Studebaker - The beginning...

[DET832]

Hey great post !! Get that baby restored !! Good luck !!!

[mistersnapon]

Thats GREAT....any time an old car dosen't go the crusher....its a really good thing!!!

[Gogos05]

reminds me of when I got to take home my grandpa's 1959 Bel-Air, I still own it after 31 years. He bought it new in 59. Take care of her!

[megaEagle76]

You are a good friend of the cars bienn!! I rescue a beetle 1962, regards from Perù

[1337BananaL33TVostok]

nice

[olympicat]

its a lark, isn´t it?

[somecallmejim]

It is a Lark. Maybe not the coolest car that 1960 had to offer, but a special one indeed.

[olympicat]

don´t apologize - better you send new vids about his improvement.

and don´t say "not the coolest". its a Studebaker.

[MaddKow420]

@somecallmejim my dad just sold his 60 lark pro stret car and now we are bringin home my 50 champion. cant wait

[GeekUltra]

This is really neat dude! I'm thinking of doing videos like this cause I just bought a 1959 Ford Fairlane and just doing vids like this just showing progress on it and stuff it's pretty cool :D

[killerdinamo08]

thank you for sharing!take good care of it:)

[porn1978]

lol dude WTF!!!!!!!!

[TRANSAMER81]

A great video. Thank you. You've inspired me to get serious about the restoration of my 1981 Firebird. The music is perfect too. Good luck and all the very best wishes for your success.

[xbox360hardflip]

man that is a pretty good lookin car and its cool that you made this vid

[Rebelx1969]

Thats awsome .... Nice to see you bring life back to a long forgotten car .

[carlover89]

take care of that beautiful car an absoulute classic

[dunn98632]

cool vid

[HeadTater]

With a little work that'll be real nice. My dad has a 62 Daytona Lark with a 4 on the floor and FACTORY AIR that's bout 95% done. We just got a 60 Lark Convertable for my mom with factory power steering and a 3 speed automatic that was sitting for 23 years in a barn. Both are red. Gotta love them Larks!

[somecallmejim]

I really like the Lark. It's not the sportiest car out there, but it's a neat little car.

Factory air on that daytona, eh? That's not something you'd see every day. Then I get that far, I've thought about adding an aftermarker ac to the car, but we'll see - I have this silly notion that I'd like to keep the car as close to the original build sheet as possible. Go figure!

[HeadTater]

Yeah, we were thinking about putting a modern Chevy V6 in the 60 for a while. Luckily the Studebaker V8 wasn't siezed. If you can, try to get ahold of a new/old stock ac unit from Sascos. Those old ac units have no ducting at all so they get rather cold. Before we converted it to run on R-134, we'd actually get a snowflake once in a while! One of those classic ac units with a modern compresor would work leaps and bounds better than any modern unit.

[Bullettube]

"Every journey of a thousand miles starts with fresh tires, fresh oil and a tank of gas" (my grand-father was a mechanic, as I was)

Good job so far and good luck!

[somecallmejim]

LOL! Thaks so much for the encouragement. It's a long haul still, but someday...

[studebakerempire]

studebaker is back !!! GOOGLE>>> "plunderhere" enter 'supercar"

[somecallmejim]

Thanks for the post, but I seriously think you're not going to find anyone interested in that car here. The Studebaker was a quality American made car, not a glorified tricycle. It actually pains me to see the Studebaker name being stuck to all sorts of things (not just cars) in hope of appealing to Americans. Of course, I could easily be wrong, and that's whay I'm leaving your comment. Peace! :-D

[winston5610]

I wish you continued good luck on this project. You've made it plain its a labor of love. I always liked Larks: my folks had a '60 Lark VI with stick (no OD), heater, and no radio. Pop drove it until 1970, when it needed a valve job, transmission rebuild, and other work. He traded it for an Opel Kadett 2-door sedan comparably equipped. Is your '60 a VI or a VIII? Auto or overdrive?

The autos take type "F" fluid unless I'm misinformed.

Again, good luck!

[somecallmejim]

Mine actually sounds a lot like the one your folks had. It's a '60 Lark VI with stick shift on the steering column. It had heat, no radio, and it came with the hill holder and twin traction differential.

I think you're right about using type F, though it's still nowhere close to that point. Maybe son though...

Thanks for watching!

