Paint: 62 Lark underhood paint color?

[Matthew Wendt]

Is the underside of a 62 lark hood the same as the Hawks in that they are just flat black primer?

Other than the edges, are any hinge surfaces or braces supposed to be body color?

Is the hood mat centered or offset side to side or front to back?

Thanks,
Matt

[StudeRich]

All the Lark Hoods I have ever seen were Body Color unless they were a replacement NOS Hood never painted correctly.
Same with Hawk Hoods.

The Hinges were unpainted Cad plate looking.

[blkstu60]

My '60 underhood matches the car, as well as hinges so forth.

[Matthew Wendt]

Thanks for the feedback. I know with certainty in 62 and later, Hawks are black. Anyone with an original 62 lark care to agree or disagree that they are actually painted body color?

I have the January Motortrend magazine with the Daytona Convertible article and it is hard to tell, but it looks black to me.

Thanks,
Matt

[Matthew Wendt]

I didn't get much of a response, can anyone else confirm if the underside is just black or is indeed body color. I am installing a new hood insulator this weekend and want to know for sure before gluing it down and reinstalling the hood.

Thanks,
Matt

[studegary]

I didn't get much of a response, can anyone else confirm if the underside is just black or is indeed body color. I am installing a new hood insulator this weekend and want to know for sure before gluing it down and reinstalling the hood.

Thanks,
Matt

It has been so long since I have seen a 1962 Lark that did not have any paint work done on it, that I decided not to offer any opinion (up to now, at least).
Perhaps R. Quinn has some factory pictures that show this feature or you could contact the SNM for factory information.
The large '62 Lark brochure (PD-62-08) does not give any pictures of this feature.
I seem to remember original Larks as having a primer color to the underside of the hood, but my memory may be off on this. Do not do a restoration based on this ancient memory.

[57pack]

For what it's worth...my 1962 Lark Daytona convertible was painted body color under hood and inner fenders and fire wall.
Purchased from original owners.

[Hallabutt]

Matt,

It has become my considered opinion that whether inner fenders, or underside of the hood depends on a good number of things being done on the production line at the time a particular car was assembled. There seems to be no consistency from year to year, or from car to car for that matter, regarding what was done, paint wise, under the hood.

While all the C/K cars that I have owned had color matching under-hood and inner fenders, I really hadn't paid any attention to my Larks. Larks in the 60's, 70's and 80's, were cheap disposable transportation. I had no interest in anything other then the way the way the car ran or drove. In 1988 upon my father's passing I got his low mileage, 1963 Daytona 2dr htp. It really made me a believer in what a good Lark was capable of. My stable now contains four Larks a 1960 V8
Deluxe 4dr wagon, (2) 1962 V8 Daytona convertibles, and the 1963 Daytona.

In 2008 I became the owner of the 1960 wagon. Found in the basement garage of a 97 year old women, where it had been untouched for 37 years, it still had it's original paint, chrome and upholstery. I was told, correctly, that it had a bad engine and that is why it was put away by the women's husband in 1970. After his passing in 1976 nobody ventured into the garage until the house was sold in 2008 when Mrs. Humphrey decided that it was time to move into an assisted living apartment. The brakes worked, we were able to start the car on the 40 year old gas, the automatic trans. had not lost any fluid, and we were able to move the car back and forth without adding a drop of any type of fluid! The car is amazing and when it came out of it's great storage it was like it had been in there for 6 months instead of 38 years.

When we pulled the engine I was troubled because the inner fenders and the underside of the hood were a dull black color. I had never remembered seeing any of my Studebakers having these parts painted black. The more parts that I took off the firewall and the inner fenders the more sure I was that this was the original factory finish. When I was forced to park the car outside for a month and the inner fenders began to pick up a little rust, I knew what I was looking at. It was the thin prime coat put on all the body parts to protect until they were top-coated. The lower part of the inner fenders, firewall and the underside of the hood all got this treatment and I could see exactly how it was done. By either masking or covering the area with some kind of stenciling material the process saved both time and paint, but whether it was authorized by management or just workers getting lazy I doubt that we will ever know for sure.

