I BELIEVE THIS WILL BE THE DEATH OF ME!

Thayer picked out this keychain for John. Actually, we think he really wanted it for himself, but we're trying to convince him he'd be better off waiting for it...say another 13 years or so! Maybe he'll get the keys thrown in, too. The cool locking gas cap was donated to us by a fellow Studebaker enthusiast (see, we DO take donations!). Who says you can't get a free gas cap anymore?

Remember the black rubbery stuff from beyond? Well, today it met its match.....

With the help of a coarser wire brush, John braved the nasty stuff and WON! It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks and feels one thousand times better and smoother. The multicolored effect is deceiving. It's really cleaning up nicely. On a side note, we think today was the first day since we got the truck that we did NOT see a spider. Now, John did see a WEB, so it may just be that the not-so-little guys are hiding and plotting for a mass act of revenge...

What the heck is this rubbery junk and how do I get rid of it?

Just an updated picture after the work on the rim yesterday. Here's what the tires look like on the rims. The tires seem to be just what we hoped for. The next step will be to have the rims powder coated. At least they will sand blast them so John doesn't have to fight the California spiders again! Today's hour of work actually turned into three hours of work. John decided to remove the gummy, black, unidentifiable substance from under and behind the seat in the cab. These are all "after" shots...it's looking a hundred times better already.

Sure there's still rust, but it's CLEAN rust!

Okay, here's the cursed, black....whatever it is. It does not want to come off. It's like some type of parasite that is perfectly happy camping out on the truck. We want it gone. The wire brush appears to be losing the battle at this point, as proven by the bits of wire that have shot off and embedded themselves into John's flesh. Any suggestions? Tracy is staging chemical warfare next. Certainly, she must have learned SOMETHING from all of those "What Takes Rust Off a Nail the Best?" Science Fair projects she has graded in the past...

Baby's Got a New Pair of Shoes...

...No, unfortunately THIS is not our baby, but it is his distant cousin the Golden Hawk. This beautiful car and many others of the same caliber belongs to Stan, the gentleman who sold us a new set of white walls for the truck. We don't know what was cooler, the fact that the tires were still in their original packaging and are absolutely flawless (Stan was the original purchaser many years ago and took great care of them), or the mini car show we got to experience when we went to pick them up. Stan has a vast knowlege of cars, Studebakers included. We really appreciated his willingness to share his knowlege of classic cars. This seems to be a common thread we've enjoyed among fellow Studebaker/classic car owners.

John was eager to see what the new tires would look like, so he leaned them up against the current ones (please excuse the garage/gym, but it was raining way too hard to take the truck out today). The truck itself is experiencing quite the culture shock, as it's probably the first time in eons that it has actually been OUT of the rain! We know that Mike's true loves are his Corvette and his '55 GMC truck, so poor Stutius got put out to pasture... The rims shown in this photo are actually going to be put on GD's truck (he thinks they're "babe magnets"). As John says, anything to help the cause...
Before the white walls can be truly added, the original rims need to be cleaned up a tad. They are definitely NOT babe magnets at this time (spider magnets is more like it).


Hmm...how long do you think it took John to get started on that project? One down, three to go!


One last look at the beautiful white walls. We're so excited to have found these. Thanks again, Stan, for your quality tires and expertise!

Picture Proof...the Man Does Get Dirty!

After much doubt from certain individuals and actual requests for positive proof, we are providing photographic evidence that John does indeed do his own work on the truck! The paparazzi captured this little gem of a shot after an hour or two of John wire brushing inside the cab. (Autographed copies of this picture may be purchased from the photographer with all proceeds going towards the upholstering of the front seat...)

Once more, photographic proof that John DOES work on cars. I call this one "The Sandman." Hmm...shall we see if he can change the oil?

