I moved the motor up about 4 inches.  Put on a short water pump, and took off the mechanical fan blade.  This saved quite a bit of room, and got the distributor moved up to where I could work with it. In the picture on the right it looks like the indentation is 'leaning'... Not sure why it looks that way.  Guess it's the angle of the picture.  I assure you it is perfectly square in the truck.  

I decided to do away with the original motor mount. It seemed to be a problem with the power steering pump,.. so I converted to this system. It is very stable, and should have very little vibration the way I have it installed. I run across some 'plans' somewhere to build these motor mounts.  They were really quite simple. I used 5/16 in flat steel. Then I made the 'ears' out of the same steel.  I got 2" pipe with 1/4 inch thick wall and put it between the 'ears' that I welded to the flat steel and even drove a rubber bushing into each end of the pipe, and run the 3/4 inch bolt threw all of that.  I Then welded another piece of 2" pipe up toward the motor at a 90* angle, and welded a flat piece of steel to the top of that.  To that I bolted the OEM GM motor mount, and to that attached the mount that bolts to the motor itself.  It's all very sturdy, and should have no shake and no transfer or vibration from the motor to the truck.  Since it has the first set of rubber bushings in the 2" pipe, and the the regular motor mounts with their rubber bushings, that's extra "insulation" to reduce vibration.  The center and right picture are taken from the top looking down on the mount, and the pic on the right is taken at an odd angle.  The black part on the left is the frame rail, and the black steel going out of the picture on the right is actually the cross member.  To view this as it would be in the truck, you'd have to rotate it 45* to the right.

You have been seeing in earlier pics how we been working on two chassis at one time.  Here we take the cab off the 1/2 ton chassis, and put it on the ton chassis.  Made us a 'lift' with a steel pole off of the deck, and used the chain hoist to pick it up far enough to roll out one chassis and roll under another one.  We did good.  Move from one chassis to the other,.. the cab fit perfect. I'm sure this will be done several time over the course of the next several years.

Got the rear end also.  I think I'm gonna like this Triangulated 4-bar rear end.  I just bought the four bars, and built everything else myself.  My buddy TOM at TCI advised me against spending the money on a "kit".  He had said,.. "No one makes a "Studebaker" kit,.. so there's no sense in me selling you one.  You'll have to fab everything up anyway."  SO I got the bars, fabbed up the rest and it came up wonderful.  In the pic on the left you see the upper and lower bars mounted to the Ford 9" rear end.  In the center pic (if you look closely) you can see we built a small box that sits down about 3 inches lower than the frame to get the correct angle.  IN the pic on the right you see the rear end looking straight across it.  The cross member where  the shock kit mounts, How the upper bars mount, and even the short spacers a buddy of mine milled for me that set the shocks in the right place when they are bolted in.

Wanted to throw in this pic...  I know it's gonna be a while before I need this done,.. but a guy is going to do my embroidery.  He sent me a sample of his work, and I have to say I am impressed (on the left).  I plan to put this Studebaker Lazy S logo on the top of my seats,.. and also on the door panels.  On the right is the logo's Lance sewed out for me to actually use in my seats. SO I am off to my upholstery guy so he can get started.

OK.. This is a couple months later.  I just got my seats back.  I am well pleased with my seats (see pic on right)  The guy did an outstanding job on the seats and they are very nice.  I love the Lasy S logo in the head rest. 

I know some folks with Studebakers will see this.  Lance has this on file, so if you need this design,.. contact him.  If you need something different, he's a great guy, and can do anything, and is reasonably priced.  Here is how to get in contact with him

Lance Haas
Inkwell Screen Printing and Embroidering Inc.
3589 Orion Rd
Oakland, MI 48363
586 292 4050

Here you see us using you chain hoist lift again.  We jacked up the front of the cab so we could do some finish welding to the insert to the firewall, and also to weld in the floor panels.  I made the pics before I got all my final grinding done.  Looked real nice when I got it all finished

We got the floorboard put in.  With where it all laid out we didn't even have to put a hump in it for the transmission.

This is the side of the hood.  The upper side where the spring assembly mounts.  As you can see it has some rust and corrosion, and is in quite bad shape. (left pic)  It's rusted all the way through, and this place is about 7 inches long.  Since I have two hoods I dropped down and chopped a section out of the other hood and replaced this cancerous section. It came out well, and will look very nice when totally finished. Here I just primed it a rough coat so it wouldn't rust.finished

Here is the inside of the hood that we worked on.  We fixed the places in the pics above before we took it to get it sandblasted.  there was a TON of loose rust gathered under this support braces that runs across the back of the hood.  This piece was very easy to remove since we had to cut out and patch the two rusted pieces rusted out on the hood sides.  The hood was just folded around this piece and crimped into place.  We folded the 1/2 inch wide strip up, removed the brace, and then ground off all the rust that was hidden off of the brace itself.  Sandblasting wouldn't have been able to get to that, and a lot of rusting steel would have been left on this brace and the back side of the hood.  We cleaned all of this up real good, and then painted it with some POR-15.  Thats what you see in the pic on the left.  It has the illusion it is rusted out, but it is actually some of the paint on the metal.  The pic on the right actually show how it came out and a little paint out from under the edge.  When this is all sandblasted it should be very nice.

NOW off to the media blasters to get a bunch of stuff done.  The hood, radiator bracket, door hinges, headlight buckets, different sections of the fenders (the vertical part the hood closes down on, and also the horizontal part the headlights mount on). etc.  Gonna be busy when it all gets back.   Next week I am off to the National Studebaker Convention in South Bend.  Maybe I can picks up some parts and info to use on the truck Pic on the site shows after I got it all back and primed. Like I stated about. Not a finish primer coat. Just so it don't rust.

