the 41 Studebaker comes home today

If a street rod is more inline to how you wish to use the car then you probably should before wasting another dollar on a quart of oil for the old six.
Just noting it would be a shame for you to go street rod solely because you thought you had to in order to go anywhere in it and expect to get there and back.
If you wanted sustained speeds from the car it wasn't designed for it will let go.
But if you drive it as it was meant to be you will find the old cars are as reliable or more
so than a modern car in my experience.
They can be very easy to keep going because everything is simple,
mechanical like a tractor. It predates even solid state electronics. Everything is
mechanically switched.
Once you work on and drive a car that is engineered in this manor you will question the need for what the modern automobile has become.
If they were only a bit faster. In goes the v8.
All the better if left a manual trans. It could be fun.