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1952 Studebaker Commander Starlight Coupe


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  • 2 weeks later...

Clear shots w/ the trim scripts & mirror installed. I'm picking away at transferring other things from the parts car like the intake manifold with the choke heat riser tube, and swapping out the choke on the carb (which right now is an added-on push-pull to an incorrect dashboard knob) to the automatic heat-activated one.

 

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Got the intake manifold & choke heat riser swapped over. That heat riser tube was much longer than I expected. It extends way down into the manifold and probably even into the head. Started the car on choke, and the heat had the choke open in a minute or so (it's about 70F in the garage today). Got the choke cable pulled out, and put the original headlight switch in the dashboard hole. Still have the later-added headlight switch because I'm not replacing the wiring right now. First picture is choke before replacing.

 

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On the heads, there's 2 intake ports towards the front, and two more towards the back. Then there's one more port in the center that routes exhaust under the intake manifold. The heat riser tube goes down into that port. There's a close-off valve on the right side exhaust manifold that stops exhaust going under the intake manifold when the engine is warmed up.

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Bloo, to expound  further on Eric's explanation, the tube in the manifold, if like others I have seen, protrudes THROUGH the manifold runner into atmosphere.The carb/choke system is sucking atmosphere through it. The exhaust passing through that runner is heating the air flowing through the tube.

 

  Ben

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29 minutes ago, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

Bloo, to expound  further on Eric's explanation, the tube in the manifold, if like others I have seen, protrudes THROUGH the manifold runner into atmosphere.The carb/choke system is sucking atmosphere through it. The exhaust passing through that runner is heating the air flowing through the tube.

 

  Ben

 

So THATS it! I knew it should be atmosphere, I just didn't see how it was getting there. It really makes a mess when they are allowed to suck exhaust. I have seen that on other cars where a tube rotted through and let a little exhaust in.

Edited by Bloo (see edit history)
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Yesterday had the car in a local Studebaker-only show. There were about 35 cars there, with maybe 10 of them from Phoenix (or beyond). Only maybe 5 or 6 were "street rod" style, with non-Studebaker engines, swapped out suspensions, etc. The rest were original / restored original. Met another previous owner of my car. At first he wasn't sure because I've swapped so much of the front end chrome, but another previous owner confirmed it for him. So this car has been around Tucson for a long, long time. Met another '52 restorer out of the Phoenix area, and spoke to another guy who brought down his '51 on a trailer. The guy with the '52 pointed out that I had the front bumper overrides swapped right for left, and I have to agree they looked a little weird. So I swapped them when I got home and they look much more aligned to the axis of the car. I had brought them over same as they were on the parts car and didn't really think much of it.

 

At the end of the event where they did a couple of awards (basically people's choice of everyone there, people's choice given by the Phoenix club members, and a fuel economy award that some of the Phoenix club did on their drive over here), and the 50/50, raffle baskets, then door prizes for non-winning 50/50 ticket holders, one guy announced a Studebaker-parts estate sale for essentially the balance of Saturday, all day Sunday, and Monday morning (then what's left goes to scrap). So I got over there today, and there were all kinds of '50's and '60's Studebaker parts, with just a few non-Studebaker parts in the mix. A couple of the local club members were there sorting through things (trash, scrap metal, possibly usable parts). I went with some new-in-box oil filters, some hubcaps, and a bumper, all for $30. I guess the scrap guy shows up sometime tomorrow. They had some "not for sale" parts under a tarp - maybe I should have peeked to see what that was about.

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Yes, that's used. It does have scratches & a little of the gold-colored plating was scraped away where fasteners were on it previously. I polished it with Meguiar's Plastx before installing to minimize the scratches. A few more photos with it installed... First photo is the seldom-seen right side of the car. Another car was parked in my usual photo spot. The last 2 photos are different levels of zoom - first one is a little too close, and it distorts the width of the car, but emphasizes the grille. Last photo is more how the car is really seen.

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Thanks Gary.

Roger - I did try the wiper arms from the parts car. The hold down springs are corroded away, and I there's a reason for those non-stock arms on the coupe. When the front windshield was converted to 2-piece, the stock wiper arms are then too long - the blade runs into the divider between the front glass. So if I put the one-piece windshield in, then I can run the stock wiper arms. Probably more than I want to get into at the moment, because then I also need to find (or make) a center support for the visor. I did get some close-up photos of one at the Studebaker show a couple of weeks ago.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally dug out the GoPro, found the remote microphone, downloaded a new video editor (lost the other one on a computer that died), shot a video, edited it, revived my YouTube account & posted something:

Mostly I wanted to hear the engine from the OUTSIDE...

