1951 Studebaker Commander in Winston Salem, NC

1951 Studebaker Commander. 289ci V8 Gasoline Engine, 3 Speed Manual Transmission, RWD.1951 Studebaker Commander, You either love them, or you hate them, but you will never see one like this for sale again. Studebaker only made the bullet nose models for 2 years. This is the Business Coupe mode 10G-Q4 of which only 2421 were produced. Of that group, only one was made with a V8. No one knows what happened to it, so I built my own. I took the photo from the Salesman's Brochure for my reference model. This is not a stock color that was offered that year, but the advertisers choose a powder blue for the manual. My goal was to put a Studebaker 289 V8 motor in place of the inline 6, add front disc breaks, new Edelbrock 4-barrel carb, and convert to 12 volts so I could add A/C for cruising hot August nights.This is basically a new car now and over restored for sure. The engine, tranny and rear have all been rebuilt. This model has an electric overdrive and will cruise at 68mph running 3000rpm and purr like a kitten, no strain at all. All new shocks and front springs and tires on it. This is not a hot rod but a cruiser. New rubber all around, new headliner and interior, with tinted glass.This is a nut and bolt restoration on which I have spent thousands of hours with attention to the fine details in the restoration. It has been over 10 years since the project was completed and everything is still like new. Paint, chrome, body work, glass, all still look brand new. She has only 4,000 miles on the new motor and driveline. (32,120 miles on body) Has always been garaged and only wet 3 times (caught in rain twice and washed once). The sale comes with many extra parts and a full set of manuals. A CD containing over 3000 photos of the project in all phases comes to document the work. All receipts and conversion notes as well.I have enjoyed the car but now I want something new to work on so I need to find a new home for her. This is a turnkey show car unlike anything you will ever see A unique car and piece of automotive art. A car truly ahead of its time.The Engine and Drive LineI was able to find a fairly fresh 1964 Studebaker 289 bored 80 over. The engine was mic-ed out and rebuilt replacing all underspec parts with new ones. New rod bearing, rings, valves, valve guides. Both heads were sent out and rebuilt. I have driven it only 4,000k miles and it is strong and tight. The stock carburetor was replaced by an Edelbrock 1404 carburetor.The engine is bolted up to a tranny from a 1959 Studebaker truck with a 3-speed on the tree, and electric overdrive. The original 2 piece driveline was modified to fit the new engine and tranny. The rear end is from a 1964 Lark and is a Dana 44 with a 3.31 ratio.Suspension and BreaksI replaced the front drum breaks with a conversion package from Jim Turner which uses off the shelf OEM disks and rotors .The old Champion springs were replaced with new HD coils to support the extra weight of the V8. All the bushings in the upper and lower a-arm's replaced by Studebakers West. New shocks and sway bar bushings were installed to complete the restoration. The steering was left stock wheels were replaced with new steel rims in 15x6 format Wide white wall radials size P205/75-R15, on both front and rear were mountedBody Prep and PaintI went with a basecoat/clearcoat combination, using the DuPont ChromaBase system for my trim and exterior paint solution. All the panels were stripped down to bare metal, treated with acid, cleaned and coated with either POR15 or Everclear Epoxy Primer 2K. Two coats of color and 3 coats of clear were applied then color sanding and final buffing.Cooling and insulationThis car was built to be a Florida vehicle so I removed all the old heater support and even plugged the hot water outlets on the water manifold. Vintage Air came out with a bracket for the Studbaker V8 and it went on without any issues. I ordered the smallest evaporator unit I could find, due to the small dash area in these cars. Southern Rods Econo-Kooler with A/C only had the best solution. The dash is only 8" deep and I could not get the AC unit to fit so it was exchanged for the under dash unit.I had to modify the dash to accept the 16.25" faceplate of the AC unit. I ended up cutting out the cigarette lighter and ash tray area to make it. I'll end up losing the glove compartment when the chrome dash trim is mounted. The A/C passenger vent will interfere with it opening. It was a pretty anemic glove box anyway.The windows were tinted professionally and baked on when the glass was out of the car. Ten years later it has no lamination or peeling. I did scratch the drivers side window in assembly. The entire cab is lined in a thermal blanket to keep heat out. All new rubber was used in the project so the cab is pretty air tight. The AC blows cold and hard.Electrical Gauges & WiringThe stock 1951 model was 6volt positive ground. I converted to 12 volt negative ground to support the AC unit. All wiring was replaced with plastic modern wire in the proper gauge. A Painless Universal Fuse Box was installed and I built a custom wire harness for it. All connections were crimped, soldered and heat shrinked. Great pain was taken in hiding the wires and the battery was relocated to the trunk. The gauges were changed to 12 volts. The gas gauge was replaced with a 12 volt unit and the faceplate of the 6V was used to keep the dash stock. The gas gauge is not accurate, I think it's the sending unit is a different resistance than the gauge expects. Other than that, all other electricals work. The car has only been wet twice and washed once. It has been kept in a garage all it's life. In the winter it goes up on jacks stands and I run the engine every month until warm to keep the gaskets fresh.