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So I have been around on the forums for a little bit and stalked for several years before actually joining, many may have seen my other car my 91 318is, still working on lowering that one as well but for now most of my time and energy in my studebaker.
A little background on this car, I know pretty much nothing about this particular car other than the Gran Turismo Hawk is based on the Golden Hawk that was quite successful in the 50s. However the GT Hawk came out towards the decline of Studebaker as a last ditch effort to breath some life into a dying motorcar manufacture. While they made the most GT Hawks in 62 with around a 8000 and 1000 for international sale, they only made about 15000 total, which by today and even then is considerably low for a mass produced automobile.
I bought this car 1 year ago and it spent the first 7 months of my ownership in my mechanics garage getting the engine, carburetor, and fuel system rebuilt. Unfortunately I didn't get excited enough to start playing with pictures during the rebuilds, but when i took her home the first day after we snapped these shots.
It even got a nice appearence in the music video Everybody Talks by Neon Trees.
Neon Trees - Everybody Talks (couldn't figure out how to embed a youtube video)
After driving around for a little while, the generator decided to seize up and lock...we temp fixed it with a shoe polish cap which allowed us to get the car home some 20 miles. Destroyed the Belt, but it needed to be replaced anyway.
So after a new Generator and since the exhaust was literally falling off, we through a set of Flowmasters on the car which makes it sound 100% better.
Then when I bought the car the front seats were in pretty poor condition, while the rear seats were in pretty great condition. Probably because few people ever rode in the back since the seats were so beat they couldn't even fold forward, only recline...in fact the passenger seat was so beat, it only reclined. So I had the car sent off to get the front seats repaired and reupholstered. Unfortunately I didn't grab any pictures of the seats in their original condition, but this brings us to today. After spending nearly 2 months trying to find the sliding seat mechanism I finally got the car back last weekend. Just in time for the 4th.
While it was in the shop I also got the radiator custom rebuilt (since we couldn't find one new anywhere).
So this brings us to today, here are the pictures as she sits today, still have big plans for her, but hopefully you see some potential in this car.
Car came with and we rebuilt its 249 V8, you can also see the rebuild carburator and its custom radiator which was pretty well built to look 100% OEM.
The Interior has been my main concentration thus far, spent a weekend wiring in a two speaker system into the doors which is controlled by iphone and turned on or off from the original stock radio. Non of the gauges work except the amp meter and oil pressure. This is probably the next project is to replace the bulbs in all the gauges and get them working properly. I say properly because currently the fuel gauge works, but full is half way on the gauge and empty is 1/4 full on the gauge. Pretty difficult to get an accurate sense of where I am at.
The rest of the interior and newly upholstered front seats.
You can see the shiny new Flowmaster exhaust that really made me love this car 10 times more, sounds like a real classic.
And because I don't own a car without its own pair of shoes...
Heres the whole family...
Future projects...
Slam it on Bags - This will probably or hopefully happen this summer yet, but we will see.
Rebuild the Tranny - Right now it needs a new clutch, and the linkage is pretty well shot, although its not terrible trying to shift around its 3 spd, it could be a lot better
Larger White Walls - I know it is right to the year to only have a 1 inch whitewall tire, but I really like the beefy whitewall look and I will probably do something like a 2.5 inch whitewall when I lower it.
New Wheels - not sure on the wheels, possibly just steelies, but if anybody has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.
Finish the trunk and sound system - I have plans to fix up the trunk, fatmat it, through in a 10 inch sub, and mount the two amps, also carpet it and also through the air-compressors and tank in there for the bags.
Edelbrock Carburetor - My buddy just through on an automatic choke carburetor in his 71 Chevelle and I cant pass that up.
Edelbrock Headers - when we rebuilt the engine I just rebuilt what I had, but now I want to throw in some Edelbrock headers.
Finish the interior restore
Paint - at some point I do wanna respray the car, but I really like the rat rod flat red at the moment, so I am still thinking about this one.
