Hail To The Chief!

After months of searching for our next family Studebaker, we were getting a little discouraged. We had a lot of help and some fantastic leads, but we always seemed to be a day (or a week) too late, or the great pictures and descriptions got our hopes up and we were crushed when we either saw the car in person or were brave enough to take it for a test drive (for a full description of John's test drive of the Provincial wagon featured in our poll, visit http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26339). Needless to say, we were a little afraid to get our hopes up when we answered the ad for this '57 President Classic. Not only has Tracy loved Presidents since she first entered into the Studebaker world, but this one was actually SHINY! After many discussions with the very patient owner (whose last name is Packard...what kind of coincidence is THAT?), we packed up the family and took a little road trip to Laguna Beach, California. John was brave enough after his last adventure to take it for a test drive, and it successfully stopped, started and turned (which was a good thing, considering the size of the hills in the neighborhood!).

A short time later and we had the car loaded on the trailer...we are now the proud owners of George, our first President! He even got to take a trip with us down to the beach, where, due to his length (he hung off the back of the trailer), we had to pay three separate parking meters while we took the kids for a walk on the pier.

Looks pretty good as a beach cruiser!

We even took a little detour down to San Diego and met StudeDave (a fellow member of the Studebaker Drivers Club) and his '65 Cruiser, Sweet Pea.

Of course, when it comes to cleaning up our Studebakers, we have the best slave labor out there. Nothing like a 3 year old, a 4 year old, and a bucket of bubbles to clean all those hard-to-reach spots!

Thayer doing a little detail work.

We'll be getting the Arizona classic car plates (and probably leaving the one off the front), but were loving the previous owner's vanity plates, especially for the photos! They'll join the "Stutius" plates that came off John's truck up on the garage wall.

Jillian working to make the hubcaps shine.

Plenty of room for the whole family...and six sets of seatbelts, too!

The trunk is in great shape and is nice and roomy.

A look at the dash. It appears from what we can tell that the car was originally Glendale green and turquoise. Have to say that we prefer the blue and white! It may not be original, but it sure is attractive and the vinyl seats will be great with the kids.

We've taken a few drives around the neighborhood, but the radiator is now leaking and there is a pretty significant oil leak, so we'll have to do a little tweaking before we drive him any more. We've both driven the car and really enjoyed the ride (the kids even got to take a ride and we could barely get them out!), so we are looking forward to getting him road-worthy and out to some events as a family.