Part 6 - Mark Pearson's 1948 Studebaker Restoration Project

The engine compartment after some components were removed. The car heater blower, the hot water hoses to the heater core, and the spark plug wires have been removed. You can see on the left side of the photo the remaining heater hose that directs outside air to the car heater under the front seat.

Another view of the engine, minus the spark plug wires. The main wiring harness has been removed. I am hoping that when I purchase a new harness I will get a good wiring diagram so that I will be able to figure out where all the wires go!

This is a very unusual view, taken through the headlight opening in the right front fender. What is most obvious is the round opening in the inner fender, where outside air is ducted to the car's heater blower. What is missing is the metal ductwork that directs the air from the cowl vent, on the left, over to the round opening. You can see that considerable dirt and mud have accumulated on the frame where the upper suspension arm attaches. The long spring is supposed to assist in opening the hood, but it doesn't do very much of that. What I would like to do is to make some kind of wheel well lining, that would prevent water and dirt from being flung around on the metalwork that you see here, as well as the inner side of the headlight bucket. I might be able to find something from a newer vehicle that would fit, or if that doesn't work, make something out of tarpaper, or a similar material.

Looks kind of like a one-eyed monster, doesn't it? The damage shows evidence of a past collision, the nose is mashed in, there are two cross bars in the grille that are broken out, and the license plate holder is pretty badly bent up. Fortunately, the bumper is only scratched up, that should be easily repairable by a good chrome shop. The mashed nose will have to be pounded out, but the grille will have to be replaced.

The windshield has now been removed. I had some trouble removing the center bar, as the screw at the bottom was rusted tight, and could not be removed. Since it was already broken, I ended up breaking out a small area of the windshield in the middle so that I could get the center bar out, and then I could remove the stuck screw. The rest of the windshield was a bit more challenging. Eventually I went back and reviewed the instructions in the shop manual, and was able to figure out that the edge of the rubber gasket around the windshield had to be pried up, and then tucked down under the edge of the metal around the windshield. Once I did that around the upper corner on the passenger side, I was able to press the glass inward. Once the rubber started coming loose at that corner, it went pretty quickly, and we were able to remove both sides of the windshield.

· Part 5 - Mark Pearson's 1948 Studebaker Restoration Project

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