~StudebakerClub.net~

[pickup guy]

Hopefully you can keep up with the progress as we work on my '46 Studebaker Pickup

Just gonna try and take up a little web space here and keep all my friends updated on this little project we got going, as we try to take these two old Studebaker pickups, and make something that was old, rusted, and falling apart,.. into one new, cool and bitchin' street rod

Below you will see pics of the trucks from the time I got them, ... as work progresses, and (hopefully) until it is completed. I'll try to throw in a few comments so you know what you are looking at.

Here is the 1946 Studebaker one ton I got to work with... Kinda rough, but then again it was all there body and frame wise. The ol' gal was more solid then she looked.

This is the 1/2 ton Studebaker I bought also. Actually the rusty one is more solid. But it seems the areas that were 'bad' on the white truck were 'good' on the rusty one,.. and vice versa. So it worked out well. Plenty of parts to interchange. This old truck came complete. Engine, tranny, everything.; BUT, It hadn't been started in over seven years...

With just a FEW MINOR adjustment we got the ol' gal running. New points, new plugs, and some fresh gasoline,.. and she started right up. No knocks, no skips, no leaks, no pings.; Amazing. 60 years old and runs like a top. To bad todays cars can't be made like this.

This is the frame off the one ton truck... kinda rusty looking but REAL solid. The extra length will let me stretch the cab and not worry about the frame being too short. You can see the media blaster did an excellent job cleaning it,.. and I painted it with some POR-15 and she is really slick now. If you live in the N. Ga area and need some blasting done. Contact JIM at Blast Tech. 706-693-2222

Got both of the trucks disassembled. The pic on the top-left shows both cabs loaded to go to the media blaster. Then the top-right pic, and the right pic shows when we got the cabs back we went to spraying primer on them. Here you see the one cab we are gonna use for the main portion,.. and the rear portion we'll use to extend the cab.

Here we are priming the doors, kick panels, running board supports, etc...

Needless to say there is ALWAYS something to do. As soon as the frame come back from being blasted, we went to installing the new Mustang II IFS. It has 2 inch dropped spindles and should give a pretty cool look to the truck. Also we made pieces to be put in when the time to box in the frame came. Their are all cut to 'shape', and ready to weld in. I also painted the inside of the frame so that is done. Just have to grind off the edge I plan to weld, weld it in, grind it off, and retouch the paint. FIRST I have to mount the running board supports, motor mounts, tranny supports, etc... SO this will all come later. I'm sure pics will come of all this in time.

WELL... I guess it was time to grow some balls and start choppin this thing apart.
I guess now is a good time to tell y'all this is the FIRST time we have ever done anything like this. Dad's was a carpenter,.. and I used to work in a warehouse. SO we neither one have any kinda of metal working skills. SO I visit the STT board a LOT and ask LOTS of questions... LOL AT least with dad being a carpenter he was good about keeping things 'square' doing planning ahead stuff, and working with angles.
Here we get to the point to where the cutting begins... (cross your fingers and pray)..Mess this up and we're screwed. No turning back now. Not sure you can see it or not,,.. but we are cutting the back out of THIS cab so we can extend the overall length by 18". If you look closely you can see the roof has already been cut across the top, and (in the pic on the top-left) and in the top-right side picture you can see dad is cutting down the side next to the door post.
Also in the pic on the top-right, you can see where we cut the back out of the cab. In the bottom are removing this floor and seat riser. The other one is much better,.. but we'll use the front of this one as an extension.

Now it was time to get started working on the bottom of the cab. As is usual it has some has rusty places,.. and needed some work.
Since we had two cabs we cut out a portion of one cab (at the top) and then installed it at the bottom on the other. This way we kept the same look with the rounded panels, same shape, etc. The pic at the top-left shows the rusty bottom. The other pics show what we cut (and from where).. and how it looked after we replaced it.
I'm not much of a photographer, it looks better than in the picture.. LOL

It was about this time that I run across these neat little items on eBay. The things on the left are valve stem covers. They are chrome, and have valve stems caps that have the "Lazy S" Studebaker logo. I also found this chrome gear shifter knob. It has the same logo as the valve stem caps. Wish I had the truck finished to put them on.. LOL If you look closely at the package,.. you'll see these came from Brazil. Nice stuff.

These pictures aren't the greatest either. As is usual the cab corners of the ol' gal was rusted out. We found some instruction on the internet about how to make your own cab corners, so we made us up a pattern, out of plywood, formed the sheet metal around it and welded it up. We made the inner and outer parts in two separate pieces, and the welded them in. The instructions showed how to do it all in one piece,.. but we wanted to make sure this was water tight, and fit perfect. SO we made the outer corner,.. then made the inner corner to fit the inside and welded it to the outer corner.
If you look at the pic on the left you can see the edge of where we put in the lower patch that was rusted out of the back. It don't look so bad up close.

