Back in 2001, I bought a cheap car (an '88 Pontiac) for our daughter. On the lot the dealer had a 63 Lark which interested me much more than the Pontiac did. He sold be both cars for $450. The daughter's Pontiac blew up a while ago, but the Lark is about ready to hit the road again. The Lark had been sitting since 1997. I found this forum a few months ago, and because of this forum, I've learned a lot about my car plus I joined the SDC. I went to the York Swap meet too. I still have some questions: From what I've read here, my car must be a "Standard" model. It has a 6 cylinder engine and manual transmission with NO overdrive. It has rubber floor mats. It has a heater, but not much else.
Question 1) The "glove box" is supposed to be one of those "vanity" style glove boxes, but all that was there when I got the car is what looked like a home made bin that was screwed into the spot where the vanity glove bow should have been. It did have blue vinyl on it that matched the rest of the dashboard. Was this the way it came? I don't see any evidence that anything else was ever there.
Question 2) The dash light switch has three positions ..."off", middle and "on". Nothing happens in the middle position. There is a rheostat on the bottom of the dashboard (near the ignition key). Was this to dim the dash lights in the middle position?
Question 3) The headlights are set up with the low beams towards the grill and the high beams on the outboard side of the car. This is the opposite of any other car I've seen. Is this the way Studebaker built them?
Question 4) When I first got the car, I thought somebody took off all the chrome trim pieces to repaint the car and forgot to put them back on. The ONLY "trim" on the car was two "Studebaker" labels on the front fenders. There is nothing else. Is that ALL the trim they put on these cars?
This is a beautifully simple car that is refreshingly easy to work on. I'm looking forward to driving it soon so I can see if I like driving it. I have several other (non-Stude) old cars (from 1937 to 1979) but it seems the Studebaker is one of the easiest to work on and get parts for! Amazing!
Thanks.
MARC
Punxsutawney, PA
Question 1) The "glove box" is supposed to be one of those "vanity" style glove boxes, but all that was there when I got the car is what looked like a home made bin that was screwed into the spot where the vanity glove bow should have been. It did have blue vinyl on it that matched the rest of the dashboard. Was this the way it came? I don't see any evidence that anything else was ever there.
Question 2) The dash light switch has three positions ..."off", middle and "on". Nothing happens in the middle position. There is a rheostat on the bottom of the dashboard (near the ignition key). Was this to dim the dash lights in the middle position?
Question 3) The headlights are set up with the low beams towards the grill and the high beams on the outboard side of the car. This is the opposite of any other car I've seen. Is this the way Studebaker built them?
Question 4) When I first got the car, I thought somebody took off all the chrome trim pieces to repaint the car and forgot to put them back on. The ONLY "trim" on the car was two "Studebaker" labels on the front fenders. There is nothing else. Is that ALL the trim they put on these cars?
This is a beautifully simple car that is refreshingly easy to work on. I'm looking forward to driving it soon so I can see if I like driving it. I have several other (non-Stude) old cars (from 1937 to 1979) but it seems the Studebaker is one of the easiest to work on and get parts for! Amazing!
Thanks.
MARC
Punxsutawney, PA
Comment