1964 Champs - T-Cabs - 8Es - forum registry

[62champ]

8E5-139338 - 112 WB - T-6 cab

Discussed on Studebaker Truck Talk, Oct. 2011

http://www.network54.com/Forum/23885/message/1318020358/ID+plate+on+Champ

[62champ]

8E7-22224 - 112 WB - T6 cab - 5sp/OD - 289 V8.

Production order:


My cousin saw this truck at Hot August Nights in Reno, Nevada in 1994 and had to have it. Truck had not only been meticulously restored, the guy who restored it even cut the bed down to fit the cab - not an easy job because the front panel and tailgate have to have the ends cut down, not out of the center. Instead of black, all the frame and suspension was painted a dove grey, and there was no place (even under the dash and in the stake holes) where you could tell it had once been blue...



Truck came to Texas on a redwood lumber truck and was driven to meets all over the Central Texas area. In 1996, I drove the truck up to South Bend for the May swap meet and car show. It goes without saying that there were a lot of vehicles on the Interstates that drove by it pretty slowly, and a number of Yellow trucking company drivers that blew their horns.

Drove it to Indiana and the International meet in Madison a few years after that. All together, it performed flawlessly and gave about 19 mpg. The 5 sp/OD was something to work also - loved the OD but 1st was pretty useless. My Uncle used to say, even with a 1000 lbs in the bed, in first gear, and tied to an immovable object, the rear tires would just dig a hole till it was resting on the pumpkin.









In about 2007, my cousin sold the truck to a fellow in Amarillo who was really keen on having all the 5 sp/OD Champs he could find - think he ended up with five or more at one point.

Picture of the truck when Steve Blake had it:





The truck has been sold since then - just hope it has found a good home.

Well it has reappeared. Posted the second week of January, 2017, on Ebay being sold by a classic car dealer out of New Braunfels, Texas. A couple of changes - it used to have a cover over the bed made from the same vinyl as the seat - but still looks pretty much the same.











February, 2021 - truck now appears to be in Germany.

[62champ]

8E12-6729 - 122 WB - T6 cab

Climatizer

[62champ]

Pics of 8E5 139563, Post #7.

Got it - added a photo link to your VIN above.

Is it an original lettered grill truck? Always thought they could have done that from the beginning - or putting it between two of the cross pieces...

[KOOL R2]

I have a 1964 Champ Serial Number E5 138733 5 speed OD It has a 289 V8 and is presently being fitted with A/C The engine has been converted to R1 specs.
The tag on the firewall indicated 8E T6.
I think that the cab has been placed on a very solid V8 chassis

[62champ]

8E5-139339 - 112 WB - T-6 cab

[SN-60]

WOW!.....the Champ in post #24 is really beautiful!

[62champ]

Photos for truck in post #20:

[stude1964]

I have a '64 Champ 8E 5 138254. It was originally a 6 cyl., stick , no OD T4. It currently has a 259 , T 85 OD set up. The truck is now a T6 with full tint in all windows including the slider. All chrome and stainless are correct for a T6 except the front bumper was chromed. It is Apache Red with an NOS interior. The bed is a short fleetside ( P 2). It has a factory rear step bumper. Also added was a factory Carter AFB (3540s) and Don Simmons 2" dual exhausts which exit at the rear wheels. The truck will also be getting a PS set up from Stude parts in the near future. I'm sure 62champ has a pic or two to post.
*** The truck has a '63 SN though from what I gather looking at T Cab production numbers.
Rob in PA.

[62champ]

Here is a few pics of the truck in post #24. Going to post the serial on the '63 page...









And it still goes to work on occasion...

[53k]

In 1969 or 1970 I bought a '64 8E7 Champ, serial number E720025, from the original owner. He was the owner of a foreign car salvage yard in Berkeley, California, but he was a Studebaker guy at heart and the Champ was his yard truck. I knew he was a Studebaker guy because I had bought a wrecked '64 Avanti from him earlier and it was the only American car in the yard. I don't know how he came up with the fabric, but all his office chairs were upholstered in the unobtanium '53 Commander cloth. I never got a production order, but as I remember, he told me that the Champ came with a five-speed transmission, but he had so much trouble with clutch linkage that he removed the five-speed and installed a Powershift automatic. My memory is fuzzy, but at some point he installed a '63 Lark front panel. The truck was the deluxe model with a sliding back glass. It had the correct Champ pushbutton radio, a correct rear step bumper, West Coast mirrors and a 3.73 Twin Traction rear.

