unusual garage find 1925 custom modified 1931

[chris miller]

http://s1382.photobucket.com/user/skichris/media/IMG_0629_zpsfgsb9ntk.jpg.html

The above is a link to a photo. 1925 coupe was modified in 1931. I need to know if it has any value. Can anyone help. sitting in garage for 75 years.

[Studebaker Wheel]

Interesting period piece! The car started life as a 1923-24 Big Six (definitely not a '25). May have some value as a parts car. Certainly too big of a project to finish.

[gordr]

That wood looks like it was intended to be a buck to form sheet metal over. The rear quarter windows are ugly. Should have made the top line a curve. Actually, I wonder if that was a buck, used to make a torpedo-back roof that was put on another car, and they simply used the then-old Studebaker as a rolling trolley to work on the buck?

[rockne10]

Interesting!
For a ninety-year-old custom attempt, with just a little more conceptualization, this could have been quite the duck tail coupe. I like the wooden application, had it been slightly more fluid with quarter window integration. Remember, in 1920s little modification was being done to these other than attaching truck beds.
Perhaps one of the very first candidates for Rod and Custom magazine.

[jclary]

There's got to be an interesting story behind this. Not only as to how it was altered, but, why, and then how it managed to survive the depression without becoming a Hoover Truck, or the scrap metal drives of WWII. Also, wonder how many times it became a target of near destruction, only to escape and survive until now.

I kind of agree with Richard, about how difficult, near impossible, to restore. However, if I had the time and resources, I believe I could have a lifetime of fun, building this thing into a fancy period looking truck. Perhaps the longest hood Coupe Express, ever.

[TWChamp]

What a shame to destroy a nice car that was only 6 or 7 years old. If it's kept whole I would raise the top and turn it into a pickup.

[Chris Pile]

WOW! I would like to know the story behind this one!

[sals54]

[gordr]

No love for the body buck idea? That this thing was more or less a "test mule" for some custom roof panels that wound up going on another car? Remember, that back in 1931, a seven-year old car was impossibly ancient in both styling and mechanicals.

[56H-Y6]

It bears a resemblance to the fastback special coupe built by Brewster on the Rolls-Royce Phantom II chassis 248 AJS as a one-off show car for the 1931 New York Auto Show. Given the timeframe is right, I'd opine the creator was smitten with the Rolls, decided to build his own version on the Big Six he owned. Certainly would be worthwhile to preserve as the period piece it is.

PS: More than likely the wood would have been covered with the same coated fabric used on closed car tops, alternately sheet aluminum.

[jclary]

No love for the body buck idea? That this thing was more or less a "test mule" for some custom roof panels that wound up going on another car? Remember, that back in 1931, a seven-year old car was impossibly ancient in both styling and mechanicals.

Your idea is as good as any other. In the absence of details, our imagination is free to wander any path you can think up. Could have been some, not so glamorous, event, such as a tree falling across the back of the car. Could be, that the owner, was a boat builder, or skilled in wood work, using his familiar skills, to improvise a fix. That's why, I'd like to know the REAL story.

[52-fan]

It looks like an attempt to mimic some of the European cars. If it was restored, that car would be quite a conversation piece at car shows, but it is not a project that would appeal to me. I would think the top was intended to be fabric little most cars were.

[57pack]

Get her running and stopping some new tires, clean her up and do some shows. A real head turner for sure!
I can see that roof and back finished off like a 1940's Chris-Craft speed boat!

[mbstude]

I like the early Big Six Studes, but have no idea what I would do with that one.

I can see that roof and back finished off like a 1940's Chris-Craft speed boat!

Here's a local friend's '35.. It's for sale if you want it to go along with the car.

[DEEPNHOCK]

Might make a good parts car for someone else's restoration.
Value?
Hard to say....