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!

Studebaker Ad of the Week, #4: Hawks Rock

Hawk by Studebaker Advertisement - Ebony Magazine, May, 1960, a photo by vieilles_annonces on Flickr.

In 1960, the Hawk was in its 4th year as a model, but its 9th year as a body style. Where the original 1956 family of Hawks (Golden, Silver, Power, Flight and Sky) had been pitched as a complete range of sporty family cars with a range of powertrain choices and hardtop or sedan styling, by 1960 there was only one Hawk, and the Corporation was hitting the "personal car" concept pretty hard in advertising. Here's an example of that pitch, from the May, 1960 issue of Ebony magazine.

I got to drive a Hawk!

Last month at the Vista Village Rod Run, I found a '62 Gran Turismo Hawk for sale. I took a couple of shots, got the seller's name and number, and posted it on the SDC Forum

Last week, Joe from Kentucky sent me a PM. Seems he'd been talking with the seller and was interested in the car; would I go get more pictures and drive the car and report back? Hmm. Let's see... go take pictures of a beautiful Studebaker and get to drive it? Nahh.... Of course I'll go!

The battery was dead, as the owner hadn't driven it since the Rod Run. He inherited the car from his uncle, and it really isn't his thing, which is why he's selling the car. We jumped it from his Crown Vic, and after a few moments of throat clearing and warming up, we toodled off down the road.

The car has been re-engined with a Chevy small-block, and it's a pretty clean installation. No firewall hacks, no frame modifications - they even connected up the power steering.

The owner lived in an area of town with some pretty twisty roads. We joke that someone dumped spaghetti on a map and drew the streets in that area of town! The Hawk took the roads really nicely, although it was a little nose-heavy (as these cars are known to be). The owner said that the front end had been rebuilt and brakes gone through, and even though the brakes were not powered, the car stopped smoothly and quickly.

The car had a full gauge package, and everything worked - oil, amps, temp, gas, tach, clock. The Studebaker Delco radio in the dash was the finishing touch. Very straight body all around, too.

Not everything was roses, of course. The car was built in South Bend but came out of Canada, so there was some rust in the trunk and rockers, but not as much as you'd figure a Canadian car might have, and the frame was very sound. And the power steering was over-boosted and the steering gear needed adjustment; the net effect was that wheels continued turning after you'd quit turning the steering wheel! That took a little getting used to.

I can see why people love these cars. If you have the opportunity to drive (or acquire) one, do so! I'd really enjoy owning one myself, some day.