unimogjohn

It is Sunday morning, Jan 23rd. Still cold for us 15, degrees. Expect snow on Monday/Tuesday. While in Seattle, my friend Joe, gave me a wheel lock from the teens. A pretty neat little device. I had only seen pictures. It has a key, but does not open. I think that it is the wrong key versus lock swelling. The lock itself is brass. It does not fit the tires on my cars, too small. Probably fits a teens car. Here are a couple of pics. Greg sent me this note about his latest trip. Here it is. "Just got in from Ohio. Good trip. Made it to just beyond Wheeling to stop for Friday night. On to Salem by noon on Saturday. Seats look very nice. Left the door panels for the next installment. On the return we found our way (I left hurriedly Friday without maps) to visit Dick Bennett (owner of the speed record setting Avanti) in Irwin, Pa. Pleasant visit and followed his suggestion to Rt 40 which I really enjoyed. The old National Highway that dates back to General Braddock's day when his redcoat troops hacked a road through wooded Pennsylvania. Late at night, the whole road to ourselves, flurrying snow. Single digit temps. It dumped us on Rt. 68 not far above Cumberland and then down the mountain to home. A really nice drive."

Brian, thankfully the snow in our part of VA is either going north or south. We have had only about an inch of snow so far. But I am sure that our time is coming. It is just bitterly cold for us. Greg just sent me a note and a couple of pics. He left this afternoon for Salem, Ohio to pick up his rebuilt seats. It has taken over a year to get them done. No way is he going to risk them shipping to VA, so off he has gone for the weekend. Here is his very short report. The boy is in a hurry. "Seats done, outta here. Need to pick them up by noon tomorrow. Later."

It is Thursday evening, waiting for snow. Greg continues to press ahead on all fronts. Here is his report. "Next step on the Matheson is to lightly hone the cylinder bores prior to measurement. Then to measure the pistons to see where we stand. And it sounds like the upholsterer is working on the Avanti seats. If I had them installed, I could begin shaking the bugs out of the car, weather permitting."

It is Thursday, Jan 20th. Back from our week long trip to Seattle. Rained hard 6 out of the 7 days. Now back in VA, snow tonight. Greg did send me a report last night. Here it is. "Update on recent 1908 Matheson engine activity. The repaired cylinder was returned to the lathe. The exterior of the cylinder bore needed a few more thousandths removed to allow it to fit into the crankcase. With that done, I had run out of excuses. One of the head stud holes had at some time been broken out. Sent to Jim Snyder for weld repair, now it was my turn. Using the detachable cylinder head, I located the hole center. Setup in the milling machine, carefully drilled and tapped the new hole. Anytime drilling a hole through another hole is a good time to hold your breath. Doing this through cast iron, and welded cast at that.....let's just say I got away with it this time. A nice shade of bright blue, I can resume breathing. It is a nice weld, no holes or pits found. A curious way to do things. I see that on the other cylinders the head studs were run in as far as possible (there ain't much meat there) and then the ends of the studs have received threads from the horizontal drilling/tapping."

It is Monday, Jan 17th. Sill on a short vacation in Seattle. Does it ever stop raining! Here is Greg's report from the past couple of days. You think I've been slacking off. Well I have. Nothing fit to print until this weekend when old man winter let up a little. With the temperature in the forties and winds on the decrease, I did get back to 'Ol Seabiscuit over the weekend. I was able to locate all the hoseclamps to finish plumbing the heater. The clock found it's way back from the rerepaiman. A defective coil link or something like that. The clock is now in the dash and the car now has it's heartbeat returned. I really like the personality of a tick tock clock. I had noticed that the dash manifold pressure gauge wasn't registering vacuum, so while working under there, I removed the gauge. Even though I'm the purist, I thought that now would be a good time to install my accessory gauge. Paxton Products who manufactured the supercharger also offered a line of gauges to monitor what was happening when you stepped on that pedal on the right. So I put the new gauge in the hole, old gauge in a ziplock. No dashpanels were harmed in the preparation of tonight's photos. =

Quick little story from Greg. "Ok, more early history just found it's way back to me. Phil Ritter and I go way back. Schoolmates, Studebaker enthusiasts. Mountain Dew and CrackerJacks, etc. One Sunday morning we (Bob Metz, a Chrysler devotee and Phil's little cousin Rusty) piled into his car and drove to some nowhere place, Beaver Springs I think , Pa. Our mission: to see and buy some Studebaker high performance parts for Avantis. We lived to tell about it, but here is a picture taken along the way. It looks like Phil is finishing that cigar before his parents find out. Steve, Johnnie....were you too smart to come along? That's tonight's progress report."