 

My wife said the high idle (in the garage at the beginning) reminded her of my airplane's engine (see my much older video posts)...

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  • 7 months later...

Been a while. Replaced the ignition coil & spark plugs a couple of weeks ago. Made a huge difference in ease of starting. Took it to a show last weekend. Lots of positive comments. Got me motivated to think about the next big (huge) step that's risen to the top of the list - repaint. Got it to a painter today. Body color will be basically the same (picked a closely-matching color from current-day samples), and the roof will be a darker non-metallic blue-green, 1952 Aqua Green.

Edited by Eric W
edit paint color name (see edit history)
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Very nice Studebaker, Eric. I have a 1949 Champion 4 door, that I was on the fence about selling. I am sorting some things out to make it dependable.  I also decided to keep it. It is too nice a car to sell. I really like the Studebakers from the 47/52 era. Is your equipped with overdrive?  It makes a real difference in my Champion. Thanks for the ride, John

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  • 1 month later...

Finally rose to the top of the painter's list on this past Friday. I went out to pull all the chrome trim parts off, while he went around and marked a multitude of blemishes to work. He got to some of the bigger ones on the left side, in particular the center of the front wheel arch. He showed me what he wanted for edging off the roof paint and let me go at it. Also pulled off the windshield visor and the rubber-coated rear fender shields, which were falling apart. I scored a pair of the upper-trim metal ones and we got those in place to see what they covered. Looks like the roof was originally the light green - then repainted the light green, then maybe a tan, then red, then yellow, then the dark green. Found an almond color close to the wheels - going to go with that for the roof. I'll call it Studebaker Sahara Sand - an actual 1952 color. (It's a 1987 Alfa Romeo color.)

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Another day of paint prep. Got the roof rust knocked off some, then coated with POR-15. Got half of the still-painted portion of the roof scuffed down. Jeff did his magic on the right front fender, which had about a 6-inch long section of paint chipped/scraped off. He also worked the hood, which had some paint cracks at the hood ornament - right adjacent to each fastener, so over time, the ornament digs in. And there were 3 other chips/cracks right at "the nose" of the hood. Also big work on the trunk lower edge. Ground off the bubbles, treated with POR-15, and built back up. He was considering a major operation of cutting sheetmetal and welding in new, but I wasn't up for the additional cost he was hinting around, and when we saw it ground down, there really wasn't a whole lot to it. Ok, so if it perforates again in 10-20 years, probably will be someone else deciding what to do with it. I'm a little concerned with keeping this moving, since he's only worked on it when I'm there, and I can't get there this weekend coming up - but he also seemed more into it as it's getting farther along. If I have to be there a couple more times, not a big deal for me, since I'm liking seeing what's going on, and I can provide real-time feedback of what I want - what holes to fill, which ones are for emblems, etc. Also in these photos you'll see I pulled the taillight housings and swapped the wheels. I brought the "good" wide-whites back and treated them with Bleche-White this morning. They cleaned up just fine.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Missed last week because we were out of town. Today, mostly focus on the sides. Left side - door lower forward - slight pin holes, treated with POR-15, filled, sanded, primed. Mid lower door - door opened into something or some sort of impact. Filled vertical dent, sanded, primed. Sanded & primed several other paint chip spots. Right side - multitude of chips/nicks blended out & primed. Painted the visor. Visor back home with the wheels.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Don't know if we're getting into those rocker moldings. Masked them off because we were sanding & priming in that area.

 

Don't know about the door condition either - my climate here is 11% relative humidity average year-round, and the car will be stored indoors, so condition changes extremely slowly here, if at all. Missed working on it a week ago because my parents were visiting, and missed this week because the weather's too cold. Next weekend is looking pretty good though. And the guy who bought my parts car is planning to get to picking it up this week, so I'll be able to rearrange the garage. Need to try to get my wife's daily driver into the garage...

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18 minutes ago, Eric W said:

 

 

Don't know about the door condition either - my climate here is 11% relative humidity average year-round

Take the trim panel away to have a good look!

11% average? Man you must be thirsty all the time, day and night! Usually a dry climate is 30 to 40 % humidity; maybe I'm wrong. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some nice Studebakers there, thanks for posting Eric. Looks like the Arizona weather has recovered from the recent storms.

 

Was just looking at the pics of your parts car leaving. It's amazing, a '52 looks way different when the front grille assembly is removed!

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