I recently bought a 1950 Studebaker ½ ton pickup from a dealer in Miami.  I had air conditioning installed when I got it.

I started watching Velocity, Discovery and History channels last fall during the elections because they didn’t have any political ads.  One of the programs featured the Miami dealer.

I would suggest that you bring along a competent mechanic when you buy from him.  He certainly doesn’t have any.

The truck made it to within 3 miles of my home and was towed the rest of the way.  The plugs were fouled due to a defective rotor in the distributor.

So far I’ve replaced the rotor, plugs and condenser.  The new points didn’t work, so I polished the old ones and put them back. The gas filter was plugged.  I had the tank flushed and relined; the radiator core, fuel gauge and brake light switch were replaced.  I converted the wiper motor from vacuum to electric.

Currently, I’m working on the brakes.  The right front was leaking.  When I pulled the brake drum I found that the shoe return spring was missing.  I pulled the left front drum to check on the size of the spring and found that the brake cylinder on that side only worked on the front shoe.    I’m amazed that it was able to stop.

When I got the truck, it had 11 ½ inch wide tires.  With no power steering, it was a b… to get around corners.

The tire on the left was what came with the car.  The tire on the right is what I have now.

It’s been a lot of fun to drive and work on.  Modern cars are so electronic that mechanics don’t fix them, they just replace parts until it works.