It is Tuesday, Jan. 11th. Going to get snow today and tonight, no one is guessing how much. We are suppose to be catching an airplane tomorrow morning. As such this report may be infrequent next week as I will not have my computer with me. But will try. Here is Greg's report from Monday. I tried to help him with the horn placement and sent him pics of the right side, but I have no left side horn so could not help him there. Just something else to try to find at the next Studebaker swap meet. "Life lesson #7 When woring in the bitter cold garage. Make that when working in the dark bitter cold garage... Don't hold the metal flashlight in your mouth. Pics of : 1. Left horn installed courtesy of Phil Ritter's GPS (Good Phil Supposition) and cell phone instructions. 2. Matheson flywheel in color now. =

Tony, they are on Ebay from time to time. Take a look at these as an example. vintage interior lights model t rat rod 1920s 1930s 32 - eBay (item 270691134698 end time Jan-17-11 18:15:00 PST)

It is Monday, January 10th. Getting ready for another snow event tomorrow. The last two really missed us, this time? Here is Greg's report from yesterday. Too cold for him now too. "Jeeze, It's cold! Didn't take me long to snap this picture. Studebaker advances this weekend, but not much. Dave Coco (trimacar on this forum) scored a NOS horn for me on Ebay. Picked it up and got it ready to mount. It's the left one, and it was too cold for me to figure out how it mounts. Bolt through the frame I recall. Hastily stuck the right one on the fender apron, but not sure of any special hardware involved. Study that on a warmer day too. I got the paint for the Matheson engine. The cast iron goes gray. To get ready for color, I sanded and reprimed the flywheel casting. I found myself reminded that even though the paint room is warmed, the subject remains cold and paint sags. Not much to show."

It is Friday, January 7th. Just finished "The Pacific". What a film series. One of the best films I have seen in a very long time. And it did not snow a flake last night, so much for the predicted inch. But it is still cold, a bit below freezing. Decided I would go wake up the green Avanti. She started right up and pulled her out of the garage into the sunshine. I found a rubber bumper button in the can full of parts that came with the car. So decided to put it on the radiator support and adjust it so that it just supported the hood. I hope that this would make a better alignment of the hood to the body. On there now was a short bolt with no rubber protection. You might remember a few months ago I said that the car had obviously been in an accident. You can see in the pic where the inside of the hood support bumper is, directly in the middle of the hood, there is a six inch layer of new glass. I think that this was put there to replace a piece that was broken or cracked during the crash. In the paint you can see the lines where they replaced the front clip, from the middle of the wheel wells forward. Who ever did it did not do a great repair, but it is what it is. Anyway, the little rubber bumper helped align the hood and it is no longer sitting a 1/4 inch below the body. I also used 1/4 of shims to try to lift up the front corners. This was successful also. Here are a couple of pics. And I finally have all the pieces of the speedo cable for the 1923 McLaughlin Buick, took three years to finally find the chain and sleeve. Here is a pic of the assembled unit. Installation will be in a few days.

It is Thursday PM, Jan. 6th. Snow coming tonight, hopefully only an inch or so, and not they foot they are expecting further north of us. Here is Greg's report. Finally, some Due Cento engine parts coming to the light of day. "So my life went by. We fast forward to my lying in bed one night in December 2009 and wondering about a New Year's resolution for 2010. Something worthwhile and yet doable. Having returned to the Studebaker phase of my life, it had occurred to me that should I one day clutch my chest and then fall face first into the Varsol tank....that stored and scattered R-5 from the Due Cento Avanti would become nothing more than yard sale fodder, or maybe just land fill. So I resolved to reopen the project, and if nothing more, get the parts assembled into a "thing". A recognizeable thing. Enclosed are a couple pics of the debris as I was (and am still) finding it. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Otherwise, currently I have been cursing the cold and making feeble attempts in the Avanti freezer aka the aircraft storage hanger. Other enclosed pictures show that I've gotten the heater assembly hanging under the dash, the underhood heater hoses have been trimmed and forward ends installed. I want to retain the old style spring hose clamps and I'd found five of the six required, went to the hardware store where I bought six new ones (largest they had but too small). During there restoration of the old clamps, I found another and lost one. So I still need one more. And there's been news this week from Ohio. They are asking questions about the seat job, so perhaps they might be done soon Pictures of R-5 engine components as removed from storage 12/26/09.

