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Postwar Studebakers

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Comments

  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited December 2011
    The R1 Avanti discussed above did sell for $25K.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited December 2011
    111 cars built on 12/20/63 in South Bend. Here's a link again, of the last Lark-type...a lovely car I think. I'd proudly park next to the same year Chevy II, Falcon, or Valiant if I owned it, and far rarer:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/whenlostin/4329539354/
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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited December 2011
    They could have built that many cars in less than an hour and one half because they could produce them at 80 per hour. Here is the same car in July 2002 at the Studebaker International meet and what I saw right after that when I stopped by the final assembly plant where it was built.. That was a day to remember.
    image
    image
    Here is a good site to tour the factory and museum today.
    http://wiki.worldflicks.org/former_studebaker_auto_plant.html
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    Final assembly was right where the big green open area is in the center of that overhead shot.
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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited December 2011
    Final assembly was right where the big green open area is in the center of that overhead shot.

    I agree. I posted a slide show here earlier that shows the buildings being demolished, but I did not want to post it again. Last I heard the foundry was being demolished. It would have been gone long ago if there was not so much asbestos in it, which made demolition very expensive.

    Most of the major buildings were was built during the 1920s when mass production of autos was well established and they planned an annual production capacity of 250-300 thousand units which would have served Studebaker well IF they could have sold half that many cars. They
    were often called antiquated, but they were actually second-generation production facilities.

    Studebaker was able to build new buildings because they had a few fires that destroyed many of the older buildings. The Packard production facilities would have been much better off if they had a few fires before the 1920s to clear out some of the older buildings and if they kept their own body plant. Studebaker body plant shown below and they also made their interiors there. I hope that building is preserved. The water tank is already gone.
    image
    image
    image
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    Great pics, thanks for posting. I've been past those spots many times. Is that your Dad or grandfather in the last picture?
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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    The man in the red jacket is my father who only worked at Studebaker a short time. I used the picture because I liked it and because he took me to the factory and museum the same day I took the other picture of the body plant by Union Station.

    I know you have seen this at the Studebaker forum, but I like the two images below very much. One is my grandfather receiving his 30-year service pin in 1951 and the other is him steering a Lark at the loading dock. It is interesting to see Larks loaded in box cars that were modified to
    carry cars. Auto carrier cars that carried larger number of cars arrived shortly thereafter.
    imageimage
  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,675
    The photos are really interesting. Do you have higher pixel count versions of the two showing parking lots? There's a discussion topic here identifying cars in older pictures. It would be interesting to see what they were.

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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited December 2011
    The image by the loading docks can be purchased as a print from Studebaker International or from the Studebaker Museum web site. I made the image using a digital camera from the print because the scanner was showing grainy lines.

    I have images that are larger, but I reduce them before I post here because I do not want to take up too much space. Reduction makes the images sharper too.

    I am not certain what you are asking about the parking lots. There are many images of Studebakers being shipped from the shipping lots, including hundreds of Studebaker trucks awaiting shipment to the Soviet Union during WWII but few people at the time thought that the employee parking lots were worth of making photos. They just happened to be in the photo when the plant was closing.

    In 1952 Studebaker made a very good movie called A Family of Craftsmen that is the story of an extended large family that worked at Studebaker. That has many nice factory scenes and is available in DVD. Other movies are available too, but I stated the one I like the best.
  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited December 2011
    Here are some Studebaker DVDs and videos. https://studebakermuseum.org/store/books-and-videos/historical-videos

    Family of Craftsman and Beyond a Promise were made in 1952 to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Studebaker’s founding in 1852 as a blacksmith shop. The movies end with the announcement of the 1953 Lowey coupes to begin Studebaker’s second century. They are very similar and have factory scenes.

    The Studebaker Story is a Hollywood production stating the same actor who played Perry White in the Superman TV show as JM Studebaker. There is not much (if any) original factory scenes in it. It is in color, but it is a movie with actors of little historical value. There is a nice scene at the end of a 1953 Studebaker being driven on a Hollywood set with the fake scenes in the background.

