Early 1920s Studebaker ?

4 minute(s) of a 173 minute read

Thank you Aussie Studie

The "Bur-walnut " certainly adds some class to your car. As I explained I am too old to be a slave to total originality and will be doing my own take on the dash-board but that has still just a little way to go. I had hoped to get to, look at some "cabinet" timbers today but some other things got in the road. Perhaps tomorrow or perhaps next week, Now have the dash out and all the instruments sitting on my desk. One thing that took up a little time was grinding down a glass taken from another scrap instrument using an oilstone to bring it down to size. The oil-pressure gauge is now all cleaned up and just need the glass together with the rim re-fitting. The amp meter and speedo are ready to go and are just waiting for the new dash to materialise.

I still have a bit more to do on the fuse-"box" and the ignition/light switch.

It is interesting to note that Mark's 1923 door handle/latch is totally different to my cars 1920 version. Perhape he can show us his outside door handles too.

Thank you both for your helpful input.  I will feel much more relaxed about the minor changes I have in mind to incorporate into my car's Dashboard. (purely for ergonomic reasons)

Earlier I had made reference to the difference between the inside door handles on Mark's car and the ones on my Light Six. 

Mark assures us that his car has an Australian built (assembled) "Colonial" body which may explain the difference. Either that or perhaps as with all things related to old motor-cars two or three years can make a huge difference.

Another thing that is apparent in both Scott and Mark's photographs is the elaborate (plated) fitting to support the steering column while my "earlier" car has a much more simple (almost agricultural) fitting. Perhaps Scott, wearing his "Stude Light" hat can explain the differences.

Very slowly the story of my cars "Life" is comming out one crumb at a time. For instance I now know that it was before being moved to Merrigum that it had spent time in the "Fowl shed" at Springvale* almost 100 miles away. What I have difficulty in understanding is, that having pulled the car out of it's hiding place among the chickens and transported it so far, why no attempt to even clean the debris away from the splash trays under the bonnet (hood) was made. That it was simply pushed into another albeit somewhat cleaner shed and left standing on 'blocks" for another thirty plus years to gather even more dust. Unfortunately the reasons behind these things may never be fully understood.

* Springvale, while now a thriving suburb of Melbourne, in those years both prior to and immediately after WW2 would have been a predominantly "market garden"  area given over to the production of fruit and vegetables.

I should explain that while I was born in November 1936, by the early 1950s I was already well infected by the "old car" bug! 

My lifelong passion for "interesting" automobiles was already affecting my thoughts and deeds while I was still a young boy just starting secondary school.

The attached photograph shows me at age 18 or 19 in what was then my daily driver, a 1937 Morris 8/40 "Special" largely of my own making. The Riley saloon belonged to my older brother.

The Legal age to possess a Driving Licence in Victoria Australia was 18 years old. I obtained my "Licence" aged 18 years and one day.

I had already been driving for two or three years.