Brad’s GT: 1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo
Brad came to us with this rusty Stude looking for a full frame build.
He knew the original Studebaker frames were fairly flimsy to start with and his had been laying in the mud for a few decades. After sand blasting it was obvious it wouldn’t be up to his standards. We showed him his options and work on other Studes we had here at the time and made some decisions. Mustang II with custom tubular control arms, Bilstein shocks, power rack, complete new frame with tubular center section and a narrowed C4 Corvette rear. He dropped off the original frame for us to use as an armature and the tube stared flying.
The rear axle assembly gathered most of our attention. To narrow one of these this much you lose the ability to shorten or otherwise use the stock spring. We converted the stock shock mounts to take Bilstein Coil overs and had to rebuild the steering rod assembly to clear the frame rails. I totally screwed up and didn’t get any shots of that work, I do have the 3D files of the center mount.
First up was getting the body mounts, frame contour and suspension located. We used one of our existing frame clips for the front end and mocked up the rear suspension to see if we needed any special considerations before laying out the 2X4 box tube. Mid build it was decided that we needed a few more inches of space for the rear wheels, this threw a minor wrench in the works but it all worked out.
New frame with rear installed
Corvette rear mounting
CNC plasma cut four bar brackets
New frame from the rear
Tie rod box bolted in place of the orignial spring mount
Frame done we got the nod to fix the rusty parts and fit the body to the frame. This also gave us a chance to change the body mounts and add some really nice bellypans. Most of the rust was concentrated in the trunk area. Both front footwells needed to be replaced and the superfluous rear seat footwells were also eliminated.
The stock firewall was lacking in style for a build this serious, same for the inner fender wells. Wes tuned up his hammers and knocked down some good stuff.
New firewall and fenderwells
I took on the custom hood hinges. In these shots you might be able to spy the firewall mounted brake power booster, inside is a custom pedal bracket with the option of adding a clutch. Wes got to do some extra detail work, the upper control arm openings got a nifty support and rubber boot.
Custom front opening hood hinges
Adjustable hinge mount
Hood in the open position
Control arm cover
Wrapping up the project before it left us, we got a few drawings from Jim Smith
Jeem's pencil scribbling
View from the rear, custom tail lights and mini-fins
Just about ready to leave us
Staged for the door, Thanks Brad!
Cow Island Express, 1952 Studebaker truck
This old truck came to us as a “street rodded” finished truck. Decent maroon metallic paint and gray vinyl interior. Didn’t drive worth keeping.
Braking was wishful and the steering was about as good as guiding the truck down the road with the same rope steering you used on your first go-kart. The new owner really liked the truck but wanted to actually drive it, he also wanted to make a few changes like a Tremec TKO five speed and a correct dash instead of the street rod billet affair the truck had. It had to come apart after our initial inspection. It had a very poorly installed Mustang II kit from Speedway. The best we could determine was the kit was actually for a 1935-1940 Ford. Not even close enough to work with the Studebaker. The wheels were inset too far and just looked goofy, the anti-dive was backward, the caster and camber settings were not good and the frame wasn’t even boxed, everything flexed and popped.
Poorly installed Speedway kit, no boxing plates and FUBAR geometry
Proper alignment wasn't possible so the slotted it to death
Looked even worse after Kelly pressurewashed it down
So “off with it’s head” we chopped out everything and cleaned it back to the bare frame rails. There was a bit of minor repair work to be done but fortunately the stock frame was salvageable. I drew up some boxing plates and a new crossmember system that was two inches wider than a stock Mustang II and adjusted the upper and lower control arm connection points to put the instant center where we needed it and to correct the camber curve for the 1″ longer control arms we were going to build and use. You can also see the tubular frame support and adjustable transmission mount Court bent up and the new Flaming River steering column Kelly installed.
Newly fabricated crossmember and boxing plates installed.
If you spot the tube crossmember was custom fit to preserve the stock gas tank
David (the customer) wanted a manual trans, a Tremec TKO ! The stock below floor brake assembly was butchered beyond use and David likes swing pedals better anyway. Kelly fabricated a new sheet metal box to accommodate the odd Studebaker firewall/dash board arrangement. Then he modified an aftermarket brake and clutch assembly provided by the customer to fit.
Brake and clutch pedal box
Brake and clutch pedal with new Flaming River steering column and drop
The rear got some attention too. The truck came to us with a GM Corporate 10 bolt that was a touch too wide, 5 on 5″ bolt pattern and 2.56:1 gears that just wouldn’t work with the overdrive five speed. The springs themselves were shot, so they came out and got rebuilt over at Valley Spring service. New spring mounts were also in order to eliminate the lowering blocks. We also boxed the frame and installed a 2″ deep C-notch.
