Postwar Studebakers

uplanderguy

That car looks pretty darn authentic, and looks like it's sitting nice at all four corners. The red wheels were an owner 'upgrade' at some point, but very minor of course. I can see why those cars sold well in '59; the Rambler American was basically the Nash Rambler of '50 with full wheel openings, and even the bigger Rambler had Eastern-bloc styling to my eyes, LOL!
BTW, at second look, that's a '60 by the "Lark VIII" front fender nameplates. '59's said "Studebaker" there.

uplanderguy

Extra points for the accessory Door Handle Guards being installed correctly. I bet half of the cars I see with them, even high-buck restorations, have them installed upside-down.

benjaminh

uplanderguy

That Predictor is pretty outlandish, but cool in its own way--show car, of course. I know a Packard person or two who's not happy it's in the Studebaker National Museum, but like a lot of stuff, after Packard in Detroit ceased to exist, it made its way to South Bend where Studebaker kept it. It does run.

benjaminh

I thought this car was a Chrysler Airflow, but....

benjaminh

I went for a bike ride in South Bend before we went to the museum. It's a very nice city with pleasant parks and good bike paths along the river. The top left, I confess, has been "colorized" by google. The bottom left image is of South Bend's Vietnam War memorial.

uplanderguy

Old industrial city for sure. Notre Dame being there is a real plus. Some people say it's never recovered from the loss of Studebaker; others say it rebounded very quickly. It's the only place I ever go where everyone knows what a Studebaker is, LOL. Did you go to the Italian restaurant you'd mentioned? Honest assessment is OK. Want to know to include it on my 'list' or not.

Michaell

I'm pretty sure I have a cousin who lives in South Bend, or close by.

benjaminh

Went to the Italian place the next day for lunch. The lasagna was okay, but the pastries (which we didn't try), looked better.

benjaminh

uplanderguy

My '66 Cruiser is the same color as the last one built that's in the museum. Mine is faded a good bit, plus when the one in the museum was 'restored' the color isn't an exact match to new. You got pretty close to the inside of the red '64 that was the last South Bend production line car. I am infatuated with that car.
I had posted the story some years back, but long story short...that car was ordered for a customer at Boyer Bros. Studebaker in PA, and Studebaker took a car in inventory and added and subtracted options to fill the order for the dealer, so that the last car could be kept....without the dealer ever knowing the story. Someone visiting the museum saw that repro window sticker (the original had been removed and was with the car but was torn), and knew Bob Boyer, the dealer! He was told about the car and took the bus to South Bend maybe 15 years ago, came in to the museum and said, "I heard you have my car!". He was photographed with it and it was in the South Bend paper. He was not allowed to sit in the car, which I get, but a bit sad anyway. I have heard that that car is popular to be inspected up-close by those restoring similar cars, as it is indeed a NOS Studebaker, and in a good color and well-equipped, to add to its provenance.
Although the dash pad looks warped (I believe the car hadn't always had excellent storage over the years), I like that straightforward panel; full gauges, nothing tacked onto a steering wheel or on top of the dash, no goofy shapes; the lack of radio disguised better than on most cars of that time.
The red car was on Huntley and Brinkley that night it was built, although Studebaker had said 'no photos' of the last car.

fintail

Passed by the Lark today on foot, interior is a brown or burgundy.

benjaminh

uplanderguy

There is still some decaying prototype stuff out in the center of the old Proving Ground track, which is now owned by Navistar. They would never tell you where the 'graveyard' was, just that it still existed. Well, in the age of aerial photography, it was shown a decade or so ago that the prototypes were in the center of the oval! That woody wagon was pulled out of there in 1980.
At a couple international meets, the oval was opened to Studebakers which was just absolutely great fun. It's a three-mile oval, banked. Out Route 2, about 15 miles west of town.

uplanderguy

Here's the tree sign visible from the air at the Proving Ground....over 2000 feet long and planted in the thirties, and still there:

benjaminh

uplanderguy

That '53 is sublime. Too bad it's a six....it lacks the lovely, delicate V8 emblem on the quarters, replaced by the "S" emblem on the six.

uplanderguy

That yellow '73 Mustang convertible is a low-mileage (under 20K IIRC) example owned by my good friend Bob P. He loaned it to the museum for their '70's display.

imidazol97

Hawk for sale discussion in another topic.

https://forums.edmunds.com/discussion/comment/6103241/#Comment_6103241

fintail

Posted in a local history group, ad in a 1961 Rose Bowl program:

uplanderguy

That car is "Flamingo", a one-year-only color supposedly available only on Hawks and convertibles for '61.
A friend seven miles up the road has had a white '61 convertible for almost 30 years.
For styling, the '61 is my least-favorite Lark, with the one-year raised-up side moldings, but there were some mechanical improvements for '61, probably especially that the six became OHV that year.

uplanderguy

Came across this dealer ad from Lafayette, IN, home of Purdue. This dealer sure was confident about the '65 line. This is absolutely the only ad I've ever seen call the '65 and '66 engines "Chevrolet". They were of course of Chevrolet design, and were manufactured in Canada by a division of GM called 'McKinnon Industries'. They were used in trucks and Canadian Pontiacs supposedly, and an 'expert' says they have the Power Pack heads. I'm sure that's what GM would sell Studebaker and not that Studebaker insisted on that feature.
I sent this ad to a friend who went to Purdue starting in the fall of '66. He is a lifelong Stude fan and I asked if he recalled this dealer. He says he clearly remembers it, as a friend of his bought a new '68 AMX there, 290 4-speed, since they had acquired an AMC franchise after Studebaker. At that time the owner's wife was still driving her very nice red '62 Lark Regal convertible, six with automatic per my friend.