It is Wednesday, Jan. 5th. Here is another Greg report that I received this morning. "Well, not only had I been scoring from Paxton's back room, I had also located some R4 parts. A James J. Wallace in Detroit wrote and offered me a blown up R-4 less the block. Even though I was in Europe and he had no way to crate and ship the stuff, it somehow made it to my 'ol Virginia home. (I would like to locate him.) After being mustered out of the Air Force, I stayed close to home, worked on and enjoyed my '64 R-2 automatic, eventually enrolled in a local community college. Their new automtive course seemed like the right thing to do. Except for the family loss, life was good. March 11, 1971. BINGO! Look what found it's way from my APO address from Paxton. Refer back to Paxoton's Dec 31, 1969 when they said they'd try to duplicate the fuel injection. Also enclosed was a then current offering of their Studebaker related products. Sure wish I'd have bought more. This will bring the correspondence up to date until December 2009."

It is Sunday, January 2nd. It is cold and windy here today, yesterday it was 60 degrees, today it barely made 40 degrees. Greg has a good report and more documentation on the Due Cento. "Spent some time today with the Avanti in the tin barn. Wasn't fun. I lose my sense of humor when working in the cold. I did get the right toeboard carpet installed, then fought with the heater assembly for a while, finally left it lying on the floor. I also thought to power up the overhauled clock. Found some fuses at the parts store and with fuse installed I put the battery cables on. No clock, blown fuse. Tried it again and same results. Did I mention that this was the clock that I struggled to remove from the dash last February in that same tin barn with the same numb fingers? Anyway, it is now back out of the dash, in a box and ready to go to the UPS store tomorrow. There isn't ANYTHING on this car that I didn't have to do twice. Except the blower, knock on wood. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Tonight's Proverb is from Paxton. November 5, 1970. Words from Joe Granatelli. As you see I was still hounding them for information , especially concerning the Bendix injection. As I reflect on the date, I must relay that shortly after this message was written, our family suffered a catastrophic accident to my Dad. An on site accident at work left him paralyzed. I found myself on emergency leave, then shortly thereafter I was given an early discharge. My attention to the R-5 project remained, but my focus was of course centered on family matters. What parts I'd accumulated were still boxed and in storage, even after the loss of my father. Life just got in the way.

Darryl, unfortunately, this is a common issue with the vacuum tank system and the gravity fed carb. Most, if not all, turn off the fuel at the tank when we stop the engine for almost any duration of time to avoid the overfilling of the carb bowl and the draining of the vacuum fuel supply. I have not heard of any solution so look forward to seeing if anyone has more ideas.

Stude8 thanks for the pics of the Due Cento. Glad that others are filling in the details. Keep them coming. It is Saturday, Jan 1st, 2011. Here is Greg's report for today. "First of the year and a slow news day here. I'd hoped to get more done on the Avanti. I cleaned the lid for the carburetor enclosure in preparation for installation. The R-3 pressure box always separated the supercharged Avantis, originally found on the Paxton R-3 engines. So sometimes they also found their way to the R-2 optioned cars. Like this one. The R-2 engines were equipped with a sealed Carter AFB four barrel carburetor, sealed to accept the supercharger boost pressure directly. With the higher performance R-3 engines, the whole carb was enclosed in an aluminum chamber. With higher RPM redlines and overdriven supercharger pulleys, higher pressures were possible. I don't care for the enclosure. It is always in the way. There isn't much you can do to the carburetor without removing retaining nuts and washers, loosening hose clamps, and replacing the lid is a frustrating wrestling match when trying to line up the four retaining studs and hose. I would return this car to the original R-2 system, but I was advised that since I do have the high output pulleys in use, that a fuel leak and fire would not be a good thing. The enclosure would contain the fire if there was one. So I fought with replacing the lid. And now the choke needs adjustment. It was cold in that tin barn, so that and other work as well will wait for a warmer day. Not much else construcitive to report. I did start on more Chrysler steering joints for Rob, he needs four instead of the two. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: A couple more communications enclosed. Feb, 27, 1970 Bill Dredge wasn't dredging up much information for me. March 17, 1970 Paxton reply to my parts order. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: That's about all that's fit to print on a cold, damp and dreary January 1, 2011.

