The Kat Jones Studebaker Project: The Can-Do Hot Rodder

Kasia “Kat” Jones loves hot rods. Always has. And when she got around to building her own cars, the Buffalo, New York resident went in with guns blazing—and no experience to speak of.

But that didn’t faze Kat one bit. With some help from fiancé Jim Gaczewski she learned to weld, build engines, do bodywork, stitch up interiors, plumb fuel systems, and other skills working on her first project, a 1950 Chevy Fleetline. Turned out pretty nice, too.

Kat recently sold the Chevy and dove into a new build, a 1954 Studebaker Commander. We like her can-do attitude and figured you would too, so Kat’s going to tell her story and prove that anyone that loves cars and really wants to learn can build a nice hot rod on a budget.

The floor is yours, Ms. Jones.

I’ve always been someone who loves to create and loves cars. I had a lifelong dream to have a car I built myself. When I started my first project, I had no experience working on cars, nor did I have a fancy shop to work in. But if I can build a cool car in my 1 ½ car garage in the frozen tundra of Buffalo, New York, you can too. All it takes is the desire to learn and the willingness to do the work.

A little history. I got my first hot rod three years ago, a 1950 Chevy Fleetline four-door with a 5.3L LS engine and air ride. I named him Mel, and quickly learned she was a mess. The things that were slapped together were scary to say the least—an electrical system made from household wiring, a body not bolted to the frame, and a motor that would not run correctly. You know, an Ebay 'special'.

That ended up being a good thing. I learned how to do—and how not to do—everything. Fuel systems, brakes, welding, metal work, interior, even pinstriping, I did it.

I build my cars to be driven, and I drove Mel everywhere. We went to Washington, D.C. for the Hot Wheels Legends tour (they did a whole video with me), the Ohio Rockabilly Ruckus where it won for Best Bagged Ride, and the NSRA Syracuse  Nationals where I received a Dirty Dozen builders award—the first woman to ever win one. Eventually it was time for a new project, so Mel left me for a new owner in Texas.

That brings me to my 1954 Studebaker Commander. It took about six months to find the car, but was worth the search. The Studebaker—or Stew, as I named it—was a 10-year stalled project with a Mustang II front suspension. What sold me was the very nice body—the underside and frame were blasted and primed. It pays to buy the best car you can afford.

One question I see on the forums is “How do you afford this?” It’s simple—you save. Some weeks I put away 100 bucks, other weeks it was 20. You go to every swap meet. You make build lists. You rewrite the build lists. And you ask a lot of questions. The one thing that holds true is the fact that car people help other car people. I could not do what I do without help and advice from people who’ve been there.

The Teardown
I found Stew in a little Ohio town, not far from Summit Racing in fact. He came with a ton of parts in boxes, so I set about doing an inventory to see what I needed, what was missing, and what I might have to make myself. Turned out I was missing parts that were included in the purchase, which meant a trip back to Ohio to retrieve them.

The Studebaker came with a 350 cubic inch small block of unknown condition that came out of a 1981 Corvette. I tore into the engine, checking for wear and any catastrophic parts failures. Fortunately everything looked good, so I cleaned the engine, installed a new oil pump and timing chain, and resealed it with new gaskets.

The Turbo 350C automatic transmission was another fun project. I installed a shift kit—not once, not twice, but three times. It’s not that I can’t follow instructions. It was more that the instructions really lacked details. So it was off to the Internet to find some help. I found a video that showed me what I needed to know, which made quick work of that upgrade.

As I write this, I am in the process of preparing the frame for paint. The underside of this car had been undercoated already and really is beautiful. Preparing a frame is all about how much time and effort you want to put into it. Since Stew is in such good shape, I am carefully grinding and cleaning the frame in preparation for some lovely paint.

I also sent out the front fenders and bumpers to be blasted. I won’t tell you everything I found quite yet, but I will say the fenders will provide many lessons in metal work. I’ll show you all that in my next installment.