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)

What Can You Make Out Of A Glove Box Door?

Once again, we have to thank our friends at the Studebaker Forum for helping us make a gauge panel out of a glove box door. Actually, we have many people to thank. G.D. (aka Bridgegaurd), for supplying the glove box without too much protest (tough to do when you're in Guam). Lucky, for helping John with body work on the door (it had a slight dent that needed to be taken out). Sammy, who spent most of his day in the garage with us helping us take on a task we thought we would have to pay somebody to do (We did hear something about John having a lot of sanding to do on Sammy's Bronco!).

After Tracy laid out the circles to perfection, we drilled a small pilot hole.

Then, using two and three inch hole saws, we cut out the holes for the gauges to sit in.

Here are the results. If it wasn't for Sammy, who had the right equipment and the patience to work with us, we would have never made this far. The man does know how to make something from nothing.

Here, John is trying to de-burr the edges and trying to keep the circles round. Let's just say it got to a point that we just had to laugh about it.

Beside the need to modernize our system from a 6-volt/12-volt hodge-podge system with non-working gauges, we are also attempting to clean up the wiring behind the dash. This is a great start.

The result is wonderful! We couldn't be happier. Thanks to all of our friends and family, our vision that we have for our truck is starting to become a reality. Mmmmmm...think we should chop the top? Na, we would do that to this old girl. (Besides, John's head hits the roof as it is!)

Holes have been filled

We just got our sun visors back from the upholsterer ! Let me know what you think! Sorry this second image is blurry but you can get the idea.

What Turns Me On

Along with the wiring kit Tracy and the kids got John for his birthday, they also got him a new ignition switch with new keys. So, as always, John put the cart before the horse (just wanted to see what it would look like) and picked the new location for the switch. Since the new gauge panel will not have a hole for the ignition switch, John decided to place it in one of the old heater control holes. In our eyes, it looks like it belongs there. You know what they say, though: "Beauty is in the eye of the guy paying for the parts!"

Studebaker National Meet In Lancaster

For those of you outside the Studebaker world, the 2008 Studebaker National Meet has been going on this past week. After seeing many reviews and photos, it appears to be quite the success. We can only hope the turnout will be matched when it arrives in Glendale in 2010. One set of pictures caught our eye due to the sheer volume of the pictures (over 1700+ pics). These people obviously love Studebakers and remind us why we love being part of the Group. Studebaker owners , friends and followers have a passion that can't be matched by any other group that we've been in contact with. Thanks to Tracy Davis for letting us link to her pictures of the National Meet. Please enjoy all 1700+ of them, as we surely did! Click the link below :

http://s287.photobucket.com/albums/ll160/wolfie_53/SDC%20Meet%20Lancaster%20PA/

Like A Hole In My Head!

The two holes that are shown above have been have been eating away at you-know-who's OCD for some time now. But today we are glad to say that soon the sun visors shall return to their proper location instead of the box that they have been stored in (I'm curious why we took them off in the first place) . The guy that we got to redo the seat said he would repair them and recover them to match for $85.00 for the pair. Considering that one was missing everything except the frame, we think that's a good deal for the pair. If not, we at least know that he does great work! Stay tune for the final finish. We are glad to see some progress even if it's as small as sun visors.