A sortof Studebaker question

[jnormanh]

I've been looking at all the inventory of Studebaker NOS parts which are still around, and there are tons of them.

So why is it that other makes which went under, Nash, Hudson, Packard for example, there is almost nothing left? Were there never any? Were they scraped? Did Studebaker continue making parts after they stopped making cars? Did Studebaker just have lousy inventory control, and made too many parts in the first place?

And another question, along the same line. There are now available almost every single part for many British cars of the 60s, including new complete body shells. Take Austin Healey, for example. Many fewer were built than most Studebaker models, yet the aftermarket finds it profitable to reproduce almost everything. You could, excepting only a very few parts, build a new Austin Healey from scratch, yet total production was less than 100K cars, and the last was built in '67.

[JBOYLE]

To answer the last part of your question...
A large percentage of Austin Healey's still survive.
Even if it's only 1/3 or 1/2, that's between 30 and 50 thousand cars. That's a lot.
There were millions of Studebakers made, but I wouldn't think that there are more than 100,000 existant...and even fewer on the road.
In the case of AH's...they are:
Cars that retain a loyal fan base and interest.
Cars that (when restored) are worth big money (some models..like the Big Healeys) so they are [u]worth</u> restoring. When you restore a car, you're going to need parts.
It's possible that some AH's have been restored 3 or four times since they left the factory.
Compare this with (to use an extreme example) a boring 4 door family car of one of the makes you mentioned. Outside of a small fan base, there isn't a lot of people waiting in line to own/restore one. No demand, so no one is going to spend money on tooling up for some spare parts.

As far as the first question...I've always thought there were a lot of Studebaker parts because:
1. The basic parts were used from 1953 to 66.
2. They didn't know they were shutting down...spo they continued to make spare parts.
3. I have a hunch that inventory control, as you suggest, may not have been all that great.
But I could be wrong, I'm no expert like many on the forum when it comes to Stude history.

63 Avanti R1 2788
1914 Stutz Bearcat
(George Barris replica)

Washington State

[candbstudebakers]

I remember hearing years back that any car co. in the USA had to have on hand a supply of surplus part to last 10 years after they stop building , that is one of the reasons they went to GM engines the last 2 years knowing Gm engines would be around for years to come and they stopped building the Studebaker engines in 64, with many different models that would mean a lot of parts to have in supply Nash, Hudson and Packard all stopped earlier so their parts were not so much in demand back then and who knows where they went, should be Packard parts around with the Studebaker inventory, well that's what I remember on the subject...Bob

Bob Peterson / C & B Studebakers

Castro Valley, CA

[maxpower1954]

Over 20 years after buying my first Studebaker, I still marvel at how available NOS parts are.

The opposite situation exists with AMC. After Chrysler bought them in 1987, the parts inventory was largely destroyed in order to help create demand for newer Chrysler products. Russ Farris

[Flashback]

It was a matter of the union and Studebaker employee lay off
protection. One of the reasons they are no longer in business.
Many, way too many, spare parts were made. GOOD FOR US NOW!!!!!!!
Tex E. Grier

[Skip Lackie]

As to the first question:
Studebaker had long had a relationship with a company called Standard Surplus, which bought up leftover parts from the production line and also occasional overstock of boxed, part-number-labeled spare parts. This company then sold some of this material to dealers or others needing parts no longer available from the Stude parts depot. When scrap prices went up, they'd scrap some of the excess. When scrap prices were low, they sat on the inventory. SS also brokered in other surplus auto parts, though their biggest business was Stude parts.

When Studebaker shut down in 1966, the Studebaker factory parts depot no longer had any need to make room for new parts, so their inventory remained static. In the early 70s, the Studebaker Automotive Sales Corp (the original SASCO) sold their remaining parts inventory to the Avanti Motor Co (which built the Avanti II), Avanti Parts Co (a company formed to continue to supply Stude's remaining dealer network), and Standard Surplus (which was renamed Newman & Altman after the two families that owned both it and Avanti Motors). Eventually, N&A bought out Avanti Parts, too. But the key point here is that the inventory had not been purged since 1966, and much of the inventory (the stuff that had been bought as surplus from Stude by SS) still contained most of what it had had in 1960.

Packard's parts inventory was in Detroit, and only a small portion of it was ever moved to South Bend after Packard ceased production in 1956. Studebaker-Packard scrapped the rest. Hudson and Nash became American Motors, which (like GM, Ford, and Chrysler) purged their parts depot of obsolescent parts every year in order to make room for new inventory. When Chrysler bought AMC, they scrapped most of the left-over AMC items. While the car companies are legally obliged to provide parts to dealers for warranty work, and have a moral obligation to provide mechanical parts for a few additional years, they have no similar obligation to stock body or soft parts once warranties have expired.

While we are very lucky that a set of circumstances conspired to "freeze" the Stude parts depot contents, there are some big holes in the inventory. For example, there are stories of hundreds of C/K front fenders being thrown out of 5th story windows on their way to the crusher. And no one has every found an NOS 64-66 trunk lid.

Skip Lackie
Washington DC

[studegary]

Good summary, Skip.

Many of the larger and heavier truck parts, including much sheet metal, was also scrapped. In the 1970s, no one thought that people would be restoring old Studebaker trucks.

Gary L.
Wappinger, NY

SDC member since 1968
Studebaker enthusiast much longer