Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Studebakers?

We had a Studebaker Lark wagon with a sliding roof in the early 1960's. My Father traded a 1959 Impala coupe toward the Lark. The Lark wasn't a good car. I don't remember what the problems were, but my Father traded it toward 1965 Chevelle wagon that had had the front end cut off and replaced in a short time. Whoever did the rebuild work on the Chevelle welded the frame a RCH out of alignment so it drove "funny". It got traded off for a new 1968 Olds Belmont 88 for my Mother to drive.

Which model looked the same, front, and rear?

I'm working on restoring the Super Hawk. The mechanical part is done, but the interior and paint needs work. I did not restore the Transtar in the above photo.

My first vehicle was a ‘49 Studebaker pickup. My artistic brother stenciled on each door Rommel’s ‘Afrika Corps’ logo, a swastika superimposed on a palm tree. It was badass.

My father had a small peach orchard. In 1958 we were taking a load of peaches to Suisun Valley Fruit Growers in his old IH flatbed truck when a wheel fell off the truck. My dad bought the only truck available in the area at that time to replace it as it was not worth repairing. It was a 1958 Transtar Delux 3E7 1/2 ton Studebaker pickup. It did not have a heater or radio but it did have a 2 tone paint job. Power steering was by armstrong and air conditioning was 2-60. It had twin traction and a 3 speed overdrive transmission. The engine was a 259 V-8. It would cruiz on the freeway doing 70mph all day. One time I got it up to 100 mph in my foolish youth. I put a lot of miles on that truck and dad gave it to me 40 years ago. I was working on restoring it when I bought a house and all of my "spare" cash went into fixing up the house. I finally sold it to a friend who moved to Montana.

Bad-Arsed Avanti:

This Studebaker Avanti eats Hellcats

Growing up my dad was a mechanic with a junk yard. He got in a 55 speedster. I about had him thinking I needed it when he sold a bunch of its parts. I wound up with a 53 ford. Hasbeen

Older brother had a salvage yard in milwaukee back in 69/70... he took a a clean studebaker station wagon and made it into a "torch car"... cut round holes in the roof and dropped the oxy/acetylene tanks right in... -20 F and the only thing that would start was that Rutabaga!...

A company called Wasatch Customs here has a restored '51 on its lot just waiting for an owner. I glance over at it every time I drive by. I'm not into cars, but that one is intriguing. Gallery of photos HERE

My dad had an old, blue Studebaker station wagon that he bought used for a "fishing/hunting" car. I have two memories related to that car. One was that you could see the road through the hole in the passenger side floor. The second was running into the back of it while racing a friend on my bicycle. I turned around to see if he was gaining on me, and when I turned back around all I could see was the back window of that old station wagon. I got a bloody nose out of that one.

We had one when I was a little boy.

Wife had a Hawk in High School. Parents had a sedan. Best memory is of my grandfathers old Studebaker truck. Called it Old Satan!

My grandfather was a huge fan of them. He owned 16 of them. I drove his 1/2 ton pickup to hunting in 1960. And, one day, came home with a nice Blacktail in it's bed. That was my first buck.
He later traded in his 1/2 ton with a 6 ft. bed for one with an 8 ft. bed. Then he bought one of the first ruck campers.
I wish he were still with us so he could see the 10 ft. Lance Camper I have today.
He and Grandma were some of the first who were modern campers. They made there own sleeping bags, etc. I have on the wall in front of me a picture of my brother, and Gramps on a hunting trip in 1959. We were using that old red, 6 ft. bed 1/2 ton. The thing had a flat head engine ! E

53 was the poor mans streamliner. One of the prettiest cars ever made

Im high school I got a 1962 Lark "Cruiser" from am Uncle. Had a 289 - I think - V-8 & overdrive tramsmissiom. Darn thing was pretty quick, & got aroumd 24 MPG. Four door, with reclining fromt seats & plush interior. ice little car!

Mike Holmes

Nice pickup, High Noon. That is all kinds of badass right there.

When I was about 6 or 7 years old, my Old Man started his auto salvage as a side job while working as a crane man in a Johnstown steel mill.
He would buy old cars and parts them out, eventually tearing them apart to load in a pickup to be hauled to the crusher in Johnstown.
His first wrecker (tow truck to everybody else) was a ‘64 Studebaker pickup with a homemade boom. I don’t remember a whole lot about it other than falling out the door as we pulled out of the driveway once! ( he made me swear never to tell Mom!)
I ain’t certain how long he had that. I remember he bought an old Dodge and we switched the boom over to that and retired the Studebaker to the junkyard.
In the late ‘70s he finally bought a Ford F-350 with a Holmes boom, and a few years later we got an F-600 and had a rollback bed put on in Greencastle. (Jerr Dan)
We had around 350 cars or so when I was in high school, but I still remember falling out of that damn Studebaker!
7mm

The 56 Studebaker Golden Hawk shared its engine with Packard and Nash- - - -a 352 cubic inch V8 designed by Packard in 1955. Our 56 Nash Ambassador Super had the same engine, but slightly detuned from the one in the Hawk. It would do 100+ MPH far too easily for a 16 year old kid to drive! Those engines could be bored and stroked to over 500 cubic inches!

Got an old Lark (60 model, I think) and around the same vintage pickup out at the ranch.
The car is mostly intact, the pickup, not so much, but mostly there.
The truck was defunct before my time, my father-in-law and I got the Lark going once - that thing would RUN!!!
Good thing it was in the country - the brakes weren't in too good of shape. We went 4 wheeling across the pasture when we tried to stop.

+1