Progress is being made on Pimp Daddy's Slow-Moving Ride...just check out those door panels. We think we did a pretty good job for people who don't know what the heck we're doing. No need to comment on the order that progress is being made. Since we're saving money for the big improvements, we're making small but important changes as time and funds allow. Plus, there's that small grime and spider fight we're determined to win. Fortunately, as our project gets rolling, the laughs are starting to outweigh the arguments. Tracy really would love to keep the truck green and go with a John Deere (or John Dear?) theme as a tribute to her distant farm roots. John stubbornly clings to the Rat Rod image, and basically anything else BUT John Deere green. We both can agree on a nice, clean truck, though.

This is one of the things that this past week's work has produced: door panels without rust, scratches, or fuzzy thing-a-ma-jigs hanging off of them.

No more rusty box! Or red fingernail polish...our guess is that Mike the previous owner had one of his girlfriends out for ride in Stutius when he hit a bump while she was painting her nails. How far are we from the truth, Mike? :) (Curious, though...the polish was actually on the inside of the glove box door...was she painting her toenails?)

Rust in my Box...

It makes me wonder just how water found its way into the glove box of the truck? I guess this answers the question, "Will this truck leak if I take it out in the rain?" My guess is yes, considering the three asphalt windows (holes) that are in the floor boards. And, of course, the newly found evidence of a rusty glove box. Perhaps we should just add a light in there and make it one of those soothing meditation waterfalls when it rains...

Well, to my surprise it was all just surface rust and the glove box is intact. So much for meditating...

An Hour A Day Helps Make The Rust Go Away.

John's goal is to work on the truck for a least a hour a day (or until the lynch mob forms out in front of our house) until at least the first layer of crud is off the truck. Today was the bed's turn to get wire brushed.

It may not seem like much of an improvement , but we feel we've come a long way towards lung disease by breathing in this fine-tasting rust stuff. John found the mask AFTER he finished. Please no lecture e-mails, as we know this was not one of John's brightest moments. Actually, this picture shows very clearly the area that has NOT been brushed yet (the orangey rectangle in the upper right corner). Hey, in the long run this might not be a huge step, but it can't hurt and it certainly looks a lot better.

This what one hour of breathing in (possibly) lead-based paint will get you.

Sample of all the junk that the wire brush removed from the bottom of the bed. Thinking of sending it out to a lab to see what John really was breathing in. Or is ignorance bliss in this case?

If you have rats, does that make it a Rat Rod?

Thayer and Jilly didn't get to DRIVE the truck, but they did get to go for a ride around the neighborhood with Mommy and Daddy. (No houses were harmed in this process). P.S. Please do not call C.P.S. on us as children were passing us on their tricycles...

Today, the truck formerly known in California as "Stutious" got its very own Arizona Historic Plates. Pretty cool, huh? (Hey, who cares if they're the shiniest thing on the truck?)

We began the first step in the restoration process by removing anything from the cab that looked like it could walk on its own either previously or currently. After finding a few new spiders in our garage this morning, we decided that this was a pretty high priority. We found evidence of rats (what WAS that furry thing I sucked up with the shop vac?), cobwebs, various feathers, and some deceased wasps. We feel fairly confident that we can cancel that Truly Nolen appointment now...

Look, Ma! No bugs! If we could only figure out how to get this seat back in...

Garbage pick up....................$10.95 monthly
Shop-Vac..............................$49.95
Formula 409.........................$2.99
A vermin free cab..................Priceless!

Home Sweet Home!

Friday brought the return of the Smith boys, and the kids and Tracy finally got to see the "new" truck in person. Jilly and Thayer discussed who was going to get to drive it first...

...and the answer is, "Daddy!" Problem was, he couldn't get the doors open without hitting them on the trailer. Well, there's more than one way to get into a Studebaker. John decided to shimmy on in Bo Duke style... (HaHa...no worries...Tracy got LOTS more pictures of this maneuver and is currently taking any and all offers for copies for bribery purposes!)

Finally in the driver's seat (okay, to give him credit, he was pretty darn quick!), John backs the truck off the trailer and onto Arizona soil (um, pavement).

Proud Papa and his newly adopted "child."

