Well, after waiting for a week for DMV to come out to inspect the Cruiser, I got tags and new title yesterday. Of course there was a tense moment, on my part, when the officer looked at the old title then at the VIN number on the car and said, " This looks like an I on the car, but it is a 1 on the title." I told him that Studebaker did that and gave him the original bill of sale (march 1966) and the bill of sale my aunt and uncle signed a couple of weeks ago. He then commented, "I guess it could be a roman numeral one." He went to his car and in about 10 minutes returned and handed me the necissary paper work. "You know where that car was made?" he asked. "Canada," I replied. That's right and he began to tell me the number of Cruisers produced in Canada in 1965. I don't know if his numbers were correct, but I was impressed. He also told me that indeed Studebaker did use the roman numeral one, or capital i, for a 1. He was smiling all the time and when he left I shook his hand and he congratualted me on have such a "rare" car. I don't know who he spoke with while in the car, but whoever it was had some Studebaker knowledge.
Just goes to show you. The system may be messed up, but the people carrying it out usually are not.
Then after a 30 minute wait in line at the license tag office I got new tags and title. That all was yesterday. No time left to drive it then.
This morning I carefully drove it out of the driveway after putting some octane booster in the tank. Filled it up with premium ($$$$$) and sprayed the carb with carb cleaner I went for a drive. It drives wonderfully. I do need to look at the brakes. The pedal is stiff (hard to depress. they are not power brakes). The car's power steering is working well as is the original AM radio. It accelerates pretty well. The AMP gauge shows that the system is charging pretty heavily, so that is something else I'll have to look at.
All-in-all, the Cruiser seems to be a pretty good old car. Although it might not have been something I would have sought out, I felt it was important to keep it in the family, as my Uncle bought the car new.
It is a V8, automatic car and there are lots of possibilities there. I am as happy as I can be with the aquisition. Long trips should be more comfortable now than they were with the Champ!
Joe Roberts
Just goes to show you. The system may be messed up, but the people carrying it out usually are not.
Then after a 30 minute wait in line at the license tag office I got new tags and title. That all was yesterday. No time left to drive it then.
This morning I carefully drove it out of the driveway after putting some octane booster in the tank. Filled it up with premium ($$$$$) and sprayed the carb with carb cleaner I went for a drive. It drives wonderfully. I do need to look at the brakes. The pedal is stiff (hard to depress. they are not power brakes). The car's power steering is working well as is the original AM radio. It accelerates pretty well. The AMP gauge shows that the system is charging pretty heavily, so that is something else I'll have to look at.
All-in-all, the Cruiser seems to be a pretty good old car. Although it might not have been something I would have sought out, I felt it was important to keep it in the family, as my Uncle bought the car new.
It is a V8, automatic car and there are lots of possibilities there. I am as happy as I can be with the aquisition. Long trips should be more comfortable now than they were with the Champ!
Joe Roberts
The one thing it does do is extract more money per gallon from your billfold
Glad uncle Dick's car agrees with you and i hope you will enjoy it for many years to come. My 66 Cruiser without power brakes always needed a lot of pedal pressure to stop also without power assist.
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