Against All Odds: Stude Ranch
A New Chapter for the Troutman Foundry
The Troutman Foundry, a 102-year-old building, has undergone a transformation. It’s no longer just a place of repair and overhaul; it has become a functional car commune that holds meaning for a group of passionate individuals. While there's still some work to be done, like a smelter load, the flooding and break-ins have stopped. This change marks a significant shift in the energy and purpose of the space.
For those who follow my journey, the recent focus on getting the foundry commune up and running has slowed down my personal projects. I've had to put many of my rolling projects on hold while working on this larger, more challenging endeavor. Meanwhile, Friend Thomas has been busy with Motor Pool vehicles, either fixing them, driving them, or breaking them down. Despite the challenges, we managed to camp out of Fuggles the Truck and the Corolla for the SRO race at Virginia International Raceway.
The Studebakers: A Personal Mission
My personal mission has always been to get my pair of Studebakers going. Why these particular cars? I think the Guilt-to-Pleasure Ratio (G2PR) was the highest. There’s been a lot of guilt and very little pleasure due to neglect. I went through a lot of trouble to find and resurrect my 1964 Gran Turismo Hawk. It wasn’t as much trouble as the car and I had gone through during my high school years, but it was still significant. The Lark belonged to a dear friend who passed away, and it took a family and community effort to get it back on the road.
Both cars have potential to be a pleasure to drive, even in their scruffy yet pretty form. So why not prepare both at the same time? I figured it was a good way to improve the G2PR. Some of my cars are doomed to stay on the lower rungs of the scale for a while longer. I’m looking at you, problematic Renault GTA.
The Hawk: A Summer Challenge
The first car I tackled was the Hawk. It was the middle of summer in the South, which means a black-painted Hawk without air conditioning is not the wisest choice. But I'm notoriously unwise, so I embraced the challenge. I knew I needed to boil the fuel tank and clean the fuel system parts. This was a relatively easy job, and a cheap one if I don’t factor in the $40 bottle of wine from our road trip through Macedonia that donated its cork as the fuel sender float.
Upon first cranking, the precariously placed fuel pump shot a geyser out of its electrical connections and onto the fender-mounted voltage regulator. For a moment, the PVC jackets carried both current and fuel and dispensed it all onto a circuit board mounted on the inner fender. Safe, right? I promptly shut the car off, threw the pump in the trash, and replaced it with something that didn’t do that.
The months of sitting up had not been kind to the Hawk’s tires, battery, or brakes. Resetting the brake adjustment made it so the car didn’t careen straight into the nearest ditch. Job done, generally. It still needs a four-speed, rear leaf bushings, ball joints, and basically the entire catalog of mechanical bits listed in Studebaker International’s catalog. But for now, I can get to work and melt my arm skin to the door trim while I’m at it.
The Lark: A More Complex Project
The Lark was and is more of a project. My Shitbox Spidey Senses failed to detect the scale of said project, but we at the Troutman Foundry don’t do that level of overall investigation. We don’t bound through a car all in one leap as much as we follow a breadcrumb trail of small- and medium-sized jobs that stretch out over an always-distant horizon.
So let’s get to munching. What was already done and documented so far with the Lark? General de-scuzzing. Tires. Re-attachment of almost all trim. Cylinder heads, master cylinder rebuild, re-lining of brake shoes and a rebuild of all related components. Removal of all spare parts from the trunk and interior. From there, Thomas started the gradual assessment of what else needed doing.
Upon the first brake bleed attempt, I discovered that the rear circuit was blocked in two places. This necessitated a new copper-nickel line and flex hose, which was on the list to replace anyway. Finally, we vacuum-bled the system successfully on the second attempt, following a failure that showered at least two crew members with DOT3. With that, every molecule of the braking system has been replaced after several rounds of hoping the most recent simple fix would do it. Lesson in scoping brakes: Unless it only recently stopped stopping, in the future I’ll be throwing the book at it right off the bat.
Challenges and Progress
Thomas’ sights turned back to the Lark’s loud and smelly parts. We very quickly encountered a dead fuel pump, our third of the week. (Don’t ask about when we tried to start the Holden.) Last time I had investigated this component, it was filled with dirt dobbers that I had evacuated with carb cleaner until it started ticking. Thomas took a similar approach with a 9/16″ wrench that now lives in the crack of the bench seat.
It should be noted that as part of our combined 24-hour security and heat stroke management avoidance plan, Thomas has been working the night shift. It’s great, really. While I’m out for a morning run, I can stop by the foundry and catch up with him what happened over the third shift. If I don’t get around to it, there’s often enough evidence in the security system to piece the night’s events all together.
During this test ride, Thomas told me, the lights started to flake out and the dash illumination proved kaput. Small-scale stuff considering what we’ve become accustomed to dealing with. A trial parts store run came next. It was not successful. The Lark was Dead in the auto parts store parking lot with a fried battery and locked-up fuel pump. It was abandoned there. The store staff, generous in their pity, gave our guys a ride back to the factory in the bed of a truck.
Looking Ahead
If we look out over the breadcrumb trail laid before the Lark, we expect a new fuel pump (have one already), a battery (getting it today), and some electrical fettling. I don’t want to jinx us, but it seems like we might also tackle that new carpet install, dash, and package shelf by the end of the day.
Even in their half-running condition, I’d say for foundry standards, the two Studes are ready to officially join the Troutman fleet. We need to get some of our younger members some exposure to Studebaker motoring.