60FlatTop

Is the fuel cap vented on these cars without a tank vent? Seems like something would have to operate as a vacuum break. Fuel flowing through a hose that is not designed as fuel filler hose can have static electricity problems. Those two concerns would lead me to believe something is wrong and you really need to look deeper into it.

I noticed a few more replies to this. I always think about 10-20 years of ownership on vehicle acquisitions. 10-20 years down the road the one who ends up with the Studebaker is going to be a very happy camper.

Just a rule of thumb, but I always figured the person who initiated the idea of the trade ends up with the best deal. Seems to prove itself over decades of watching.

My daily driver is a 2005 Avalanche that was conscientiously maintained by the original owner at his regular shop. I have the full bundle of receipts from that shop since new. In some circles it is regarded as a collectible vehicle. That shop had installed a complete set of brake lines for the previous owner. I spent a good chunk of Friday and some of Saturday reinstalling the extremities without tie wraps. They weren't falling off or anything like that but I used and drill, assorted bits, a tap. Had that type of installation been requested the reply would have been "That's not going to be cheap". I always wondered about the origin of that phrase. Two of the tie wraps were black. I cut them before this topic started. When I cut them I thought "Black tie wraps. Those are for the high end jobs." "That's not going to be cheap." "That's not going to be easy". The one I am most threatened by is "I think I can save you some money" which means "I have a plan to give you less than you wanted". I will go along with the comment that the shop rate is not bad, it's just the time it took to get the job done.

Shop rates really never had much relevance on my participation in the hobby. By the time I reached my late 20's I had been disappointed by "work done by others" that I just bought tools and became willing to do the job as many times as it took to make me happy. Eventually I realized how fast time passes and began to buy good cars less than 25 years old and age with them. The first one of those I bought was when I was 29 years old. It was 15. In May I will have owned it 46 years. In 2011 I bought a clean 26 year old car. It is 37 years old. My wife and her sisters are big quilt hobbyists. If I told her I wanted to get into the quilt hobby and asked how much it would cost for someone to make me a quilt I know I would get the evil eye. Some do it, just outside my hobby paradigm. To put labor costs into perspective, owners of large rental units in suburban areas near me screen renters carefully. They know who can afford to live in their units. A single person will be denied an apartment if the annual income is not a minimum of $50,000. 250 working days per year make that a minimum $25 per hour job. They have a good handle on who can't afford the rent. People with hobby cars they keep indoors have always been relatively wealthy. In the 1950s and 60s they were professionals or two income families. Many funded the hobby with untaxed income from various industries. And today their dollars and cents thinking is usually 30-40 before the current era. My business is slow since I got old and it is of a consulting nature. I will do a job for $1,000-$1,800 per day but mention that to an old car guy and the come up with some crack about the 50 year old Rockford Files TV show. Most just ain't caught up yet and may never.

I used to refer to the hood ornament on my 1948 Packard as The Big Chicken.

Here is my home made ground tester. The big clip goes on the negative post of the battery. There is about 35 feet of wire to get the alligator clip on the ground side of any component on the car. It is the quickest check you can do to find a bad ground. 1960s GM tail light grounds are nothing the GM engineers went home and bragged about working on at the dinner table. I prefer soldering a ground wire and running it right to the frame rail. Make one of these test jumpers. You will be glad you did.

"Alright. One more time, cracked is the same as broken. End of discussion." Welcome!

That takes me back to the days when a friend would ask "Hey, have you seen the new undercover police car?". "Oh, yeah. It's got the big engine in it too." Backed in off Main St. idling and coking up the spark plugs. Nothing stood out like the undercover cop car.

The color is red but if you ever get to Coleman's restaurant in Syracuse, NY you will find their can be an ethnic order of things that must be maintained. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/explore-ny/2016/10/18/explore-ny-tipp-hill-traffic-light And the back dining room at Coleman's sure reminds me of my Grandma O'Brien's house.

Flxible added 4" to the cowl and hood as this car has. Evidence of a long door on the left rear would probably make it an ex-hearse. We had a few of them floating around my area, Buick and Cadillac. They usually ended up as cut down fire department cars.