[winston5610]

Have you seen the Studebaker XUV from Avanti Motor Corp? They used a sliding roof similar to the Wagonaire and some styling cues reminiscent of the originals, but built on an Excursion chassis, and it had a lot of unique features. A few were built, but I read somewhere that Avanti has bellied up again and may reorganize in Cancun(?!?) Kellogg's design for the Avanti coupe looks as good in person as on the net, and rivals the timeless original.

[somecallmejim]

Yeah, I found the XUV intriguing. I think Avanti is still making a very small number of cars (less than a dozen a year if I recall), but they're pretty close to wiped out.

They have some neat ideas. What they need is some serious capital. But then again, maybe being an orphan car isn't that bad. When your company dies, your cult following begins...

[gregwddriver]

I've seen a lot worse brought back to life. Take your time, do it right.

[ford1979truck]

you got a nice car there :) have fun

[fordroad]

Thank you for the posting a great production very professional, I have been there and done that, I understand the emotions, my Buick 1938 was MY grand father purchased in 1941. WOW keep the great work up & please keep us informed with more progress reports. 5 stars.

[ilovemelife]

hey jim i think i kno you!?!?...

[ilovemelife]

2 question....whut year is it???and does it run???

[RainMan900]

I love hold cars and I'm very happy when I see people restoring it... 5* :-)

(sorry for my english)

[cmsracing]

Very nice! Short, simple but meaningful. Love the part when you pulled out of the tress as the Sun went down. (or was it going up) meaning the beginning of the gurney to rebirth?

[MS85ToyotaCrown]

Hows the rebuild coming along or has it come to a grinding halt.

[humantestdummy]

tkae your time with the project, sometimes, it can get stressfull and can be a pain in the ass but hey, it will be worth it when its rolling down the street

[Drivermatic]

Good luck, a Hardtop too! Please be sure your girlfriend is safe when working on the Stude...........open toe foot gear can be very dangerous.

[OsbornTramain]

Boy, I have to tell you. The final shot of you pulling away with the Stude on the tow dolly is awsome. I've done that a few times myself....its so cool.

[TRANSAMER81]

Good luck with your project. A word of advice: take your time. Take lots of time and don't let it get you down as sometimes things may not be going as quickly as you'd like. Make your grandfather proud. He's watching you.

[altadutch]

Nice video. It shows the love you have for your grandpa.

Thanks for sharing!

[oneiblind30]

Hows the car coming any new videos about it?

[benduker]

How is the car coming along?

[somecallmejim]

Slowly, but surely. I've got a lot of stuff pulled off it so far, but I've yet to start rebuilding anything. We're going to move the car to our new place in a few weeks, and then I should really be able to get a lot done. :-)

[Hendo56]

Good luck.

[somecallmejim]

Thanks! :-)

[agathalark1960]

This brings back fond memories. I drove the same model Studebaker in Australia for many years. She was a good honest car. Best of luck with your restoration.

[Ifearnoevil]

This is a really cool video. I could feel and appreciate the emotions involved. Good luck with your restoration. You should immediately join the studebaker drivers club.

[somecallmejim]

Hi Ifearnoevil,

Yeah, my Grandpa was really a strong influence in my life, and being able to do this is just a small thing I can do to see that something of him lives on here. He died in his 50's, far too young. Hopefully with this project, he'll live on in a not only our hearts and minds, but those of my children, and theirs, for many many years to come.

Thanks so much for watching!

[mbstude]

Very nice indeed! I'm 16 and have 3 Studes. One is a '63 Lark hardtop. Almost all of the body work is done and then it will get paint and interior. I have a '52 Studebaker that a guy is interested in, and he may want to trade me a '59 Lark hardtop for it. Cool cars! My other Stude is my daily driver, a '59 pickup.

Good luck with the restoration! Matthew

[somecallmejim]

Hey Matthew,

Sounds like you've got quite the collection! :-)

I'd love to have a couple 'Studes eventually, but for now, I'm just going to try and get this one going. You can see some more recent footage in the third installment of my official vlog. If I get this car back to top notch, anything could happen! :-)

[somecallmejim]

Oh, and thanks for watching! :-)

[lifestinks1]

Beside rebuilding the rusty areas, what else is there to do? How do you get the engine running? Will you get the neccesary parts? What about the red & black interior? I have no idea of cars, but i'm sure interested in your results.

