Mark Pearson's 1948 Studebaker Car Restoration Project - Part 9

I have now removed the right front door. I have run into a problem with door removal. The hinge screws are so tight that I have not been able to get most of them out. I did manage to remove all of the screws that mount this door to the hinges, but I was unable to get the screws out that mount the hinges to the body. On the other three doors, I have been unable to get most of the screws loose. I will have to ask around to my other Studebaker Drivers' Club members to get some ideas on how to get these screws out.

My lovely wife, Brenda is helping me with the fender removal process, and was gracious enough to take pictures. The outer right front fender has been removed. You can see the round opening in the front of the inner fender where the air vent hose was attached. I am assuming that this was designed to get some cool air to the fuel and oil pumps, on the right side of the engine. The last bolt on the bottom of the fender was held on by a nut inside the body. I could not get it loose, as the nut was behind the door hinge. Since I have not been able to get the hinges off, I could not get to the nut.

So, I had to cut the bolt with a hacksaw blade. Then, the other thing we ran into in taking the fender off, was that the hood hinges are bolted on, on top of the rear top of the fender. It is kind of layered in along with the inner fender. So, we had to remove the hood hinges before the fender would come off. You can see the U-shaped radiator mounting frame is still in place. I still had to remove the last four bolts holding it onto the left side fender before that would come off. All the bolts that I remove go into little plastic "zip-lock" baggies, labeled with where they came from, so it will be a little easier to get it all back together again.

The right side inner fender is now off. That was, by far, the easiest part of the disassembly process. All the bolts just unscrewed. No nuts. Again, the hardest part of that, was having to remove the hood hinges first. Since three of the bolts were coming from inside the body under the instrument panel, we had to be a bit creative in holding the bolts in place while removing the nuts, otherwise, the bolts would just turn as I tried to remove the nuts. Fortunately, these are carriage bolts, so putting some tension on the bolts holds them in place.

I have all the bolts off the left outer fender, and I am wrestling it, trying to get it off. I discovered that there was one more bolt I had forgotten to remove. After that was off, the fender came right off. The radiator frame is off, and is now located in the trunk, along with all the other small parts I have taken off. At some point, I am going to have to find another location to store these things, as the body is going to be coming off the frame pretty soon, I hope.

Three big projects lie ahead: first, removing the rest of the doors and door hinges. Then, removing the left rear fender and the instrument panel. And then pulling the engine and transmission out. After that is all done, then I can think about removing the body from the frame. All in all, a lot has been done, and a lot left to do yet. Generally speaking, the disassembly has gone pretty well so far, the doors and hinges are the first major things that I haven't been able to get off.