Hello there to all of you out in Studebaker-land, my name is Bob and I wanted to introduce myself. I am a 21 year old college student from Chicago. Now that I've gotten some of the basics out of the way...on to the important stuff! []
I am not a Studebaker owner, but I would like to someday change that. There has been, however, a couple of Stude's in the family. My Mom's father owned a 1948 Studebaker Champion, and was the first car he and my Grandmother bought as a married couple. I have a picture of them posing quite proudly in front of it, and I cherish it. My Mom's father was not a car guy by any stretch of the imagination, so I don't have any details about it other than the year.
My Dad's father, however was most definitely a car guy, and is the reason my father and I are car guys. He had a 1959 Lark hardtop coupe. This car is the reason I decided to join up on the board here, and try to do more research, and learn more about a brand I have always loved. Life has interesting timing, and I have found these past couple days to have been pretty interesting...allow me to explain. My Dad's father had passed away a few months ago, and we have since inherited a lot of odds and ends that my Grandmother did not want or need. In one box amid some other random papers, was a large collection of vintage car brochures and owners manuals. He had saved full line brochures for the 1948 Pontiac, Hudson, Buick, and Packard. My Dad concluded this was from when my Grandpa went shopping for his father's new car, since he ended up buying a new '48 Packard that year.
These were all in incredible condition and just a load of fun to look through, but the next find was the most interesting and exciting to me...the owners manual, accessories brochure, warranty, unused "preparation for new vehicle delivery" checklist, unused "service product report" carbon triplicate form, and last but not least...window sticker for his 1959 Lark that he bought new at Meisel Lincoln Mercury Inc, in Cleveland, Ohio. Not to mention the marked Studebaker-Packard Corp envelope it all came in. His '59 Lark hardtop coupe was black with a red interior and was loaded with about $500 worth of options, including the 259 c.i. V8, auto trans, white wall tires, cigar lighter, and a few more, bringing the grand total to $2912.10. So after going over all of this info and having a lot of fun looking through it, I decided to scour the internet to see what I could find. In addition to coming across this wonderful site, I found the 1959 Lark on ebay right now, which I also found posted here on the site. The timing of this is just wild to me, as you could tell from my description of my Grandpa's car, this Lark on ebay is just about identical to it, and makes me wish I had about $6,000!
So now I guess I'll apologize for the novel I just wrote, but like I said, the timing of getting all of this old paperwork and then seeing the identical sibling to my Grandpa's old Lark on ebay right now was just too much to ignore, and really lit a fire under me as far as my passion for Studebakers is concerned. I appreciate all of you taking the time to read this, and I hope to learn a lot here, and to find a Lark of my own.
-Bob
I am not a Studebaker owner, but I would like to someday change that. There has been, however, a couple of Stude's in the family. My Mom's father owned a 1948 Studebaker Champion, and was the first car he and my Grandmother bought as a married couple. I have a picture of them posing quite proudly in front of it, and I cherish it. My Mom's father was not a car guy by any stretch of the imagination, so I don't have any details about it other than the year.
My Dad's father, however was most definitely a car guy, and is the reason my father and I are car guys. He had a 1959 Lark hardtop coupe. This car is the reason I decided to join up on the board here, and try to do more research, and learn more about a brand I have always loved. Life has interesting timing, and I have found these past couple days to have been pretty interesting...allow me to explain. My Dad's father had passed away a few months ago, and we have since inherited a lot of odds and ends that my Grandmother did not want or need. In one box amid some other random papers, was a large collection of vintage car brochures and owners manuals. He had saved full line brochures for the 1948 Pontiac, Hudson, Buick, and Packard. My Dad concluded this was from when my Grandpa went shopping for his father's new car, since he ended up buying a new '48 Packard that year.
These were all in incredible condition and just a load of fun to look through, but the next find was the most interesting and exciting to me...the owners manual, accessories brochure, warranty, unused "preparation for new vehicle delivery" checklist, unused "service product report" carbon triplicate form, and last but not least...window sticker for his 1959 Lark that he bought new at Meisel Lincoln Mercury Inc, in Cleveland, Ohio. Not to mention the marked Studebaker-Packard Corp envelope it all came in. His '59 Lark hardtop coupe was black with a red interior and was loaded with about $500 worth of options, including the 259 c.i. V8, auto trans, white wall tires, cigar lighter, and a few more, bringing the grand total to $2912.10. So after going over all of this info and having a lot of fun looking through it, I decided to scour the internet to see what I could find. In addition to coming across this wonderful site, I found the 1959 Lark on ebay right now, which I also found posted here on the site. The timing of this is just wild to me, as you could tell from my description of my Grandpa's car, this Lark on ebay is just about identical to it, and makes me wish I had about $6,000!
So now I guess I'll apologize for the novel I just wrote, but like I said, the timing of getting all of this old paperwork and then seeing the identical sibling to my Grandpa's old Lark on ebay right now was just too much to ignore, and really lit a fire under me as far as my passion for Studebakers is concerned. I appreciate all of you taking the time to read this, and I hope to learn a lot here, and to find a Lark of my own.
-Bob
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