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http://www.ebay.com/itm/201447231816?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
It's not nor ever will be for sale, but I think the most valuable Lark extant is the Bordeaux Red '64 Daytona Hardtop with R1 engine and 4-speed that is in the Studebaker National Museum with 28 miles--a completely NOS Studebaker--that was the last car off the assembly line in the U.S., after 111 years of South Bend Studebaker vehicle production. I salivate whenever I get up-close and personal to that car in the museum.
The $25.4K car was a reflection I think of a nice car, and a well-written ad with lots of photos. I look at eBay quite a bit, and it's amazing to me how many poorly written ads with photos poorly presented, there are there.
http://www.studebakerskytop.com/billpresslerpics1.jpg
A friend took a series of these pics and did a fine job I think.
I like how you can see the original rear seat back in that pic, with the Lark emblem in the material. My wife had bought me NOS everything-else seat material (which it needed) as a Christmas gift one year.
I put 195-75's on that car, as close as original-size as I could locate, and I liked the 'factory look', although a couple friends thought they looked too small. On the Stude 4.5 inch wheel, I'd also heard it really wasn't very safe to put a bigger tire than that on.
If there's anywhere a Stude pickup would still be on the road, it is ID/WA/OR.
Not so much anymore, but starting about 25 years ago, when I'd drive to South Bend, Indiana for parts or other events, I'd sometimes take US 6 or US20, to keep off the interstates. As you might imagine, Indiana is pretty rural outside of South Bend and Fort Wayne, in the northern half of the state. I'd see Stude cars but mostly trucks, still sitting in driveways or "outstanding in their field". As the years have gone by, that has dried up although I mostly take the interstates now as I'm trying to get there quickly and home quickly.
berri, it's interesting for me to do the "what ifs?" too. Someone wrote once in our Stude club magazine that we should be glad that they went out when they did, as the cars were still interesting (at least to the Stude-inclined). I'll admit that I prefer the South Bend years, but I owned two Canadian Studes and I still enjoyed both.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/ccco/uploads/attachment/image/file/4901/2_N9_low_res.jpg
That particular Studebaker logo wasn't used until '63, which puts an approximate date on this photo.
I can imagine.
There aren't many 195-75-15's out there anymore, I'm told, either. Most Lark folks I know put 205's or even larger on them. If I still had a car, I'd find a place to buy 195's.
195/75/R15 is the stock tire size for the 1979-81 R-body St. Regis/New Yorker/et al, and was probably the standard for the '80-83 Cordoba/Mirada, and maybe the M-body Diplomat/Gran Fury/5th Ave for a few years. So that size might not be *too* hard to find.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Studebaker-AVANTI-ORIGINAL-/181913083323?forcerrptr=true&hash=item2a5add5dbb:g:9YgAAOSwYHxWLUwI&item=181913083323
Weird feeling to see from the new-car paperwork included, that it was delivered to the first retail customer on 11/15/63, only seven days before JFK was assassinated.
The pricing info is interesting too, not horribly expensive.
Those seats are from an earlier Avanti. The seller didn't know why, but my guess is that some subsequent owner liked the black contrasting color, which is how the earlier '63 interiors were...base color 'fawn and elk' and contrasting seats.
The '64's all had a mono-colored interior, and this car should have the 'elk' seats. And with this car's late serial number, it should have what we so-technically call in the club, "thick seats" like this pic--reinforced seat back:
http://billstudepage.homestead.com/files/pjavantiint.jpg
Someone a year or so ago, posted Studebaker board meeting minutes on www.studebakerdriversclub.com, that included '64 model year potential changes discussion. They changed the Avanti to the fake wood wheel for '64, and two board members disliked the wheel, one saying it looked "chintzy". The minutes mentioned that (corporation president) "Mr. Egbert likes the wheel". Right after that, it says, "The wheel is approved for production"....LOL.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Studebaker-Daytona-Hardtop-R2-Factory-Paxton-Supercharged-/201457365705?forcerrptr=true&hash=item2ee7cb72c9:g:ayYAAOSw9mFWMVLu&item=201457365705
Throwback Thursday photo from the Studebaker National Museum--factory photo of a '65 Cruiser, pretty car IMHO, unusual color combination.