There was no way to know how many miles it had on it as the speedometer had been broken for some time. The tinny Dodge long bed was really beat up, wavy floor, numerous dents from the inside, no tailgate and the 259 V-8 was VERY tired. It ran, but barely. I ordered a new tailgate from Standard Surplus, price $12.50, shipping $17.50, new chains and some other things. I yanked the 259 (probably gave it to Bob Peterson) and installed the '64 Avanti R-1 engine. I had run in to the Avanti's previous owner at Ben Begier Studebaker in San Leandro where he was getting his replacement Avanti updated. He told me that the Avanti engine was a new short block with only 1500 miles on it when the car was wrecked so I went directly to the yard and bought the wrecked remains. Not bad for a $200 investment.

About the same time I bought a '61 Cruiser with a seized engine from a wrecking yard in Hayward. I pulled the aftermarket air conditioner and the power brake booster from it and installed it in the Champ. The Champ was originally the light green color offered then and it needed painting. Since the Cruiser had a red and black interior, I decided to paint the Champ red and I used the Cruiser door panels and other inside trim and mounted the Cruiser bumper in place of the ugly factory steel bumper. I also installed the padded sun visors from the Cruiser and the door light switches to make the manual cab interior light work when the doors opened. I also had found a mint red and black seat in a '64 Champ in a Hayward wrecking yard and that helped influence my color choice. The wife and I worked on the bed dents, used a lot of body filler and I borrowed Bob Peterson's compressor and sprayed the truck red in my driveway- amateur, but looked OK and didn't peel off or anything.

I saw a nice camper shell, made for a long bed Dodge, at a lot in Hayward, but when I went back to buy it, they had sold it. The dealer told me that he could arrange for me to go to the factory and have them build a camper shell right on the truck so I took him up on the deal and really came out well. The factory was in nearby Gilroy and, with having it built on the truck, I was able to have them install a sliding front window to match the truck slider.

I was being transferred to Massachusetts so I prepped the truck- put in a 3/4-inch plywood floor in the bed and carpeted it. Then I built a little shelf with a power outlet (cigarette lighter socket) so we could use my nine-inch Panasonic TV in the back. When we leaving the Bay Area I had hooked up the 18-foot, 3800 pound Shasta travel trailer, loaded two kids, the cat and two Avanti rear quarters in the bed and started out. Since I had 30 days leave, we went north to Seattle where we visited my wife's cousin, then went east by way of Yellowstone and Kansas where we dropped off the kids with grandparents and went on a cheap college alumni trip to Spain. On our return we hooked up the trailer again and went on to Massachusetts.

From Massachusetts we came to Virginia then West Virginia with the faithful Champ still working hard. During the time in Virgina I installed a '59-'60 Lark clock and I enlarged the instrument cluster holes and installed a '64 instrument cluster and a 160mph certified '64 speedometer that I had picked in a Standard Surplus visit. Also in the Virginia days, premium gas was getting expensive so I worked a deal to give the R-1 engine to JDP where his end of the deal was to do the labor of pulling the R-1 and installing a '64 Cruiser 289. Incidentally, the R-1 lives on in the possession of Jim Turner. Unfortunately in 1983 the end came for the Champ. I had sent my son to town to pick up a screen door and on the way back, when he started in to a turn and turned the steering wheel, nothing turned and he drifted into the path of another truck thanks to failure of the poor steering system in 8Es. While speed was fairly low and injuries were minor the truck was totaled. I bought it back from the insurance company and parted it out. The camper shell was not on the truck when the accident occurred, but I set it back on the truck down below the barn. I was going to sell it to as it was perfect for the long wide beds, but in the winter we had a very heavy, wet snowfall and an avalanche off the barn roof crushed the camper shell (along with two Firebirds my son had parked there). Many of the parts live on- the Cruiser 289 went in to a '63 Cruiser that is still driven. The thumbnail pictures below are unfortunately scans of Kodak instant camera prints and the quality isn't great

[62champ]

Thanks Paul - according to TW article, that truck would fall in the '63 model run. Will post the VIN over there. Great story.

[62champ]

From Rob Reese in Easton, PA:

1964 Champ 8E5-138940.

The cowl tag is 8E-T 6. The truck was a six, stick, no OD. It supplied the firewall repair for my Dad's project. The backend of the truck was made into a trailer. All tags and title are in my possession. All got recycled except for rotted cab and outer fenders. I know we used at least one steering box from the above to fix my Dad's T Cab. Not much was "lost".

[62champ]

8E5-139461 - 112 WB - T6 cab - Ebay, early August 2015

climitizer, radio - straight three speed.









Update Aug 2018 - Announced that truck will be sold at auction, Saratoga Springs, NY, September 2018.

[62champ]

8E7-21405 - 122 WB - T6 cab

V8 - appears to be four speed, with climitizer and T6 trim. Serial number shows to be a '64 1/2 ton, but wheels indicate 3/4 ton. Possibly a cab/frame marriage - who knows.