[somecallmejim]

lifestinks1: Oh, there's a lot to do. Basically, I'm going to strip the car down to a pile of parts and reassemble it one piece at a time.

The body damage is the biggest need right now. Once I get the body off the vehicle, I need to make sure the chassis is okay. If not, I ned to repair it. If so, I start rebuilding the engine. That means getting a rebuild kit.

[somecallmejim]

Part II:

Understandably, rebuilding a 46 year old motor has it's challenges. Very few places have kits for the engine. I suspect I'll be mking my own gaskets in some areas.

[somecallmejim]

Part III:

The interior was all red, with black leather on the dash and black carpeting/trim. Very pretty, in my opinion. My wife's great at sewing, so she'll probably take the old seats apart and use them as a template to make new ones. Same for the headliner, which was actually in okay shape when we got the car, all things considered.

[somecallmejim]

Part IV: Plus, I need to find a LOT of parts. I need to replace a lot of chrome, all the light covers, the front windshield. Yeah, it's a lot 'o' work, but I can't wait to see what it becomes.

Thanks for watching! :-)

[lifestinks1]

thanks for the explains. are there any pictures, of how the car looked once?

[somecallmejim]

I still have a couple someplace. Sadly, somewhere in the three moves I've made in the last two years, my big packet with most of the stuff vanished.

You'll definitely see more of this car in future vlogs. :-)

[barblegarble]

Old cars are so beautiful. I use to go to car shows & the Henry Ford museum with my dad. Guess he wanted to share one of his passions. He always talked about the Model T (? or A ) he had in England. Wish we could have brought it home with us.

[somecallmejim]

barblegarble: That's awesome! My grandpa regularly took us to Pioneer Village in Minden Nebraska to see the cars (and other historical stuff. I've always loved car museums.

Thanks for watching! :-)

[TyProgrammer]

haha nice, i hope you get it working

[somecallmejim]

You and me both :-)

The hardest part is that it still takes me 20-30 minutes to get to where the car is stored right now. Combine that with my lack of free time and my YouTube Addiction, and it's tough making it out there often.

Plus, it's not headed, and winter is on it's way!

Thanks for watching! :-)

[LeoTheLeone]

Very excited for you. My good frien restored a 1937 Studebaker Dictator model, it was a impressive car. Would love to send you a picture some time. Good luck with her.

[somecallmejim]

LeoTheLeone: You will definitely need to send me that photo! Those old Dictators were neat looking cars. I've always loved the Studebaker's "flare". They were a creative car company, for sure!

Thanks for watching! :-)

[lanakb]

Can't wait to see the end product ;)

[somecallmejim]

lanakb: It should be a beauty! I'm still not totally sure what I'm going to do in the end for color, but my grandpa always wanted a sort of iridescent or pearly white. I'll probably do that, and restore the interior to red & black, but we'll see. Time will tell. :-)

[Urgelt]

Very nice, Jim. Your editing skills shine, and the car... a lot of people were unhappy when the Studebaker logo drifted into history. It'll be interesting to see one restored.

[somecallmejim]

Urgelt: Thanks so much! I really appreciate it. :-)

My grandpa was one of those folks. He was as much a Studebaker man as many today are Chevy or Ford men. But thankfully, one more of these beauties will be back on the streets eventually.

[robertmor1954]

thank you she is Beautiful, I can't wait to see the progress,

[somecallmejim]

robertmor1954: Me too! Already she's 100 times better than the day we picked her up. :-)

[billybigun64]

Very awesome, I commend you. Well done.

[somecallmejim]

Thanks so much! :-)

[tjbach]

Lipstick and rouge - as they say. Cool video - I can't wait to see the progress. I have a buddy who is building a 1940 Ford truck. He's been at it for years now :)

[somecallmejim]

Yeah, It wouldn't suprise me if it takes me a while to get it done, especially considering all that rust you saw in Vlog 3. It's a long road, but it's going to be a blast!

Thanks for watching! :-)

[somecallmejim]

Yeah, she's a fixer-upper! :-)

[chickenwingjim]

as always

your video is short but worth watching

praise what you and your wife have done to realize your grandpa's dream

[somecallmejim]

Hey, thanks Jim!

My grandpa meant a lot to me. Being able to restore this car is the least I could do. Plus, it's going to be a blast!

Thanks for watching! :-)