Rear frame boxed, rebuilt springs and new shackles and hardware.
In the meantime we got the new control arms fabricated and installed. We used a Dodge Dakota front anti-roll bar also. Bilstein shocks and stainless steel brake lines and a bit of clean up on the frame. We shot it with catalyzed enamel paint. The new Currie rear axle got stuffed in as well as a set of fresh Bilstein shocks. New stainless steel brake lines and the fuel system got treated and reinstalled.
Assembled front suspension
Currie rear axle, Bilstein shocks and Stainless brake lines
Interior wise the street rod dash had to go. Horrid rust sandwich with a gallon of bondo frosting. These are integrated pretty well into the cab. We acquired a donor cab and Kelly cut it out, then carefully trimmed out the offending piece to install the donor dash. While he was busy doing that I designed and built a plenum box to mount under the dash and distribute the cool air from the air conditioning. We also made provisions for the AC unit to draw air in from the cabin instead of hot underhood air. All this got covered up by a nicely fabricated aluminum panel on the engine side.The engine and new transmission got stuffed back in, new through the floor gas pedal from Lokar, the battery box got fabbed, wiring panels got mounted. The cab got undercoated with multiple layers of Second Skin spray on Damplifier. In fact so did the bed and all four fenders.
Engine and accessories
New dash panel and underdash
We buttoned up the remaining pieces as soon as the undercoating dried and delivered it to Scott of Steel Dreamz where the paint was attended to and and interior got redone. We hadn’t seen it in a while but were surprised when it showed up at the Studebaker International Drivers Club show. Here is the letter we got from David:
All,Below you will find photos of our 1952 Studebaker PU aka “The Cow Island Express” nearly finished (but shown anyway) in time for the Studebaker International Meet held last week in Glendale, Arizona. The PU was built with loving care by Scott Cawley of Chandler Arizona for Lori and me.
The pickup is entirely modified beginning with a Mustang II/Dodge Dakota style custom front end and suspension (built by Steve Szymanski at Industrial Chassis), GM 383 stroker motor (Tony Sanchez), Tremek TKO 5-speed, 4-wheel discs, Currie 9″ rear end and a custom interior by Doug Stinson at All American Upholstery that includes massive amounts of dynamatt insulation. Scott did the flawless body work and the stunning 2-tone paint which is tweeked current Cadillac CTS-V red metalic and champagne. The gold leaf pin stripes and lettering was applied by Tony Perez as was the freehand lettering. Chuck at Metro Plating did the chrome. Particular note should be made of what I consider the signature piece on the truck; the gold and chrome Studebaker hood piece that Chuck spent rediculous time on. Blow it up and take a good look at it.
Did I mention it also sound terrific. It had Flowmaster 50s on it that sounded too motorboatish. We went to Scottsdale Muffler and had them put on some Flowmaster Hushpower mufflers that are small and look kind of like glasspacks. With the new tips, the sound is deep and throaty.
It drives at least as good as it looks. Nuff said.
Besides Scott and the others above, Eric, Big John, Johnny, John the audio guy, Ty and many others worked on the “Cow Island Express”. If you don’t get the significance of the name, ask Scott or Pam Contes and they’ll tell you.
I mentioned that it’s almost done; it still has a few minor issues and needs like a dead speedometer, door handle, cruise control and the console with stereo and the critical two cupholders.
This unit has a date with Lori and me for Biloxi and “Cruising the Coast” in October.
Oh, yeah, it won First Place in the Modified Trucks category at Glendale.
Dave
Here are the pictures he sent of the finished product.
Thanks David!
Studebaker stampeede
Howdy folks! Been busy as all get out with Studebakers last week. We had a 1955 Commander post coupe in for a suspension upgrade and rare 1962 Studebaker Gran Turismo in for an engine swap that may turn out to be a fairly serious build.
The 55 was really straightforward. We had previously build a clip for Mr. Desenberg’s 1960 Hawk and realized we had made a mistake in pushing the suspension too far up int the chassis causing problems installing the engine. A problem with the GT I will get to in a minute. I pulled up all my Alibre’ drawings and revised them to not only correct this issue but also refined the design and now we have a production capable clip. The installation took us about 14 hours in total from remove the front sheet metal, saw off the original suspension and install the new suspension. We included a set of our tubular control arms, Granada brake upgrade and power steering rack all for $4000.00.