This stared me on a quest to find out how many Larks were produced like this. For the next 6 months I searched for verification of what I knew to be true, but there were just not that many unmolested Larks around. Not to worry, we were going to the national in Lancaster and I would see plenty of them. In a week at the National and something like 700 cars and I finally found a 1960, a restored four door. It had an AACA badge on the grill and it received first place points at the Studebaker concourse and it was the only legitimate concourse car that I saw with black under the hood! When I asked the owner about the black paint, he said that he had not restored the car but the previous owner, and restorer, was a stickler for detail that there was no way that he would have done it incorrectly. When I returned to find out how the judging had gone, he said great, that the only thing that he had been questioned about was the black inner fenders and lower firewall! The day we left Lancaster I did came across another 1960 Lark, an original black car from SB. While the paint shined on the upper body, the lower body was heavily rusted and the inner fenders, they were also heavily rusted too. They had never been top-coated! The 1960 Larks are the only year that I have been able to verify the use of this procedure, not so the under hood. I would love to hear from others with original early Larks.

My original 1962 Daytona convertible was never painted under the remains of it's fiberglass insulation. The inner fenders, however, were painted body color not unlike every other Lark I have seen except those made in 1960. Long story for the short answer that I have two with an unpainted underside of their hood.

[Jeff T.]

On a similar note, I scrapped a couple of circa 62 Champs years ago that did not have any paint on the wheel wells of the front fenders nor the underside of the hood, I figured that they left the factory primer alone.

Jeff T.

[studegary]

Matt,

It has become my considered opinion that whether inner fenders, or underside of the hood depends on a good number of things being done on the production line at the time a particular car was assembled. There seems to be no consistency from year to year, or from car to car for that matter, regarding what was done, paint wise, under the hood.

While all the C/K cars that I have owned had color matching under-hood and inner fenders, I really hadn't paid any attention to my Larks.

C/K cars from Vernon (LA), CA had their hood undersides painted body color (as well as the trunk interior). The South Bend cars were gray in these areas.
Since you are in WA, it is likely that your C/K cars were assembled in CA.

[studegary]

Early on, for the question in this topic/thread, I pulled out my large "'62 LARK" brochure (PD-62-08).
I have had this brochure for decades. I just noticed the small dealer stamp on it; "Main Sales & Service, Inc., 228 E. Main St.,Bay Shore, NY". Cathy and I are almost certain that this is where her father bought their new 1963 Cruiser.

[larkregal62]

My 62 lark regal 2dr ht is completely original with 32,000 orig miles. It has been garaged since new and never been painted .EvERYTHING under the hood (underside of hood, hinges,firewall,inner fenders,firewall, etc are ALL body color- same with the inside of the trunk. I am the 3rd owner of the car, and know its history and have verified it with the selling dealer,who is still in business selling used cars, so I am sure of the above facts. I will supply the serial number if that will help, but have the original window sticker from the car. Hope this puts the question to rest Gordon

[Hallabutt]

As I indicated, in my overly long response, there seems to be no consistency from year to year or even from car to car. Could it be that Studebaker left it up to the painter to decide, or were there differences in production procedures from shift to shift? I wonder if there is someone out there who was part of the process who would care to comment? Were there written directives which would shed some light on production line policy?

[larkregal62]

My car (in post 12) was built in South Bend--I have no knowledge of things on the "left" coast. May well have done things differently there. Still do!!



















'

[studegary]

My car (in post 12) was built in South Bend--I have no knowledge of things on the "left" coast. May well have done things differently there. Still do!!

'

When I referred to Vernon (LA) CA assembled cars, the reference was related to early C/K models. There were no California ("'left' coast") 1962 models. However, there were Hamilton, Canada 1962 models.