Among my souvenirs #9 (1958 Color and Upholstery Selector)

[Studebaker Wheel]

[stude dude]

Its a rather elaborate Selector considering the sparsity of other 1958 literature. A padded cover with gold print is about the most expensive binding you will ever find.

Chris.

[8E45E]

Was the padded binder itself unique to 1958? Or was it used for 1957 as well? I know some of the binders themselves were meant to be reused, where a dealer would remove the previous year's inserts and install the current ones.

Craig

[unclemiltie]

Thanks for sharing!

I have one like this (1958) in the padded binder and another (1958) in the 56 style of binder. I think the dealers could order just the contents of the dealer books and use their binders from a previous year. Does anyone know if this was true?? I have also seen just the contents without the binder on ebay so this makes me think my thought may be correct.

[8E45E]

It was definitely true for the trucks in the 1950's. That same black binder was used for several years. I believe the light blue binder for the Larks starting in 1959 was used up until 1962. After that, the gold binder came out for 1963.

Craig

[rkapteyn]

That is why the 1957 pages are so hard to find.
Dealer were instructed to replace the 1957 pages in this binder with the 1958 ones and usually just thew the 1957 pages out.

Robert Kapteyn

[2R5]

I acquired one of these this past summer for the 1956 model year which I passed on to a friend who has a '56 President.

[BobPalma]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]39161[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]39162[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]39163[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]39164[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]39165[/ATTACH]

You can't help but wonder about the total production and distribution costs for that glamorous binder per car, given how few cars were sold in 1958. BP

[Texas Moondog]

WOW! that is so nice to see preserved and protected!

[unclemiltie]

You can't help but wonder about the total production and distribution costs for that glamorous binder per car, given how few cars were sold in 1958. BP

The author of this thread probably has half the production in his attic!

[qsanford]

Imagine the thrill of actually sitting at your local S-P dealer, thumbing through the choices, as you were writing up the order for your new President Starlight!

[56H-Y6]

Hi

What a wonderful artifact of that era. Given that we now know how financially strapped they were that year, it's amazing they still offered a wide variety of color combinations and interior options. Certainly it would have been less costly in terms of production to limit the choices to those that were most popular in the prior two years. Perhaps the wide choice was perceived as one way to maintain the overall appeal of their new cars, especially since those choices were also available from all other competitors.

Steve