    Partnership of Faith was made around 1948 and I used part of it here at the bottom of the page because it is about workers who work at Studebaker as a career and because it explains the the images of my Grandfather getting his 30-year service pin. http://stude.net/craftsmen.html I have not figured out how to post audio files here.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    After 114 continuous years of vehicle production in South Bend, Indiana:

    http://www.barthworks.com/cars/crawford/photos/64avantig.jpg
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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    I prefer to remember the good old days from the first pictures I took at the first Studebaker Drivers Club Meets I attended in South Bend in 1968-69 when the entire factory was still there. I wish I had a better camera than a Kodak Instamatic.

    image
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited January 2012
    I've heard there was still a lot of anti-Studebaker sentiment in town at that national meet, for shutting down. Since I've been there for big meets (1988 and later), townsfolk always seem happy to have Studebaker people in town and visiting.
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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    I never experienced anti-Studebaker sentiment from the people in South Bend. In the slide show I posted from 1968-69, we were getting lined up to drive out Western Avenue to the proving grounds and there were a lot of people along the route to watch the parade which had a police escort and moved quite slowly. Quite a few of them recognized my grandfather in my car. It was like driving the mayor.

    There was also a documentary called "Less Than They Promised" which was a critical review of Studebaker in South Bend. They visited some of the Bokon Family, who was the family featured in the movie Family of Craftsmen released in 1952. They had a family reunion, but they said nice things about Studebaker too, as did my Uncle Walter who kept working at the engine plant until June 1964, and did not get a full pension.

    Everyone seemed to realize that Studebaker gave it a good try but things did not work out. At then end, Bendix employed more people in South Bend than Studebaker did. The factory was staffed about 1/3 of capacity and average employee age was was over 50 years old. I believe the actual figure was 54 years old.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    A friend of mine was at that meet with his '63 Gran Turismo Hawk. He said an old guy bumped him from behind, then after they spoke, tried to drive off. My friend reached in and turned the Big Three car, off. A cop came and my friend told him the story and he said back, "What's the big deal? It's only an old Studebaker". Sheesh.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    ..3/4 ton (I typically prefer the 1/2 ton, but...)--this is such an original-looking truck. Except for width, I always thought the feature lines and wheel openings of the Dodge bed actually matched the Studebaker cab better than the Dodge cab of '59-60! Everyone wanted to be able to lay a 4' x 8' piece of plywood flat in a truck bed so Stude offered the old Dodge bed (with revised tailgate and front panel) as well as their old double-walled box which looked nice because of atypical lack of rolled-edge at the top.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/62-STUDEBAKER-CHAMP-RESTORED-CALIFORNIA-TRUCK-V8-- SOLID-ORIGINAL-BEAUTIFUL-/220926011985?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3370376a51

    I see a bit of the '94 Dodge truck concept in the Champ's big center grille. I do believe the grilles were all chrome and not just the edge as in the one for sale. Still, I like it a lot. A friend has a '64 Champ in Apache Red that is bone-stock and original and I think the styling has stood up well--I think better than a Chevy of the same era. And the Champ was America's lowest-priced pickup, with the greatest payload, and the only one with a sliding rear window (full-width window standard, too...not a little one), and a 5-speed available when no one else was doing that.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    That Champ was bid to $9,700, reserve not met.
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  • omarmanomarman Member Posts: 2,702
    I like the Studey arbor even though there's very little reason for it to be preserved. Why fund a project with the goal of preserving the wrong way to plant trees?

    “These pine trees are not the longest living when planted in our area, and because they were planted so close together, they’re now stressed and don’t have the root systems they should,” Kirkwood said. “Any time we get a windstorm or a heavy, wet snow, we do get trees that topple, and because they’re so close together, we get a domino effect going.” Sounds like the car biz, no?

    It was planted by a depression era public work relief program called the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1938. But is that a good reason why it should be saved? I don't believe it's visible from (outer) space no matter what the story says, and I don't believe that would necessarily be a good thing even if that were true!