I hope everyone enjoys the car and let me know if you have any suggestions or opinions
A little background on this car, I know pretty much nothing about this particular car other than the Gran Turismo Hawk is based on the Golden Hawk that was quite successful in the 50s. However the GT Hawk came out towards the decline of Studebaker as a last ditch effort to breath some life into a dying motorcar manufacture. While they made the most GT Hawks in 62 with around a 8000 and 1000 for international sale, they only made about 15000 total, which by today and even then is considerably low for a mass produced automobile.
I bought this car 1 year ago and it spent the first 7 months of my ownership in my mechanics garage getting the engine, carburetor, and fuel system rebuilt. Unfortunately I didn't get excited enough to start playing with pictures during the rebuilds, but when i took her home the first day after we snapped these shots.
It even got a nice appearence in the music video Everybody Talks by Neon Trees.
Neon Trees - Everybody Talks (couldn't figure out how to embed a youtube video)
After driving around for a little while, the generator decided to seize up and lock...we temp fixed it with a shoe polish cap which allowed us to get the car home some 20 miles. Destroyed the Belt, but it needed to be replaced anyway.
So after a new Generator and since the exhaust was literally falling off, we through a set of Flowmasters on the car which makes it sound 100% better.
Then when I bought the car the front seats were in pretty poor condition, while the rear seats were in pretty great condition. Probably because few people ever rode in the back since the seats were so beat they couldn't even fold forward, only recline...in fact the passenger seat was so beat, it only reclined. So I had the car sent off to get the front seats repaired and reupholstered. Unfortunately I didn't grab any pictures of the seats in their original condition, but this brings us to today. After spending nearly 2 months trying to find the sliding seat mechanism I finally got the car back last weekend. Just in time for the 4th.
While it was in the shop I also got the radiator custom rebuilt (since we couldn't find one new anywhere).
So this brings us to today, here are the pictures as she sits today, still have big plans for her, but hopefully you see some potential in this car.
Car came with and we rebuilt its 249 V8, you can also see the rebuild carburator and its custom radiator which was pretty well built to look 100% OEM.
The Interior has been my main concentration thus far, spent a weekend wiring in a two speaker system into the doors which is controlled by iphone and turned on or off from the original stock radio. Non of the gauges work except the amp meter and oil pressure. This is probably the next project is to replace the bulbs in all the gauges and get them working properly. I say properly because currently the fuel gauge works, but full is half way on the gauge and empty is 1/4 full on the gauge. Pretty difficult to get an accurate sense of where I am at.
The rest of the interior and newly upholstered front seats.
You can see the shiny new Flowmaster exhaust that really made me love this car 10 times more, sounds like a real classic.
And because I don't own a car without its own pair of shoes...
Heres the whole family...
Future projects...
Slam it on Bags - This will probably or hopefully happen this summer yet, but we will see.
Rebuild the Tranny - Right now it needs a new clutch, and the linkage is pretty well shot, although its not terrible trying to shift around its 3 spd, it could be a lot better
Larger White Walls - I know it is right to the year to only have a 1 inch whitewall tire, but I really like the beefy whitewall look and I will probably do something like a 2.5 inch whitewall when I lower it.
New Wheels - not sure on the wheels, possibly just steelies, but if anybody has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.
Finish the trunk and sound system - I have plans to fix up the trunk, fatmat it, through in a 10 inch sub, and mount the two amps, also carpet it and also through the air-compressors and tank in there for the bags.
Edelbrock Carburetor - My buddy just through on an automatic choke carburetor in his 71 Chevelle and I cant pass that up.
Edelbrock Headers - when we rebuilt the engine I just rebuilt what I had, but now I want to throw in some Edelbrock headers.
Finish the interior restore
Paint - at some point I do wanna respray the car, but I really like the rat rod flat red at the moment, so I am still thinking about this one.
I hope everyone enjoys the car and let me know if you have any suggestions or opinions
, Ive seen these before, this seems a little safer than the due who puts his car on jack stands and does the same thing with the cars cruise set at like 30...I think Ill buy new white walls, right now the tires are mis-smatched anyway and I am not a huge fan of that...not that it matters, just personal preference
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