OldNYJim

Thanks Dave! It’s cool that you guys are so proactive about this stuff and willing to tweak things

Thanks for all the comments everyone - cool gasser Disco! The humidity was really high this week which slowed me down a little in getting the body color laid down...but it dropped to 55% today from 85% and I managed to get some spraying done: I bare metal foiled the decals on the body before I shot the paint, after I saw a technique Steven Guthmiller recommended in a thread here - hoping I can pull it off! I prepped a bunch of pieces and got them in primer ready for paint - the interior tub’s primed, most of the engine parts are done and this thing should go together pretty smoothly all being well seeing as I’m building it pretty much out of the box. I’m adding a little detail here and there though, like replacing the levers on the steering column with a little scratchbuilt assembly: More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Funnily enough, I got another full page ad when this topic reloaded after I posted just then too...I don’t mind keeping my adblocker turned off for small ads, but if I have to close a full page ad every time I load a page then that’ll get old fast...

Yeah, I’ve got the ad at the top too - normally they’re not too bad, but some of them seem to resize and take up the top 1/3rd of the screen as you scroll down

Some of these ads are getting much more intrusive lately - particularly on mobile. The last couple of days I keep getting full-screen ads when I load a topic that cover the whole page, like this...

Since you suggested that place I’ve been a few times - helpfully it’s within staggering distance of the one ‘proper’ bar I’ve managed to find in Bensonhurst ? They make a great slice, it’s true!

The Skyline engine? I think it actually does!

I was reading a 25 year old mag the other day and the editorial there said that the hobby would be dead in 10 years because kids are busy playing with computer games and and watching TV

Cool Miata!

Can't wait Dann! Always enjoy your builds!

Sorry to hear about your father - but cool to hear about his cars! I’d like to visit the Studebaker museum next time we’re visiting family near there! Whilst I’m replying anyway, I’ve been messing with this paint to see how close I can get it to the factory color - it’s not a dealbreaker for me if it’s not perfect as I haven’t got access to a 1:1 to compare to anyway...but I tried the paint over a couple of different color bases and a white base seems to get it pretty close: Actually, it dried a little lighter than it is in my spoon-test pic there so I think it’ll work ok. I shot the engine with white Duplicolor primer (which I really like, it lays down like Tamiya primer but it’s a quarter of the price) and then hit the block with some of the hearing aid beige (sorry, Studebaker Ivory Mist ?) Now, all the 1:1s I found seem to have either a dark green or a black block but I’m building this more as a nice almost-stock restoration rather than straight-off-the-production-line so I decided I’d like to see a nice immaculately-clean engine bay so I’m going with a matching block, body and frame here. Something that you’d see at a car show and say “wow, that’s CLEAN” rather than “wow, that’s just like original”. I don’t want to go full-streetrod with the color-coding though, so I’ll be painting the various accessories and components that attach to the block in a variety of metal tones...I picked up this paint at Target a couple of weeks back and thought that’d be a nice shade for a bare-metal oil pan-color and mixed in some Tamiya chrome to get some slightly different tones for a couple of the other parts: I got some white primer on the body too this afternoon - I’ll let it shrink and set-up overnight and give the body a check for any cleanup that it needs and then give it another flag to make sure the final color is as nice as it can be. I’m thinking I’ll need to use the foil-under-the-paint trick for the various emblems and details on this body and then use some more BMF once it’s done for the spears and window frames More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Huh, fascinating! I wondered what they could be for - thanks for the info! Makes sense! Funnily enough, my wife's Aunt who sent me these kits lives in Valparaiso, and these kits came from the Grandpa's garage in Munster! Throw in that the Studebaker factory was in South Bend and my wife is a Hoosier and we've got a lot of Indiana connections on this build!

Very cool! Did he have the V8 or the 6? I was going to google this this afternoon but you may know...what are the two hatches for one the front fenders? Just curious...

I never got super-excited about them until I started messing with this kit a little - but they’re really cool! I like the lines of the body and I bet this was a pretty spaceship-looking car to see on the road in 53 or 54! I did some reading up on the engines for these too - apparently they’re a GREAT engine; over engineered in terms of build quality but as simple as a SBC and they respond to being warmed up a little really nicely. I saw that a lot of Studebaker owners like throwing a turbo on these with little or no other modifications. Very cool!

Ps: how about dropping that old body over an airbagged-chassis, painting it a bright satin-finished paint job and giving it a little hot-rod treatment? ? More on that another time tho...

I got a text a couple of weeks ago from my wife’s aunt saying that she found a few Studebaker kits that had belonged to my wife’s Grandpa, who was a real Studebaker nut, and would I like them. They arrived late last week, and included with them is this built-up that we think he built as replica of a car he had owned in the fifties or sixties maybe: I said to my wife that it might be nice to rebuild this one so she’d have a nice build to remember her Grandpa by, so I broke it down as far as I could (including giving it a 24 hour trip into the freezer) so I could start fixing it up. I’m going to keep the color scheme as he built it originally - red interior but with an Ivory body (which is how we think he had his 1:1 car). I can’t quite bear to build something completely stock but it’s going to be pretty close - as though you maybe had a shop blow it apart today and rebuild it pretty close to original but maybe even nicer than the factory did. I did a little work on the engine over the weekend and (with the addition of a couple of parts from a second later-issue kit that I have here too) and got that ready for primer: I spent a couple of hours on trying to fix up the old body - it was complete but REALLY rough once I cleaned it up and got the glass out of it...so seeing as this is meant to be a nice factory-stock-ish build I’m thinking of saving the old one and swapping a brand new replacement body that I’ve got here...don’t worry, I’ve got a plan I’m excited about for that old body... I decided to check the local hardware stores last night and found this rattle can of an Ivory-color paint...totally NOT what I’d choose for this car personally, but seeing as I’m trying to replicate Grandpa’s car I’m going to go with it... Doesn’t look too far off from the 1:1 color to me! I’m going to mess with some different color primers and see how close I can get to the 1:1 color (or, at least the pictures of it I can find online) - but it should be a fairly handsome looking car when it’s done! More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Oh yeah - it was right there in the link I posted ?

Oh, and by the way - they don’t sell THIS for 25 cents anymore! ?

Wow, it’s older than I thought! Thanks everyone - kit is currently in the freezer getting ready for it’s restoration

Interesting! I tried to look for a copyright date but couldn’t find one...how old are we talking, do you think?

It's a kustom

My wife’s aunt messaged me last week to say that she found a few kits, and asked whether I’d like them...and they came yesterday! My wife’s grandpa was a die-hard Studebaker fan and had both a lark and a Starliner...she thinks the white one was meant to be a replica of a 1:1 that he had. That one will be a stock-ish replica - not sure what to do with the Lark or the other 63 yet

Absolutely buddy! I’ll be happy to help! Speaking of which, laid down some flames on this thing today...I’ll need to let the paint set up a couple of days and then bury them in some clear ??

Pretty much done on this one - thanks for looking everyone!

Great tip! Thanks Claude! I'll try that!