fintail

Interesting that "Canada built" was also a selling line (not knocking Canada, just seems odd given the ceaseless 'USA! USA!' of American culture.

explorerx4

There is some Studebaker stuff about 18 minutes into this 'Barn Find Hunter' episode, although I enjoyed the whole thing.
The video is shot in Davidson, NC.
When my nephew played football in the same league as Davidson, they brought a tractor trailer with them which had their equipment and an awesome tailgating setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYq2rrtnB6w

uplanderguy

Out running errands before it gets too hot.

uplanderguy

Nice-looking '63 Lark Regal four-door sedan on BaT. This was the best-selling Studebaker model in '63. I like the formal profile of it, and the Stude that reminds me most of a M-B is a four-door '63. Blue Mist was a good color that year too. That the underhood area has been painted black is bothersome, and on a lesser note, it has '62 taillights ('63's are available for $65 each). I bet someone will get a nice Lark for not a ton of money with this one.


https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1963-studebaker-lark-2/

sda

Looks nice and I like the color. It is a 1963 and current bid is $1963, lol.

fintail

Good comment on that car right after uplanderguy posted it:

"Sad to see Studebaker go out of business. With the no nonsense styling, full gauges, smaller V8 engines and most of all that right sizing Studie could have become the American Mercedes. Just an independent rear suspension and upgraded interior would have done it. This is a great example from a marque that I miss"

uplanderguy

....agree (of course!). And if that poster hasn't seen the Cruiser's optional broadcloth interior, he might even walk back his 'upgraded interior' comment!

fintail

I always thought of prewar Packards as kind of an American (vintage/classic era) MB, especially as they also had a traditional grille shape used for decades. That merged into Stude, then Stude used a similar recipe, maybe with less bleeding edge engineering. I suppose that 63 really is close to an American fintail, probably similar size, subtle-for-the-era style.

uplanderguy

I like that that car could have been had with a blower, disc brakes, and sunroof. Few were, but still...all that stuff was available on even the low-line models.

fintail

Put all that on one along with the fancier cloth interior, and it was getting even closer to a MB (the supercharged model maybe being the same relative to the rest as a fuel injected MB).

uplanderguy

The blue '63 Lark sedan sold for $8,080.

ab348

The current issue of Collectible Automobile has a photo feature on a 1964 Studebaker convertible, blue inside and out, very handsome. Can't find any pics of it online.

uplanderguy

Thanks, I'll have to check that out.

uplanderguy

A couple OH Stude friends went to MN this weekend and the one bought this original '59 Silver Hawk and is bringing it home. I used to not care for finned Hawks, but then I thought, "What other domestic '59 two-door sedan looks any sleeker?". Finding nice originals is hard, of course. Nice find.

fintail

I think by 59 that design would have looked more current with thinner pillars/as a hardtop.

ab348

Yes, I was just going to say that the thick window frames/door pillars killed the graceful nature of the design.

uplanderguy

There was some talk of there being no Hawk for '59; all the resources being used for the Lark, but dealers complained. The best-selling Hawk model the year before was the Silver Hawk, so that became the only remaining Hawk model in '59. They didn't build a single Hawk in '60 until February.

I'm glad the Hawk never got the trend of a wraparound windshield.

imidazol97

The hardtop concept wasn't as popular in the rural area where I grew up as elsewhere. I can
understand people's buying the coupe model over the model with no pillar.
But it doesn't look as good by a long shot on that body.

I went to a Wiki page to try to figure out the various names on Hawks and to see why Silver Hawk was the only one in 1959. It's a maze of models varying from year-to-year. I'll look at the very few Hawks that show up at car shows/cruise-ins with an appreciative eye now. The only thing rarer is 1960 Fords.

uplanderguy

Only 7,788 1959 Hawks built (all 'Silver Hawks'). The only later Hawk that sold better was the 1962 Gran Turismo Hawk with 9,335 units.

fintail

1964 price list from "Mercedes-Benz Sales, Inc", note South Bend is a POE, I think per what uplanderguy has said, this was at the end of the heavy MB-Stude relationship:

uplanderguy

The Stude-MB agreement was suspended in 1965. Supposedly Studebaker wanted it to end at that time and M-B didn't, which is almost hard to believe. Studebaker had profitable non-automotive divisions by that time and wanted out of building and selling cars.

Ironically, Saturday I was at my hometown's Heritage Days Super Cruise (filmed by Motor Trend TV for their 'Lokar Car Show' series) and was talking a good bit with the local dealer's chief mechanic, who worked at the dealership from '49-66. He reiterated that he was sent to NYC for Mercedes service training for a week there, week home, week there, etc. He would bring a M-B back to Greenville to be sold.

He said at the time that Pennsylvania did not allow the yellow taillight lenses so when the car was back in PA, he'd have to remove the lens, and as he said, "dye" it red. I thought that was interesting.

uplanderguy

My late dealer friend's son was in town for the show. His Mom passed in May and he found these couple trinkets and gave them to me--which I love.

uplanderguy

Also fin, not more than a few months ago, my dealer friend's wife had told me she had driven a 'Benz back from the port at Baltimore for their dealership.

uplanderguy

Two of the six Studes at the show Saturday. '64 Daytona convertible, one of 703, and '37 coupe. The '64 is a four-speed.

explorerx4

Saw this in Grayling MI last week.

uplanderguy

I always liked that green on those postwar Stude pickups. Thanks for posting.

imidazol97

Ditto.

So many of the older Studebaker pickups I see at cruise ins or shows have been butchered or modified in some way that ruins them for me. This one looks to have whels that are same color as grill.

Was that original?

uplanderguy

I think it was, but not certain. That basic pickup style was built from '49-59 and there were always little changes through the years.