Hie again!
It has been a while since I visited this thread... There has been quite a lot of really nice spring weather here lately, so I have been pretty active outside on my spare time and forgot about this interesting post, unfortunately.
Allthough I am not the original poster, any measurements from other members will be interesting reading.
And thank you, Drew, for the tip about that machine shop moving. I'll try my luck with them again now.
A little Studebaker(coupe - Starlight/pillared coupe and Starliner/hardtop) history, just for fun:
I have a couple of books on Studebakers.
One of them only cover the beautifully shaped coupes of 1953 and 1954 and is called "Studebaker's Finest"(by John Bridges). For those inliners or others who would like to know more about those coupes that is a pretty comprehensive and good book.
The reason THE FRAMES were so thin/light had to do with the following fact:
In the early fifties Studebaker was still all about giving the customers economical cars - cars that for instance had pretty good gas milage.
One of the ways to achieve good gas mileage was, in addition to making "economical" engines and trannys(the first automatic overdrive came from Studebaker), to make the cars as light as possible.
In fact, the weight aspect was such a "big thing" for Studebaker that the design staff used the saying "Weight is the enemy" on a frequent basis, and there was even a plaque with that saying in the design directors office at a time.
Hence the production of the "Featherweight" frame that was used on the coupes, for instance.
The 1953 frame was originally even more "flimsy" than the 1954++ frames. It didn't have the extra crossmember that the '54 an later models got. That crossmember was a great improvement, and is available today for 1953 owners who would like to uphrade their frames.
This became a bit much...
Got carried away, sorry...
I would really like to fit an inline six in my Studebaker Starliner "hot rod" project sometime in a future. If I went with a Paxton(or similare) centrifugal supercharger set up, I could utilize a "carburetor bonnet" on top of the carb, and the air cleaning unit placed in conjuction with the supercharger. That way one would not have to worry about the air cleaner clearing the hood, or not, I guess.
