Do you know anyone who has modified the original front suspension, or is a swap the only way?
I am thinking of a late model front end swap or installing late model brakes and ball joints onto the original a-arms. Another thought was to install a late model strut and use the lower. Has anyone here made a swap of this kind onto a Stude?
Not exactly what you have in mind but food for thought --- I did the following front suspension conversion on a 1954 Studebaker Champion and ran a Chrysler Hemi in it on the street for several years. It worked flawlessly and was a pleasure to drive.
In 1965, I cut off the front frame on a 1958 Dodge just behind the cross member where the rear of the torsion bars mounted. It was a box tube frame about 3 x 4 in box as I recall. There is a place on the stock Studebaker frame where it kicks out under the drivers seat and then narrows back in, that if you cut the frame there, you can telescope a short section of the Studebaker rear frame inside the Dodge torsion bar front frame. Then weld up and gusset as necessary. (the big challenge is the stock Stude frame is very light weight metal, if in your shoes I would pitch it and replace with a proper scratch built square tube frame of reasonable section for racing.)
The torsion bars gave me full control over front ride height. Spring rates were acceptable for a heavy big block. The Chryser Hemi was a bolt in on the frame motor mounts as they were designed for that same engine transmission (torqueflight) configuration.
The car with that suspension was the most stable car I have ever driven in cross winds. During wind storms (Colorado Chinook wind storm with 90-100 mph gusts) I could drive one handed at 70-80 mph directly into the wind (air speed 160-180) while other cars were changing lanes due to the wind gusts.
Look around and see what is available in the Chrysler torsion bar front frames in your junk yards, you might find a near bolt in replacment. I did the original planning for the swap using plastic car models, as they accurately model the frame structure and you can quickly measure things up at home. On a 1:25 model you can use a mm ruler to measure inches directly over short distances (25.4 mm = 1 inch).
For the rear suspension I used Chrysler Imperial leaf springs and the built in tension traction bars they used on the old Imperial rear suspension. The front and rear spring mounts were trivial to fabricate, and located very nicely with the stock Studebaker rear spring front eye, for the rear eye I fabricated some of the inverted Ford style spring shackles. For steering I used the stock 58 Dodge power steering box as a manual box. It put the steering wheel in the stock location in the body as well.
There is a lot more modern hardware out there now, but that worked for me. I know they used the same basic torsion bar front suspension at least into the 1970's but on a unibody configuration. The sub frame for one of those might also work with proper fabrication.
Larry