The prototypes you're talking about were created by Brooks Stevens of Milwaukee. They are interesting. A white Wagonaire prototype is on permanent display at the Studebaker National Museum, and a black hardtop and black four-door sedan have been on loan to them before from the Brooks Stevens Museum. The hardtop has a Sylvania light bar across the front of it and a tinted glass "C" pillar, interesting.
https://www.studebakermuseum.org/p/about/
If you ever get near South Bend on I-80, the Studebaker National Museum is worth a visit for sure. I think most folks would be surprised at what a nice facility it is, for a defunct manufacturer. It is one of only three car museums accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, and it has a separate archives building just chock-full of documents and blueprints, even for Packard (the old wives' tale is that Studebaker destroyed everything of Packard's, but I saw a long row of file cabinets that said "Packard" across them last time I was there; I know they have build sheets for the merger years and Packard blueprints going back way farther than that).
I do wish the museum had one more floor, but that's just me talking.
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1963-studebaker-westinghouse-pickup-truck-concept1.htm
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/curbside-cache-the-archives-at-the-studebaker-national-museum/
Speaking of Studes, I noticed the local "safe and lock" company which is located in the old Stude dealership has "since 1966" on their van. I wonder if they took over the building when Stude folded? Heck of a coincidence.
From '60-66, you can find out who was the original purchaser of your Stude. I think that's great, although I had someone try to tell me once somehow that was a negative thing....LOL.
Concerning your local safe and lock company, that is a real coincidence and a definite possibility. I think, generally only of course, if a Stude dealer held on through '66 (a lot left after the South Bend plant closed down a couple years before), they stuck around a little longer as a Stude "Parts and Service Dealer". Studebaker continued that until 1972. My little hometown dealer continued as a Stude "Parts and Service Dealer" until Dec. '68, upon which time the Chrysler-Plymouth-AMC dealer picked up that franchise (I learned this in the archives at the Stude Museum) and hired some of the old Stude dealer mechanics.
http://www.thedrive.com/article/1192
I know I'm biased, but I still think Larks were about the perfect size, good proportion of interior space to exterior dimensions.
You wouldn't necessarily think so by today's standards, but I'd bet that's a girl in the right-most part of that photo, fishing. No boy had hair like that in the early sixties! LOL
http://www.thedrive.com/article/1192
EDIT: I dug out my 1988 club magazine issue showing the results of people going through the 35,699 V8 Lark and Hawk production orders and recording results. There were 15 supercharged '63 Wagonaires built.
Sadly, Mary Ann (wearing the red gingham top matching her pic-a-nic tablecloth) would go missing on a 3 hour tour just one year after this family photo was staged.
I have the '63 brochure, the showroom album, and the promotional postcards. This pic isn't any of them and I'd never seen it before just the other day. I wonder if the plastic left on the front seat of the car 'killed' the pic from being used in promotion.
http://www.stationwagonfinder.com/2011/11/1963-studebaker-daytona-wagonaire/
I do remember hearing somewhere that there are surprisingly a ton of Studebaker NOS parts out there.
The soft interior trim was sold separately to a couple who lives out west.
When I got into Studebakers, I wanted something different and I'm old enough to remember them. I had no idea of the parts situation, but it was a welcome bonus. For Larks--'64's and later, especially--most everything is available NOS, or reproduction (courtesy of Studebaker International).
When I went to restore my '63 Lark (in my sig photo), I bought NOS doors, rear quarters, front end panel, rear end panel, trunk lid--and I don't believe I had more than $700 in all of that. Bumpers, mirrors, and every single bit of molding and emblems and nameplates, were available NOS or reproduction for that car...every single piece. Most of those parts are still available, twenty years after my restoration.
The Studebaker Drivers' Club is a very helpful group, around 12K members internationally, and puts out a killer monthly magazine of 66 pages, full of history and technical information. I have saved every issue since I joined the club in Dec. '86.
My wife bought me NOS seat and door panel trim for my '63 as a Christmas present. It was around $350 in total if I remember correctly. She sent her little brother out to South Bend to pick it all up and he drove out in there in snowy weather and back in one day. One panel was an incorrect piece but that gave me an excuse to go out there and return it--I didn't mind that much.
Grandpa Simpson refers to it as a "Starliner Commander" I think.