My Cincinnati Barn Find 1960 Studebaker Regal Lark! What would YOU do??

I was just telling my sweet honey, that I have never found a real "Barn" garage find....till today....I read a CL ad;

Date: 2009-10-21, 2:51PM EDT
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1962 Studebaker Lark been in the garage for 20 years. Tires are flat and interior has decayed. This is a fixer upper. Frame is in good condition and parts are still on vehicle. Will need to be towed if your interested.
Must be sold and off the property by tomorrow.


She emailed me, said it was a 2 door hardtop....but no picture, I emailed back when can I see it and where....she called me while making calls in the area, (outside salesman), so we agreed to meet in 45 minutes, this is what I saw when I got there....

259 V8
PS
Auto
100% bone stock missing only a front wheel and hub cap

Needless to say I did buy it, went back an hour later, and without question, was the hardest one I EVER picked up, The driveway was up hill, small yard, and cars parked on either side of the driveway, in a city setting......

So what should I do with it????

Motor NOT locked up, and complete....Thought about letting a true Studebaker fan buy it from me, Clear Ohio ***le and all, or trade it for something I do want, ie; 1955 Chev sedan..... More pitures later...
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Give it to me, so cool, have fun!

 

Great find. How many different ways are there to spell "sleeper?"

 

259's aside from a few oil leaks are pretty bullet proof engines, auto is a decetly reliable unit. Clean it up get it mechanically solid, and drive it for a while. You may become a Studie convert. How many did you see at the last show or cruise in you attended??? If its a two barrel, the manifold can easily be machined to accept a 4bbl.

If you want to upgrade the trans, Steeltechsolutions makes an adapter plate that will take a Gm up to 700 r4.

Lotsa parts at

http://www.studebakerswap.com/swap/swap.php

 

Cool find. This is sure better than "well, I thought about it, asked about, thought some more, went back to think some more and then someone else bought it".

That said, cool as it is, I'm doubting you are going to get anyone to trade you a 55 Chevy for it.

 

It looks pretty cool as is,clean it up and get all the mechanicals working.
hey its already black so................but if you are not really into it, sell it to the stude guy while hes interested and get what you want.

 

chop it, slam it and put a blown hemi in the bay or trade it if thats not your thing. good luck.

 

That car is really a nice one, or could easily become one. As has been said earlier the 259 is a good engine. Don't let parts scare you as they are available. The automatic is a three speed, but doesn't have a first gear start. That can be changed. If you want to adapt a GM unit Fairborn Studebaker has them. They also have other performance parts for the Studebaker engine.
( www.faribornstudebaker.com ) If the car is a two barrel, there are 4 barrel manifolds available for them and they are not hard to find. Also, as was said earlier, some of the Stude two barrel manifolds can be machined into a four barrel item. I naturally say keep the Lark and fix it up into a really nice car. It really doesn't look like it would take much to do it. Here some links to some good sources of information:

http://www.studebakerdriversclub.com/

http://www.racingstudebakers.com/

http://www.studebakervendors.com/

http://www.stude.com/

Enjoy that little Lark. Give it a chance and you'll get a lot of fun out of it.

 

sell it

 

Whether you eventually sell it or NOT, I agree with everything Plym 46 said. THIS is your true barn find. I think you'll sleep better years down the road if you bring this baby BACK a bit (and if you do sell, it'll bring more dough for another project).

Yeah, a Lark will never be a '55 Chevy, but then a '55 Chevy will never be a '55 300, either. The Larks were SOLID cars, SAVED Studebaker's market bacon, AND were an interesting, long-lived series that developed into the Dayton series.

Just my 2 pennies. YOUR find, buddy! CONGRATS!

 

Ooops. Of course I meant: "developed into the Stude Daytona series." Fat finger & CRS kick in, boys & gals! LOL

 

g***er

 

I don't know about, "a Lark will never be a '55 Chevy." I had a '59 Lark Hardtop once that I really loved. I had it down for a while doing some work on it and a friend let be drive his beautiful '57 Bel Air hardtop. I was really looking forward to driving that thing for a few days, but I tell you the Lark with its 289 V8 handled better, rode better and was quicker than the the 283 Chevy. Now I have never driven a '55 Chevy and maybe they are better drivers than a '57. I don't mean to disrespect tri-five Chevies, but I think that '62 Lark is every bit as good a car as they are. Just my somewhat biased opinion.

