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1937 Studebaker

This is a 1937 Studebaker J5 Coupe Express pickup truck, owned and built by Jeff Rice of Ocala, Florida. The body is all stock with the exception of the bed cover, sun visor, and tail lights off a 1937 Studebaker Dictator passenger car. The bed cover is custom made from aluminum and is held up by gas struts.


This 350 V8 "McKinnon" engine (actually a GM V8), has a pair of custom home built valve cover adapters to put a set of cast aluminum Studebaker valve covers on there. It has an AFB carburetor, an HEI distributor with custom coil and cap, and it hooks to a Turbo 350 transmission, and a narrowed Ford 9" differential with Moser axles. All brackets and billet pieces were made in Jeff's one man shop.


The interior includes basic vertical rib grey panels, AutoMeter gauges, and a custom home machined billet column mount that holds the cruise control panel and the fog light switch. The electric window switches are from Hotronics, and the electric windows and wiper assembly are from Specialty Power Windows.


The front clip is off a Camaro, and includes Fatman Fabrications narrowed tubular a-arms, and front disc brakes. The smoothie wheels are from Wheel Vintiques.


Jeff found this Studebaker in the woods in Maine. You can see many more photos of this project on Jeff's website at http://community.webshots.com/user/deepnhock.

This is the second Studebaker we've featured as Hot Rod of the Week here on Hotrodders.com. You can check out the other one here.

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