Installing a Studebaker Windshield

Up in Washington state, my friend Dick Steinkamp is restoring a very nice '63 Wagonaire. As part of the restoration, Dick needed to install a new windshield. There's an art to doing this, especially in an older vehicle like our Studes. Dick got an installer out to his place, and photo-logged the entire process. Check it out here.

Even if you don't plan on doing this yourself, this is a valuable lesson in how the job is done!

Repro Studebaker C/K Fenders on the way!

One thing that owners of more popular marques - like Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, etc. - have long enjoyed is the ability to order reproduction sheet-metal for their cars. Heck, you can buy entire body tubs for '57 Chevys, but new body parts for Studebakers? Dream on.

(OK, sidebar: our friends at Classic Enterprises have a good assortment of structural steel pieces for our Studes - torque boxes, floor pans and such - but no body stampings.)

Anyway, Steven Tomblin of Goodmark (one of the aforementioned providers of GM and MoPar sheet metal) posted today on the SDC Forum that reproduction C/K rear fenders are just about ready to be released. Their prototypes are in the test-fit phase, in fact.

This is amazingly good news. While front fenders are probably needed more due to the rust-encouraging way that Studebaker designed them, the fact that a company - and a major one like Goodmark, no less - is beginning to reproduce Studebaker parts is a bright light indeed.

Maybe, with luck, we can look forward to new '59 - '61 Lark front fenders, or '64 - '66 trunk lids one day. I know, it's a pipe dream, but maybe...

Keep your fingers crossed!

Fiberglas Hawk Panels!

We've all run across 'em - a car so beat, so decomposed, that even the thought of attempting metalwork on it gives you the cold sweats and causes your wallet to ball up in a paroxysm of self-preservation. But still, you want the car... you have a vision.

For those of you with a Studebaker Hawk in that viewport, there's some good news: you may find steel body panels scarce, especially for the later, lower-production GT models, but there's a company out there producing Fiberglas bolt-on fenders, doors and trunk lids for these rara avii. Meet Class Glass Performance, of Cumberland, Maryland.

These guys have been around since 1990, making Fiberglas parts for street and track racers. The Hawk's slippery profile has long been a favorite of drag racers, so 'glass body parts are a natural. They make everything from complete body tubs (shown above) to individual doors, trunk lids and front clips for '53-62 Studebaker C/K bodies. So when you find a car that looks like this:

...you can start thinking about bolt-on replacements instead of getting out the torch and spoon.They also make sweet fender replacements for Studebaker M- and R-series trucks!