When I first started my business a client told me I was promoting the ideas of this book. https://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/ It is a great read, especially for those old enough to be spending more time with medical institutions. My application is in building operations and it is an incredibly hard sell. We had a Valvoline oil change facility in our town at one time. I was impressed with the upper and lower floors and the grates. I went there once but still preferred my own oil change process.

Turning the key with the wrong hand may not be special but certainly out of the ordinary.

A rebuilt starter doesn't mean much anymore. Most of the shops I have seen, even the best one I use, just do a visual inspection. There is a starter torque testing fixture. There don't use that anymore. There are growlers. They don't use that anymore. You can Ohm out each segment of the armature. They don't do that anymore. I had an Allis Chalmers starter that was giving me trouble a while back and got those questions answered. One time I did a job on a poor performing Cadillac hydraulic pump, similar to a starter. The owner told me to take it to an old timer starter/generator shop. The owner said "Pay attention. He's been doing it a long time. You might learn something". Yeah, stay away from the old hack. After doing the supposition dance too many times I was "allowed" to diagnose it. I fixed it following my "book learnin'" techniques. I read the first book well over 60 years ago when I was first introduced to BS. But also give the starter every change to perform properly.

That '31 is a 114" wheelbase so I would figure the torque tube would have to go no matter which way you went for the updated engine. If you can swallow that the field is wide open.

They weren't much of a frame to begin with so repairing it by a good frame shop might end up in the $1,000-2,000 range. The really good thing about having a job like that farmed out is avoiding the "while I am in there" syndrome. Big plus.

FATSC is a good company. L & L Transmissions in Batavia, NY let me order my parts from them prior to removal and inspection. I bought the kit, bushings, and whatever else was on the list. Not those bolts though. Friendly, that even asked which mechanic at L&L was doing the job. Three years already!

I wasn't mounting wheels 70 years ago, but it was 65 years ago. The first time I did I had a better understanding of esthetics that mechanics. My Dad pointed out that the taper of the lug nut went toward the wheel, not outward to create a pleasing look as I had thought. 65 years ago I was only mounting steel wheels. The steel for both was either from a Detroit or Pittsburgh foundry and samples were dipped off the furnace to adjust the proper carbon content. The lug nuts were tapered and I don't remember any shouldered or flat base ones on cars I worked on. That's the tried and true method that may not be true anymore with varying alloys, sources, and quality or all the interrelated components. I will consider all current instructions and generally used then with my discretion. I do like the long reach of the lug nut dedicated torque wrench. I used it yesterday standing erect. And "I" don't used an impact wrench on the plastic wheel cover nuts. I also do my own oil changes and really don't miss the smell of oil burning off my exhaust manifold at the first stop light I come to. I had it done by others a couple of times. I think they advertised and 17 bump oil change. As I understood it the service manager was paid a base plus commission on the bumps above the original service request. Although I do miss some of the comical bump spiel I have heard. Hmm, I always changed my own oil on the BMW. I wonder if they called it bump spiel or bump sprecht in those shops.

My wheel torque wrench is a recent addition. A nice chrome plated well balanced four way has always been at hand for 60 years. I saw so many references to proper torque on wheels I became concerned. Buying the Z71 Avalanche with 17" alloy wheels pushed me over. 60 years is a long time to think things would be the same. And with age and experience I tend to embrace the leading edge to stay current in technology rather than reply on the old tried and true that may not be true anymore. As it turned out my four way guess-a-tightnening was so close to the torque wrench there was little difference. The torque wrench has a thicker, comfortable handle, clicks, and ratchets as well. Racheting means the old guy has to get as low either. Convenient one arm job. I'm for it.

That's what I look for in advice. And it usually works great.

As I wrote earlier, that auction was poorly placed and difficult to find. And no reserve. Like the car warranty guy says "Who does that?" It reminded me of the add I placed for my '56 Willys pickup. "My wife says if it doesn't sell I can keep it."

After the 600 LB-FT of impact torque stretches the wheel stud the thread alignment just ain't the same. I have a inexpensive click torque wrench with a Chevy truck lug socket and proper setting just for my trucks.

Could be part of a Deco bubble pipe,

Any connection to the Mendez family?

I remember them in a bin at the Western Auto Store right next to the chrome plated nut covers.