    Just seems like the Studebaker arbor was/is an interesting distraction from the beginning. But the world outgrew Studebaker cars and nature is slowly reclaiming the tree signage. Preservation will always cost more and more money so it needs to be "worth it." Acceptance is less expensive and an opportunity to do things better next time. I accept that the last survivors of the hippie gen will continue to cry out for a Beatles reunion until the last surviving ex-Beatle DNA has slipped away. Fan clamor is like that. But where do the rest of us draw the line with fanatics? On the decline of the Studey arbor I say, Let It Be.
    A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    I'm a Stude buff by total accident I think, but I'm also a history buff. My hometown actually preserves historic buildings and such. Where I live now just bulldozes everything and builds new, nondescript crap/retail. I vote for the former.
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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited January 2012
    I am happy to see some effort being made to preserve the Studebaker tree sign at the former proving grounds. As the Hemmings article says, it was the first proving grounds established by an American car company. For many years, the Studebaker sign was advertised as the world's largest sign and was a well known landmark for airplanes that passed through the area. It is far larger than the Hollywood sign that is now the famous Los Angeles landmark.

    Although the Hemmings article says the trees were poorly planted, the sign can still be read from the air more than 70 years after they were planted. Therefore, they could not have been planted that badly.

    There are so many "landmarks" today that are less deserving than that Studebaker sign. Here in Santa Monica, individual trees located on private property are declared landmarks simply because they are large or not common in this area, such as Oak trees or Cedar trees. The home of women’s tennis player Gertrude "Gussie" Moran was also declared a Santa Monica landmark, although she was only ranked as the 4th best women’s tennis player in the world, BUT she was the first woman to wear bloomers at Wimbleton. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gussie_Moran

    It is also appropriate that trees are used to spell the Studebaker name because wood from surrounding forests were the reason that both Studebaker and Singer built factories in South Bend during the 1850s and 1860s. Studebaker used the wood for the wagons (and early auto
    bodies) and Singer used them for the wooden sewing machine cabinets.
    http://www.centerforhistory.org/learn-history/business-history/976-2. There is a lot of South Bend history at this site.

    There may come a day when all the Studebaker buildings are gone and only the sign remains. I hope that they save it because Studebaker had such an important role in American history for more than 100 years.

    Roll Studebaker....rolll!
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited January 2012
    The '58 Corvette before it brought $80K.

    I know people who buy at BJ are not 'regular' old car buyers, but so much for Stude high prices being an anomaly. Last year a Golden Hawk was bid to $80K I believe it was, but was turned down by the seller!

    It is true that certain Studes are bringing more than long-thought-higher Big 3 cars of the same era.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited February 2012
    ...in the Studebaker Drivers' Club forum. The latter one from "556063" was particularly interesting to me as I didn't know any of that information:

    http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?58729-So-THAT-s-where-they- - -are...
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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,414
    edited February 2012
    I'm not sure I see what the big deal is - MB isn't "exotic" anywhere but in the US. As the brand becomes more of an everything for everyone ideal here as it is in most places, it will of course become more common. Sales rise, demand for aftermarket parts rises, so they are made. That exact ad, for the MB classic center, is kind of odd as there aren't really any aftermarket parts for something like a 300SL - but - you can still get OEM or NOS parts directly from MB. BMW doesn't run such an ad because BMW doesn't have such a parts stock. The disastrous merger didn't help things, for sure - I see the end of that one as revenge for 1945 :shades: , but from what I can see in national and global sales, profit and volume aren't being lost - and maybe the brand wants to be broader in the US as it is in Europe. The American image of the brand is an anomaly.

