Should I Build a 53 Coupe or Hardtop?

[clarkwd]

I've been spending the last year of free time welding floorboards into a 55 Coupe and collecting parts, planning to make something. I have a complete running-good rolling chassis that the body will go on but I have no front fenders, hood or grill. My search for a nose has led me to a 53 Hardtop in pieces that has all the body parts and a tub that only needs a few pounds of MIG wire. Life is full of choices and this is a big one. Do I finish up the Coupe tub and put the 53 nose on it or do I start over with the hardtop tub and make another hardtop?
What a decision.
Bill

http://www.rustyrestorations.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=12

[StudeMichael]

My 1954 Commander that I sold to Manny Motashaw in 2007. This may help you to decide:





1957 Packard Clipper
1958 Golden Hawk
1963 Daytona Convertible
1963 R2 Daytona
1963 R2 GT Hawk
1963 R1 Wagonaire
1963 R4 Avanti
1964 Champ
1966 Cruiser

[55s]

I've got and driven both coupes and hardtops.

While slightly better looking from an esthetic side view, and perhaps slightly more valuable, coupes were much more solid cars, have fewer rattles, and doors usually close. Bonneville Salt flat racers are usually coupes.

From a resale standpoint, I don't think it really matters too much because you are already making up a car that will be worth whatever it is worth to someone else and the workmanship itself will play the major role.

There was an article in Turning Wheels about whether non-Studebaker enthusiasts noticed the difference. Many apparently did not until it was pointed out.

Your car - your choice.

Paul

[JGK 940]

quote:Originally posted by clarkwd

Do I finish up the Coupe tub and put the 53 nose on it or do I start over with the hardtop tub and make another hardtop?
What a decision.
Bill

Two questions:

1) What percentage of the total time and energy you will put into this car are you willing to spend on aligning, realigning and re-realigning two brilliantly-engineered but notoriously finicky window retraction mechanisms?

2) How often to you plan to roll the back windows down?

I've drooled all over every single K body I've seen since sometime in Eisenhower's first term as POTUS and was seriously bent out of shape when my Pop brought home a Starlight instead of a -liner... man, like nowheresville, Daddy-O! Now I'd give a valuable portion of my anatomy to have that C body sitting in my carport but am more than happy to leave the headaches of pillarlessness to people with a little less practical experience and a whole lot more patience than I.

Your car, your bucks, your choice. I would build the coupe.

(Good on ya for ditching that big ol' underslung chrome grouper jaw, though, whatever you decide )

Keoni Dibelka / HiloFoto
In Hawai'i; on Hawai'i; on the Windward Side
If da salt air never chew 'em up bumbye da lava will...

(spelling...)

[sals54]

I love the Hardtops, but I own and love my Coupe. I have often thought of keeping a HT, but as was said above, the pain in the neck aspect of the alignment of the windows, especially the rears keeps me from making the leap. I have had my Coupe since 1971, and its been a true blue friend since I bought it. Solid car, always runs, and the doors close like new. Here it is below.

sals54

[KGlowacky]

I know this sounds bad but owning a wagon I really struggle everytime I read a thread with the words Coupe,Hardtop, C/K????? I know what a wagon is and a sedan I think is a 2 or 4 door Commander, President and Champion but can someone give me a example of a coupe, C/K and hardtop. Thanks

[clarkwd]

There were two basic car body styles in 53-5X, C/Ks and Sedans including wagons. Almost none of the sheet metal is interchangable between the C/Ks and the sedans. C refers to Coupes, or cars with a post between the rear quarter window and the door window. Sals car right above this append is a coupe. K refers to Hardtops, or cars like the black beauty near the top of this topic that does not have a post between the windows. (K is probably a corruption of K for convertible which a hardtop is not.) Because the body styles are so similar, the coupes and hardtops are collectively referred to as C/Ks. Great examples of Cs, Ks and sedans are at this forum topic.

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23247&whichpage=2

Bill

[buddymander]

Build the coupe. It's a much better looking car. The coupe roofline appears lower; fitting in with the low-slung stance. The hardtop detracts from the studebaker windswept mysterious bonneville persona. And a 55 is so much rarer than the 53-4. Folks have been saving the 53-4's and crushing the 55's for decades, leaving the 55 as the rare one. Grilles are hard to find whichever way you go, but the fenders are the same, and the 55 sedan and coupe grilles interchange, right?

[clarkwd]

Maybe I should do both.
Bill

http://www.rustyrestorations.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=12

[sbca96]

Get an Avanti .. the bodies dont rust.

I prefer the coupe - more solid - less wind noise/rattles.

Tom

'63 Avanti, zinc plated drilled & slotted 03 Mustang Cobra 13" front disc/98 GT rear brakes, 03 Cobra 17" wheels, GM alt, 97 Z28 leather seats, soon: TKO 5-spd, Ported heads w/SST full flow valves, 'R3' 276 cam, Edelbrock AFB Carb, GM HEI distributor, 8.8mm plug wires

[fstst56]

Yes! Build both.

[silverhawk]

I'd build both, but that is because I hate the thought of a stude dying. But other than that, what style of roof do you like best?

Dylan
'61 lark deluxe 4dr wagon