Customized C/K.

[Rafe Hollister]

I love my 65 PowerHawk, and also the other Hawks. My hawk has already been 'ruined' by a previous owner who shaved off the hood scoop. I never liked the little faux thing mounted too far forward anyway. But sometimes I am curious about what things might look like that people do to other makes and wonder why no 'poor tasteless bastards' have done similar things to C/Ks?
I have seen them with blowers coming thru the hood, competition drag or bonneville cars; but not much in functional hood scoops on street customs. I would like to see one with Chrysler style shaker intake scoop, or something like people do to Corvettes, or some other ram air scoop like on so many classic muscle cars.
People mold in or bolt on all kinds of rear spoilers/wings to most any cars... but never C/Ks. I'm curious how it would look. The lines of the trunk look to me to be made to highlight a wing or spoiler.
I occasionally search the net for these things, but find nothing. It can't be because our cars are perfect the way they are. Well, they are perfect the way they are, but certainly there are idiots out there that turned one into a Pep Boy's Special?
Post 'em if you got 'em!
Rafe Hollister

[J_Cole]

There is a gorgeous 53 in Alabama with a 70s Camaro hoodscoop mounted in the hood. It's done so well it almost looks factory.

The 53's inspired many cars designs, including 70s Camaros/firebirds, the first Mazda, the fiat 1100 TV by canta, a couple Sunbeams, an Aston Martin by Canta, the Volvo Amazon, it's a long list. The 53 itself was inspired by the Porsche 356. I'm convinced Ferrari used the design of the roof and silhouette when designing the 250 GT by Boano. An absolutely gorgeous car.

My yellow 54 has been nothing but headaches since I got it. A survivor but a pain... I've spent a ton trying to keep it roadworthy but then the engine failed. So I sent it to Westmoreland Antique Car Restorations who has built a ton of show winning cars with the goal of starting over and creating an "Italian" or "South Bend's Ferrari" out of it. We are removing the lights and teeth out of the grilles, adding fender vents like many Ferraris and the merc gullwing, removing the license plate from the bumper and cleaning it up and moving the license up into the trunk. The trunk will be a smoothed out Hawk bumper.

It should be a fun project. I took it and S2D to Katie's cars and coffee in Virginia weekly and most of the questions I get from people are who designed it? What is it? A Porsche? Designed by Pininfarina? Designed by Zagato? No no no. So why not play with the design a little bit and make it just that little bit more Italian. 🥰🥰🥰🥰 it'll be Rosso Corsa (racing red as seen on many Ferraris), have offset black and silver stripes keeping wirh the Ferrari color combo, and tan leather seats.

but no wing.

[bensherb]

I like the fender lights, grill bars and fender trim on the blue one. The two wing spinners on the wheel covers are cool too!

[J_Cole]

bensherb, the grill bars are so cool! It's what gave us the idea to do the same on ours, it just cleans it up so much! We'll have to move the lights into the headlight and find a modern headlight that fits in the original headlight ring, but we're sure something like that already exists. The wing spanners also look amazing. the car is pretty cool looking! The rear taillights on it also look cool, they are along the lines of what was originally planned.

[Rafe Hollister]

Beautiful cars J Cole, but clean C/Ks are the norm. I'm curious about some perhaps a bit over done with scoop and wings. Is the drawing one your car? I see the side vents and grill, will it get enough air to radiator? I wanna see that Alabama car!?

Rafe

[J_Cole]

Thanks! it should be, we are leaving the grille opening as is but just eliminating the lights in the grille. the vents should also help get hot air out of the engine bay I'd think. but we won't be restricting air getting in at all. The drawings are what my car hopefully looks like when it's done. We are just now in the early process of the build, starting to make changes to the body. I feel bad for ripping apart an original car, but it'll look so good when it's done! Here are pictures of Gary Pickett's car in Alabama. I deleted my facebook account where he mostly posts, but i found this on the internet.

i'll soon have 3 customized C/K's, and one thing with these cars is the less you do, the better it looks. too much customization ruins the lines.

