Thread: 55 studebaker wagon

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ok folks need some info on this, my 16yr old son has decided he wants to Hot Rod a 55 studey wagon like this

He has autobody class in high school & has already painted a couple of cars (A+'s for his grades on them). He tells me he wants to put a wild LOUD paint job on it, slam it on the ground & put a
nice tire & wheel combo on it. Its great to hear my son doesnt want a ricer burner w/a fart can on it, & really wants to have everyone have that WTF is THAT, look on their faces when he pulls into the parking lot.

my questions are these, are the front suspensions any good, & if they are any good does someone make a disc brake set up for them. Also we dont know if the motor runs or not since it has sat for over 10 yrs, so how hard is it to put a SBC motor in it, is there anything that we shuold expect, cause I dont like surprizes that will cost me lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. The best part is, its a Calif. one owner car & we can get it for $800. It's almost RUST FREE, just some surface rust, thats it.
well hope you guys can help me, thanks..joe

Sounds real cool to me Joe. I've had fleeting thoughts about the same kind of car from time to time, although I envision it in a real clean (probably straight toner) yellow. Some sort of 5 spoke, 17" wheel, no body mods except a little trim removal (and they don't have much to start with).

Weeg will hopefully pipe in, he's the Stude man. But I see disc brake conversions listed on ebay pretty regularly for these. You might check that out. You might also double check the tailgate, they were pretty prone to rusting from the inside out, and are a bit bigger of a job to repair.

I just read on a studey forum ( & I cant get in to it for what ever reason) that the studey V8 motors has a hi-nickel content in the motors, which to me means, they are hard as nails & almost bullit proof. Are these motors really any good to run & IF it does have a standard transmission (no I didnt look) does anyone make an adaptor to put a automatic trans in it....thanks again folks....joe

Jim Turner of Turner Brake has the disc brake conversions available for the studebakers. Front and back. He also has dual master cylinder conversions. I used MP Brakes booster/master on mine and installed it in front of the drivers side toe board. It will be completely out of site and covered by a stock bolt in splash pan to protect it from road debris. You can check out how I mounted it in Members gallery. I have posted a few pics of how I installed it.

The front suspension stock on the stude is actually very good and new parts are readily available. Also, a rear steer Grand Am rack and pionion adapts to them very well. The stude rear axles are also very good and many already have a Posi unit in them.

The studebaker engines where all high nichol content blocks, including the 6 cylinders. They also all have forged steed cranks right out of the factory. Ted Harbit has campaigned a punched out Studebaker for over 30 years running twin superchargers, and it is still on the strip. I believe his best pass was a 10.3 quarter at 132mph. This is in a 50 Studebaker starlite cpe.

He also has a Studebaker lark, twin chargers of course, that I believe he is running this next week or so at the pure stock drags. He will be match racing a Yenko chevy. Ted won the last round.

I don't believe your son can go wrong with the Conestoga. It is a very desirable model.


Dean

Oh, forgot to mention, the hard core studebaker guys call the chevy block a soft block, lol.

thank you O'master of the stude's ...joe

Check out the scalloped roof section on an 81 Eagle wagon. It would work very nicely in that chopped Conestoga top. I had to shorten it up some for my 2 dr. ht, but it blends with the car very well.

Dean

By the way, if ya do go chevy power with it, Belmont Rods has a front motor plate that bolts the chevy right into the stock stude mounts. Here is a pic of my 54 Starlight Cpe. Stock running gear, dropped a 350 chevy in it.

great looking car Weeg,, I can only hope it turns out that nice someday, but at least we're starting out w/a clean car. Any neat tricks I should know or anything I should look out for when I help him put it together. thanks for any info............joe

The main thing I would have you keep in mind is that there are very specific steps in order you need to take when reassembling the body starting at the body mounts themselves. These cars had some fairly flexable frames under them, although I do believe the frame thickness was increased starting in 55. They also had a structural body pan that sets just on the outside of the frame. Check to see that these are solid. From your discription, I expect they are, but never hurts to check.

The 54 Cpe and the 53 Starliner I am presently building have very flexable frames. With the new suspension pieces I am using, the crossmembers add some regidity, but I still also put a layer of fiberglass and POR-15 on the floor pans. It adds rigidity to the completed car and also helps with sound deadening and insulating. The POR-15 penetrates the glass matt much better than resin and is much, much harder when cured.

Studebaker Hawk fiberglass dashs bolt right in, if you happen to run across any. There are also a couple of outlets for repo glass Hawk dashs that are blank so you can set guages up as you like.

Lincoln Versielles 9" with disc fits them nicely, as do the Ford explorer 8.8 and also the S-10's.

New windshields are still available for them, although a bit pricy. All other glass in it should be flat glass. By the way, the 94 to 02 Dodge windshields are almost an identical match on curveture.

Sasco still has many NOS parts that Dennis saved from the original studebaker warehouse.

If your son decides to go with it, we would certainly like to see it progress. Keep us posted.

Dean

If you need any parts for the stude,let me know as a local junkyard has 54 or 55 wagon in it and I think it is still complete. I am in ohio

well jeff I sure will be calling someone for part cause they're are a few things I know we need, like the grill part that says studebaker(has a small tear), windshield (has a crack) the front seat (lowwer part), both front & back tail lite lenses among a few things.

The only place I saw some bad cancer was the drivers & passagers floor pans & really it wasnt all that bad, mayber each spot could be fixed w/a 18"x18" piece. the rest of the car is ROT FREE, just some surface rust & most of that is on the hood.

techinspector1, IF I had a 500 caddy motor it would be in my one ton 48 chevy burb.

as for pics I have some of the car & some of the other 150+ cars he has, early coupe bodies, about 40 or so 55-6-7chevy's, bout 20 48-53 chevy p/u, a Henry J, a 55-6 Pontiac wagon, a clean looking 57 ford converible, just to name a few. I have to figger out whats wrong w/my webshot account & then I'll post some.

O, one more thing, is there a catalog of some kind I can get to see what parts I might be able to get for this beast............joe

I lied there is another thing, IF we can get the V8 running are the automatics in these things anygood at all????????????

does anyone have a source for them, looking for suspension parts, motor mount & trans mount kits & stuff like that......thanks folks.........joe

And to add to Richard's good suggestion, you can access www.hemmings.com ..................................................at least until Sept 1, at which point only subscribers to their book can access the web site for ads.

Joe, here are a couple of links that will help you tremedously.

This link is to the studebaker news group. A very good place to find some of those tough to find parts. Let it be know what you need and many will step up that have the parts available.

http://groups.google.com/groups?oi=d...tos.studebaker

This next link is for studebaker parts vendors. There are a lot of NOS and repo parts available through them. Turner Brakes is the guy to talk to about disc brake setups.

http://stude.com/vendor.htm

Some of the automatics where really good, and some not so good. The 3 speed auto being the best, of course. Also, a number of T10 4 gears running around for them that are not too hard to come by.

Dean

thanks Dean, these will help me alot, since I really have no idea where to start looking, I did a search but I really didnt find much, thanks again........OOOOOOOO yea the kid said to give you a BIGG HIGH 5 ON THE INFO ALSO.........joe

Originally posted by TooMany2count
IF I had a 500 caddy motor it would be in my one ton 48 chevy burb.

If I had a 500 caddy it would be in my 55 1st GMC Suburban. But mine's a half-ton and I had understood that they only made panels based on the heavier trucks, not Suburbans. Am I wrong? I'd love to see a picture of yours!

Actually, I have a 454 Chevy FOR my Suburban, and if I were honest I'd admit that a 500 Cadilac wouldn't be installed yet either...