One Sweet Champ!

As promised, here is some more information about the Champ step-side that John found during his travels. As the Studebaker hunt in Texas continues, John saw this wonderful truck next to the freeway at an auto parts store. Swiftly taking the next exit and making a sharp u-turn back down the frontage road, he found what appears to be the find of his trip.

John then went and asked the owner if he could take a few pictures of it. The owner said to him sharply, "Heck, you can buy it if you want to."

As fate would have it, there is no room at the Inn (aka the Smith garage) due to Tracy's midnight Lark purchase, or we might have tried to find a way to get this one back.

Anyway, the owner was very nice and told John that he had put a small block Chevy in it, but the transmission was sitting in the bed. And if I was interested, he would take $5000.00 for it. That pretty much sealed the deal that it wasn't meant to be part of the Smith stable of Studebakers.

If anybody else is interested in this truck, it is located at A-1 Auto Parts, Sweetwater, Texas. Phone number is 325-235-2420.

Studebaker Hunt....TEXAS!

John is on the road again, this time to Texas. He saw this sign on the internet and made it a point to track it down in Weatherford, Texas.

If only he could buy it and bring it home with him. Of course, the HOA might not necessarily go for that idea...

These are just a handful of the shots that John took.

If you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you can get a better view of some of the vehicles present. Among the gathering were a dump truck, a tire truck, and a tow truck.

This Champ was for sale on the side of the road elsewhere in Texas. More details on this truck will follow. John's always had a hankering for a Champ. (Sorry...Tracy got the Lark instead!) Now if we could only figure out a way to enlarge the garage...

Merry Christmas!

All I want for Christmas Is ..........An Oil Filter?

John found this on EBay and decided that it's a "must have" for Tracy, the new Lark owner! He is not sure whether or not it will work on the Lark, but if all else fails she can use it as a rolling pin! (Edited by Tracy...yeah, on John's head!) Studebaker...Different By Design. Gotta love it!

What's Going To Work ? Team Work!

Saturday we had a fellow SDC (Studebaker Drivers Club) member, John Pfingstag, come visit us at the house. He is also working on a Lark project and gave us an awesome deal on some extra parts that he had. The driver's side floor pan will help with the "floor ventilation" situation and the headlight covers will replace the one that is cracked and provide us with a matching set. John also was able to fix the driver's side door and it now latches shut when we close it. He had a lot of great advice for us and was patient and willing to answer our questions. Another example of a great Studebaker person. Thanks, John! We enjoyed visiting with you.

Treasures Of The Trunk Mystery Solved

Well, after removing all of the seats, we were finally able to access the trunk from the inside of the car. What we saw wasn't exactly promising: a blue rolled-up tarp and a large remnant of a pink rug. Visions of mafia movies danced in our heads. We knew what we had to do, but we weren't quite as excited to find out what was in the trunk any more. The only way to solve the mystery was to dive right in...literally! Tracy started removing items from the trunk one by one. Out went the pink carpet...it was an improvised truck liner. Out went the blue tarp...that's all it was, a blue tarp all bunched up. There were bags, boxes, and a plethora of miscellaneous parts (how many locking gas caps can one car need?) Once the debris was cleared, Tracy was able to crawl through the trunk to unscrew the trunk latch and pop the lid open. Thankfully, John refrained from taking pictures of the actual process. This picture is a gathering of the rest of the items we found.

This is what the interior of the car looks like now, with the seats removed. The dash is in great shape and a lot of what you see (minus the holes!) is just surface rust. The door panels will obviously need to be replaced.

A view of the car's interior from the passenger's side.

Now that the Lark has been vacuumed out and mostly decontaminated, it is allowed in the garage with the truck. What a pretty sight!

Tracy Is Now A Bird Lover!

We were happy to make it home safely on Friday with the Lark. All the kids came out to see it, as well as the neighbors (We're sure we contributed to some pretty interesting dinner conversations..."Did you see what the Smiths brought home THIS time?")

Once home, we were finally able to get a look under the hood. We were happy to see that there was, indeed, a motor in there, as well as about ten years worth of dust and grime. John was also encouraged to see that there was still water in the radiator.

A great deal of this morning was dedicated to cleaning off the top layers of grime. Gone are the moss gardens, rat presents, and dried leaves. We did find a metal Jaguar emblem under the leaves in the engine compartment that was quite the little surprise. The next step was to get the car off of the trailer. Tracy got elected to sit in the driver's seat for the event, more so because she was the only one who could fit through the door (we could only partially open it due to the placement of the trailer's fender.) Thus, Tracy was the first person to discover that the car has no brakes. No, we don't have video evidence of the event (thank heavens), but John's last words to her before she rolled down the ramp were something like, "If the brakes don't work, just keep the wheel straight and it will eventually stop." Being a science teacher previously, Tracy knew this to be true....but it didn't make her feel any better when she went flying down the ramp backwards. It also didn't make the three bushes that helped stop her feel much better, either...

John showed off his sheer man strength as he wrestled the beast up the driveway. (Tracy thought she'd give him a little credit before she jumped in and we both put our backs into it. We swear it feels like it weighs more than the truck!)

The newly cleaned Lark at the top of the driveway. If we get the interior cleaned out tomorrow, he'll graduate to the garage!