Kennie B.

I have often thought for the base line engine, the Mercedes 230 SE engine might have been a good alternate. Later on, a Pontiac Sprint OHC six with 4 bbl card would have certainly had the beans for a base or the Buick aluminum V8.

Now, before the Schrock brothers stop doing steering wheels, get that part properly restored!

Well, my last day here in Birmingham AL. I left Pasadena CA a week ago (Saturday) and drove across on I 40 and arrived on Thursaday for the vintage motorcycle races and festival the the Barber Motorcycle Museum puts on every October. I conceed, it is a small affair, only 80,000 attendance! So far Laurence has carried me across the better part of the USA, passing through; AZ, NM, TX, OK, AR, TN, MS and AL. The return will add GA since Jerry Forrester' plating shop is rather close and only adds a dogleg to my drive up to friends in Mc Minnville TN tomorrow. I haven't determined the details of my return from there but a dogleg north in NM will have me with cousins in Durango on my way home so I will be adding CO to the list of states I have driven this car through for a total of 12 besides my home state of CA. The 2 additional are OR and WA last year going to the international meet in Tacoma. Wish me luck getting home. And Lew, I guess I will need to chronicle this for the magazine like I did the last time, there have been a few hiccups along the way... Kennie B.

I did run a couple of short, vertical beads on both the inboard and out board sides using a MIG welder. I did sand off the chrome plate near where I welded.

Not really a part you can home brew. That part is avaible new though and of the weather stripping, one of the easier to replace. Slight mods as it is a touch long and the front end needs a slight angle cut tapering as the edge goes from outer side to inner edge. I am in the middle of redoing my window seals. The tricky part about the vertical seals is getting the weather strip adhesive to stick. The stuff seems to repel surfaces you want it to stick to and magnetically attractive to the surfaces you don't want it on. I finally (I think) found success by lightly abrading the surface to apply glue to with a light stainless brush and some adhesive solvent.

Hi Will, The Hedman tips definitely reduced the "bark". Now it has a mellow rumble. As for the "banging", under deceleration there was a strong popping from rich exhaust fumes firing in the pipes with any fresh air pulled through variuos leaks I couldn't seem to close up. This seems to have solved that. As for performance, no loss as far as the " butt dyno" can tell.

To R & R the pump is quite easy. To do the same for the pittman, a little tricker. To change all the hoses, a pain but manageble. Get a copy of the factory service manual and read through it. The answers are all there. Ken

Well, I have a chance to drive the car with the tips and it certainly sounds more " modest" and the "banging" on the over run has disappeared. Once I get the tach sorted, then I can retest. Then I can get you hard numbers.

Absolutely, there are way too many ways to create a short circuit back in that space.

Well, what did I do wrong? I had the dash out of my car to clean up the instrument's chrome rings and re-finish the vinyl. As such, I had to disconnect all the wiring. Upon reinstalling everything, it all works except for the tach. At idle it reads fine but stops advancing at 2000rpm. Did I mix up 2 wires or did disturbing the sender from its 50 year perch mess things up? Thanks, Ken

I had a horrendously rotted filler hose when I first bought my car 4 years ago. Initially I removed the entire tank to have it boiled out since I also had a problem with rust blocking the fuel filter repeatedly. I replaced all the rubber lines except the one up in the "C" pillar, the vent line. As time would go on, the fumes started to return. This last month I took the time to pull the entire interior out in the back of the car since I needed to replace the rear window gasket. I took the opportunity to (initially) to get the headliner out and refinish it and that meant pulling the side panels. By doing that I could get better access but Studebaker thought to rivet a clip to hold the vent hose and keep it from rattling around. The pop rivet is visible buthee are a couple of others in the same area so use a bore scope to verify which one to drill out. The take a hole saw and make a hole near use the hole to access the rotten hose, you'll need to cut it to get it out. Also, I found the steel tube that runs along the top of the gas tank from the tube coming out of the tank and the hose in the pillar was cracked. Threw that out as well and used some stainless tube. The result? Clear air for once.

When I installed my engine 10,000 + miles ago, I installed a new exhaust system as well. I bought the Silvertone with loud mufflers. Sounds great but...how do I put this...anti social perhaps? I like it but here in Cali there is a new rule regarding sound emissions, some of which does take away subjective opinion as to how loud you are but should you be sent to the Bureau of Automotive Repair, the test will cost $1,000.00 plus any fines you are subject to if you emit more than 96 dba. Not a good idea to draw a lot of attention. I have a friend who handles these tests for small manufacturers and he came out to test my car. He did mention that typically, neither the cops nor courts are really interested in middle aged men driving casually with an occasional brap of a loud engine. What they chasing are the kids running around with loud exhausts always deep in the throttle with engine devoid of the emissions equipment. His advise though was I better keep my nose clean, at 3,200 RPM my car puts out 102.4 dba! That happens at 80 mph. At 2,500 RPM, it's 98 dba and that works out as 70 mph. I am adding a pair of Hedman resonator exhaust tips to hopefully knock back the bark, https://www.jegs.com/i/Hedman/500/17120/10002/-1. I'll let you know if these get me close. If you live in an area with tough enforcement, go for at the least the medium tone mufflers.

I'll take a shot and say my home state, California.

Congratulations to "The Driven Man". I remember seeing a Craigslist ad for that car several years ago, before I bought my '63. If it weren't so far away from So Cal, I might have bought that one instead of the one I did. I look forward to hearing what the overall condition is and what you've got in mind to do. Ken