Finally got some color on the 56 Studebaker Power Hawk

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harrisonm

harrisonm

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I have been helping my friend Mark restore his 56 Studebaker Power Hawk for about five years now. It takes a while when you can only work a few hours here and a few hours there, but he’s retired now. We finally got some color on it. The car is totally ready to paint. We were going to paint the back of the hood, a few medium size pieces, and both doors today, but I was using a brand new gun and didn’t have it adjusted right and got few runs in the sealer. Once I got it adjusted properly everything went fine after that. Within a month, we should have everything painted including 1 million small pieces. I’ll post a few more pictures later.

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That's a one year only hood. Later ones fit, but the scoop is different.

The corners are weak. Kits are available to reinforce them. Without them, you have to be really careful when raising the hood or you'll bend the corners. Pull it forward, then raise it up.

The hood latch is also weak and had better be adjusted right. No safety catch. They are bad about flying up. Mine did. Plus it had already flown up once before I got the car. It was too far gone to fix, so I had to find another one, which took a while. As a safety measure, I drilled a hole in the cone part of the latch to put a hairpin clip in. That hopefully will take care of that problem.

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mopar head said:
What did he decide on interior colors?
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It's a black and either white or very light gray in a kind of houndstooth pattern. There is a company that sources the material and makes the seat covers and door panels.
33IMP said:
Looks great! Was it originally red?
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Yes. Mark is pretty firm on painting cars the original colors. The roof will be white, and the rest is the red with a hint of orange.
 
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65 Cuda 340 said:
That's a one year only hood. Later ones fit, but the scoop is different.

The corners are weak. Kits are available to reinforce them. Without them, you have to be really careful when raising the hood or you'll bend the corners. Pull it forward, then raise it up.

The hood latch is also weak and had better be adjusted right. No safety catch. They are bad about flying up. Mine did. Plus it had already flown up once before I got the car. It was too far gone to fix, so I had to find another one, which took a while. As a safety measure, I drilled a hole in the cone part of the latch to put a hairpin clip in. That hopefully will take care of that problem.

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It is interesting you mentioned the hood. Yes, they are weak in the rear corners. They are weak because they have NO bracing except around the outside edge. That's right. The hood is a giant sheet of 16 or 18 gauge stamped sheet metal without any bracing. They are easily distorted and bent. As for the weak corners; that is due to the weird hinge setup. To open the hood, you pop it open, lift it a few inches, pull it out an inch or so and then lift up on it. To close it, you close it down most of the way, push it in about an inch or so and then close it the rest of the way. If you push it down the rest of the way without pushing it inward the hinges will hang up and bend the back corners if the hood. We DID install the bracing kit you are talking about. It was a pain in the butt.
 
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