Mr. Metivier picked up his car just after we took in the rare Gran Turismo. Nice car on the outside. Someone had swapped the stock front sheetmetal for the older and cooler IMHO 53-54 sheetmetal. Brought in by our good customer, www.steeldreamz.com they were looking to swap out the really low mile small block Chevrolet engine and transmission for a more modern LS series and four speed automatic. As is our normal practice to do such a thing we removed the front sheet metal to get better access to the frame. This gives us more room to work and perform a more professional job. Doing this uncovered the previous owners work. They had installed a Fatman Fabrications front subframe. Due to design of this suspension clip, engine installation is nearly impossible without cutting the floor out and building a new trans tunnel and rebuilding the firewall. Sure it gets the car really low without dropped spindles but if it were designed with more forethought, similar results could have been achieved and made engine installation much easier.
This shows just how much of the inner fender needed to be cut away just to clear the upper control arms.
Rather than cut into the body further the installer decided to modify the suspension. Path of least resistance for him I am sure. However this created an entirely new problem, bumpsteer. Not only was the crossmember cut and dropped the rack and pinion was mounted lower off thick straps. Dangerous and crude, very nice combination.
We are still waiting for input from the customer on this one. He want’s to replace his Mercedes Benz daily driver with this car. This is something we can do for him, just not with this mess of a front end.
What is desired is a car that will drive very well, handle and brake and last as a new car would. What we would very much like to do is replace the Fatman clip with our kit. Our tubular control arms which are not only stronger but upgrade the ball joints and use OEM rubber control arm bushings for a much better ride without the polyurethane squeak and harshness. A set of Bilstein shocks and matched springs. A Flaming River variable assist rack and pinion would definitely set off the steering feel. And if there is any budget left, we would really like to rebuild the rear suspension with a torque arm system and Bilstein coil overs in the rear.
Here’s the links to the pictures:
http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb93/ELpolacko/1953-1962%20Studebaker%20Hawk/1955%20Commander%20Metivier/
http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb93/ELpolacko/1953-1962%20Studebaker%20Hawk/1962%20Studebaker%20GT%20Fatman%20Fab%20repair/
I am going to try and make this blog a weekly thing, so, until then. Adios!
Steve
The Next few months
With the economy the way it is, most businesses are lucky to be in business right now. We are very fortunate to be one of those that is doing as well as could be expected.
To get this blog rolling, I wanted to state some of the things that have happened and what is to come. In 2007, Adam Young Fabrication became a partner and added his dropped axle service to our corporation. His intent was to expand the product line and push forward our Dodge Dakota based suspension kits leaving me to do more product development and custom fabrication. We did produce prototypes of our new Gen III coil over suspension kit and got two of them on the road. First up was a complete chassis under the Dynacorn 53 Chevrolet pickup. Second was a local car, 1941 Packard Sedan and both were able to push beyond our customers expectations in drive, comfort and handling.
Due to unforeseen circumstances Adam relocated to Seattle Washington at the end of 2008, this put a huge dampener on the business and product development. We came to the solution of splitting the business this year. Adam has been slow to get his new fabrication shop running but the end goal is for him to produce the current product line and start in on the new complete coil over Gen III suspension. With a completion date of September 09 for his new shop, he will also produce the standard frames and chassis for 1948-1956 Ford and 1947-1959 GM trucks from his location as (tbd) Adam Young Fabrication by the fall of this year.
Currently we have parred down the product line to match sales. We only offer the basic crossmember kits for 1948-1964 Ford trucks and 1955-1959 GM trucks. But our focus here at Industrial Chassis has changed.
Our new focus is centered around custom fabrication and suspension tuning. There are far too many hot rods and customs that have been on the road that do not perform as the owners prefer, and it is our goal to step in and resolve these issues. Drawing on my nearly 20 years of experience building, maintaining and repairing pre1965 cars and trucks, I can pinpoint a solution and perform the necessary repair or re-engineering needed.
Of course we will continue to offer our services for custom chassis fabrication. We will add to our services, suspension design and installation, custom frames and crossmembers, custom exhaust, turbo charging, fuel and brake line installation, custom fuel tanks and engine bracketry, brake pedal and steering setups. Anything that you as a hot rod or custom owner don’t feel comfortable doing yourself or if you just happen to like our mechanical style, we are here for you, our customer.
Apperance wise we are going to do some remodeling of the shop. The re-installation of a showroom and customers lounge. A service bay where you can bring your nicely finished vehicles and keep them out of the heavy fabrication area. New equipment and software to not only diagnose an issue but to speed up the process to repair or fabricate. Also look for new apparel and other merchandise to support your local hot rod shop.
Our reputation was built on quality parts and knowledgeable service, something that will not change.
Steve