Is there any difference between 62 & 63 4 door Lark shells?

[58PackardWagon]

Restoring a 62 Lark 4 door sedan. Is there any difference with the 4 door shells between a 62 and a 63? Found a real nice 63 four door shell today, but don't have the body parts manual to see if there is a difference. Please advise, thank you

[klifton1]

Most of the body part numbers leave 63 by itself.
Klif

[BobPalma]

Gosh; there's all the difference in the world.

Few 1962 body parts will fit a '63, espcially the center section; completely changed for 1963.

From a body-parts standpoint, a '62 is a poor parts car for a '63, and vise-versa. BP

[8E45E]

As you said in a previous post, Bob, the 1963 makeover was possibly Studebaker's poorest return on the tooling costs.....

Craig

[Milaca]

The most noticeable changes are the 1962 has a wrap-around windshield and an exposed center pillar between the front and rear doors.
For what it's worth, I think the 1963 four door cars look nicer than the 1962 sedans.

[52hawk]

Grille mesh and taillights will interchange,that's about it!

[Bob Andrews]

Joe- as mentioned, there are quite a few differences. The '63 was an effort to modernize the Lark, with the thinner B-pillars and move away from the wraparound front and rear windows. Another big change was a much busier and more complicated dashboard.

Personally, I have always preferred the less modern-looking '62 body and the MUCH simpler dash. I believe I'm in the minority, though, and most prefer the '63 restyle. And for the record, all the front clip parts interchange, it's from the cowl back that's different.

For comparison, here's a '62:



Here's a '63:



Here's an unknown year (gullwing model):

[1962larksedan]

As you said in a previous post, Bob, the 1963 makeover was possibly Studebaker's poorest return on the tooling costs.....

Craig

I have to agree although in all fairness; quite a bit of the tooling carried forward till the end, 1966.

The most noticeable changes are the 1962 has a wrap-around windshield and an exposed center pillar between the front and rear doors.
For what it's worth, I think the 1963 four door cars look nicer than the 1962 sedans.

Astetically (sp) speaking: I prefer the 1963 bodystyle as well although sheetmetal is a whole (same front doors all the way back to the 1955 1/2 4 door models) lot more available for the 1962 and I own a 1962 Y body.

[Milaca]

As pointed out by Bob Andrew's posting, another update for 1963 was the change from having the steering wheel on the left-hand side to having it on the right-hand side.
As for more shared body parts, I believe the rear fenders and decklid are the same for both years.

[Ricardo]

As you said in a previous post, Bob, the 1963 makeover was possibly Studebaker's poorest return on the tooling costs.....

Craig

Maybe the 1960 vs 1961 can compete with the poorest return . A lot of money spent to bulit an almost identical (visually) car... (I own a 61)

[Studebakercenteroforegon]

Although the many, many upgrades that were on the '61 Larks translated perfectly to the '62 models. Most of the "new" features that everyone knows about the '62 Larks were actually incorporated in the '61 models.

[R3 challenger]

Hey Bob (Andrews), I like the gull-wing model you illustrated. Observers may have noticed the horn was in operation at the time the photo was taken.

George