    I don't think MB had the "high end luxury" image until the 70s, either. Fintails and Pontons aren't luxurious. In the 60s the brand image was technical, cars for engineers, professors, doctors, etc. The later W108-109 cars (say 1969+) and especially the 1973+ S-class did it - the latter car being tuned with American sales in mind. That's also when the SL became a boulevard cruiser rather than something with sporty pretenses. I also have doubts about overall "finish expectations" and chrome quality, seeing how my own car of the era has aged compared to others - I'd expect finish and build quality to be as good as anything made at the time.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited February 2012
    I didn't know that every M-B came through South Bend, but I guess that's logical. One of our national club magazines has a small B&W photo of a warehouse of '63 M-B's in South Bend...a coupe is in the front of the photo.

    I was surprised that when I went to the archives of the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend a couple years ago and looked at every car my little hometown dealer sold from Sept. '63 and later, there were a few where the car traded in on a new Stude was a M-B. I wouldn't have expected that.
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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,414
    That does seem kind of inefficient, seeing as 90% of sales were no doubt in either New England or on the west coast. But, someone had to do pre-delivery work, and there was only one big Stude facility.

    Cars like a W110 fintail weren't terribly expensive, and were also very rugged and simple - might have appealed to some Stude faithful.
  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited February 2012
    I thought it interesting that the Driver's Club forum page had a Mercedes Benz adverstisement for the Hydro-Vac power brake unit as being an original Mercedes Benz part. Those were built in South Bend by Bendix and used in many cars including the Edsel. http://macsautoparts.com/product.asp?camid=EDS&pn=JS0R3CHL1110574O&bhcd2=1281319- - - 076 It looks like the one in my 1955 Commander.

    Bendix was the second largest employer in South Bend after Studebaker, and and it was No. 1 when Studebaker quit Souith Bend in December 1963, probably passed Studebaker as the largest employer a few years earlier.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    Interesting observation, jljac.

    BTW, are you planning on coming to South Bend for the International Meet this year? I plan on driving my '66 out. The lady who was in the "Studebaker News" dealer magazine for buying the first new Avanti in North Dakota is thinking about coming out from Kansas with her husband for it, too...especially since the Avanti Owners' Association Int'l. is also having their annual meet there at the same time. My post on the AACA Forums last year about her car resulted in it being found just last week...although without its engine and trans and it's now a different color. The current owner told her "you wouldn't know it". She replied, "That's OK, it probably wouldn't know me, either!"
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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,414
    Did Stude also use Borg-Warner transmissions? MB used those in their earliest automatic offerings.
  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    Did Stude also use Borg-Warner transmissions? MB used those in their earliest automatic offerings.

    There was an earlier discussion about this. Studebaker developed its "Automatic Drive" with Borg Warner and used it between 1950 and 1956. Ford wanted to shore it in 1950, but Studebaker wrongly said "No," so Ford developed a similar unit with Borg Warner. In 1956, Studebaker was able to buy the Ford automatic transmission cheaper than the one they they developed, so they sold it and it was sent to England where the very same transmissions were used for Jaguar and Mercedes Benz until the early 1960s. Studebaker then used the Ford transmission until the end of production.

    The Studebaker unit was a good one for its time because it has three speeds and could easily be modified to start in first gear (mine does that) it was air cooled and had direct drive in third gear for better gas mileage. (The earliest units started in second gear and did not have direct drive in third gear.)
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,414
    edited February 2012
    I thought the topic seemed familiar.

    Do you mean start in first gear from a stop or start as in starting the engine? The weird fluid coupling style unit (the first in-house MB design) in my car allows the engine to be started while in second gear, and it starts off from a stop in second gear as well - unless you manually have it kick down. I don't know of any others like that.
  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    BTW, are you planning on coming to South Bend for the International Meet this year?

