Another neat pix

[JDP]

Studebaker On The Net http://stude.com
64 GT Hawk
64 R2 4 speed Challenger
63 R2 4 speed GT Hawk
53 Street rod

[Roscomacaw]

Wonder if any of those folks are alive today.

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[DilloCrafter]

I don't know, but do you see the one in the center, wearing the white apron? An apron like that is on eBay right now, under the Collectibles category:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Studebaker-assembly-workers-apron_W0QQitemZ6586328447QQcategoryZ14028QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

1955 1/2 Ton Pickup

[BRUCESTUDE]

THOSE ARE GREAT PIX!!I LOVE FACTORY PHOTOS, ESPECIALLY 1950-'52 ERA.
KEEP 'EM COMING, AND THANKS FOR SHARING!

[JDP]

OK, here's two more:





Studebaker On The Net http://stude.com
64 GT Hawk
64 R2 4 speed Challenger
63 R2 4 speed GT Hawk
53 Street rod

[tstclr]

Are there any photos from around 1963 with Larks?

Todd


63 Lark 2dr Sedan

[bonehead007]

Are there any factory photos around of the factory making the "Packardbakers" ???? Some Avantis too....

[garyash]

Here's one from 1947 (Life magazine, Nov. 16, 1946). If you ever wondered why it may be tough to put things like a hood latch or radiator in or out of your car, consider that the radiator went into the front end assembly first and then FOUR GUYS lifted the whole front end onto the car. Lots of things were done this way in the factory that did not help servicing the cars later.


Gary Ash
Dartmouth, MA
'48 M5
'65 Wagonaire Commander
'63 Wagonaire Standard

https://www.studegarage.com

[Roscomacaw]

Gary, is there a whole article about Studebaker in that Life??? Looking at those front ends - if they were lined up in a sequence to match bodies of the same color - it's interesting to note that the first two are what looks like a green color and the rest appear to be a light blue or some shade other than those first two. I wonder it they ran cars in runs of the same color for a bit at a time. That would make sense so far as the painting operation went, no?[^]

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[DilloCrafter]

Aww, who cares? They're just a bunch of old cars.








...just kidding [}]

1955 1/2 Ton Pickup

[Guest]

These pictures are excellent. I hope there is more.

Thanks



Restore it, don't replace it.Keep the Studebaker reproduction industry going

[garyash]

OK, sports fans, here are a couple more. The Life magazine is dated Sept. 16, 1946 and has a picture of two West Point football players on the cover. In the center of the magazine is a full-color, 10 page article on the new 1947 Studebakers and the company. Great addition to anyones Studebaker literature collection. Dick Quinn helped me to find the article.
Here is an assembly line diagram and a picture that was spread over most of two pages of part of the assembly line. It shows cars of various colors coming down the line. There is also a picture showing painted bodies being stored, so they may have painted a batch of blue or green bodies, then mixed the assembly based on orders. The article notes that while one car a minute was coming off the line during a 9 hour shift, it took about 4 days for a car to pass all the way down the line.



Gary Ash
Dartmouth, MA
'48 M5
'65 Wagonaire Commander
'63 Wagonaire Standard

https://www.studegarage.com

[Roscomacaw]

I love photos like this that give us a tiny glimpse into the birth of our treasures. How many of us ever give a thought to all the anonymous (and long-departed) folks who's hands have touched our cars as they were assembled?

Heh - look at the cables lying loose on the floor. OSHA would have something to say about that!
Notice the fella looking back from inside the closest car on the right. Got a tatoo on his left forearm. What ya wanna bet he was a sailor just a few years before?
Also note the paper protection over the door panel.

Look at the grease-penciled "W" on the rear glass of the car on the left. Reckon there was 5 after that W[?] The W5 (Regal) edition would have had the stainless reveal moulding around the glass, as that one does. Maybe if the original of that Life photo is stashed in some archive somewhere we could know if my guess is right.

All in all, a great time to work at Studebaker! Couldn't build cars fast enough to meet demand! Factory working shifts around the clock.
In my collecting of body tags over the years, I got to wondering why the body tags from this era sometimes had punch-marks on them that were obviously done BEFORE the car got painted. There's one to as many as four punch-marks on some of the tags - and they're rather random in placement. What could it mean???
Well, Richard Quinn asked that question for me, in his "Almanac" column some years back. And in short order we got an answer from a fella who used to work at Studebaker during these bustling, postwar years. The mystery divits turned out to be a way to denote which shift was responsible for welding up a given body tub!

Here's some examples I pulled to show. After the '51 model year, these cease to show up on any tags I've seen. Of course, by then, the seller's market had turned the other way and extra shifts weren't necessary.[V]

Also, since I was flipping thru the tags - looking for divited oldies - I decided to share a couple of 64 tags. Note that the green one would be the FIRST '64 Challenger body to have been welded up![:0] Starting with the '64 models, the first body of each line started with number 101. So this would have been the 1st V8 Challenger 2-dr (ala PBW) and then there's the tag for the 10th 64 V8 Commander body. Note that it's the same color as the PBW.
And then there's apic of the PBW's body tag. This shows it would have been the 243rd V8 Challenger built.





Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[garyash]

I went to the www.life.com web site and was able to search through the available pictures. See the FAQs page and click on the link to search images. I used the Advanced Search feature to look through from 1-1-1936 to today on "studebaker" and found 18 images. Here are links to four of them:

Amazing spread of all 1954 Studebaker cars and truck models and 1954 Packards. I'd love a big print of this in color. What's that sports car in the middle front?

http://www.timelifepictures.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=50392528&cdi=0

Avanti assembly line - many cars

http://www.timelifepictures.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=50390137&cdi=0

End of Avanti assembly line

http://www.timelifepictures.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=50390133&cdi=0

Raymond Loewy and bullet nose. Caption says it's 1948. Is this early peek at bullet nose or just wrong date?

http://www.timelifepictures.com/source/search/details_pop.aspx?iid=50471368&cdi=0

It doesn't seem to be possible to get prints of these images without paying hundreds of $$$. The whole site is set up for commercial advertising, not personal or non-profit use. Too bad!

Gary Ash
Dartmouth, MA
'48 M5
'65 Wagonaire Commander
'63 Wagonaire Standard

https://www.studegarage.com

[Dwain G.]

Gary Ash wrote:
Amazing spread of all 1954 Studebaker cars and truck models and 1954 Packards. I'd love a big print of this in color. What's that sports car in the middle front?
............................
Appears to be a Packard Panther. Fiberglass body, supercharged straight-8, 3 built.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
And Bob, speaking of the paper covering on the door panels. I remember several of our Studes coming with that paper, and my dad would leave it on absolutely as long as he could. Until it was just tatters. Thinking back, he must have asked the dealer to leave it on. You would think it would be removed during the pre-delivery service.

Dwain G.