Silly G.D....Studebakers are for kids!

We always love it when people ask us about our Studebakers, but it's especially fun to see kids enjoying them as much as we do. Our friend Scott brought his little girl down to visit with us at the Santa Cruz Valley Car Nuts' 16th Annual Car Show in Tubac on Saturday and she had a blast running around and looking at the cars with her daddy.

Our daughter, Jilly, loves Daddy's truck and plays an active role in getting it ready for shows. She would scrub on our Studebakers all day long if we let her and enjoys climbing up in the truck bed every chance that she gets.

It's fun to have vehicles that are truly "family Studebakers." The kids love to go for a ride in George and Thayer thinks he's cool like Fonzie leaning up against his favorite '57 President! Our kids are fortunate enough to be able to experience classic cars in the way they were meant to be enjoyed and without the fear of scratching the paint or scuffing a white-walled tire (well, we TRY not to worry about these things any more than the average parent does! John IS a little obsessed with the truck's tires, though...) We can't help wishing that all kids got to experience car shows in the same way. We're sure it would do wonders for the future of these vehicles!

Saturday Night Cruise

This past Saturday, we were looking to shake off the Christmas tinsel and took the family and the Studebakers out for a night on the town. There weren't many cars at the local cruise-in, but there were plently of people to talk to and even a Silver Hawk that showed up.

One of our daughter's favorite things to do when the cars are parked is to hang out the windows and wave to people passing by. We really should enter a parade some day...

Oh, Christmas Tree!

It's that time of year again, and this year we decided to turn going to get the Christmas tree into a new Studebaker tradition. With John in the truck and Tracy and the kids in the President, we headed down to the tree lot to find that perfect Christmas tree.

Thayer and Jillian were proud to pick out this beauty and "help" get it loaded into the truck.

John safely got the tree home, even though the kids were convinced that it was somehow going to fly out the back of the truck! Now we just have to work on getting all of those pine needles out of the truck bed...

Buckets, Blowers & Bombers Car Show

This past October, we registered the truck for the Buckets, Blowers, and Bombers Show & Shine car show at the Commemorative Air Force Museum. This show was a benefit car show for the museum and was hosted by Hot Rod Planet Promotions. Although we hoped for cooler weather, it ended up a toasty 100+ degrees.

The show was a great mixture of all types of vehicles, including a '50 bulletnose and a '63 Lark. One of the most awesome opportunities, though, was the chance to have our truck's picture taken with the B25 Maid in the Shade. To learn more about this plane and the museum, you can visit www.azcag.org. What an awesome opportunity!

The Old Man's Back On The Road! (and he's driving his Studebaker!)

It's been 3 1/2 weeks since John's surgery. After three previous attempts to try to drive the truck since then (OUCH! The clutch was not his friend!), he was finally able to get back on the road today and take a trip to the grocery store. The weather has cooled just a bit this week, making it perfect for early morning drives. What more could a man ask for?

One More Step

Now that John's able to drive the truck again, he wasn't about to limit himself to one little drive to the grocery store. As soon as the sun went down, he hopped on in and drove the truck to his guitar lesson.

Dash In, Dash Out!

What do you do when you have a credit with Studebaker International? Why, order that black dash pad you've been thinking of adding! Originally offered as an option on our truck, the dash pad was supposed to add a level of safety to driver and passengers. We just like the way it brings the elements in our cab together.

This is what the dash looked like before we added the black pad. The red screws across the dash show where the pad is meant to be attached. The weather is starting to cool in the evenings, which means we are gearing up to get to work more on our Studebakers. Stay tuned for weekly updates on our projects!