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Car Forum / Antique and Collectibles / Studebaker / January 2009Cold Weather Stude Memory
It's 14 below zero this morning here in north central Ohio.........which reminds me of similar days when I was a teen in the late 50s, early 60s. My Mom came from a Stude family: kept the '55 President hardtop until the '62 Hawks came out. My Dad HATED that '55: partly the cost of repairing the rust every Spring......but mostly the pink & black color scheme (which is why my Mom loved it!). Day always had a Mercury: can remember our '51, 53, 56, 57, .....great cars......but the '57 (a 4 door Turnpike Cruiser) got wrecked.....for some reason (probably the 8 mpg the Cruiser got), it got replaced with a '59 Dodge. What a pile of junk: the brakes would lock-up, the driver's seatback was always breaking, sending you into the back seat, and no force on earth could make it run if the temp was below 25. Can't count how many cold mornings we all had to go outside to push the Dodge out of the way, so Dad could get the Stude out........it never failed! He sure hated being seen in that pink car, but after a couple mornings when the Dodge wouldn't start, he equipped the Stude with snow tires and didn't complain about it quite so much. It's worst winter flaw was that the snow would build-up in the front fenders and tear the heater air duct off. So when we saw the '62 GT Hawk, Mom was authorized to buy one: the deal was sealed when the salesman said it could be ordered with an extra heater under the driver's seat that didn't depend on that fender air intake. The '59 Dodge got replaced with a '60 Mercury that stuck out of the garage at least 2 feet. I'm looking out my window at a foot of snow......makes me feel good to know that somewhere there are some crazy SDCers still getting around in their Studes! > It's 14 below zero this morning here in north central Ohio.........which > reminds me of similar days when I was a teen in the late 50s, early 60s. [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > know that somewhere there are some crazy SDCers still getting around in > their Studes! Interesting about the Dodge. When I was in college I had a '53 Dodge Red Ram V-8 (little hemi). One morning it was -13. My car was the only one in the parking lot that would start (a that was a six-volt system). On the other hand, I bought a '57 Plymouth and it wouldn't start when the temp was below freezing (and it was a 12-volt system). In fact, it is what got me in to Studebakers. The Studebaker dealer where I went to college ordered V-8 Larks with three-speed trannies (usually no overdrive). I must have driven nearly every one of them. Finally bought a '61 Cruiser. Have owned Studebakers continuously since. Paul Johnson Right, Paul........had plenty of friends who had MoPars and swore they were reliable as anvils........but something happened in '57 onwards. I didn't know beans about cars then, but remember they were always playing with the Dodge's carb: adjustments, rebuilds, replacement........a manual choke might have solved it. But the 259 in that '55 President didn't seem to care what the temp was: it ran the same no matter what......can remember being facinated by the extra-deep exhuast note when it was cold......and how all the exhaust came out one side at first. So we know those manifold valves didn't freeze-up when they were new! On days like today I also think about what it must have been like for people starting '54 Packards: 359 ci of straight-8, a 105 pound crankshaft laying in 9 bearings, a 4 1/2" stroke, high compression........and a 6 volt system......but guess they knew what they were doing! My best cold weather starter ever, not counting modern fuel injected cars, was my old '60 one-ton 4x4 245 cid six that George Hamlin has now. It always started easily even after sitting for several weeks. One time when we got down to -13, I went down to the barn just to see if it would start. It hadn't been run for maybe six weeks. Got in, pumped the gas twice and turned the key. Two turns and it was running. George says he still has never done any tuneup work on it and it still starts that way. Only time it failed me was when the operator (me) made an error. We were about half way though with a 36-inch snowfall. I decided to see how good it was in deep snow. So, I turned the Warn hubs, put it in high four wheel and cranked it up. I pulled out of the shed into about 18 inches of snow. No problem. Those 7.50x17 tires had me way up off the ground. I started up the road. Got about 1/4 mile and it died. I figured it was out of gas so I crawled out and slogged back to the house (no one else on the road so leaving it was no problem). I carried a five-gallon can up and put most of it in the tank. Cranked and cranked- no joy. So, I opened the hood.- solid white. That big old front axle had acted like a scoop and completely filled the engine compartment (even that big six was small in that engine compartment). I pulled off enough snow to uncover the air cleaner, the distributor and spark plugs. Got back in and it started right up. I backed up all the way into its parking space in the shed. Lesson learned. Paul Johnson |
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