Ventilators

 Ventilators - AKA the little doors that let in fresh air!

So monitoring a Studebaker forum, as we tend to do, we found a post about where the ventilator door spring connects.

Of course we when out to the garage, opened the passenger side vent door and discovered we did not have a spring at all. We checked the drivers side and again no spring. Reviewing the parts catalog we found we were missing the screens as well. Lastly since we removed the Climatizer (AKA heater) we were missing the heater blank that the factory would have put in the passenger side if you ordered a vehicle without a Climatizer. (read as unicorn) While this was wayyyyy down the list of things to do it was in our heads and well things just went into motion. First things first, we removed the passenger side vent door and clean everything you can see.

Design a blank for the Climatizer opening.

This was done by: Hold a clean piece of paper against the opening on the fender well side Tracing the opening with a dirty finger Cut a set of scrap wood shapes to match outline Cut some aluminum slightly larger in scale (1/2" border) Clamped the aluminium between the wood blocks Beat the edges down 90 all the way around Drill a hole for the cross brace Attach

Now it was time to order the parts we need from one of the great Studebaker vendors (Thank to Frank Ambrogio for the Vendors Page).
note: we have our "go to" vendor, would it be "favoritism" to say the name?
Once the blank is installed paint everything with "Rusty Metal Primer" (actual product name):

And then paint it all again with flat black Rustoleum. Why flat black you ask? Because we thought it would look cool once the screen is in place.

We added the vent door gasket which just pulls the look together and "may" have a purpose!  Finally, the last step, was to add the new shiny new screen. (see that cool "mysterious" flat black back there...)

The drivers side was pretty much the same but without the heater blank.

It was pointed out to us on the Studebaker forum that the drivers side should have a screen on the interior, and yes it does.  We thought this was put in by the previous owner (gotta mention that guy) but no - it was original. It was also mentioned that Studebaker did not install the external vent screen on the drivers side even though they included the mounting tabs for one.  We think this looks way better with the screen and we are wayyyyy past being stock so it stays.

To the forum users - you are all jerks for putting this in motion but at the same time you are the best...