Someone in one of my Facebook groups passed this along; it's at the San Bernardino, CA Pick-Your-Part - '55 Stude Commander with a later Hawk nose, plus a Mopar V8, pushbutton trans, and wire wheels: Somebody put a ton of work into this car once upon a time. Supposedly it was to go into the yard two weeks ago so it may have already been parted, which would be a shame. Anyone recognize it? Link: https://www.lkqpickyourpart.com/loc..._v8xWV36y8QhOVwGc8lnTp6Iz-9qaQNhTT6Tfp_WThOhU Mods, I hope this was OK to post
Seriously...this car was in a wrecking yard to be parted out ? It's got some odd stuff and some cool stuff done to it. Odd - The exhaust outlets ! What the hell ? Hard to tell without the body number, but it looks like a coupla years of body bolted together. The cool - Per above, the dash is possibly out of an earlier car, the Chrysler push button selector for the trans., on the left side of the gauges. An early 55, or 54 or even a 53 hardtop body (flat windshield). That big ol spare tire hanging out the back as a Continental Kit. Those parts are hard to come by. Too bad it's not around for someone to drive any longer. Mike
I gotta think that’s staged, huh? Unless some tweaker or maybe a relative inherited it that didn’t have a clue. It has a for sale sign on it. Maybe that yard is just trying to get some business?
BOGUS !!! C'mon...even if that Stude ended up going to a Pick-a Part, those guys aren't idiots. Even if someone who works there didn't want it, they would know someone who would.
Let’ hope you’re right, Jack! I was alright with it until getting to the Conny kit and the over the top pipes.
That’s what I was getting at, but say the tweakers parent passed away, quick 100 bucks. We’ve also read so many posts here on the HAMB about in-laws just filling dumpsters with”junk” that would be gold in our eyes. Then again, could have been the bitter divorce thing. Just makes ya wonder how a car like that wound up in a place like that. Say that with a Humphrey Bogart accent
Not a ‘53/‘54 front end. It is, as stated in the OP’s post, a Hawk front end from ‘56 to ‘61 era. Ray
A sad end if it gets parted out, but I've seen that scenario before. Either someone dies, or someone gets the "everything's gotta go" bug up their butt and the car gets stuck on the curb with a terribly placed for sale sign in it, and after no responses for a week or two, they call up the junkyard. Also possible, it was stuck somewhere for sale that they did not have permission to park it, then it got towed and impounded, and the owners didn't want to pay the impound fee to get it back, or the owners didn't have a title in their name to go claim it after it got towed so they just let it get away. Lots of possibilities. Either way, sad end to see it get parted out, it looks like a really solid car, and I bet it hauled ass with that big Mopar engine in there. Looks like a circa 1963 Mopar pushbutton shifter on the left of the dash with the Park slidebar, although I don't know enough about Studebakers to know what that area of the dash is supposed to look like.
@Mike VV ‘re the windshield vs model year.....All Studebaker C & K coupes (‘53/‘61) used the same semi-flat windshield. Only sedans and wagons got the ‘wrap around’ glass shape in early/mid ‘55. Ray
Anybody else notice the lip laced real wire wheels? Look to be the ‘50s Mopar Ply/Dodge version but possibly T-bird. Ray
Damn shame but I’m sure it will get sold complete. ive seen it up here a bunch of years ago I was at a yard that felt with cars that where scrapped as part of a children’s hospital charity thing. you scrap the car and get a huge tax rebate when you file your taxes. anyways up at the yard one Saturday and there where about 5-6 really nice cars 68 dart couple old but complete vw bugs A 70’s vette and something old like a 30’s era Buick or olds in a fenced off area. went and asked about the cars and was told they are off limits , just there for storage and the company running the “charity “ came up once a month to ship them out of there, no clue to where or for what , and every car was inspected when picked up, so anything missing and the yard that was storing them would get fined. Strange things happen when stupid people and money are involved.
It's in general population with a space and row number. I've been to that yard and it's had odd stuff before and no place for cars for sale (except in the parking lot area) It has been a few years since then, so maybe they've changed....hopefully.
Hello, We all like those old Studebakers from any year. They are/were a part of the So Cal car scene from its popularity in the late 40s-50s. In one of those streaming hot rod shows, a complete car was bought out of a place just like advertised and shown. The whole yard was a conglomeration of parts, whole cars ready to be parts and those others that were just sitting there. So, they found an old car that was somewhat “modded” at one time and they got to work. Those places were what we used to see in So Cal a long time ago. Whole cars within a section of junk cars and a storage facility with parts from all kinds of cars. Before computerization. A worker had to walk out back to the section of what you wanted, then walk back to the office to tell you yes or no what they had for your selection. Sometimes, in these days of diminishing places like those cool old junkyards, out pops a cool Studebaker with some kind of future ahead just sitting on a parking lot in a coastal city, waiting to be plucked off and sold. This one had connections to an auto repair business and was on the lot for a few weeks, before disappearing off into a new owner’s backyard garage to finish and make it cool. Jnaki Can it become cool? Suicide rear doors and all, have some family interests. So, it all depends on what you see yourself driving… an unusual daily driver. YRMV This Studebaker sold within a couple of weeks and disappeared off of the mechanic’s parking lot.
If you will take a closer look at the third photo in the OP’s post, you can see the the large hump at the front if the hood, where the grille is located. Hoods prior to ‘56 do not have that shape. They have a gentle sloped shape going forward from the cowl. Further, the sort of trapezoid shaped chrome trim frames on either side, above the bumper are very different on ‘53/‘54 models. On ‘53/‘54 they are wider and spaced much closer together in the middle than the ‘56/‘61 up Hawk models pictured on this car. Lastly, over several decades I have owned ‘53,’54 and ‘61 Coupes and have a ‘56 Sky Hawk that I have owned for about twenty years. I dare say I have sufficient familiarity with Studebaker C & K models to know the differences in hoods and grilles of the model years under discussion. Of course, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own ‘facts’. Ray
I believe that's one of the cars that a friend of mine sold last year. He was a collector of mainly MoPar cars (50 Plym. wagon, 51 Imperial hardtop, couple of 40s woodies, 356 Porsche, etc.) and he sold off every one of them before pancreatic cancel took his life. I hadn't seen the car for years, but the motor was a 440 MoPar and the roof was removable. Hard to believe there would be two of them locally. The Pick-A-Part is in Rialto adjacent to San Bernardino and had a "corral" for complete cars. The last time I was there they had nothing at all built before 2000.
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