1930 Dictator Coupe with a 259

[Thunderbolt1930]

Hello everyone, new to the group.

I live in Southeast Washington and I got my hands on a rusty shell of a 1930 Dictator in Northern Washington state a few years ago. No frame and only a bit of wood left inside, the car had obviously been through a fire at some point in its life. The left side of the car was pretty bad and one door had been ran over and the other looks like the car was drug out of a canyon with a cable wrapped around the top of the door.

I worked out all of the heat crumples, made some patch panels and just finished the last piece of lower sheet metal work on it by building a left rear quarter panel. I still have not done anything to the top, but plan to when it’s off of the frame jig. I have replaced all of the wood with sheet metal and along with a custom built frame I am getting close to a roller.

I got my hands on a running 259 that’s needs rebuilt, and it came with it a 289 crank, a McCulloch Supercharger in great shape, a sweet Edmonds double two barrel manifold and two Stromberg WW carbs with 90 degree tops. It is a very cool motor and I can’t wait to see it running it in the Dictator. I am looking to have someone line-bore the mains and bore the cylinders for bigger pistons. I am planning to run the supercharger 1:1 and leave the pulley fixed. At least that is my plan now.

I rebuilt a T5 transmission to put behind a different motor but now that I have the Studebaker motor I plan to adapt it to go behind it. I have a new Winters V8 Quickchange in the chassis and am running a three link setup with Ridetech coil overs. I am designing a torsion bar front suspension that will have the bars run parallel to the frame, yes, it’s not typical nor everyone’s cup of tea.

That’s what I am building and I have spent a lot of time getting where I am and have focused on craftsmanship and making something that will showcase the beautiful little coupe. The way the rear of the car has flairs where the fenders attach and the lower section below the deck lid is curved gives it some shape not found in other fender-less coupes of the same vintage.

I am also in need of a deck lid if anyone has that stashed in their unicorn barn.

Thanks for the add and I will continue the read all the great stuff here. My iPhone photos are too big to upload, I will have to figure that out.

Thanks,
Lynn
West Richland, Wa

[Champion V8]

Really interesting!!! Are you gonna race it or (like me) just tease other people in trafic?

[shifter44]

Glad to see you here . Please do keep us informed . I'm very glad that you chose to use the Studebaker engine .
With the 289 crank , (and the proper 289 pistons ) , you would have a 289 now .

In the State of Washington , Jack Vines (aka Packard V8 on the forums ), is capable of doing whatever engine work that you need .
He is in the Spokane area .

Picture-wise , if you join a service such as Flickr , you can upload to them ( they'll show on your own page ) , and then you can hit the Share button and post them here without worrying about size .
The basic membership is free .

https://www.flickr.com/

[Thunderbolt1930]

I just plan to tease people in traffic, haha, make some noise and roll with the local hot rod crews.

Thanks for the kind words. I will work on the picture issue, didn’t sound too difficult.

I have reached out to Jack, I bet he a busy. I originally had ran across a Ford 5.0 roller motor and was going to run a carb setup on it, but some friends had an intervention of sorts, haha. Very excited.

[PackardV8]

That will be a fun project when on the road. The heads are the key to Studebaker performance. Decide how much you want to spend and we'll help as needed.

It's seldom a Studebaker block requires line boring. We can do that if necessary, but most only require line honing and we can also do that for you.

Boring is standard procedure. I'd recommend .060" and diamond honing.

Square decking the block is also recommended.

We've got three Studebaker cam grinds on the shelf.

Decide what you want and when and let us know.

jack vines

[Thunderbolt1930]

Thanks Jack, I look forward to working with you, I will get ahold of you. As usual, the wallet is the key.

[Thunderbolt1930]

Here are a couple of pictures of the car.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/195282139 ... res/1f5Vdz

Fist time navigating the Flickr app.

If the pictures are accessible to you the engine is shown how I bought it.

A couple of pictures of the Dictator it started as a shell and the rest has been from scratch.

Thanks,
Lynn

[r1lark]

Great looking car Lynn! Thanks for sharing, looking forward to following your progress.

[Champion V8]

Mighty cool! & that dropped front axel... I hope you're not gonna chop the top, it's way cool & more old fashion the way it is...

[fastjohn]

I would install the 259 and get it running. You may find that it has enough power for your car and your needs. You can always upgrade at a later date if you feel the need. The 5 speed should be great. It will enable you to run low gears in the rear and still be able to cruise the highways.

[Champion V8]

I agree on that, if you're on youtube there's a group called "Studebaker power team" where I've posted a short video when I'm starting my friends car that has a 259 with 2-barrel carb, if you can take a look at that I think you'll like it...