It’s easy to lose focus when contemplating a somewhat complex project like upgrading and restoring an older vehicle to modern standards. Perhaps there is a subtle difference between restoring and upgrading. I have been thinking in terms of taking an old vehicle, maybe not even running and getting it back on the road. For instance I found a beautiful 1957 Studebaker Hawk for sale on Face Book. In 1957 there were two versions of the Hawk. The Silver Hawk was the base level and the Golden Hawk was the luxury line.
1957 Studebaker Silver Hawk I found on Face Book
The asking price for this car is $22,000. I made the mistake of showing it to Brenda. After seeing all of the pigs with lipstick and rust buckets that I have been looking at she immediately said, “That’s the car you want!” And she is right. It is the car I really want. It is a driver quality survivor from the era that I grew up in and love. It is also true that the quality of the technology as far as function and reliability was getting a lot better by the mid to late 50s. But I would have to blow my entire build budget just to acquire this vehicle. But then I would have a classic car I could both drive, enjoy and tinker with now. But then the idea of a true restoration project gets put on hold. So I think I am just going to hit the reset button and try to get refocused. Stay with the plan Stan!
There is a natural tendency to be attracted to the first car we either drove or owned. I know that was the case with dad and his 1940 Ford. He really didn’t get very good service out of that first car because it was already quite used and abused before he got it. But that is still what he wanted in his later life. After all, he and mom drove that original car to Kerville on their honeymoon. You can still drive some parts of the old Highway 90 outside of Columbus TX that they would have driven back in 1949. For me the car I learned to drive was my mother’s 1964 Chevy Impala. I have been looking for a picture of it and all I can find is a shot of the back of the car. Mom let me drive her car to school my senior year of high school. I’m with Wade. I think my Mom was a , uhh, well never mind. Every morning I would go by Brendas house and pick her up and head to good old Cy Fair High School. Every Friday night we were together in that car either going to a football game or to a movie. So many good memories are associated with cars. Actually the first car that was really mine was the old 1954 Chevy family car that my dad bought new when I was a baby. It probably had a couple hundred thousand miles on it by the time I got it in 1971. It still ran pretty good and had a working radio. I sold that car for $35. The only reason the guy bought it was because he wanted the working radio.
Our new 1954 Chevrolet in front of the house I grew up in on Cutten Road
Mom’s 1964 Chevy Impala
Sometimes the only way to have the best of both worlds is to have both worlds. I told Wade about my delimma of choosing between a true project car and a reasonable driver. He said, “Why don’t you do both?”. I never thought of that. So I went to a little town just outside of Waco to have a look at that Silver Hawk. I wanted to see if it was as good as the pictures make it look. It turns out to be a true survivor from a bygone era. The body is straight, the interior shows what you would expect from a well cared for vehicle being used for nearly 70 years. It has minimal rust on the underside, nice paint job and the engine seems to run fairly well. I really like the styling of this car. It is far from perfect but I can drive it while doing some upgrades along the way. I am not giving up on the idea of finding a true project vehicle. But isn’t that part of the fun and adventure of reviving old iron? Finding that diamond in the rough. Meanwhile, “Heres to having the best of both worlds.”
“Here we go!”
I was able to make the deal on the 1957 Studebaker Silver Hawk. So I borrowed Wades car hauler and drove back up to Waco to pick up my new old car. It looks and sounds great with that dual exhaust.
Loading up my new old 1957 Studebaker Silver Hawk
But it is still just an old car so that means it will be a long road ahead of checking and updating every operating system. First up will be upgrading those drum brakes to Disc brakes on the front at least. Then that means an upgrade to a dual circuit master cylinder, new brake pedal assembly, new hydraulic clutch master, power steering, on and on and on…
I have been restoring Grandpa Neely’s 1962 Farmall Cub Tractor for the past year. It started out with just cleaning up the battery cables. Before long it became apparent that it needed much more. After disassembly, sanding, painting, total rewiring, and replacing most electrical components, I found that the engine was seized up. After repeated soaking with Blaster penetrating oil it was still stuck solid. So I pulled the head and began to gently beat on the pistons with a wooden drift while Wade twisted on the crank with a pipe wrench. It finally began to move. After it began to rotate freely I found that the valves were not opening and closing properly. I didn’t really have the correct tool to remove the valves so I spent hours doing a job that should have taken minutes. So I removed all of the valves, cleaned them up and relapped them. The point is that it just goes on and on, one thing leads to another.
Restoring Grandpa Neely’s 1962 Farmall Cub Tractor
I took the Studebaker for a cruise last night. On the way back I noticed that the turn signals were flashing erratically. “Here we Go!”
