with the little vinyl tubes stuck on the posts, reminding me of Roger's recent post about how he saw and emblem attached to a piece of cardboard with those tubes. But since I don't want to pull the interior panels off to get to the back side, I figured I would glue them from the outside.
I scuffed up the chrome posts and the area around the holes, one side I had to open the holes back up with my pocket knife. I mixed up some epoxy and applied to the mounting holes and a little on the posts. The little plastic "inserts" with the "S" symbol came with a nice, soft rubber backing. However, that backing kept the retainer from fitting flush with the surface. So the backing had to go - oh well....
So, the pieces are stuck on the car - I will return to the storage unit soon to see if they are still stuck fast, or are laying on the floor.
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How true, how true...
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I didn't get to the storage unit today, as I was way back in the forest, surveying 24 acres. Not many pieces of land that big around these parts anymore. As is the case with any vacant parcel of land abutting a developed subdivision, the edge of the property (anywhere from 20 to 50 feet) has accumulated all the cast offs from the subdivision lots. I've seen it through the years, same old thing, folks don't want something, they toss it over the fence, or drag it 50 feet onto the vacant land. No matter that it's private property - it's vacant land, so it must be a good place to dump stuff! Anyway, I wish I had my camera with me, as I saw a few interesting pieces of "junk" that would have made good pictures. Maybe tomorrow.
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Nice job, Don. I wish I had your patience, I did learn some cool masking tips from your engine detailing, which I will be using when I do the engine compartment on the Avanti (whenever that turns out to be!).
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Yeah Bill - I have to do a double take every now and then too! The new paint seems to get lots of looks on the road too - I'm happy with it for sure. I like that Buick - you do have some toys. I can only keep up with one.
Speaking of - today, while traveling between jobs, I found myself near the storage unit. And I couldn't help but stop in and see if the hood ornament fit. It does! The spears now lay flat against the hood. So I went about attaching the unit to the hood. The pal nuts that I got the first time were the ones to use - a couple of them would not "bite" so I had to rough up the post with a file first. I still got my arm and hand workout in for the day - not sure who invented the pal nut system, but I think there has to be a better way. Of course, it would help if I had an original part and not a reproduction with these sort of catty-wampus posts, some thick, some thin, all chromed up so nothing can get a bite on it.
But, in the end the unit went on, the pal nuts mostly went on, and as you can see, I had to use a couple of the smaller ones on two of the posts that were a bit thin. but she's on - looks good! I hope I can get by there again tomorrow and maybe affix the Studebaker emblem on the trunk lid. A little at a time....
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Well, with a weekend to recover I am now able to move about like a somewhat normal person. Today was a nice day, really kind of warm, and I was in the office catching up on various things, so I headed to the storage unit at lunchtime. It's always a pleasure to take the short trip there, especially on a nice day. The first thing I did when I got there was try out the fit of the hood "gun sight". Being a reproduction there were a couple of issues right off, the plastic "S" insert didn't quite fit on the little nubs on the underside of the chrome ornament. I gently widened one side of the insert holes and now the piece fits snugly on the little posts. The posts on the chrome ornament are a bit thicker than the originals, but with a little coaxing the chrome piece made it way into place. Still not a decent fit - at the end of the two spears that run toward the windshield there were slight curves inward, almost like the piece was trying to become a crochet needle. Because of that issue the ornament would not fit flat against the hood. Also, the pal nuts I brought along were too small. I did the only thing I could - I pulled the piece off and hopped in to take a drive!
She cranked pretty quickly (not surprising, as it was 72 degrees out) and fired within seconds. Sounded really good, so out we went. Not a long drive, as it was a work day lunch time, but it was lots of fun nonetheless. The car ran like a top - always a lot of fun to drive the old car around. Too soon I was back at the storage unit and headed back to work (sigh). Oh well, no rest for the weary (or wicked?)
Tonight I took a file to the ends of the spears, flattening them out a fair bit. Hopefully it will be enough. I plan on finding out tomorrow. I also dug out the first batch of pal nuts I got, (the ones that were too big for the "Avanti" emblem on the nose) and tried one out on the hood ornament posts. I believe they will grab ahold and tighten down - I hope to find out tomorrow!
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I vote for the trunk, Roger. Dunno why - I guess it's just to see the car materialize from the rear to the front. Amazing work!
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Another week in the books - no Avanti fun all week, as I have been busy at work and hobbled by the old back pain that haunts me several times a year. I felt a little tinge of pain in the usual place on Tuesday morning and immediately tried to stop things from getting worse by straightening up, doing "pelvic tilts", etc. I thought I may have caught it from getting worse, but a few hours in the field on Wednesday in the cold snap we had was all it took. It's been two days of torture, so much that today I was contemplating asking complete strangers to walk on my back. Better sense prevailed and I continued suffering. Tonight the heating pad is doing overtime.
On the bright side, I have received the final complement of chrome pieces for the Avanti. They look nice, and will look really nice on the car with the new paint. Now I just have to wait on the old back pain to settle down and I can get "back" to it
Barn Find '62 Studebaker GT Hawk
in Our Cars & Restoration Projects
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Glad that you're back and still checking in on the Avanti fun!