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**Dads Baby** · 05-24-2008, 09:55 AM

Happy Birthday Betty! What a great tribute to her! Have a great time tonight!

Carey
Packard Hawk

**arkiejazz** · 05-24-2008, 10:52 AM

[)]Really nice story and great pictures! Thanks for sharing.[)]

steve blake

Old Orange

http://tinyurl.com/kr3gt

zack's '62 Studeker Champ

**lstude** · 05-24-2008, 03:51 PM

Thanks for those pictures. I have never seen that building. Love the Lark too!

Leonard Shepherd

http://leonardshepherd.com/

**2R5** · 05-24-2008, 04:10 PM

Gee Steve ...you should of told me you were planning on coming to Dunnville , I would of made an effort to go tonight . I live about 1/2 mile fom that cruise. I just worked around the yard today to much I guess and didn't have any energy left to get the Studebaker out

Tomorrow for sure though

HOME of THE FRIED GREEN TOMATO
"IF YOU WANT THE SMILES YOU NEED TO DO THE MILES "

1950 2R5
1960 Champ
1964 Daytona HT

**Clem64** · 05-24-2008, 04:28 PM

Steve T:

Thanks for posting the photos of your Lark in front of the Hamilton Plant. Since Clem is a Hamilton built 64' Cruiser, I have an extra interest in anything to do with the plant.

Dean Croft
Roseburg,OR

CLEM
DESEE

**Steve T** · 05-24-2008, 05:41 PM

Hi Bob--

Well, as you may have seen on the other thread, I didn't make it to Dunnville anyway...after trundling around Hamilton trouble-free all afternoon with nary a whiff of anything about to go wrong, she abruptly lost all drive on Hwy#54, and ended up returning to Hamilton atop a late-model International tiltbed. (I got some interesting pix of her during loading...including one from the driver's seat out the passenger window at a 20-degree angle that makes it appear I'm driving a wheelstander!) Crying shame, as it was such an utterly gorgeous day. I'm the very soul of pessimism, though, and had earlier commented that I was nervous because everything, including the Lark, was going far too well today. Voila![

]

Two kids, one on an ATV and one on a dirtbike, were tearing around the field beside Hwy#54 where we coasted to a stop; one of them stopped by the fence abeam us and asked if we needed help, his dad is a mechanic. Another chap going the other way on #54 in a lovely early-60s Chevy hardtop stopped and let us use his celphone to holler for a hauler. The mechanic arrived presently. I'd been thinking first tranny (nope); then throttle linkage (nope); then fuel pump; the mech (also a dragrace driver at Cayuga) thought not, rather a simple blockage in either a fuel line or the filter, or maybe a really dirty carb. The hauler guy had also run drags at Cayuga and it transpired he knew the mech well; he too thought some sort of blockage was the culprit. We shall see; soon as I can I'll get Betty towed to someplace with either a hoist or a pit for a look-see. Drives me nuts: when the Lark runs, she runs so dang well! And my digi camera likes her, too; always makes her look shinier than she really is...[^]

S.

**Steve T** · 05-24-2008, 06:03 PM

Carey/Steve/Leonard/Dean--

Betty says thanx for the Bday wishes and hopes to go "vroom" again soon...

One of the numerous reasons I opted for this particular Lark was that she's a Hamilton car, and a photo session at the plant was one of my main objectives once I acquired her. It's sad that so many other Stude plants (must be almost all of them, now) have fallen...but way cool for us Stude-history enthusiasts that this one not only still stands but is in fairly good shape, somewhat accessible, and to boot, it yet says STUDEBAKER in 58-year-old painted letters way up on its north wall.

What I really want to do is get inside the plant perimeter sometime and get a shot of Betty outside the door where the completed new cars exited. ("Cheated" last December, and faked that shot beside the Otis Elevator plant machine shop door...wrong end of the complex, but the look was convincing!)

And I'm only 30% kidding about a Stude museum in the plant. Even one bay of the facility could house a fine sampling of Studes and other Canadian-built cars...

S.

**Mark57** · 05-25-2008, 09:22 AM

Well Steve, you've convinced me to swing by that building when I pass through Hamilton next week.

