You Light Up My Life........

With the new wiring system, many old features became new again, like this map light. The heat that the light bulb puts off will replace the heater that John removed during the clean up process!

Look Mom, no holes! As a certain someone was cleaning out the garage (which consists of throwing away everything not attached to the truck), he came across an old paper bag that came with the truck. Inside were these lenses for the light bezels (the rectangular lenses covering the truck's running lights). Who knew?

The running lights are actually working now that the truck has been re-wired, which was another reason why having the proper covers for them was so exciting.

This is the new tail light that we put in. John's been looking for one of these for a long time. This is a case where having a reproduction light has been better than having an original (Tracy was so happy that John didn't win the one he was bidding on via Ebay).

It's probably best not to mention how difficult it actually is to install one of these lights without breaking the glass lens.

After three attempts (numerous bulbs, a fuse, and a full dustpan of glass), it was literally time to "Stop!" the insanity. Luckily, the end result is worth it!

1st Annual Queen Creek Safeway Breast Cancer Car Show!

The truck is up and running, so we enjoyed an evening show down the road at our local Safeway shopping center. The show was small, but very well run. Hopefully they will make it an annual event and it will grow as word gets around.

The Queen family joined us and we all brought the kids. Since there was no jumping castle, John popped them all in the back of the truck and we watched them jump around a bit and test the shocks (that always makes the fellow car show people a little nervous!). This raised an interesting question: just how many small children CAN you fit in the back of a '55 Studebaker truck?

A Few From The Road.

All right, so you can't make everyone happy ALL the time. Those who are strictly Studebaker fans may not enjoy all of these pictures, but occasionally we see some other vehicles that catch our eye. All of these vehicles are right off the interstate at Desert Gardens Mobile Home Sales in Quartzsite, Arizona. We stopped by and wandered around a little bit on our way back from Disneyland.

This whole set-up was pretty awesome.

This old Studebaker Champion was sitting in a back lot.

We also spied this Studebaker (Hawk?) as we were making the rounds.

This beauty ('41? Studebaker President) has mis-matched front hubcaps. The back wheels match...they don't have any hubcaps at all! Is it just us, or does this price seem a little steep? Oh well, fun to look at in any case. You can find a complete listing of their cars for sale at www.classiccars.com (click on Desert Gardens) or www.desertgardenscars.com. The gentleman we spoke to said that they have over 25 Studebakers for sale.

Studebaker?

Probably not, but this was the closest thing we could find at Disneyland! When it's a cartoon car, you can't always tell (haha...we can't always tell, anyway). Anyway, it's a Studebaker in our hearts and at Disneyland...everything is what you make of it!

Nothing Left But The Small Stuff!

Today was a glorious day at the Smith Studebaker Garage.

We were able to get the rest of the wiring done on the old girl (with the exception of a few little details) and were able to start her up. With a few minor adjustments and a lot of help, this project (the wiring, that is) is about to get the DONE stamp.

As you can see, the cloth asphalt loom made the truck have the appearance of the era that it originally was in, but now houses a modern 12-volt system that is nice and neat (Unlike our garage- that will be a post for later. Somebody has a lot of work to do!)

The panel for the system is now located in the glove box, out of the way of Big Foot's damaging limbs (Heck, he just got the confidence to drive the truck on the freeway. The last thing he needs to do is kick the entire fuse panel with his size 13's while trying to push in the clutch.)

Today, We Packed Up The Family And Headed Out West

No, really...we actually did! We headed out to the northwest side of Phoenix to attend the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Studebaker Drivers Club's monthly meeting and gathering. This month's meeting took place at the Pioneer Restaurant at Pioneer Village, an old 1800's "town" with lots of old buildings of historic interest and a true "old west" atmosphere. In keeping with the "old time theme," we thought we'd include a black and white photo of the Studebakers lucky enough to come to the meeting with their owners (due to our almost-completed wiring project, the truck did not make today's trip with us).

This awesome little Wagonaire is John's new dream car. He'd really like one like this with a sliding top. We'll just add it to our dream list!

