1963 Studebaker Closing Photo

[DEEPNHOCK]

Here an interesting urban explorers video.... All still shots that have been seen before, but still interesting.
(Turn your sound down)

[BubbaBear]

Whew! Thank God for the mute button!

[comatus]

...drove through the Union picket line on purpose in a Mercedes Benz!

I don't think that would have come into play. Mercedes was a Studebaker "captive brand."

[studegary]

It really makes one wonder why they didn't pay more attention to rust-proofing; especially when the effects of road salt attack could literally be seen right out the front windows of the engineering building on a car that was only a few years old....

Craig

The problem was known at that time, and before. In the 1950s, cars were built assuming the original owner kept them for three to five years. This is what the manufacturers planned to. They wanted to keep selling new cars, not build something for a 50 year life.

[StudeMichael]

...drove through the Union picket line on purpose in a Mercedes Benz!

I don't think that would have come into play. Mercedes was a Studebaker "captive brand."

It actually did cause a big problem. Egbert ended up in a fist fight and got arrested!

[Bill Pressler]

About the rust on that '55--trust me, in NW PA, our '56 Chevy didn't look much better by summer '64. Rust-out over both headlights and at bottom of fenders. Probably not as 'dramatic' looking as the old Stude vertical 'stripe' of rust, though.

[Bill Pressler]

Also...that dark-colored '63 Daytona in the photo--is it me, or does it look like the white portion of the wheel covers had been painted to match the body of the car? They look too dark to not be showing any white at all, even with road salt and snow covering it up.

[BobPalma]

Also...that dark-colored '63 Daytona in the photo--is it me, or does it look like the white portion of the wheel covers had been painted to match the body of the car? They look too dark to not be showing any white at all, even with road salt and snow covering it up.

Correct, Bill; that '63 probably does not have 1963 "Lark" wheel covers. 'Might be 1963 Hawk, or even 1957 full wheel covers; hard to see for sure.

I can tell you from wandering the employee parking lots in South Bend during that time, few employee Studebakers had the "right" wheel covers for a given car's year and model.

It was common for them to sport something from another year or model, an easily-changed "customizing" thing because so many sets and types of Studebaker wheel covers were floating around South Bend and available so cheap. Mix and match parts were common on employee cars. BP