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"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
― Thomas A. Edison


So, anybody care to know 500 ways not to make an A-pillar for a 526?

I started building the pillar a while ago, and all told have roughly 30 hours into the design/engineering of a new one. Since my original wood is lost to history, I can only use the shell steel to remake the pieces. My original idea was to make the entire pillar out of one piece of ash. After much work, and a large scrap pile. I had a piece about 75-80% of what I wanted. Trouble is, the other 20% was just not going to happen. Yesterday, I turned the last piece into shapely firewood, and started over.

New approach: I am now using pine to prototype the pieces, (cheap and very soft). I am also breaking the pillar down into logical pieces. Between proper joinery, and modern glues, my new pieces will be as structually sound as original.

The result, after about 4 hours, (and another large scrap pile) I have a piece that is MUCH better than what I was trying to justify using before. It is already quite rigid, even with only the pine.

Now, back to the fray!

Have you asked the Studebaker National Museum archive collection, to see if they have a blueprint of your part?

http://studebakermuseum.org/p/archives-and-education/archive-collections

blueprint really wouldn't help. Although I do have a basic drawing from AACA. Hence, the design part of the comment. Basically, I am reverse engneering what they did. In many cases, I can figure out how they made it, but is not workable for a non assembly line reuild. I don't have the jiggs for assembly and fabrication. I do have the steel covers.

It's like building a foot, given a shoe, (albeit a shoe that is split in 3 or four pieces).

This may be a silly thought, but could you line the shells with something like plastic and pour a plaster cast of the shell? You could then use the cast to transfer measurements directly onto the hardwood. Or mayby line with saran wrap and fill the shell with modeling clay...
John

I'm guessing that you want this in order to have a fabricator make a door post from scratch. What if you were to talk to a machine shop that has CNC fabrication cabability? If a shop has the right equipment, knows how many pieces need to be stamped and welded together, and has all of the measurements, they can input the numbers into the equipment and then stand back as the equipment can cut a die set out of solid stock. Once you've got the die set(s), you can start looking for a firm that can stamp the pillar.

It wouldn't be cheap to do; but if there would be a market for that pillar among Packard enthusiasts perhaps you could eventually recoup the cost of having the die set designed and made by manufacturing door pillars and selling them to Packard fans.

The finished piece will be wood, and each car was hand fit. No method of automatation would match the original for cars made months apart by different crews. My method is proving quite successful thus far.

I was celebrating my "failures" not complaining, it is all part of the process. I now know a great deal more about my car's construction than most.

Normal procedure for producing wood framed bodies went like this. Working from blueprints or drawings the carpenters made all the pieces and fitted them together. When the frame was approved for production the frame was dismantled, all parts varnished and numbered with indelible ink. These parts were used as patterns and stored.

All frames would be identical at least, as close as they could get them. This was for bodies made in batches of 25, 50 or 100 and for mass produced bodies made in the thousands.

Unless yours was a one off the plans or blueprints should be very close to what was there originally.

The original parts were made on power equipment but nothing more sophisticated than what you might have at home in your garage. Table saw, band saw, and router.

The only time you have a failure is when you don't learn from it.