<h5>Mark
'57 Transtar Deluxe
Vancouver Island </h5>

**Steve T** · 05-25-2008, 03:08 PM

Hey Mark--

Are you coming east in a Stude? And regardless of that, which day and what time do you think you'd be coming into Hamilton? Besides the Stude plant (hey! it's now a tourist draw! I'll have to call City Hall and tell them...),

there are cruises every evening of the week here, all of them worth a look. (Unfortunately my Lark won't be at any of this week's...now that I'm finally on days again...)[V]

Assuming you're arriving via Hwy#403 off #401 from London, here's the best way to get to the Stude plant: off 403 at the bottom of the escarpment at Main Street East, then Main right through downtown (keep the windows rolled up[

]) to Victoria Street, which will be one way northward (left turn), up Victoria to Ferrie Street where the Otis plant is...the Stude plant was the eastern half of that complex and extends in an L shape along Ferrie St, Emerald St and Mars Avenue. To see the STUDEBAKER sign on the north wall, get back onto Victoria and continue north to Burlington Street; turn right and look right just past the big tank farm and there it is, painted in 1950 by the E.L.Ruddy Sign Co.

Cheers

Steve T

**53k** · 05-27-2008, 05:35 AM

quote:Originally posted by Steve T

Did a second photo shoot recently with my 62 Lark around the former Stude plant where Betty was built in May 1962; here are two of the resulting images. As can be seen the plant is in pretty decent nick considering it has stood largely unused for 42 years. ...
On Mars Avenue at the east end of the plant; this was as near as I could get to where the Lark exited the plant when brand new...aptly enough 46 years ago today to the very day, May 23, 1962.

That looks like the yard where my Wagonaire was sitting when I picked it up at Hamilton on May 5, 1964.

[img=right]http://www.frontiernet.net/~thejohnsons/Forum%20signature%20pix/R-4.JPG[/img=right][img=right]http://www.frontiernet.net/~thejohnsons/Forum%20signature%20pix/64L.JPG[/img=right][img=right]http://www.frontiernet.net/~thejohnsons/Forum%20signature%20pix/64P.jpg[/img=right][img=right]http://www.frontiernet.net/~thejohnsons/Forum%20signature%20pix/53K.jpg[/img=right]Paul Johnson, Wild and Wonderful West Virginia
'53 Commander Starliner (since 1966)
'64 Daytona Wagonaire (original owner)
'64 Daytona Convertible (2006)
Museum R-4 engine
1962 Gravely Model L (Studebaker-Packard serial plate)
1972 Gravely Model 430 (Studebaker name plate, Studebaker Onan engine)

**Mark57** · 05-27-2008, 07:04 AM

quote:Originally posted by Steve T

Hey Mark--

Are you coming east in a Stude? And regardless of that, which day and what time do you think you'd be coming into Hamilton? Besides the Stude plant (hey! it's now a tourist draw! I'll have to call City Hall and tell them...),

there are cruises every evening of the week here, all of them worth a look. (Unfortunately my Lark won't be at any of this week's...now that I'm finally on days again...)[V]

Assuming you're arriving via Hwy#403 off #401 from London, here's the best way to get to the Stude plant: off 403 at the bottom of the escarpment at Main Street East, then Main right through downtown (keep the windows rolled up[

]) to Victoria Street, which will be one way northward (left turn), up Victoria to Ferrie Street where the Otis plant is...the Stude plant was the eastern half of that complex and extends in an L shape along Ferrie St, Emerald St and Mars Avenue. To see the STUDEBAKER sign on the north wall, get back onto Victoria and continue north to Burlington Street; turn right and look right just past the big tank farm and there it is, painted in 1950 by the E.L.Ruddy Sign Co.

Cheers

Steve T

Hi Steve, I'll be flying into Hamilton on Thursday then headed west towards Windsor, coming back through on the way to Niagara Falls where I have a business meeting starting on Sunday. Appreciate the directions, I'll be sure to "cruise" by in my Brand X rental.

<h5>Mark
'57 Transtar Deluxe
Vancouver Island </h5>

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