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The Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk (or GT Hawk), a sporty
coupe is a two or
four-seater car with a fixed roof and two doors. The
style is generally used for sportier models in a
manufacturer's range. In the 19th century, a coupé was a
carriage with two doors enclosing seating for two with
an exposed area on the front for a driver. |
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Car
Information:
Thanks to Bill, long time officer of The
Long Island Chapter of the Studebaker Driver's Club
this
Studebaker GT Hawk got new life about 15 years ago. The original
engine, which had 100,000+ miles on it and ran
fine, suddenly got a real bad crank bearing knock and
lost oil pressure. Amazingly, this didn't happen after
going thru the gears too hard or driving too fast, but
after a parade at 4MPH. This could have been an
expensive and time consuming repair but Bill happened to
have a virtually identical, close serial numbered (even
the same color) 1962
Studebaker GT Hawk low mileage parts car, which he so
kindly gave me-it was great timing. Yes the donor car
was a rust bucket from years of outside storage but with
only 50,000 miles on it- I was very happy to receive it.
The spark plugs in the donor car were so rusty I had to
hammer smaller impact sockets on them, even getting down
to 5/8". But after pulling the oil pan, was I
surprised, no rust and almost no gunk deposit. After
filling up with fresh oil, a distributor cam polish,
point filing, and switching to my original carburetor,
it was time to fire it up using an old lawnmower gas
tank with gravity feed. Oh what a smoke screen- what are
my neighbors going to say. Luckily I have nice
neighbors. Well I never believed in
those solvent "Motor Flushes" but I thought it might be
worth a try in this case and sure enough the smoking
problem solved. With the help of my boys we switched
engines( a no no for Corvette owners and their "matching
numbers, but on a Stude the numbers don't match anyway)
and that engine remains in the Hawk today.
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