Skyline Drivetrain And Suspension In 1948 Studebaker

[r31slpr]

That intake manifold looks great, as does the rest of the car

[skylinecouple]

1224kgs. Fantastic. An RB25 would have been better for cruising. Still, amazing none the less.

[stilettoman]

"An RB25 would have been better for cruising." Well, when I am cruising down the highway on a trip, I would rather have the fuel mileage. Of course there are occasions when another 75 horsepower would be advantageous. I have often said that stoplight drag racing is childish and immature --- but if a guy pulls up next to you in a BMW, well you just do what you have to do .

My local JDM source just got in stock an R34 front clip, with an RB25DET NEO and a 5 speed. The price is $4000, and I was very tempted. But there are two things putting me off: 1. The R32 front clip I am using cost me $2000 and has 57,000 km on it. 2. The NEO motors are rare here - none of the local tuners has ever worked on one to my knowledge, much less done a swap. I am sticking with Plan A.

We have been so focused on getting this thing put together that we failed to notice something unexpected - there seems to be no adjustments to the caster and camber of the R32 front suspension. What are we missing? Do you just have to buy aftermarket parts?

With our fabrication skills, we can easily make the tension rods adjustable, but the funky angle of the upper control arm complicates the camber issue.

[gtr jet]

Yep, just buy after market adjustable arms. Plenty to choose from.

[stilettoman]

For the past few weeks, Sean has been dividing his time between the Studebaker project and doing some upgrades on a 1968 Mustang convertible that belongs to a friend of mine. We started with the idea of just buying and installing some of the disc brake and power rack kits that are available for the early Mustangs from various sources. But as we looked at the options on line, we kept thinking that they are not cheap, and the quality is certainly no better than the Nissan parts we are using on the Studebaker. Not entirely Skyline related, but some of you might like to see what we have done with a few used Nissan parts - this will be a truly unique Mustang:

www.pro-touring.com/threads/111428-68-Mustang-Convertible-Some-Unique-Upgrades

Sean has finished the turbo/intercooler plumbing and has been modifying the bumpers for the Studebaker. A lower valance panel was fabricated for the rear end and the bumper was moved in tighter to the body. Both bumpers were reshaped somewhat, and studs were welded inside for the mounting brackets, so there will be no bolt heads visible.

The Infiniti J30 (Nissan Leopard) fuel tank is installed in the trunk, below the rear package shelf. Because of the inevitable effects of gravity, there was only one choice for the fuel filler location. I used a filler cap from a motorcycle. We also converted the hood to a front hinge arrangement to provide better access to the engine compartment. (Don't be confused by what you have been told by those guys who live on that big island off the coast of France - a boot is a type of shoe invented by that famous shoe salesman Wellington, and a bonnet is a type of hat that some ladies wear to keep the sun off.)

Edited November 25, 2014 by stilettoman

[dermy]

This is awesome.. Love it

[stilettoman]

Can someone please tell me the year of manufacture of this Skyline? It is a R34 front clip with a rb25NEO motor, currently for sale locally. Total mileage is 95,396 KILOMETERS ( 59,276 MILES)

[gtr jet]

http://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/128496-vins-you-want-fasted/page-214

[dermy]

[timmy_89]

Cool build/project!

[stilettoman]

After months of body work, many coats of primer and hours of block sanding, I finally was ready and took the car to my painter friend. I have painted all my project cars, airplanes, motorcycles etc since 1958, but I never sprayed a pearl paint and I never spent so much time prepping a car for paint. This is as close as I will ever get to a show quality paint job.

Installing the headliner was not much fun, now it is ready for the window and windscreen install. I have been working on the dash, built my own heater using a couple of Skyline heater boxes, some ABS plastic, and the controls from a Mazda RX-7. The Skyline pedal assemlies are installed, used the round pedal pads from the studebaker to maintain some semblance of the original look. The Skyline key switch was adapted to the dash.

My fabricator, Sean , has been finishing the fuel, brake, clutch and power steering plumbing and wiring. The fuel tank is installed, and the filler connected. I painted the engine covers, power steering reservoir and few other bits, and now the engine compartment is complete.

Edited May 8, 2015 by stilettoman

[Ben C34]

That looks unreal!

[stilettoman]

With the headliner in, we were able to install the windscreen and rear windows. These are all installed from the inside, and the rear glass is very tight, not an easy job. I made some terminal strips to facilitate the wiring, ran wires to the rear, lights on the left side and fuel tank on the right side. I made rubber gaskets for the headlights and tail lights, and those are now installed. All the lights work perfectly, hope that bodes well for the fuel injection wiring. The ECU and fuse panel are inside the glove box door. I spent many hours adapting the Skyline instruments into the Studebaker instrument cases. The custom made rear valance panel is installed, so we could then weld on the exhaust tips to fit the cutouts in the valance panel. More photos of all this are now shown on my web site.

http://stilettoman.info/

I will be keeping that up to date, then post here when the car is running, hopefully in a few weeks.

I hope to get my airplane projects and some airshow photos on the site in the next few months.

Edited June 28, 2015 by stilettoman

[JZP]

Wow, some real commitment and Amazing quality.

Great to see it coming together.

Fantastic.

[Shoota_77]

The engine sits nice and low in the engine bay. Should be nicely balanced.

[Leroy Peterson]

thats dedication. will be unique, thats for sure

[stilettoman]

The Studebaker has been running very well, excellent brakes and steering, can't say much about the handling until I get some bucket seats - cornering on this very soft bench seat feels like sitting on a beach ball. The RB20 has been only going to 8-9 psi boost, so we investigated and found some boost leaks. With all that sorted I was still getting 9 psi max boost. I have read in several places that 12-13 psi is a safe limit for this ceramic turbine wheel.

I hate paying money to buy something I can easily make in my shop, so I decided to jack up the boost pressure myself. It is obviously not possible to take the wastegate actuator apart and shim the spring, so I just added an external spring, with a clamp on the actuator rod which is adjustable. We set it up on the bench using a spare turbo and adjusted the spring so it opens the wastegate at about 12 psi. We installed it on the car and it goes up smoothly to 12 psi boost and is stable there. I can't measure the power increase, but it definitely has more power and I am now quite happy with the performance.

This is so simple I assume others have done this ????