Defroster hose and door pin

The weather was SO nice that I decided to take care of a couple of little things.  The first is this defroster vent hose.  It has been falling out from under the dash for years.  The hose is fabric soaked with some sort of flexible compound that is not flexible any more.  Plus the canvas is rotten.  The last time it fell it broke in the middle and that is that.  I found that hose above on Amazon.  I found some other hoses that looked more like the original hose but they cost $5-$8 per foot and nobody can see it anyway.  This hose was $9 total.  Sold!

I cut the hose to length.  I could have made it shorter but I have plenty of hose (there is enough there for another car, let me know if you need it!).  I found some hose clamps too.

Here is where the hose attaches at the defroster heater core.  The other hose going up is only about 5 inches long and still intact so I am leaving it.  The other end of the new hose goes to the vent over the glove box.

Here is the new hose attached.  It was tight getting it over the pipes.  I think the intention was not to need clamps.  I put the clamps on anyway.  This is not falling down again.

Next job.  The passenger side door check strap on the car is attached with a sheet metal screw stuck in the hole.  Not only is this ugly every once in a while it pops out and causes problems.

Cleaning up my late father’s stuff I found a stash of 4 pins.  I snagged them figuring one would work.

The bit shiny one on the left worked the best.  I put some grease in there and put it together.   I don’t think this will pop out but if it looks like it might I will have to do something to hold it in.  For right now it is good.

Front brake job 2020 edition

It turns out that it was actually 2006 (14 years ago) that I did the front brakes.   I put fresh parts in the NOS cylinders a while ago.  But my Dad’s passing in the midst of a pandemic has meant the car has sat for a month.  Today the weather was perfect so I took a day off of work to get this done.  Since I have covered brakes before I thought I would go into a little more detail this time, especially because I forgot some stuff since 2006.

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I miss you Dad

This is not really related to the Studebaker but I lost my father, Lt. Col. John Alan Vonada to a stroke on Sunday, April 19, 2020.   He was 76 years old.  Considering he taught me everything I know about cars I was surprised I could not find a picture of him with the Studebaker.   But he was amazing and I really miss him.

2019 Studebaker International Meet

This year’s Studebaker meet is in Mansfield, Ohio about 60 miles from my house.   So of course I have to take the car. Cleaning, checking water and oil, packing tools, washing supplies, tent, chairs, and the all-important cooler.  Finally all was ready

Here is the car packed up and ready to go.   The drive to Mansfield went well.   I left Wednesday morning early and it was nice and cool.   The car ran well but the oil pressure was a little lower than usual.   I will have to check that out.   I am running a multi-weight diesel oil and it may be a bit thin for this car.  The brakes are also squealing again.  I will have to fix that soon.  I also tried to stay off the main roads so I was following a stupid-complex route.  But I made it OK. Just to keep things interesting I found oil seeping out of the back of the engine.   I might have a head gasket leak.   No water in the oil or oil in the water and I can’t see any signs of a compression leak so it might be just oil leaking out.  It is not a bad leak so I will just leave it alone for now.

At the show I parked next to a 41 Champion sedan.  We stayed paired up for the whole meet.  I was freaked out driving 60 miles and this guy drove down from near Buffalo.  Yes, I am a wuss.

Thursday was half of the judging including my Division 1 (Pre-war).   It had stormed overnight but I dried off the car and busted over to the judging building.   Lucky I did because it backed up quickly.  I was next in line at this point.   I was waiting here about 30 minutes.  I was pretty nervous, there are a lot of really nice cars here.

The judging itself went well.   Most of the deductions I expected.  I was surprised to get dinged for the backup lights not working.  Also there is supposed to be a rubber mat in the back that I did not know about.  But I could tell the judges were pleased with the car.  In the I snapped the picture above while the judges were fighting with the iPad app they were using to do the judging.   That really slowed things down.

I also took pictures about my favorite car of the meet.  This 1935 President has it all.  Folding top.  Rumble seat.  Sidemounts.   Swooping fenders and grille.  Straight-8 engine.   I am really jealous.

Friday we ended up doing touristy stuff and did not go to the meet.  But Saturday was the public car show.   I did not count the cars but there were at least a couple of hundred.  It stormed again overnight but Saturday the weather was perfect.

Finally at 2:00 there was the awards presentation.   Much to my surprise the car won 1st place with 380/400 points!  I was a bit excited…

After the awards I booked out of there and headed for home.  When I checked out the car to go home I found the fan belt was loose.  I tried to tighten it but ran out of adjustment.   Running home the car ran a bit hotter than usual which is probably the fan and water pump slipping.    I will have to replace the belt with a slightly shorter one.  Driving home I took a straight shot down US-42 which was easier and faster.   I got passed a lot but that is OK.

Back in the next.   Good job car!

Engine painting and front brakes

Time to start getting the car ready for the Studebaker meet in Mansfield and while I have no illusions about this being a 400 point car I want to make it look as nice as I can.  That means touching up the engine.   Back in 2010 I used hot engine oil to remove some paint from the head and now it is time to fix it.  I removed the plugs and cleaned up the engine with kerosene and naphtha.

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New battery

The engine has been cranking a little slow lately.  I was all set to start cleaning all the connections when I checked the date on the battery and realized it was almost 10 years old.  I will be going to Mansfield for the International Studebaker meet and I am not going on a road trip on a 10-year-old battery.   Lets replace that.

The best deal I found on a 6V battery was at Rural King.  It is an Excide battery and actually has a vintage look with the screw-in caps.  This is the third battery I have put in this car.

New battery installed and ready to rock.

The old battery lives on in my Dad’s 1939 De Soto coupe.  We are trying to get this car running after 50 years or so.  This battery will be good enough for garage use while we work on the car.

66916.9 miles on the odometer.