 

I'd say clean it up and get it running and driving and go from there. Either a Studebaker fan will fall in love with it or you will decide that it makes a nice driver to take to some of the local events and keep it and have fun with it. And the best way to have someone else fall in love with it is to have it cleaned up and be driving it.
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very nice car, I would keep it and fix it up.....drive it for a while and see how you feel about it.
as said before, you saved this one, have fun with it.

 

A friend had an insanely nice red one with Paxton and a 4 speed. Plain jane with dog dishes too. Quick and fun. No one expects a Studebaker to be quick.
Get it running and play with it for a while. Tri five chevy's are everywhere.

 

I have a friend here in louisville that has one just like that. He left the body alone put a mustang II front end with a 9" ford rear, small block chevy. If you see it you will want to keep yours. He can pull into a local cruise night and always draws a crowd.

 

Whatever you do, keep us informed.

 

Yeah, I think I met that guy at BTT 50s or some event..was a dark color...dark blue or brown, can't remember which...very nice car.
I'd love to own one someday...I think they're good lookin cars, myself and the black paint is a bonus. Let me know if it's for sale.

 

Amen!

Makes my day to see something like that brought back to life.

 

Ya he said alot of what I was gonna say. But the auto is a 4 speed.

My 259 is out of a 61 lark. Search studebaker on here (by ***le, otherwise it is useless) and it will bring up alot of good stuff. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=273809 this one is my favorite.

Definitly build a sleeper. Most guys restore these, so people dont expect speed. You will need to fab some stuff and speed parts are somewhat hard to come by. Here let me save you a couple months: http://www.studebakervendors.com/lstone.htm

Studebakers forever.

 

I used to work with a guy who was a die-hard Studie fan. He had never owned anything else. His daily was and is a 64 Lark. The lines on it grew on me during the time we worked together. He also drag races it in stock form, runs a solid 15 flat.

If I found what you got, I'd clean it up and sneak a BBC under the hood. Studies came with Chevy engines the last 2 years, so it should be a bolt in deal with the right mounts. I'd clean it up and drive it everywhere.

Devin

 

I say get it running looks like a pretty clean car , then drive the heck out of it great score!

 

Personally, I'd rather have the Lark than another "me too" '55 Chevy.

But I'm weird that way!

 

And a friend of mine had a one-owner 2 door hardtop 61 Lark, his Mother's last car, and a 63 Stude pickup, runner driver, and had to make a package deal to a Studebaker Club member to get them gone. Probably less than you paid for this jewel.
"To every time there is a purpose..."

 

Been in your position twice. when I was young my answer was "Put a Chrysler in it and race it." Now it's "Put a Chevy in it and drive it."

 

JRoberts, I do know what you mean, man. I had a '62 Hawk 289 4-B w. B/W 4-speed & T/T rear. SOB would honk AND hold the road. Someone else here said no one expects a Stude to scream, or something to that effect. Maybe that's true of the six, BUT the Stude 6 was pretty bullet-proof & DEPENDABLE AS ANY flattie six.

Studebakers were almost always well made. MY feeling is that what dragged them down eventually was poor money/capital management at the boardroom level (going all the way back to Albert Erskine in the '20s!).

When your production costs are too high, then your UNIT costs are going to be non-compet***ive in the m***-prod. market that was in high gear by the '50s and '60s. Studebaker painted themselves into a fiscal corner by the mid-'50s. To stay afloat (without Packard), they would have needed to sell 130,000 Studebakers a year! With relatively high unit costs, that was impossible.

 

The Lark, I think it's fair to say, was Studebaker's last harrah. Reskinning an earlier model cleverly enabled them to get IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR the emerging compact-car trend in 1959. And for the first year or two, at least, Lark sales were strong and put Studebaker back in the black!

But then, I consider Studebaker to be the ultimate chameleon of the U.S. auto industry!!! They were adept at taking old ch***es, bodies, etc. and making them look fairly fresh! The Champion/Hawk platform lasted from '53 through '64. And the Lark/Daytona series lasted from '59 through '66. NICE stretch, eh?

 

Sounds like a hotrod already.

Why don't you just drive it... at least for a while?

 

Keep it, fix it up and drive it. Better car than any Chevy!