Tomorrow this truck is coming home with me, officially starting up my Studebaker body swap project (again). I decided that I need to follow through with my original plan as part of the healing process after the fire. It's a '95 single cab short bed with a 5.2L V8, and a manual transmission. No apparent accidents and the paint appears decent with the exception of the hood. The body will be up for sale once it gets removed from the chassis. None of the work will start until shop 2.0 is finished, which may or may not be by the end of this year. The insurance company is taking their sweet time just finishing the investigation. So five weeks later, and I am still restricted from entering the building or touching any of it.

 

Good deal!

 

 

She is officially home. Nice drive over the Carson Pass and the Sierra Nevada on a clear sunny day. Everything above the chassis, with the exception of the steering column and bench seat will be up for sale. The motor doesn't run, and I don't know why. But I won't be using it anyway. I didn't get more than a block or two of towing before I noticed the front of the bed was protruding out an inch on the left side, and inward on the right. After pulling over, some further inspection revealed that the bed was not fastened to the chassis! A quick stop at an auto parts store resolved that issue for the tow home. The body is pretty straight. The driver's door has some ripples near the back edge, but everything else looks dent free.

 

And you had to have the burnt building as a backdrop?

Looks good. Curious why the bed wasn't bolted down though..... That seems like more than a bit of an oversight on the part of the seller......

 

No matter how hard I concentrated, these two trucks refused to merge themselves. Oh, well... I guess I will have to do it myself.

 

Park them closer together??? Of course, you might end up with a selection of smaller trucks too......

 

Isn’t that the point?

 

I don’t recall. Was your first try at this a short cab?

 

Funny enough, I had conflicting information online. The chassis I did all the work to was an extended cag short bed - 124" wheel base. Yeah, I feel a bit stupid, but would have caught on eventually. I actually measured this one before I loaded it on the trailer. What a concept?