    I am seriously considering doing that and I am already trying to talk my girlfriend into it. Maybe we can meet in South Bend, You should contact me be though my web site, Stude.net. Your E-mail address is not posted here.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    I've had '63, '64, and '66 Studebakers with the Borg-Warner automatic trans. Since my cars were V8's, all started from a stop in second gear unless you do some convoluted L-D-L shifts, which I never felt like experimenting with. Sixes with that trans had first-gear start. My '63 was an early Avanti-powered Lark and that engine seemed hampered by the second-gear start IMHO. I always wished it had the Avanti "Powershift" trans (also designed by B-W for the Avanti) that had the P-R-N-D-2-1 quadrant. You had to get a floorshift to get that trans and my car had bench seats ordered by the customer.
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  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited February 2012
    You are entirely correct about the transmissions Studebaker used after 1956, which are the same that Ford used. It is not easy to make them start in first gear without shifting to low first. However, the earlier automatics are easy to modify for first gear start and the 1955 V--8 models started in first gear if you pushed hard on the accellator. I believe that the six cylinder automatics started in first gear from the beginning. I know my 1960 Lark VI did.

    First gear start makes such a difference in brisk starts and less wear on the torque converter that it should have been done that way all along.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,414
    Sounds like too much work. The in-house MB unit (came around later in the relationship, 1962+ I think) that lacks a torque convertor has a button under the gas pedal used to kick down into first..I don't think even putting it in "2" will get you there - so it is clunky and jerky when you want that gear. 2nd gear start doesn't seem to hurt anything though, it likes to rev.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    ..while I like the denuded decklid and half-vinyl top of the '64 better, this is a beautiful Gran Turismo Hawk IMHO. Alas, it looks like these Hawks are out of my range now. Even in this economy, and in a lesser-desired color like this (although I like it--understated), and even without Avanti power, this Hawk is bid to $22.6K with over 4 1/2 days left on the auction. Sheesh.

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Studebaker-?cmd=ViewItem&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26i- tu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6259903753680563198&_trksid=p5- 197.m7&item=300660665454
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  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 58,414
    Has to be one of the best in existence. You sure couldn't get a rat to look like that for the bid.
  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited February 2012
    There's a good bit of reproduction stuff for Hawks available, but NOS is mostly all gone, unlike Larks of the same era. You're certainly right that a dog couldn't be restored for that price.

    Looking at the photos again, I'd have to replace those exhaust extensions with either the expensive NOS if found, or repro, 'exhaust deflectors' as they were called on these cars:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/greggjerdingen/5548872598/

    The exhaust actually comes out of the bottom of these 'extensions'.

    (Red car in photo is a '64 with '63 wheelcovers.)

    The gold '63 on eBay is up to $25,100 with over four days remaining.
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    Here is a Gran Turismo Hawk I would absolutely love to own...not for sale:

    http://files.conceptcarz.com/img/Studebaker/64-Studebaker-hawk-R2-DV_11-SJ_014.j- pg
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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    Lovin' this Avanti, too. Throw in a '64 Daytona convertible and a Champ pickup, and I'd be all set.

    http://www.art.com/asp/View_HighZoomResPop.asp?apn=13840344&imgloc=26-2680-Z00DU- I7H.jpg&imgwidth=670&imgheight=894&artistName=Published+by+Art.com%2C+inc.

    I can understand how people might not like the Avanti's styling, but how some folks can say it's dated by '63-64 standards is a complete mystery to me. Look at what Mopar was turning out then...in size, shape, decoration, etc., as a comparison.
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  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,675
    I read a short article about a Golden Hawk 400 somewhere. It showed a white car with bright red on the tailfin area. It said only 41 were built.

    Are there any of these floating around besides 1 in the Studebaker museum?

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    I read a short article about a Golden Hawk 400 somewhere. It showed a white car with bright red on the tailfin area. It said only 41 were built.

    Are there any of these floating around besides 1 in the Studebaker museum?


    I seem to remember only 41 production models were built, after ten pre-production 'show' cars were built. I seem to remember reading/hearing that there are a few (very few) out there...in fact, someone found a 'mutt' of one a few years back and I think is redoing it.

    Probably a lot have been junked because they didn't say "400" on them anyplace. I have seen one or two regular Golden Hawks painted to look like a 400.

    It seems like non-Studebaker folks' memories of Studebaker used to be defined by the '50-51 bullet-nose models. Lately, with auction prices the past couple years, it seems like the '57 Golden Hawk is the car folks most likely link to the name "Studebaker". Someone else posted this observation on the Studebaker Drivers' Club forum and I'd have to agree.

