Eye cabbage: A rotting '51...

[Chris_Dresbach]

...that I wish I had! It would make a nice donor for the N project!

[bams50]

Man, I'd love to see the rest of that yard...

[bob40]

Call me crazy...but I would rather see a junkyard than a field of show cars.
There is one similar to that near me,Chris.Basically free but I'll bet there are a few near you that you will find.I see plenty of 4 doors in the yards and with the exception of the front bullet they are complete.

[52-fan]

I probably missed a thread in the past, but why is the model N so important?

[Steve T]

52fan--

The N was supposed to be Studebaker's centennial (1952) model, however it was "shunted" in favour of the Loewy group's designs which became the '53 lineup (including the renowned Bourke Coupes). Chris has a particular interest in the Ns because he owns parts of one (or more) of the prototype bodies that were dumped in the Proving Grounds graveyard after the N project was abandoned.

S.

[Chris_Dresbach]

Basically what he said. To me, the N is just cool and I dare to be different... By design. I own some of the sheetmetal to them (a passenger side door, a trunk lid, and both rear fenders.) The Ns were Lowey designed and according to stories, the project was abandoned because they couldn't decide on a front end design. All of the Ns that were dumped at the proving ground has/had production '51 front clips and bullet noses. One of the really weird thing about them though is the interior (I know, what interior? ) Apperantly all of them had just plain production '51 interiors, but had M series TRUCK dashes. All of them at the proving ground were also running prototypes and were basically a model all their own, which adds to their uniqueness. My future goal is to get a '51 donor car and what remains of the Ns out at the proving ground, and swap the skin. As well as other things like make the interior correct, an M series dash, fuzzy dice... etc.. The car in pieces in my signature is my N parts collection, and the artistic pic of a car in the woods to the right in a model N. The big question remains: restore the Starlight coupe, or the sedan hard top???

[Chris_Dresbach]

Model N then:









Model N now:





(Starlight N)

[aarrggh]

Wow , Back in the 1950s some Studebaker employee left there hammer on top on one of those cars ..............

[Chris_Dresbach]

No. That belonged to the guy who took the rear fenders off the car.