All the Chevy and Studebaker trim has been sanded and some primed and painted. My shop is too cold for painting now so I will have to wait for the first warm days of spring to finish the job.
So on to servicing the Commander – tire rotation, grease and oil.
My oil of choice is the local Canadian Tire brand. It is 10W30 high mileage for older engines – it is supposed to contain some zinc and phosphorus. To be sure I add some Riselone ZDDP additive – one bottle per oil change.
I normally use STP which apparently has enough ZDDP for an oil change, but my engine is already running higher than normal oil pressure so I don’t want to make it worse. The pressure relief valve spring must be a little to stiff. I installed a new spring when I built the engine.
Next job is to do over the rear doors. I will repair the dents and then prime and paint with satin black until it gets its paint job.
The rear doors are a bit of a pain to remove. In the end I had to unbolt the front seat, move it forward, remove the door post panel and then unscrew the hinges. There are ten screws on the post and on the door and two were missing – one from the top inner that only had two to begin with. Didn’t find any rattling around so they must have not been fitted at the factory – maybe it was closing time on Friday or maybe assembly man was keen to get off for coffee and the car moved down the line without the two last screws.
Next: more Studebaker work before I tackle the dash work on the Chevy.