It is Friday, Dec 31st. Greg certainly has been busy, me, not so much. Here is Greg's interesting report. The last couple days have been alright. Yesterday on a day off, I travelled to the Garber Faciltiy where the Air and Space still retains their restoration facility and some storage. Didn't realize it, but the Smithsonian also has other artifacts stored there. One of my day job projects is to finish and demonstrate a copy of Langlely's Balzer/Manly five cylinder radial engine. Part of my education is to learn what I can about the players involved. One of them, Stephen Balzer was an inventor and slilled machinist in New York in the century before last. He designed a three cylinder rotary engine and adapted to what he called a wagon. Pretty much two bicycles side by side with the engine between. This was in 1894. Professor Langley contracted with Balzer for two 12 horsepower engines to power his full scale Aerodrome. Everything is a long story, but yesterday's focus for me was to inspect the Balzer wagon, which he gave to the Smithsonian in 1899. I was joined by some of the NASM staff, who'd never seen it. Also while there, I took time to document some of the Langley artifacts stored there. I'm working on the engine's flywheels, what amount to two cast aluminum bike rims. There are still remnants of the flywheels which failed in testing during January 1902. That evening, to close a pleasant day, I stopped at a local steak house to celebrate things in general. I didn't see anyone there that I knew, so I sat alone and ate. After the meal, the server didn't bring me the check, She told me that it had already been taken care of. A couple at an adjacent table that she was also serving told my server that even though they didn't know me, they were covering mine too, then they left. I must have appeared forlorn or something. Random acts of kindness these days leave one speechless. And none to thank. Today. Warm enough to work on the hill. Filled the Avanti power steering system, secured the radiator and shroud, adjusted the clutch, engaged a few fuses, tightened the alternator and power steering pump, reconnected the vacuum gage hose (but it isn't working), secured the power steering cylinder mounting bracket,installed the coolant reservoir overflow hose, added water and using the battery borrowed from the lawn mower , and since the brake pedal was still firm, I started it up. Started fine, the tach and water temp gages now working. Then, sitting on the floor, I tested each gear and then under its own power , I pulled it out of the hangar. Running for a while at fast idle, it held at 180* by the thermostat. Way behind schedule, but a positive note to end the year. I also am pleased that the other Avanti special project made my deadline and photos will be forthcoming. Likely next week. So now it is the final hours of twenty and ten. It has been quite a year. I'm hoping for you that this past year has been a good one, the next even better. GREG. Photos of : Avanti outdoors Casting pattern and corebox for the Langley flywheel rims. PS editor: I have added a link to Stephen Balzer and his engines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly-Balzer_engine

Still Thursday. Boy, was I surprised when I opened up my mail from this afternoon. It was correspondence from Dick Bennett, the owner of Due Cento to Greg's personal blog. I emailed Dick and asked him if I could post it, he said sure. So here it is. "Greg, Don't make it sound worse than it was. It was bad enough! They cut the firewall out, cut a hole in the hood to add another hood scoop and installed a CAE tubular front axle. Fortunately these are minor things to repair, which by the way have been done. The saddest part was his paint job which resulted in the loss of the lettering. Anyway, just as an update, the body work is done and back onto the chassis. Now comes the tedious task of all the sanding, prep and priming for the paint application. Unfortunately, my body man who is an absolute expert on fiberglass has a lot of family issues and it continues to slow the process. I will be going over there on a regular basis beginning next week to keep kicking and pestering him until he gets sick of me and finishes the job. I plan on attending the AOA national meet at Gettysburg, 2011 and am thinking of taking the car in whatever state it is in just so people can see it after 48 years. It will be at the 2012 South Bend meet, or I will be in jail for killing my body man."

It is Thursday, Dec 30th. Here is more documentation on Greg's search for Avanti performance parts. "Ok, where were we in the Studebaker Avanti Due Cento saga? January 21, 1970. Who is Airman Ricker?? My barracks roomy there at Wiesbaden. I must have been TDY or just anxious to get more information and hardware, so I had him pester Paxton too. As you can see by the reference initialling and signature, somebody was tired of me. (Or all of them.) Feb. 5, 1970. Carl Thompson at SASCO must have misread my communication to him. Dick Bennett had already rescued the Due Cento, or what was left of it after it was butchered. Feb. 11, 1970. After numerous letters to different Bendix divisions I finally found the right desk. Good thing I wasn't stateside. I would have been camping out on doorsteps. More to come."

