1939 Studebaker coupe express - Page 4 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

barry12345 · #46 11-18-2012, 05:43 PM

Cheapest and best with suspension depth may be a front frame clip. Ford ltd or something simular. Especially since you might use a really heavy engine. Few vehicles look right sitting on another total frame.

t walgamuth · #47 11-18-2012, 06:27 PM

Yeah, that is probably how I will go. The studey does have IFS though so it might be possible to use that with disc brakes added and tube shocks. and anti sway bar.

barry12345 · #48 11-18-2012, 07:03 PM

The existance of independant front suspension on your unit came as a suprise. Then again it is a truck type on a car chassis I would think.

Ford stuck with the solid front axel until 1949 I believe even on their cars. So studebaker was somewhat more progressive than at least ford. Chev went independant front suspension quite early. Perhaps 1933-34-35 on their cars. They had a special name for it that I presently forget. Knee action or whatever.

It was one very hard existance to be a long haul truck driver in the early days. What they drove was well illustrated in that old movie we drive by night with Humphrey Bogart and a guy called George Raft?. . Raft usually played gangster types during the period that film was made. The roads that passed for highways where also something else.

t walgamuth · #49 11-18-2012, 07:57 PM

yeah, the independent front on the chevys was called knee action. It was very strange, so were some others. I had a 37 chevy in college but it had a solid axle.

the lower a arm on the study comes almost to the center of the car. the upper link looks like a short driveshaft with the yoke holding the top of the king pin assembly. It has rotary shocks so they would have to go I think.

MS Fowler · #50 11-18-2012, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

I have communicated with the buyer a bit more now. He says the cab needs floor repair. Anybody done floor repair in a 39ish pickup? Any idea what I might be looking at for cost?

My experience is with a '38 Ford pickup. Floor metal was pretty heavy, and didn't need much, but it was relatively flat. If the Studdy is similar, it should be a relatively easy/ cheap repair. can't comment on costs as my friend and I do all work ourselves.

MS Fowler · #51 11-18-2012, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim B.

My dad who was a German, but born in SF, and an IBM engineer, had a '64 Ford Falcon he'd bought new, with that problem eventually.

He crawled underneath it and patched it up with roofing tar.

Roofing tar is a very temporary "fix" at best. Probably traps more moisture than it repels.
The '64 Falcon Convertible I did some years ago was more hole than floor. The only thing that provided any structural support was the driveshaft tunnel. I cut out the floors and welded in new metal, putting the same pattern in the metal to prevent "oil canning". New inner rockers, made by a local welder of 12 ga made for a very rigid structure.

t walgamuth · #52 11-18-2012, 10:35 PM

Good stuff!

panZZer · #53 11-19-2012, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveuz

out of the 37,38,39 which are 3 of the nicest looking pickups ever built I would have to pick the 37.

This is my personal favorite late 30's pickup (if running fenders)
This one was bought by a customer on the other side of the lake from me-and came to N Texas from Washington. I supply lots of parts to 1930's GMC guys.
about 5 yrs after buying my first 37, I came across the photo of my dad when he was 15 or so in the town of Perryton 5 miles from the oklahoma-cimmaron strip/panhandle)where grandpa had moved them in 29 just in time for
Home | THE DUST BOWL, as the second episode airing TONITE will explain--36 half of everyone could no longer hang in there and left, the rain didn't start again til 1938--but no way anything was back to normal. I really wonder how they got the money for this pickup in 39-it must have been one of the flashist in town -gawd they must have been prowd of it. it must have been sitting at the B O P gmc truck dealer on main street for a yr or three, they has a small produce buisness- or what was left of it- and knew the dealership owner well.

the hawk probably did not end up on the dinner table--but the other two praire chickens im sure -did.

Air&Road · #54 11-19-2012, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS Fowler

My experience is with a '38 Ford pickup. Floor metal was pretty heavy, and didn't need much, but it was relatively flat. If the Studdy is similar, it should be a relatively easy/ cheap repair. can't comment on costs as my friend and I do all work ourselves.

In today's sheet metal world, a MIG welder with shielding gas and a minimal amount of sheet metal bending skills will go a LONG way toward correcting a cancerous car.

ruchase · #55 11-19-2012, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim B.

My dad's first car was a 1939 Studebaker Commander. He was courting my mother who lived across the bay in Mill Valley from his home in San Francisco. He got a left over 1939 when the 1940's came out. The dealer was Ansel Schloss Studebaker in SF and the salesman took him out to Ocean Beach and taught him how to drive it.

It cost $1,000 brand new!

He'd been taking the ferry boat and train across the SF bay, to come to my mother's place in Marin County (where they had met on a Sierra Club hike on Mt. Tamalpais) for their dates.

Then one day he showed up one day in "this big new fancy shiny car" my mom told me one day.

My mother used to drive me my brother and our dog "Brownie" (a cocker spaniel/irish setter) to the beach in that car when we were kids. I remember the wood dash and mohair seats in it.

Finally my dad bought a new 1954 Ford Ranch Wagon and the Studebaker was only used to drive to the bus stop down the hill where he would walk to the bus stop and take the old "gray dog" to work in SF where he was a customer service engineer for IBM, the only job he ever had in his life....fixing the primitive IBM computers when they broke down.

Finally it was time for the Studebaker to go...in 1959.

He made arrangements to sell it for $20 to a 16 year old kid, but got furious and backed out when he learned the kid's father had NOT given his son permission to own a car.

Soon after that, he was driving it to Mill Valley to visit my grandmother over the old Mill Valley Grade from Corte Madera, when it failed.

He gave it away to the tow truck driver instead of paying him!

It had 55,000 miles on it - and I was 11 years old, too young to get it.

~~~~

I miss it. I miss my dad so much more, he died 6 years ago. My mother died just 10 days later of a broken heart. Afte 64 happy years of marriage.

~~~~

As I recall, there were 4 Studebaker models back in the late 1930's:

Going from the cheapest to the most luxurious and expensive:

The "Dictator" (dropped when Hitler and Mussolini became famous and nortorious)

The "Champion"

The "Commander"

The "President"

That is a beautiful story!

t walgamuth · #56 11-21-2012, 10:58 PM

I was planning to go on saturday /sunday to pick it up but the repairs on the dodge towing truck have not gone well so far so it will have to be next week.