"Roxie"

(Continued)

1/13/97 - Disassembled the engine from the 4-door for cleaning and machine work. Also pulled the tranny out of the 4-door's frame (after having about 4 quarts of tranny fluid leak out the rear seal all over the shop owner's floor).

1/14/97 - I have dropped the engine off at M J Machine & auto parts in Fargo. They had a couple of people that had done engine work on Studebaker V-8's before. After a week of boiling, scraping & pellet-blasting, the block came clean. I also dropped the tranny off at Howie's repair. Howie is an older gentleman who's been a mechanic for 25 or more years and has worked on his share of Studebakers.

1/15/97 - Got news from the machine shop that the bore is out of round, but the crankshaft, journals, & rod mains are o.k. They need to bore, but they can save me some money by boring from 3 9/16" to 3 5/8" and using new 3 5/8" pistons & rings as these are more popular (hence cheaper). It's like every time I turn around it's another $80.00!

1/17/97 - It would appear the front stabilizer bar has been used to tow the car at some point, it would also appear that the bar could not withstand the pressure and was pulled out of it's mounts and bent all to heck. Pulled the one off the old 4-door's frame (which I kept for just such an occasion) and cleaned it up. Set it aside to paint with some of the other stuff that needed to be painted black.

1/19/97 - Filled in dents in the cowl & firewall. Removed steering column & disassembled. After much contemplation, I've made the decision to remove the Bendix P/S assist cylinder & control valve, then to take the drag link & pitman arm from the 4-door & install it on the Cruiser. I'm going to leave the steering pivot in place in case I get the money together to fix the power steering later. Cleaned & painted the column and set aside for later installation. I removed the rear bumper. Today was the big day. I cleaned, sanded & primed the firewall, trunk, rear apron, & cowl. The car is starting to look a whole lot better now!

1/25/97 - Removed steering pitman arm, & drag link from 4-door lark & cleaned up. Removed control valve & power assist pump and put away. Cleaned up front portion of frame from cowl forward. Also cleaned up carb, intake manifold, water pump pulley, & steering gear from Cruiser. Painted these items black (except for carb). The car is almost ready for an engine!

1/31/97 - Sanded engine compartment, fenders, front end, interior. Wife helped quite a bit. I have pictures!!!! Will post as soon as I can.

2/1/97 - Primed the same items that I sanded yesterday. Also painted coil, air cleaner, & water manifold black. Almost finished, but ran out of primer.

2/4/97 - Finished priming the rest of the body. Also finished painting engine components (pictures to follow soon).

2/19/97 - Got engine back from machine shop. Looks great!!! Now I have to order bearings & a gasket set. As it gets close to spring, the owner of the shop needs to start working on equipment for spring planting.

3/1/97 - After several trips around the country, I'm back to working on my project. Today I wet-sanded the engine compartment (it was easy, it was raining outside!). I plan on painting tomorrow or the next day.

3/3/97 - Bought paint at Berg Auto. Rose Mist enamel with hardner. Did a test spray on a trunk lid. Tomorrow is the big day!!

Continued . . .

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at dgroth@corpcomm.net

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