I guess I'm gonna have to tell you what this is..LOL. the pic on the left is some roof supports we made. If you know anything about old Studebakers they have what my dad calls a "watermellon type roof. It's not flat. It's one big hump from one side to the other. Also it comes with no type of roof supports, and with the extended cab,.. I need SOMETHING to attach the headliner too. The picture on the left shows where we built, formed and welded them to 'shape'. Made a pattern of the roof out of plywood, bent a metal bar, shaped it to fit the roof, and welded it to shape. On the right I am trying to show one of them installed. It's the black bar just under the roof. I have installed three of these roof supports in the cab. Plenty of places to attach the headliner, and plenty of support from side to side. A buddy of mine told me it was like having roll bars in it,... LOL

Here you can see the cab extended 18 inches I think it will look pretty cool. We over braced it,.. but we gotta be moving it off and on the frame and we wanted to be absolutely sure nothing ever moved. SO better safe than sorry. You can also see where we have got in the other seat riser... but still need to extend it. Doors are fitted and (right now) fit perfect.
Next we'll chop the top. Still deciding on exactly what I'm gonna do there. Not sure you can see it clearly,.. but when we cut the roof,.. we measured back and cut at the exact same place on BOTH roofs. That way we have the same measurements (width-wise),.. and we also didn't went far enough forward so we didn't have to mess with the roll of the roof near the rear of the cab. Also since we cut in the exact same place we should have an exact level roof cut to cut when we replace the sheet metal.

We are building the truck on the 1/2 ton chassis I got, while we are trying to find a motor, and then put the rear end in the chassis we plan to finally use. SO that's what this frame looks so old and rusty. Here you can see we had to replace the supports under the doors that the kick panels attach to. They were old and rusted out. These are hardy and solid.
The kick panels will attach to the vertical sides,.. and the floorboard will cover the top.
OH,.. if you (or anyone you know) is interested,... the running gear,.. motor, tranny etc will be for sale when I put the cab over on my one ton chassis. As I said previous the motor runs like a top,.. and the trannys is pristine. no teeth knocked off of it,.. none even chipped, or anything. It's nice, and works well.

Another picture where I'll have to tell you what this is... this is the seat riser, from the front (left pic) and from above (right pic pic). Since we stretched the cab 18 inches we had to level the floorboards in the back of the cab and on the sides. Those of you that know anything about Studebakers know that the original floorboards drop down in the rear next to the cab,.. and also on the sides. (that make the step).
As you can see we leveled all this up so the floors would be flat and look nice when finished. The seat riser will extend out past what you see here, and also have a step. Thats the door post (B post) where the door will close on the left of the pictures.

Well it getting to critical time... gotta suck it up and have some balls. When you chop the top it's too late to turn back then. The orange tape indicates where I plan on chopping the top. I've finally decided how I am going to chop the top. First we planned on cutting it two inches all the way around. Now we have decided to cut only one inch in the rear, and 2 1/2 inches in the front. That way it'll have a little rake to it and slight slope to the cab. It'll have a bitchin' look to it,.. and leave about an inch extra head room,.. so a win-win all the way around

Ok,.. I tried to make a pic before I did this but it didn't come out... The pic on the left,... I'll tell you what this is.. LOL. What we did is hook a chain around a beam in the basement. Then we put a come-along in it,..TO that we run a 2x4 each way through the cab. One between the front and rear windows, and one between the new 18" section we added. We just cut the top loose and jacked it up with the come-along. That way it hangs there,.. we could work on it and not be in the way.
The pic on the right... Chopped... OH MY GOD... What have I done...?? LOL

Well,.. here it is all chopped. One inch out of the back,.. and 2 1/2 inches out of the front. Gotta kinda nice look to it. Hard to tell everything until I get the doors cut and make them match

The one inch strip I cut out of the rear I polished up and put back in to use as a brace between the upper and lower pieces on the inside where it will hide. You can see it on the left pic here. It is spot welded to the lower piece,.. but right now the top is just sitting on,.. so thats why there is a gap in the window opening, and no weld spots on the roof section yet. Here is a picture of the truck chopped and extended. (from the side) All the top parts are just setting there for now; and welding everyting together is the next job.
After that I'll have to tackle cutting apart the doors and making them fit the new roof line. Since I know the exact measurments I cut out of the B post, and A post,.. I am hoping I shouldn't run into to many problems.

Got some more of the cab done. Had a spare set of doors, and cut out 17" to fill the gap where we extended the cab. Thats worked well, and had the exact same shape of the doors. We lapped the metal in the front and spot welded it,.. and are gonna butt weld the rear. You can see we still need to add a small piece at the bottom. I'm going to add a window about 9x11 in the upper opening in the extended section. Possibly from some newer truck, and if I am lucky I'll get one that has those little flip out deals.

Here's a gas tank I run across at a salvage yard. 25 whopping gallons. I paid 15 whole dollars for it.. woo hoo. It needs a sending unit,.. but they are pretty cheap, and I can get a 'universal' one and be all set to go.