A small flashback? G.D. takes a few moments to go over some basic 1955 Studebaker Truck Driver's Ed. with his son. (The last time John tried to drive a truck with "3 on the tree" transmission, he ended up driving into his parents' house...)

Classic Cars, Crawfish, and Casinos

Wednesday was the big day itself: THE HANDOFF. John poses with Mike, the former owner of the Studebaker, and the truck itself. Mike had owned the truck for about a year and had added an engine and made several other improvements. Thanks, Mike, for all your help in this endeavor! (P.S. Everything went just fine with inspection and registration on our end). We were a little disappointed that the picture came out so hazy, but figured if that was the worse thing to happen on our trip then we would be in good shape!

Stopped for dinner after the hand0ff at this little place in Isleton. (It was the only place that we could find open!) The dinner special was a pound of crawdads! Of course the Smith boys took advantage of the fine eats and indulged.

Outside the Isleton bait shop...all that was missing were our poles!

Joe, the owner of Isleton Speed Shop, saw us standing outside and opened up the shop for us to have a look around. He also turned on his neon lights for us, but they were a bit too bright for the camera and the photos didn't come out.

Thursday morning, we were heading back to Arizona and home. Couldn't resist a drive on Route 66!

John was laying on the road to take this picture. G.D. was driving. Please don't ask how long it took John to catch up to him....(We hear this is a sore subject...)

Last train to Laughlin? The boys decided that the road was wearing on them and stopped for the night in Laughlin to catch up on some much-needed z's. Their $29/night room didn't turn out to be such a bargain when they realized that the in-room internet was $12, the buffet was $14.95/person (and none of it was Weight Watchers approved...haha), parking for the truck and trailer was 2 miles away with no shuttle back to the hotel, and the nearest casino and car show was a $10 cab ride away (each direction). And we wondered why they had us pay ahead of time with our phone registration... At least home is only 4 1/2 hours away!

Sammy Hagar,I feel your pain...I can't Drive 55

Today the journey began to pick up the pick-up! G.D. and John left Queen Creek at 3:30 AM (Yes, that's AM folks! These gentlemen truly LOVE their Studebakers!) with the empty trailer in tow. Armed with a cooler full of Weight Watcher-approved food and a Thermos of hot coffee, the boys were ready to take on the world! Well, at least southern Arizona and parts of California... This picture pretty much sums up the reason why G.D. has had to do most of the California driving. John didn't quite trust himself (or wasn't quite trusted?) to comply...

Hell froze over ! We got a Studebaker!

It was mid-December when the madness struck...John calls it Studepause (a crisis AFTER your midlife crisis). It began as a little innocent browsing on Ebay and Craigslist. G.D. (the Studeguru) had purchased a few Studebaker trucks to work on and we had even gone along on some of his ventures to pick them up. John, having the self-proclaimed auto-mechanical ability of Barbie on a bad day, liked the idea of having a classic truck to work on...but was a little uncertain as to the practicality of going forth with such a venture. Tracy had always wanted a classic car. Since no one else in the family seemed to have the same appreciation for Bel Airs, she was more than willing to hop on the Studebaker bandwagon. With the help of Craigslist, a few clicks of the mouse, several consultations with G.D., and a couple of phone calls to a gentleman in California, we were the proud new owners of a 1955 Studebaker truck.

Why would John (aka "BOABD" or "Barbie on a Bad Day") do this to himself? Well...as he puts it, at least Barbie knows how to get help when she needs it. So, with the help of Ken, Skipper, and the rest of the crew (aka G.D.'s Studeguru experience, Tracy's ability to read an instruction manual, and two small children that can probably be taught to sand off rust...just kidding, CPS), we have decided to boldly go where only one Smith has gone before. Oh, and it helps that the truck has a working engine...

The adventure begins next week when John and G.D. travel to Isleton, California to pick up the truck and haul it back to its new home. Needless to say, we are very excited about our new project and look forward to sharing this new bit of craziness in our lives. Watch for new blogs next week as John and G.D. email back pictures and an account of their journey and Tracy studiously records them to the website!