Studebaker Progress

I also made time to address some of the interior issues created by the 5.3/T56 6 speed swap. The 6 speed transmission has two overdrives and it is huge. I had to cut away a big section of the transmission tunnel in the car just to get the transmission in correct place. In this installment,, I made a new transmission tunnel and a removeable cover for the shifter. Then, I modified the seat frame to clear the shifter. Here's what it looked like.

By the time the transmission was finally in pace, the stock tunnel looked like this. I had to remove a lot of it.

I trimmed the tunnel into a shape that was more patch friendly, then I made these two patches from 18 gauge steel sheet. The top half has a pretty complex crown rolled into it, I made this by rolling the sheet in an english wheel and then fitting the patch very tightly. The smaller piece behind the shifter I just bent by hand to fit.

Here's the other side, you can see the crown in the top piece. It bends in both directions, see it?

I also made this removeable cover for the shifter. It has a pretty unique shape to it and is attached to the transmission tunnel with dzus quick release fasteners. I made the cover from several small pieces in order to get the shape correct, it's not symmetrical and the shifter is off to the drivers side slightly. It's tack welded here, it will be finish welded when I'm done.

I really wanted to use the stock 60/40 split bench seat but it was right on top of the new shifter! I cheated the seat back a little by moving the mounting locations  in the floor, and I also modified the lower cushion with a little notch to clear the shifter throws. I heated the front bow with a torch and bent it back, then I shortened the stock retaining rod and clip so it will have a stock appearing line when it's upholstered.