There's a reason it's called trivia...

[Play Wagon]

Okay, so I've had a hunch for a long time that may have no basis in fact, but, here goes: For a long time I've noticed that a lot of '59 Larks have '60 grilles, taillamp lenses and, often, turn signal grilles. Also, apparently, NOS '59 radiator grilles have been scarce for a long time (I have one on standby, thank you). Certainly, some of these pieces have been replaced along the way due to collision, convenience, preference or whatever with what was readily at hand. So, tell me if my idea is totally bogus...I've wondered if, since the demand for the '59s was so unexpectedly high, that production of certain of the components couldn't keep up with sales, and, possibly, later '59s were fitted with fresh '60 grilles and such. If Studebaker (or their suppliers) ran out of the '59s, it seems they might just have decided to use the tooling for the next year's models they probably had anyway, to print and use the '60 items. Anyone know...?
Cheers,
JSC

[Warren Webb]

I doubt that since the side intakes on the 60 mirror the look of the grille. However, the production figures of the 60 fell short of what turned out to be a very good year with the 59 so possibly production planners didn't allow for the difference & had an excess of grilles when 60 production stopped. Also figure that the Champ used the 60 side grilles for the 1960 model run but went back to the 59 style from 61 on. Using the side grille's on the Champ may have used up a good number of the excess for that but not the grille since the Champ grille was of course completely different.

[Skip Lackie]

It sounds logical, but I don't think it's true. If it had been the case, I believe Fred Fox or someone else would have reported on it by now. Both the 59 and 60 Lark grilles and parking light grilles were available for quite some time -- I had no trouble finding all three pieces for both years in the 1980s -- but that was thirty years ago. Production of 1960 models did fall short of expectations, so there may very well have been a lot of 60 grilles left over for Newman & Altman to purchase and sell cheaply. If they were cheap enough, most people needing a new 59 grille would have bought a 60 instead.

[Chris_Dresbach]

To this day there is still a plethora of NOS '60 grilles available. Not sure on '59s. Something like this happening at Studebaker wouldn't surprise me at all.