Thread: Stude M5 build

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I can't believe how rust free the body actual was for it's age and straight too. I can tell that you certainly know what you are doing in the repair of the body and the mounts you have modified for the chassis to body is top class. Actual, the more I look at the photo's , the more I like the wheels on the frame for some reason I think they are cool and would suit the Stude .

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

I can't believe how rust free the body actual was for it's age and straight too. I can tell that you certainly know what you are doing in the repair of the body and the mounts you have modified for the chassis to body is top class. Actual, the more I look at the photo's , the more I like the wheels on the frame for some reason I think they are cool and would suit the Stude .

Thanks for the kind words. Coming from Nevada was the key, the desert preserves pretty well. I don't plan on using the explorer wheels though, I was thinking of some wide steel wheels with little hubcaps, maybe chrome rings too. I may change my mind before it's done.

I was totally lucky on the trans mount, the chevy rubber mount lined right up with the ford cross member, all I had to do was put a bolt in it!
I got a 96 caddy steering column at pick n pull and was able to use a combo of the caddy and the explorer steering joints with only minor mods I had the steering hooked up. I had to cut off the caddy column mount and make my own. I cut a notch in the dash and reinforced it to mount the column to.
I found that my feet were really cramped in the little cab making it difficult to operate the pedals, so I made an extended foot well area, it actually made a lot of difference.

That has got to be the first time I've heard of stretching the cab for the feet. How clever! I don't think it would have occurred to me.

Yep, me neither and yet it works so well by the look of it and there is a nice foot rest of the left for the foot that hasn't got much to do. I do like the Forty steering wheel on the caddy column too, looks perfect.

Very cool! Man, that old truck was really clean and you did some great work. Those LS motors are a little more work to assemble but great engines. Great flowing aluminum heads, forged internals, good compression, and a beefy bottom end right out of the box. It's a big chunk of $$$ to bring an old style small block up to that standard.

It's surprising that just a couple more inches in the foot well made it tolerable. I never realized how small the old trucks were. Were people tiny back then or what? I used the explorer brake pedal assembly and brake booster, just had to extend the booster out a couple inches. You can see the firewall massaging that went on, I'll use a little filler to smooth out the hammer marks before painting. There were a ton of holes in the firewall for who knows what that I had to fill.

Couple more shots.

That is coming along so fine and yes, it makes one wonder if fast food, soft living so to speak has had a influence on our body size and shape / height . As for all the holes, I spend several days on the fire wall of '47 Ford Pickup that I'm sure some kid had been given a drill with assorted sized drill bits and told to practice creating holes. What a nightmare that was as the guy I was doing it for only had a gas welder so had to keep the heat down low.

It seemed like instead of using an existing hole they would just drill a new one. The floor had some big holes in it, maybe someone didn't want to remove the gas tank so they made big ugly access holes. There's no way I could do it with a gas welder.

I seem to recall some article saying that Henry designed his vehicles deliberately too small to be rolling boudoirs. Maybe all early mfgs followed suit, I don't know.

But again, good job finding more room for the tootsies.

Been gone a few days to pick up some rust free stuff out by Kansas City------
Great project --------but speaking about the LS engine---did you even consider using a Ford from the Explorer???
One thing about the late model LS family of engines--------just the cost savings of an accessory belt drive system plus the alt, AC, PS will usually pay for the engine----

Oh yeah I considered it. I almost bought a low mile AWD 5.0. It would have made the project so much easier, I could have use the exhaust, fuel system, driveshaft, everything as is. But I wanted the ls motor and the point of this project was to have fun building it, I'm not in a hurry to finish it. I have a ford 5.0 in a miata that I built so I've been there done that. It takes a lot of money to get the ford up to the power of the chevy. I found after building the miata that I actually enjoyed building it more than driving it, not that it isn't a kick in the butt to drive too!

Fun, heck those things were a hand full stock standard if given a full pedal of fuel on a slippery road. I remember the Auto Repair shops here in NZ had a great influx of them to repair as they would get side ways real quick on inexperienced drivers and hit things that wouldn't move like power poles.
Your looks absolutely stunning and yep, the smile would last a day or two after a good drive of it.

Well I have spun it around in the rain, I have learned to have respect for the torque in such a little car.