Postwar Studebakers

imidazol97

imidazol97 said:

Time to post my orphan show photos from near strange Yellow Springs, OH, at Young's Jersey Dairy Farm.

This car had a model name on the owner sheet on windshield. It was a name used by another car brand at another time. I should have taken a photo of the sheet. I like the styling of these.

imidazol97

A local guy has a video of the cars at the show. He scans them and moves around and zooms in and out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BROr-snWdnw

The Studebaker row starts at about 8:00 minutes. I get nausea from the zooming and the distortion due to the too short focal length. (The regular guy does a great job of taking vids. Sometimes the editing is troubling.) go4rider on youtube

But I did get a picture of the chassis on the back of the flatbed truck.
Anyone know what vehicle this chassis could be?

uplanderguy

That '56 is a Sky Hawk.

uplanderguy

That chassis looks long to me, so I'd guess it's one of the 120.5 inch wheelbase cars....'53-64 coupes/Hawks, or '53-58 President Classic sedans.

Michaell

Someone on the FB Group "AI Automotive Art" posted these today. I thought y'all would get a kick out of a modern interpretation of a Studebaker Lark:

uplanderguy

I do see a thing or two that might remind me of a '59 or '60 Lark. Thanks for posting!

Michaell

It’s also got a bit of a Volvo Amazon vibe to the roofline .

fintail

That AI Lark sent me down a rabbit hole. I didn't find any AI retro rebirth fintails, but I found this, maybe relevant as it could have existed at the same time MB and Stude were in partnership - the 300SL sedan, has a presence, pretty amazing for AI:

Michaell

fintail said:

That AI Lark sent me down a rabbit hole. I didn't find any AI retro rebirth fintails, but I found this, maybe relevant as it could have existed at the same time MB and Stude were in partnership - the 300SL sedan, has a presence, pretty amazing for AI:

Now that I like!

thebean

Looks a little 80’s Maserati-ish to me, with the cabin set back. Still a good look.

thebean

Not to flog the proverbial deceased equine again, but I was wrong on what that 300SL sedan representation reminded me of. It was an 80’s Aston Martin Lagonda sedan. That revelation came to me in the middle of the night. For some odd reason, I like the look of this AM. Different.

uplanderguy

Wife is in a cleaning mode and brought some trim pieces I had taken off my old '63 Lark Daytona thirty years ago to replace with NOS, up from the basement. I'm going to the Studebaker Drivers' Club and Avanti Owners' Association national meets in Washington, PA in a couple weeks and I posted the parts for free online and have a taker I'll give them to, there.

One thing I always enjoyed about the NOS parts situation for '60's Studebakers (despite the old 'there are no parts for Studebakers', eye roll here), is getting stuff from the old Newman and Altman in South Bend, in the original boxes, as below.

The guy who is willing to take the old parts that came off the car probably really only wants the box, and I'd be OK with that.

ab348

“Endurance Built Products “ proved true for those!

uplanderguy

Stude and 'Benz pairing, not unusual...but with Jag?!

fintail

Never seen that pairing before. I wonder if that dealer went on to be a multi line import seller.

I am sure I have mentioned it before, parts availability is another area where Stude and MB have some similarity. I can still get mechanical parts for the fintail directly from the dealer (for a price) - other parts can be sporadic but every now and then some material shows up, MB seemed to know survival rates would be high enough to justify keeping some supply. MB having a "Classic Center" for old models helps too, I wonder if Stude would have the same had it survived.

uplanderguy

I think M-B, being a prestige brand AND an old-line company, is probably the only current car company out there that has all that stuff--which is absolutely terrific for owners.

Studebaker, in the last ten or so years of production, was always on the cusp of having no money--except for 1959, which was the Corporation's highest profit in its 107-year history.

That so many parts remained after production stopped, IMHO is because they were not a great-run company. They produced more parts than they could sell cars. That is great for the collector. I didn't know that when I bought my first Stude, but it was definitely a boon. In 1993, during a sheetmetal sale at Newman and Altman, I bought two new rear fenders, two doors, grille surround panel, rear panel (between taillights), and decklid--all NOS--for $700-odd. My restorer told me I could buy NOS less than he could repair what was on the car.

I think a common misconception out there, even among 'car guys', is that the Company filed bankruptcy and/or completely closed down in 1966. By then, Studebaker was a conglomerate. They only quit building cars.

Parts supply in South Bend was a division of Studebaker until mid-1972. It was then sold to local interests, mostly Newman and Altman, a former Stude/Packard/Edsel dealer who took on the Avanti II.

Corporate HQ remained in South Bend, in the old Administration Building, into the late '60's. That building was sold to the South Bend School Corporation in 1969 for $1. They used it for offices until the early '90's.

The last office in South Bend hung around until 1977, but by then was down to two female employees. They mostly handled retiree questions/issues.

uplanderguy