Thursday 15 December 2016

Posting #2 

Wow! I can't believe how fast my first year of retirement has gone. My Daytona Project has seen some progress but to anyone looking in from the outside not much has happened.  I spent time taking two "Auto Restoration" classes at BCIT in the spring, took a couple of fishing trips, and went in our 5th wheel on a 7200 km. tour of Arizona, California and Oregon. Oh, it was so much fun I almost forgot that I also got talked into dusting off my old books and doing one more 10- week class of students at BCIT.

Shop Work:

  During all of this I started to dismantle "Daytona 1"(2 dr-Sport Sedan) and had lots of fun learning what really held this thing together. It really didn't take that long till it was all apart and stored away. Many pictures were taken to aid me to figure out where and how things fit together when and if the day comes to put this thing back together! Before starting I built a "safety cradle" out of 4 old camper jacks to hopefully prevent me from being crushed if the beast falls over on me. I will also use them for lifting the body off of the frame when it comes time for that. You can see them in pictures.

As you can see from the pictures this car is even far more rusted than I originally thought.  I went through a few phases of actually abandoning this project all together and getting something different to start with that wasn't quite so scary and more at my existing skill level.  Glad to say now that I got over all those fears and have progressed on to the stage of getting a donor car "Daytona 2" (4 dr Sedan) and now in the process of trying to figure out how I can cut and hack things and glue them back together to look like the original "Daytona 1. Magic Wand maybe!!

"Daytona 1" and "Daytona 11"  now on rolling stands awaiting decisions on their fate. The more I look at them, I don't think there will be much left of "Daytona 1".
When I close the door at night and turn out the lights, I secretly hope they may be of the opposite sex and I will come back in the morning and find they have produced "a new shiny replica". Nope -not that easy!!

To see more photos copy and paste this URL to your browser:                https://goo.gl/photos/iNzK2PGqN9k4PWHa8

 

Thursday 7 January 2016

Posting #1


1965 Studebaker Daytona Sport Coupe

June/2013

My "lucky day" (this is open to opinion!!)  when I found it after seeing the ad on Craigslist.
Believe it or not .. the fellow I bought it from got it started and drove it onto the trailer.
The front is all sagging because they had tried to take off the fenders then changed mind. Resulted in damage to both front doors with people trying to open the doors to get in. Oh well, just more body work to learn on.

Studebaker "Thunderbolt V8' 283 cu.in.

In 1965 Studebaker Canada used a Chevrolet drive train. This is almost identical to the famous Chevy 283. Running sort of, but in need of a thorough going over.
My first job before I start dismantling will be to change some oils etc. and hopefully get it running again to take some compression tests etc. and see how I think I will have to go with this baby. Hopefully I can get it running satisfactorily without too much rebuild for now. I will wait and see how I make out with all the body etc before I get too carried away. I will hot rod it later!!
Complete set of NOS fenders & bumpers.


Somebody - someplace about a dozen years ago had planned on doing a rebuild and had bought a lot of NOS parts including all the fenders and bumpers still wrapped up. Even new carpeting and a new padded dash were still in the boxes.
Now if I can figure out how to rebuild the "inner body" and glue all these things to it I'll be in business!
I haven't been able to find history of this person yet but will be trying again now that I have time.
New "Temporary" Shop to work in 18 ft x 20 ft


Decided that I needed a shop to work in so built a structure that I call "temporary" to avoid a few of those nasty permit problems (hopefully - don't tell) Its 18'x20' with a concrete floor and has a nice high roof. Should be nice to work in.
Before I can get started on the car I need to get it moved out of the mess I have created in there and finish insulating the walls and lining the walls etc.
This has taken much longer than planned since I was having so much fun working part time for 8 years at BCIT   -  but now it is my time here!!!
Come around for a visit - cold beer in fridge!