OK Got the load of items back from the media blaster.  Here you can see some of the items we took.  In the box on the left you can see the headlight buckets, door hinges, splash pan that goes behind the center section of the grille, bumper mounting brackets, etc.  In the center picture is the front end pieces that go from the cab to the front grille.  This is the part that mounts vertically and the hood closes down on this part.  As you can see these parts and very clean, and need no work.  These are bust blasted.  No primer yet.  In the pic on the right is my bumper.  I am going to paint it to match the color of the truck.  I had it dipped, and the chrome stripped off of it.  Then they blasted it for me.  I primered it so it wouldn't rust.

I'm gonna do some before and after pictures in the next several spots.  So I'll come back and show what my 'fixes' looked like soon.  Here is what my horizontal part of the fender where the headlight mounts looked like when I got it back.  It's all in pretty good shape, but is rusted through in the area UNDER where the headlight mounts.  I plan on cutting a piece of metal and welding it on for strength, and then putting all metal inside. On the right shows after I got it done. I wleded in a piece that goes in under the headlight bucket. It's all very sturdy now, and I used some all metal to make the edges all smooth. 99% of this will all cover anyway, but I'll know what it looks like underneith.

This isn't the 'actual' grille as the one show in the pic at the center,... but is a pretty good example of what it looked like before I started working on it.  It was all bent up, center bars bent in, bent to the left or right, and twisted.  SO here is the plan.  I totally gave up on trying to fix the smaller bars in the grille.  Every time I tried to push them out they would twist, straighten, etc.  SO I just am eliminating them and making my own brand new.  The center pic shows we just totally took out the small bars so we could work on the large bars.  The 'main" bigger bars we worked with we made a 'pattern' out of 7 gauge steel and was able to get them bigger gars to push out, and take their original shape back.  As you can see they look very good.  Bars are all straight and parallel with each other, and from the side they all have the proper hump out.  I am going to get it sand blasted, and then weld in the smaller new bars....  Well I changed my mind and I welded in the smaller bars before getting it media blasted.  Hard to tell much from the pic,.. but the shiney bars are the ones we fabricated and welded in.  It looks very good and almost as good as original

Here is a side grille I am working on.  All the bars are straight and parallel with each other.  IN fact, other than a little rust the piece is in good shape.... EXCEPT for around where the hole is made for the bumper to come out and a place at the top.  That is rusted out and needs to be replaced.  As you can see it is marked out where I plan to cut it and replace it with new metal.  Will add that pic shortly when I get that done.  The pic on the right shows where I replaced the new metal at the bottom,.. also you can see where I cut out a section over the area where the hole for the bumper is... An area there was rusted out also, and I had an extra grille, so I cut out that exact place and welded it in here.  When I finish up the metal work, and then have it blasted and finished it should look nice.

Finally,... Here is my cab after I got it back from my media blaster.  He did a great job blasting all my welds, and I went to work putting all metal everywhere that needed it.  I'll take more pics and add them.

OK.. things slowed down over the summer... but I got everything media blasted, and now I have about everything primered.  The pic on the left shows the hood.  You can see how much better it looks than in the pics above.  The center pics shows the inner fender, and the part of the fender the hood closes on, and where the headlight mounts.  The right pic is where I primered my hinges, bumper mounts, headlight buckets, and the mounts the headlights mount into... and on top of the fender.

Little chassis modification here.  In the pic on the left is where I moved a crossmember.  You will see a stick about the center of the picture and that is where the crossmember USED to be.   I moved it forward about seven inches right up next to the rear end.  You can see where the crossmember is that the coilover shocks mount to right next to it now.  This move was to allow me to have a bigger fuel tank mounted here.  In the center pic you can see I have ADDED a rear crossmember across the back of the chassis.  It's made out of 1/4 inch steel.  Those of you familiar with Studebaker Pickups know there is nothing here originally, and therefore nothing to keep someone from hitting the fuel take if the truck was rear-ended.  They'll have to slam it pretty hard to even move this piece I added.  The pic on the right shows how big of a fuel cell I can build now.  Looks like I can build one about 28" x 26" x 7".  Best I can figure it'll hold about 25 gallons.

OK.. if you have checked out the entire site,.. you have saw I have built a couple sets of motor mounts.  ow I have run into 'major' problem #2. When I moved the motor forward, It ended up moving so far, the previous set of motor mounts missed being able to weld to the cross member. The last set I really liked, and IMO was the cats ass.  Unfortunately, I had to cut the front axle loose and move it back about two inches (another little project), and when I did that, what with the lines and stuff for the power steering, I couldn't get ANY possible to use those mounts after that.  SO I had to go back to the drawing board and make a THIRD set of motor mounts.  These are gonna be plenty strong, and still leave me plenty of room to have my clearances, and also run all my plumbing.  They are made out of 1/4" steel, and bent by my buddy at his metal shop. Very stable and solid, and will mount the motor very easily. Can use the original type motor mounts that bolt onto the block. If nothing else I have been able to show how to make a coupld different types of motor mounting systems.. LOL  

Seeing as all the trucks of that era were so small, and had little leg room,... and I stretched things out a bit. I wanted to make my dash a bit wider, and make things easier to reach from the drivers seat. I stretched out the dash about 2" to bring things a little closer. I always liked the look of the 1950 model cars with their hump in the dash. I decided since I was custom building a dash, I would incorportate that into mine also. You can see the hump in the pic at the right. Now I have to start working on the verticle part of the dash. That part won't have to look to 'perfect' because the entire thing will be covered in oak wood.

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