[Rafe Hollister]

I like that hood scoop, but something about the image is a bit distorted? And i agree, the less you do the better, I do. But I still want to see cars where the builder went to far. I'm curious what the boundaries are, and if everyone stays in them, we don't really know what they are. Who knows, maybe a whale tail would look good on a Hawk? I don't think so, but we don't really know till someone does it.

[J_Cole]

I honestly have wondered the same thing, how it would look with a whale tail or a duck tail like a 911. I've read the sloped trunk lid hurts it's stability at speed and Bonneville cars tend to have a wing of some sort in the rear to help with that. But i've never seen a road car with one. Would be interesting to see!

[J_Cole]

bensherb here is the article about that blue car. The builder of my car wanted me to use the taillights like this one, but it doesn't really fit my build idea. They are lovely though!

The Speedster That Never Was | Apex Automotive Magazine (apexautomag.com)

[enjenjo]

What model are those tail lights from?

[J_Cole]

They are stock 53 but customized. I think they took two tail lights and welded them together. I believe it was Bob Bourke wanted them like this originally but was voted down. This speedster has a few custom touches that were in the original design ideas.

[Dick Steinkamp]

bensherb The builder of my car wanted me to use the taillights like this one, but it doesn't really fit my build idea.

Justin....good on you for having a theme, a plan, a concept for the car. Too many builders select each item in a vacuum. It ends up being a hodge podge of parts instead of an integrated design.

Second in importance (but a pretty close second) is wheels/tires/stance. You can miss on a few items, but not wheels/tires/stance.

[J_Cole]

Dick Steinkamp how you built S2D and followed a theme has stuck in my mind! I learned from the best!! S2D is still the prettiest 53 I've ever seen, I just hope my Ferrari-esque build comes close!

I'm not a huge fan of the 53-55 dash but looking at Italian/European cars of the era, it's way closer than I thought. A 55 dash is almost a dead ringer for the BMW 507 for instance. The GT hawk dashes are very Ferrari and I love how they look, but probably a little too early 60's and not mid 50's which Craig has brought up. The interior will be tan with a body color dash unless we leather wrap part of it and a wood steering wheel is a must (Nardi). Low back thickly padded buckets up front are a must!

wheels/tires/stance is basically set and probably my favorite part of the whole car!! I desperately want the new Halibrands but wrong look... It HAS to be Borrani wires. My brother was trying to convince me of period Dunlop rims but they'd be hard to adapt I think. Dunlops would be more racer which is the goal, but finding a bolt pattern is a challenge. And Borranis are on Aston's, Ferraris, Maseratis, Jaguars, and some Avanti's. Tires will Pirelli classic tread or Michelin, most vintage Ferraris run one or the other. Nothing says European sports car from the 50s and 60s like Borranis!!

stance is something I need to figure out. The car is running original springs and seems to sag from stock. But it's current ride height, or a touch lower would be fitting of an Italian sports car. Too low, it doesn't look 50s. Too high and it looks off-road worthy.

the engine will be a 289 and I have said no to a chrome air cleaner. It's too American hot rod. Either a custom air cleaner that stretches the length of the engine, side draft carbs that dump into a side air cleaner that runs the side length, or velocity stacks. Ferrari engines of the period through today are cast and have textured paint. No idea how or what they use to create the look on the valve covers but I'd love to replicate the look.

even the trunk will be custom. We are using a hawk trunk because it more resembles the flatter trunk on the Ferrari 250 Boano which is what gave me the idea to go down this path. The Boano is shown above. Squint from the rear 3/4 and they look very similar. We're going to flatten the hawk hood ribs and move the license plate into the trunk like what you'd get in Ferraris and Aston's of the period. Your words keep ringing in my brain, have a theme throughout the entire design!

the name for the car is Lena, who was Enzo's Mistress. Their son is now President and CEO of Ferrari. I figure this car is like Ferrari's mistress, not quite Ferrari but...