It is Tuesday, Dec 29th. Here is Greg's Matheson engine report. I hope now he is ready to start with the assembly. "Good news for the Matheson camp. All pistons passed maganflux inspection. While I have the rings manufactured I will have time to hone the cylinder bores. Tonight I modified the bore centering plug to fit the top of the cylinder. These cylinders are unusual for their time by having detachable heads. With the cylinder chucked in the lathe I was able to reface the headgasket surface. I'd like to do them all, but I don't know if I can remove the studs without doing damage. Not going to try tonight. Don't need any nightmares."

Here is Greg's Monday work. "Finally finished the assembly and rivetting of the Avanti seat tracks. And Rob's steering control arm balls are ready."

Still Monday, here is another quick report from Greg. "Time for more Studebaker bedtime story. I continued the search for information, any information. Tough to find anything even though it was fairly current in 1970. The two photographs showing the R-5 engine were in magazines. They served only as clues because you know that when you enlarged them, all you got were dots. Tried to track down the original images to study. Enclosed is the result of that search. Those pictures had fallen into the black hole of R-5 information without a trace." =

It is Monday, Dec 27th. The big snow storm missed us by 100 miles. Just got a dusting of snow yesterday, cold and windy today with gusts of wind up to 50 mph predicted. Greg worked yesterday and here is report. "Studebaker Abstinence Day Today seemed like a good day to get started on another project, one that I expected to get done this year. Rob Burchill's '28 Chrysler depot hack restoration requires some chassis parts renewal. Took the time today to machine two of the steering arm ball joints. Did pretty good. They are almost done. Made from ETD 150 steel. Tomorrow I need to shorten the threaded ends, part them off at the right places and drill the holes for the cotter pins. Cold, windy, spitting snow. It was a good day to stand at the lathe.

It is Sunday, Dec 26th. The weather folks are now predicting up to a foot of snow starting this morning so got up real early, like 4 AM to move the truck down to the foot of the driveway. I really do not want to get stuck like like last year where we could not get out for almost a week due to three feet of snow. We all had a nice Christmas, I hope that you all did too. Greg send me some more Avanti racing documentation. Wow, it looks like racing parts from the Avanti Due Cento are now available for sale at a close out price. Wonder what Greg will do? Here is his Christmas day report. "Had a good time with family and friends. And a very good meal. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Meanwhile........ You'll remember our last episode when I had been offered what was essentially an R-3 engine with a second supercharger that fed two Carter AFB pressurized R-3 carburetors on an R-4 manifold. Not an R-5 with Bendix injection. At a price I couldn't consider. More than the cost of a creampuff low mileage Studebaker Avanti was going for. Could have bought a good Cobra roadster even. Today's installment: Nov 21 , 1969 This reply to my letter sent to Carl Thompson at SASCO. Note it came from "J. Grant, Sales Dept." BINGO! Not the whole system, but I borrowed some money from my roommate and sent off Money Orders. The Bendix injection unit was an aircraft system developed for the Granatelli's NOVI supercharged Indy racers. The boys perfected this 187 cu. in V8 to deliver 837 horsepower. I'd read that for the Studebaker 304.5 cu in. R-5 engine they had "borrowed" the NOVI Bendix injection. I assumed the injection system had been returned to the NOVI Indy effort. Dec. 31, 1969 An offer from Vince to research the Bendix injection. And another neat tidbit, the compression ratio. Being overseas while I was ordering , I'd been having parts shipped to my home and to friends to safeguard.

It is Friday, Dec. 23rd. Hope everyone is ready for Christmas! Wishing you all the very best this holiday season. The site Greg is looking at is Image galleries | Shorpy Historic Photo Archive It has over 600 pages of photos. Neat stuff. Also, you will see the number of $3,500 in the Greg to Paxton correspondence. Just think what that would buy you in 1969. I think that I had just bought a 1963 Plymouth Sports Fury convertible for $1,200 on my way to Ft. Knox from Seattle for my Armor training as a very young 2nd LT. That $3,500 was big money. From Greg: "I Haven't gotten anything done tonight. Been sitting on my can, sucked in by the Shorpy.com, an internet picture site. But meanwhile back at Paxton...... Sept, 3, 1969 closer to finding Avanti racing parts, but no cigar. But more clues that Paxton does have somthing in their back room.

Here are a couple of pics of the clamps. They are from my 28, which is still all original.