Okay, we'll admit that we are not huge Avanti fans, but this is one of the nicest we have seen. It was downright pretty as a picture!

This Lark is truly amazing! It is restored to showroom-clean perfection(right down to the tags on the radiator), yet has the added modern amenities of A/C and tinted windows. The best part: it can fit a stroller in the trunk and a car seat in the back seat! What an awesome family car! (See, Mom...should have kept the old boy!)

This Silver Hawk was stunning, as well. We didn't post pictures of all the vehicles present today, but they were all just gorgeous and made our club proud. What a fun way to kick off what is soon to become our busiest "Studebaker Season" in the Southwest!

This Video Explains It All!

Many times we are asked why we are so outspoken about the need to include families and members of all ages in "Studebaker society." We frequently find ourselves having to explain our passion for our Studebaker truck and our desire to keep it a family project. People find it a little hard to understand that it's not just John's truck, or Tracy's truck, or a truck for the kids to enjoy "someday." This is our truck now, to be enjoyed now, together. If you click on this video link in the top lefthand corner, you'll see a similar faimly display of Studebaker enthusiasm being enjoyed . We are so excited to get to see another family enjoying their Studebaker and can completely relate to the ups and downs shown in these few minutes alone! What a great example of how a Studebaker can bring a family closer to each other and further away from the TV and/or video games. Thanks, Clark and Family for sharing this moment with us.

We Finally Got AC For the Truck!

Well John finally broke down and bought AC for the truck. Okay, well, it's more like an evaporative cooler that hangs outside the window and uses the air blowing through it to help turn a fan which in turn blows the cooler air into the vehicle. Or something like that. The great news is that he got an awesome deal on it and it looks like it just came out of the box (but not so much that it doesn't look authentic and great hanging on the truck).

Close, but no cigar!

Just a quick update on the wiring. We have started getting the looming done (that's the black covering over the wires for those normal people who haven't heard that term applied to cars before). Everything seems to be going as planned. As long as she starts up when we finally turn the key, we'll be happy! We'll be sure to post more pictures when we are completed.

Some Things We Should Never Try To Do On Our Own..

Rewiring our truck is one them!

Fortunately for us, John's friend Sammy is playing a major role in helping us get this done. It seems like rewiring is a task that will never end. We talked about trying to take this task on by ourselves prior to getting help. How hard could it be? Tracy reads the instructions and John completes the task (just like Christmas Eve with all the kids' toys... so we thought). The reality of it is that even with Sammy's (very much appreciated) help we are going on approximately our third day. Above is a picture of what it now looks like behind our gauges. The Studespaghetti is gone!

But enough of the negative vibes. Today we installed the High Beam Light Indicator (the thingy that lights up when you flash your brights at somebody). Not bad considering the hole used to house the knob of the glove box door we stole from G.D.

We also relocated the ignition switch (the place you put your keys) and added a new horn button on the dash.

Here's a close up of those. The third hole will house the new light switch. John's been trying to figure out where he was going to put all of this since his birthday. Oh, let's just say his OCD kicked into overtime! That's all we're allowed to say about that...

Blinded By The Light! Or Just The Sheer Beauty Of El Burro!

You would think that after almost a year of working on our truck after putting the kids to bed, we would have figured out a little sooner that we needed a new shop light. Well, today we installed a new, eight foot light fixture. So, now our garage lights up not only our space, but part of the street in front of the house, as well. Neighbors should like the new street light since usually the only time we have it on is after nine o'clock PM. The good news is that we now have several slightly used items for sale (considering eBay or maybe Craigslist?):
* Four drop lights (one is broken, due to a disagreement with somebody whose name shall not be named)
* Two flashlights
* Two hiker head lamps (Haven't been hiking since we got the truck- so much for that trip down the Grand Canyon...)
*One lamp from our family room (Sounds funny, but it seemed like a good idea at the time)
Correction: One Lamp slightly damaged and with red specks of paint on it.
*One candle (Don't ask! We won't tell)