You know that saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure?" Well this is true in my case of the newest addition to the Pope's Build or Bust family. My Grandfather recently pasted away. He was a good man, a hard worker and a master builder. He has taught me many things through out the years and I am forever grateful. One of the many lessons learned form him was to see the beauty in all things even when others turn up there nose or even laugh at you. I saw this ever so true with his passion in raising earth worms. He loved to fish and with fishing came his passion to have the best bait possible. He had a half acre pond next to his house that he would always take me to. He would put me in charge of taking care of the the bait. It was my job to go into the pack house and get the plumpest earth worms I could find. He raised them in 8 six foot by three foot boxes and feed them old coffee grounds. He had a passion for these worms. Whenever somebody would come over to his house he would take them out back and show them his little babies. Most of my friends thought this was rather gross and laughed at the fact the we raised earth worms. They just didn't understand. It is no wonder that when my grandfather passed away that some family members and friends didn't understand why I wanted two old rusted out trucks that have been parked out in the woods for over 30 years. These two trucks were work trucks at one time. They had a great purpose on the Pope farm until one day they were no longer needed. I am not exactly sure what the reason was (and to be honest I don't really care) but the two trucks were loaded with garbage and drove across the field into the edge of the woods. Once parked the axles were taken off, the engine removed and whatever else that could have been used on the farm was also taken. These two trucks have sat there ever since. Not yet knowing there fate, these rusted, infested and tree laden trucks are now mine. ***And now for the kicker, I need help in identifying these two trucks. They are both Studebaker models I suspect from the early to mid 50's and one has a split window. If anybody out there can help me identify them that would be of much help. Please in your post refer to one truck as the "Spilt Window" and the other truck as "Truck 2" so I will know which one you are talking about. PS. Check out the cool sticker on the back glass of the split Thanks
The split is a 1949 stude M body and the Truck 2 is a 1950 or 51 m body. I Know this because both my dad and my grandpa have one. My dads is a 49 split with a ford 302. my grandfathers is a 50 with a Dodge 360 bored way the fuck out. He likes to drag with it sometimes. my dads is still in primer and he says that its done. these Trucks look fuck bad layed low on wide whites with pinstripe every where.
Great post! Thanks for taking the time to share that with us. You have to save one of those trucks, not everyone has a 50+ year old family vehicle.
Both look to be rough but salvagable. Use the best parts from each to build one. Sell / trade off the extra parts for what your missing.
Studebaker pickups have a certain look to them that you don,t see at first glance. I think all the panels are just rounded of a bit more than most other pickups of that period. Makes them look less truck-like.
do this! this truck belongs to a local guy, Dave Pareso, has a kustom paint shop here in co springs. the truck was originally built in the 60's. i wish i had the vision of a bad assed kustome stude back when i was 13 and "owned" an old stude truck my dad had sitting on his land. i'm gonna have to get me another!
I've seen these trucks in person and I really like the curves on them. They almost looked chopped from the factory. I'm thinking some 50's Dodge tail lights might fit on there quite nice. It will have to sit low, no question about it!
Hey, The design of those trucks was none other than the work of Raymond- Loewy/Loewy Studios. Loewy went ta work for Studebaker before the war, and did work for Studebaker through 1964. Besides the trucks, he did some killer industrial design work on trains, planes, appliances and the world famous Coke bottle, the naughty one with the embossed letters on it, ta say nothin' of that '53 Loewy Coupe or the '64 studebaker Avanti. Swankey Devils C.C.
I've always liked those Stude trucks. I painted a picture of one in art class about 25 years ago. The next year, I worked on one the Vo-Tech instructor had. His was a '52. Those sure look like treasure to me.
Thanks guys, I will keep you posted on all of the happenings. I am going to try and find out some more details about the trucks both personal and professional and I'll keep you all posted. http://www.andrepope.com
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