1939 Studebaker + Geo 1.0L drivetrain swap = Studeo

[StudeChamp]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

Neat stuff! You could probably turn the original engine bay into a trunk. Maybe with a custom-fit beer cooler in it? That'd bring around the Stude club guys, I bet...

-soD

Cooler for sure. The other idea is to stick my neighbor's hamster wheel (with hamster) under the hood and then invite them to open it.

[MetroMPG]

What's the stock weight & horsepower of the original car?

Love the fabrication work. This is a fun project.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

What's the stock weight & horsepower of the original car?

Love the fabrication work. This is a fun project.

According to http://www.carnut.com/specs/gen/stud40.html:

2,290/2,415 (Min/Max) and 78 HP.

[StudeChamp]

Originally Posted by Xist

According to http://www.carnut.com/specs/gen/stud40.html:

2,290/2,415 (Min/Max) and 78 HP.

That's what I came up with too. Besides the drive train, I've deleted the original interior and will be installing the 5-door Geo interior (with new seat covers). Tough to tell how much net weight I'll save, but I'm hoping it's +/-10%. The original rear end/diff weighs a ton but I haven't weighed it. Welding in plates behind the grill should help aerodynamics, but the bustleback trunk isn't exactly slippery and I have no plans of altering the original silhouette, with the exception of wheel fairings and a drop in height (I'm using Geo 13" tires and will adjust the ride height till it looks right).

[StudeChamp]

Up next: engine and transaxle drop into the K member. We fitted up suspension, tires, and attached the whwheeels. The whole thing was surprisingly well-balanced and was easy to maneuver. We strapped a milk crate to the crossmember to keep it level... Discussed adding a fuel source and just driving it wheelbarrow style, but decided that would be a bad use of our investment.

[StudeChamp]

Time this stuff gets real, we take the sawzall to the chassis. we welded up an extra supporting member between the suicide doors and then dropped the chassis from there to the rear bumper. To keep the body square, we welded up a support cage arcing from the rear bumper up to the package tray and then back down to the door frame. We mounted that frame to the chassis/k-member at six points with poly bushings.

[StudeChamp]

Once we had everything cut out, it was just a matter of lifting up the rear and rolling the k-member into place. Dilemma: to get everything to fit and leave any sort of room in the back seat (we now have a mid-engine car), we had to push the wheels far back of the opening on the fenders, but that's what fairings are for, I guess.

[StudeChamp]

BTW the X frame between the main frame and the K member was fabbed after we decided on final alignment of the rear axle. Luckily it wasn't too complicated a fab job and welded up quickly once we had the member in place.

[MetroMPG]

Lemme get this straight: the axles aren't going to be centered (fore/aft) in the wheel well/fender openings, and you're going to hide this with fender skirts? How far aft will things be?

PS: it's great to see a thread started when the project is this far along already. It's like bingeing on a TV/cable series on Netflix all at once, instead of waiting for a new episode each week.

[StudeChamp]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Lemme get this straight: the axles aren't going to be centered (fore/aft) in the wheel well/fender openings, and you're going to hide this with fender skirts? How far aft will things be?

PS: it's great to see a thread started when the project is this far along already. It's like bingeing on a TV/cable series on Netflix all at once, instead of waiting for a new episode each week.

Unfortunately, this is where the (re-)engineering starts getting sticky. Since we reproduced the original Geo geometry, and the engine sits in front of the axle, moving that assembly to the back results in a mid-engine car.

So when we rolled the K-member into place, we found that, though compact, the 993cc Suzuki motor dressed still protruded farther forward than expected, especially after allowing for the doghouse between the motor and the rear seat.

So, we decided to sacrifice aesthetics for rear-seat space and push the whole k-member back. The front three wheel lugs are still visible within the wheel well, but the rear lug is already covered by the fender.

Our idea is to do more than a fairing -- actually cut a full plate covering the flat area of the fender and mount it up with fender welting (matching the fender/body connection), giving it more of a 30s streamliner look. I'll post pics and sketch drawings so I can get some input from fellow ecomodders

As for the binge -- yeah, this is pretty cool, but I am afraid that things are going to slow down in a hurry. The good news: I am also nearly done with an xfi build, so hopefully it will be like going from House of Cards to Orange is the New Black.