THIS was what I made the trip to the salvage yard after. Got me a 350 power plant for the ol' gal. Don't look like much now,.. but when she gets totally rebuilt, painted to match the body, little chrome here and there,.. she'll be primo.

Had to throw this little picture in here. I bought a 9" Ford rear end from a guy and he had this welder for sell. It was almost brand new. He hadn't had much luck learning how to use it, and he had just pushed it off to the side and it was in the garage taking up space.
I gave $100 for it. Heck it had a full roll of welding wire on it (that cost $30)
It came with that tiny little bottle... I worked out a deal for that HUGE bottle. Man I can weld forever with that big bottle.
Buddy of mine has a place that builds steel stuff, and I had the legs and shelves bent over there, and I even pulled the metal for this little cart out of his scrap bin. SO I built my cart for no cost.
I been lucky finding some stuff over there.

On the left is the 9" Ford rear end I got. Needs cleaned up a little, but it's in good shape. A good acid bath, clean the outside, paint with a little POR-15 and she'll be good as new.

thats it for now,.. more to come later
today is 11/02/06
_________________
lovin' life; livin' large

[pickup guy]

OK.. on with the work..

OK I got the roof put in now...As I explained earlier in this piece, We cut the two cabs in the same place so I could just put a piece in so it would be 'straight'. We rolled the roof over on the edges, and formed it so it had some roll over the center. Got a pretty good shape to match the original cab roof shape from side to side. SO I'm well pleased with the shape. Got it welded in. We used a sheet metal crimper and lap welded the metal on the roof. Since I'm a fairly new weldor, I was afraid I might burn some holes in the roof,.. so we lap welded it. I do a pretty good job doing it that way, and it came out well.

OK I put in the kick panel under the door. Figured I go ahead and put this in now, and use it as a guide so we could get the bottom even when we put in the lower piece from the rear cab corner to the end the end of this kick panel. Hey,.. gonna have something to line everything all up with. Honestly got to line up this piece, the bottom of the doors, etc etc.. it all works together to have just the right look.
NOW as for the picture on the right,.. anyone that has worked on many old trucks will tell you that the lower portion where the fenders mount, easily rust out. This looks a lot worse than it is. Some of this metal is thin,.. and will need a little fiberglass to make it look 100%.
One piece (right next to the door - from the hinge down to the bottom)... it was completely rusted out, and and I didn't have anything to even start to work with. I had to make me a new piece of steel, bend it, shape it, and weld it on JUST so I had something here. Got it all welded in,.. even welded me in a nice little brace in behind the body metal so when I bolt the fended back on the bolt will go through that also and hold it all solid.

OK,.. final two pics for today...
On the pic on the left. There's ALWAYS something to be done. Here we finally got some time to plug all the holes in the firewall. All those little things need to be done. Don't look to bad,.. just needs some putty in the holes and make everything all smooooth. The pic on the right is some floor supports we installed. That way I can put in flat sheet metal for the floor, and it still be plenty strong. -- 11/7/06

OK little more updates...

First off I got that piece made that I eluded to a couple rows of pictures above. I got the kick panel put in under the door. And this is the piece I had to fab up that goes from the kick panel back to the cab corner. MAN it was a lot of work making that piece up. Now of course since I'm not a professional body man,.. so I probably went about it the hard way. Right now it's just stuck up there so I can see what it'll look like (and if it fits 100% right). Looks like it's gonna be perfect. Gotta weld it in, and then move over to the drivers side, and do the same thing I did over here.
NOW on the pic on the right,... we spent Friday as a "junk yard day". You have saw in previous pics where I extended the cab and still have that place up above (kinda even with where the windows are) to fill in yet. Here you see Dad cutting out some donor windows out of a Chevy S10 extended cab. These are what I'll use on the ol' Studie.

Here's the last pics for the day. This is some more items we picked up at the salvage yard. The pic on the left is the extended cab windows completely cut out. They are just what I hoped I would find. They'll be the right size when I get done with them.. had good rubber seals on them,.. and even got the little latches on them where they will open and close. The pic on the right is one of a set of seats I bought. This material is a little dirty,.. but I plan on having it removed and recovered. I LOVE the style and look of the seats. Has the upturned edges on the bottom and sides of the seat, and they are real comfortable to sit in. I plan on having them recovered in a brown leather, with a beige color in the middle. Should look nice. I also got me a nice seats of seat belts out of a car at the salvage yard. All in all I spent $150 for everything. I think I come out pretty good.
I priced some seat belts on the internet and they were $125 each... (and I figure about $20 for shipping). Heck I bought these seat belts for $20 for the PAIR, and they are good as new.... so I saved $250 just on the seat belts. World of good stuff if you take a little time to go get it at the salvage yards. 11/12/06
_________________
lovin' life; livin' large

[pickup guy]

saved for more work
_________________
lovin' life; livin' large

[PaulDriver]

Look'n Good!