    Here's an ad for a '57 Golden Hawk 400:

    http://www.studebaker-info.org/Archive/Cars/1957/57GH400/57GoldenHawk400ad1.jpg

    Here's a fuzzy shot of the leather interior of one:

    http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/402026482_6c13c337d5_o.jpg
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  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,675
    That is the car I saw. I thought I'd seen it in Hemmings, but I've looked through every page of my current issue and done see the little filler article.

    My memories of Studebaker include the car my school buddy's parents owned. Sort of like this blue, but I don't remember the two-toned rear fenders; the roof, however, was a different color and I believe it was white.

    It was replaced by a red 58 Buick IIRC.

    Earlier my own family had a pea soup green Champion 1950 two door.

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  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    edited February 2012
    No one in my family had a Studebaker, but I'm of the age where I remember them and thought they were distinctive. We had a small Stude dealer right through the end in our small town, but I think they were fairly successful as the same family had owned them for forty years.

    It's funny, I drive Chevys as my daily cars, but in old cars, I usually find them too commonplace. I like to not go right down the middle of the road, so to speak, in a car.

    The club support for Studebaker is top-notch, and as I've said, there is a lot of NOS for Larks available in South Bend still, reasonably-priced (although less so than ten years ago--parts inventory has changed hands). There is a ton of reproduction--people are often surprised. The sixty-plus page monthly magazine, Turning Wheels, is second-to-none as well.
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  • lemkolemko Member Posts: 15,261
    There's a repair shop at 6300 Oxford Avenue in Philadelphia I believe was once a Studebaker dealership. I don't remember the Studebaker dealer being in there, but recall the AMC dealership that superceded it. Would you have any information on Philadelphia-area Studebaker dealers and where they were located, particularly this one?
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 26,023
    No one in my family had a Studebaker, but I'm of the age where I remember them and thought they were distinctive.

    I think my grandmother's Aunt Nancy, or maybe it was her parents, had a 1929 Studebaker. I remember Aunt Nancy said that they referred to it as a brick S-house. Dunno if that's because it was built really beefy, or just styled really blocky? Looking at pictures of them, a '29 Stude doesn't seem out-of-style compared to anything else at the time? Unless, maybe they had it used, say by the mid/late 30's, when the styles were more rounded.

    Whenever I think of a Studebaker, the first image that pops into my mind for some reason is a '56 or '57 4-door sedan. I remember Louie the garbage man, or one of the supporting characters, on "Chico and the Man" having one, and for some reason that always stuck with me. Dunno why it sticks out in my mind though. I don't think they showed it all that much. In fact, it doesn't even show up at all in the imcdb.org database for Chico and the Man.

    I do remember one episode where they tried to sell it and weren't getting any interest. Chico said "It ain't easy trying to sell a Stoo-dee-baker in a Chebby neighborhood!"
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 11,107
    "I think my grandmother's Aunt Nancy, or maybe it was her parents, had a 1929 Studebaker. I remember Aunt Nancy said that they referred to it as a brick S-house. "

    I bet it was a comment on how well it was built, that's the usual meaning. Not like a '29 anything (mainstream) was 'styled'.
  • jljacjljac Member Posts: 649
    edited February 2012
    Would you have any information on Philadelphia-area Studebaker dealers and where they were located, particularly this one?

    You should begin the search here. http://www.studebaker-info.org/Dealers/studedealersrj.html
  • imidazol97imidazol97 Member Posts: 27,675
    There are places where I grew up that I believe, believe were Studentbaker dealers. They're not listed. Is there a way to verify if they actually were Studebaker stores?

    2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,

  • uplanderguyuplanderguy Member Posts: 16,860
    Lemko, I have seen pics and heard about Keenan Motors in Philadelphia being a large Stude dealer and supposedly still selling M-B. Don't know the street address though.
    2024 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 2LT; 2019 Chevrolet Equinox LT; 2015 Chevrolet Cruze LS
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