Original Studillac serial numbers

[brngarage]

I may have discovered an original Studillac. It is a '53 Champion C body (coupe) with an early style Cadillac engine (haven't checked the engine number yet)). Does anyone know the serial numbers of the real, authentic Studillacs?

[StudeRich]

Since they were built and sold as New Cars, wouldn't they all be built using Commander Starliner Hardtop, V8 Overdrive Cars?

[brngarage]

Rich, I don't know whether they were Commanders or overdrive cars or Starliners or all of those. This one is equipped with Hydramatic.

[studegary]

I do not believe that a list of the Serial Numbers exists for Frick Studillacs.
I do believe that most, if not all of the Frick Studillacs started as Commander Starliners. There is a possibility that one, or more, was built using a Commander Starlight body. I strongly doubt that Frick would have built one using a Champion.

[Studebaker Wheel]

No such list exists. Some cars were brought into Frick's shop by their owners for conversion and some Bill bought new from his nearby dealer Balport Studebaker Sales and Service on West Sunrise Hwy in Freeport, NY. Of course Studebaker had no idea that their cars were going to be modified and certainly would not have approved of it had the known (though I am sure they were just pleased to see another sale!). In any event there was no such serial records kept. Bill when asked said that he had no idea how many he built. He was too busy building them to count!

[clonelark]

Didn't he put Mercury brakes on his cars? If the Champion spindles are the same as Commanders maybe he just changed the springs also. That could be a give away to help determine is if it was a Frick car.

[rockinhawk]

Check Matthew Burnette's Blog. He did extensive research on them.

[brngarage]

Thanks Neil. How do I find Matthew's blog?

[mbstude]

I don't look at this forum anymore, but StudeGary emailed me (Thanks Gary) about this thread so I thought I'd chime in. My old blog website is still up, but it's so old that the pictures are all dead so it isn't really useful anymore. That said, I've scraped up just as much Frick Studillac info as I could get my hands on over the last decade. Earlier this year I owned a confirmed (by a gentleman who worked for Bill Frick Motors) original Studillac, one of 5 remaining cars that I'm aware of. I'm always crossing my fingers that another Frick car comes to light, but the fact is that more individuals and other shops did Caddie engine swaps into Studes than Frick did. Frick simply made a business out of it and as a result did roughly 200 cars in 53 and 54.

It's thought that all of the Frick cars were Commanders, there wouldn't have been any reason to do a swap in a "weaker" Champion (anyone that could afford the cost could afford to buy the nicer Commander). Almost all of the cars he converted were K body hardtops, though there's speculation that he did one or two C bodies and two Conestoga wagons. Frick Jr. (who worked for his father in the '50's) told me once that, "Dad just loved that Caddie engine, and he'd put one in anything if someone would pay him to do it."

It's also known that no two Frick Studillacs were alike. They were custom built hot rods and each one was done to the owner's specific taste. Everything that he offered was an extra cost option. As far as all of them having larger brakes.. No. If you wanted the bigger brakes, Hydromatic trans, 12 volt electrics, etc, you paid extra for it, so not all of the cars got those changes. The only common trait that I've found among all of the remaining "known" cars is that they all have hand built traction bars. I've seen (pictures) of the bars from 3 of the cars, and all 3 are made slightly different but are identical in how they work. Keep in mind that Frick had a handful of guys working for him so there probably wasn't a lot of consistency.

I've learned to never say never, so I won't rule out the possibility that Frick did do a conversion on a Champion. And even if it wasn't Frick.. A '53 Stude with a Caddie engine is about as cool as it gets. If you can send pictures, I'd love to see them and I'll give you my opinion on it (whatever that's worth. ) mbstude(at)gmail(dot)com is my email address.

Here's Frick's option list. Note that everything "extra" was extra money, and not all of the cars got these options.



This is the car I owned. It photographed well and the engine ran strong, but it needed a lot more restoration work that I could give it. A collector in Minnesota, who happens to own one of the other 5 remaining cars, offered to pay my price so the car went north. I took the money and bought a nice Studebaker pickup that I'm driving the wheels off of.

Anyway, this car was ordered as a Commander with a straight 3 speed and sent to New York. My guess is that is may have been one of the cars that Frick purchased from Balport Motors, but I can't confirm it as the production order didn't list a specific location. It would make sense with the straight 3 speed though; no need to pay extra for overdrive if you're planning to replace the driveline. FWIW, Frick did purchase all of his Caddie engines straight from Detroit, and my car had a '53 vintage 331".



The stock air filter and AFB carb were my additions. Everything else was done by previous owners.



I may have better pictures, but this gives you an idea of the traction bars that Frick made.



And on one of the other cars. Same style as on the car I owned.



Anyway, sorry if this post comes off as a bunch of ramblings, but hopefully it'll help clarify a few things and give you some ideas as to what to look for. As Mr. Lindstrom and Mr. Quinn said, there never was a recording of serial numbers. Bill Frick was a hot rodder who was too busy having fun to be bothered with documenting anything.

[brngarage]

Thanks Matt. I presume the one I found is not a Bill Frick job, but it is still pretty cool.