Hawk frames

[John Ratliff]

A friend and I went to look at a '56 Hawk parts car yesterday. Not much left but body shell and Steering column. The column is for a 3 speed stick on the column. All there. He sold the motor and O/D trans. He had picked up the car for the frame. Then he found one from a '61. He said they checked the gauge of the metal on each frame. The '61 has a heaver frame than the '56 Power Hawk. Is that so?
The body shell is very clean of rust.

John Ratliff

[studegary]

The short answer is probably yes. I don't have the year break points for the different frame thicknesses here, but C/
K frames started out in 1953 at 0.078 inch and by 1964 were up to 0.120 inch (with intermediate increases). That is a 54% increase over the lifespan of manufacture of the C/K bocies.

Gary L.
Wappinger, NY

SDC member since 1968
Studebaker enthusiast much longer