[RadioRoy]

...and one thing with these cars is the less you do, the better it looks. too much customization ruins the lines.

Too bad more folks don't feel this way.

[J_Cole]

Like Dick said, too many custom cars are just a mismatch of parts. The 53/54's are too European, much less American and many try and force fit traditional hot rod/muscle car looks into them and it looks awkward at best. Or they go too far. It's a fine line. I know I'm walking a tightrope but by staying as closely to my design idea, I want it to look like it could have come from Italy that way, I don't want it to look "custom" to someone who doesn't know better.

[Dick Steinkamp]

" I don't want it to look "custom" to someone who doesn't know better."

Like the factory (in Italy) built it.

[J_Cole]

Exactly, Dick! like the factory in Italy would have built it.

[Noxnabaker]

A long flat aircleaner for sure would look the best in this case in my opinion!
& talking "not so perfect" customized Studebakers & Ferrari look'n this -55 comes into my thoughts, & I think done different it coulda been cool:

[Rafe Hollister]

This is what I'm looking for, more than just a cleaned up stocker. This is pretty radical, but still, I like it.
Rafe

[6hk71400]

I find all of this interesting on the improving of our cars. It is like an artist painting teeth on the Mona Lisa smile and putting ruby red lipstick on her lips.

Bob Miles
I am going out to wax the hawk now

[Noxnabaker]

I doubt I'm the only one thinking the -55 begs for a facelift...

[Rafe Hollister]

I realize the Mona Lisa is the most famous and expensive painting ever. But I don't particularly like it, I find it dull and don't find it compelling. But the one of Marylin over the air vent?? That is beautiful! Or Rollie Free... now those speak to me!
Rafe

[bensherb]

That's a horrible pic of Marilyn Thom. I'm not even sure it's really her. Here's the real pic of her standing on the subway grate, even including Tom Ewell. Real art from 1955! Accept no substitutes!

[Rafe Hollister]

I stand corrected. We all thank you!
Rafe

[6hk71400]

I realize the Mona Lisa is the most famous and expensive painting ever. But I don't particularly like it, I find it dull and don't find it compelling. But the one of Marylin over the air vent?? That is beautiful! Or Rollie Free... now those speak to me!
Rafe

Thom,

I appreciate your comment but I think you missed my point. Whether it is the Mona Lisa, or Marilyn Monroe, or Rollie Free I don't feel they should be modified and appreciated for who they are. Would you like Marilyn as a red head?

The many people that worked for Studebaker spent years in education to come up with a car with appeal that people would want to own. Now there are people with the talent they could have worked for Studebaker or any of the major car companies. Those are the exception. I appreciate workmanship and craftsmanship. When Dick Steinkamp drove his perfect Black car to a Zone meet years ago in Phoenix, it was the best car I had enjoyed that he drove from California to Phoenix.

For the others, I still should have shielded my eyes. I move quickly because I don't want to hear how great they improved their car. I have seen many cars over 50 plus years how they have improved their car. Most I have seen are not an improvement

This morning at breakfast, a group of German tourists for our Gem show took several pictures of the Golden Hawk. That was enough satisfaction for me. I think they were surprised to see a 1957 Golden Hawk in a town of 5,500 people.

Thom and others feel free if you want to respond. The freedom of speech is one of the reasons our country is the greatest country in the world. I did not write this to provoke or start a prairie fire

Bob Miles
Peace Out

[Noxnabaker]

The outer corners of the hood on the -55 don't even go together with the grille, thou I find everything else nicer on a -55 than a -53 or -54, such as taillights, dashboard & interior.

Here's some more for you Rafe:

[Rafe Hollister]

I like the 'floating' chrome bar in the grill. I gotta that to my future to do list.
Rafe

[Dwight FitzSimons]

As others have already said, it's difficult, if not impossible, to improve on the looks of our Studebakers, especially the 1953-54 C & K bodies. Example:

--Dwight