2009 WRSDC Winter Seminar

A big thank you to Terry and Marcia Frye for hosting the WRSDC Winter Seminar. It was a beautiful day and looked like attendance was at least 20 members.

The first presentation was by Jim Pepper aided by Terry Frye. They were talking about a device called RediRad. It fits under your dash out of sight and patched into the antenna cable with plug-ins to your radio. Then you can plug it into your various player devices and it plays through your speakers. It works for portable CD, cassette, MP3, FM or even satel- lite radio. Keep in mind if your system is mono, that’s what it will stay. There is an ad in the March Turning wheels on page 60.

Buzz Beckman reminded all of the upcoming WRSDC Summer Picnic to be held at Beckman Mill in glorious Beloit, WI and supplied information about Beckman Mill and joining the Antique Studebaker Club. Then Buzz gave us a very fine demonstration on pinstriping wheels. Quite interesting and informative. Ron Paap and Don Berg gave it a try which proved it worked for left and right handed people!!

Then came lunch. Another fine buffet set up by the Frye’s.

John Koebl from Oshkosh gave a a tech tip on contact points in our Studebaker distributors. Besides adjusting and aligning the points, he reminded us that we should check the spring tension on the points. High rpm point bounce can be prevented by such a simple check and adjustment. Plus a short discussion of John’s Studebaker powered Corvette.

Jim Pepper gave a detailed description on improving air flow through our Studebaker engines by just making mi- nor changes to the castings. From matching our manifold ports by removing restrictions to smoothing out corners and flashing in the castings. Also discussed was the importance multi-angle valve refacing and piston to head quench clearance for maximum performance. Very informative, indeed.

For those with pre-war Studebakers with wood grain on metal on the dash and window frames, Terry Frye has decide to venture into this area. Bringing back these areas to like new makes a big difference when presenting these vehicles at shows, cruise-ins or just plain Sunday outings.