This Custom 1950 Studebaker Champion 2-Door Sedan was custom built by Trevor Halstead for Ron and Lorraine Child of Whangamata, New Zealand, home of the annual Beach Hop Rock and Roll Festival. The five-day festival includes a car show that attracts over 1,200 classic cars and upwards of 100,000 people. The basis for the build was a left-hand drive U.S. import converted by Trevor to right-hand drive for use in New Zealand.

The completely rebuilt motor is a 1963 Studebaker 259 V8 bored .60 over with a 9:1 compression ratio and R1 camshaft driving through a Ford Zephyr four-speed manual transmission and narrowed Dana 44 rear end with a 3.31:1 ratio. A remote full flow oil filter is mounted on the chassis and a 16" electric fan is mounted behind the three row radiator. Front brakes are Holden HQ discs and rear brakes are Studebaker 10" drums. Gas shocks are mounted at the front with air shocks at the rear. The right-hand steering rack, steering column, and steering wheel are Holden and the 15" by 6" steel wheels are Australian Ford Falcon.

Modifications to the body include a 3" roof chop, stretched hood, and elimination of the front fender side vents and gas filler door. All of the stock trim has been removed except for the chrome bullet nose. The front and rear bumpers, door handles, and trunk handles were removed and electric openers installed. The tail light assemblies are stock 1951 Champion units. The car was media blasted back to bare metal and then primed with Dupont 2k. The interior and engine bay were painted with gloss DuPont Centari 2K and the exterior was painted in DuPont Lucite 400 acrylic lacquer with a 12.5 percent satin finish.

Interior features include front bucket seats from a Honda Prelude and stock rear seat both reupolstered in purple and white. The trunk interior is trimmed to match the interior of the car. The headliner is white vinyl and the lower section of the door panels and floor carpet are done in black nylon carpet. A custom center console houses the radio, electrical switches, auxiliary gauges, and floor shift lever. A Toyota Hilux heater is mounted between the dashboard and firewall. The interior was done by Greg Mather of Midnight Upolstery.

Trev Halstead is a professional restorer and builder of Studebakers and other makes. His 1953 Starlight Coupe Street Rod was Stude of the Month in October 2014 and his beautifully restored 1956 Studebaker Sky Hawk Hardtop was Stude of the month in August 2019. In addition, his 1951 Champion Street Rod appeared on this page in June 2019. The 1951 Champion in an earlier iteration and his award winning 1952 Commander appeared on this page in August 2008 in a piece on New Zealand Studebakers.

Trevor has supplied the details of the building of this cool car. Thanks to Dianne Halstead for sending the pictures and information regarding this neat custom Studebaker.

If you own or once owned a Studebaker or related vehicle and would like to see your car as "Stude of the Month" or in the "Cool Studes" section, or if you have other pictures or material that you would like to contribute to this page, please e-mail me here at wj2d44@gmail.com. I can accept either electronic or hard copy images. The Main Page is issued every other month so the next edition will be April 2020.

All of the previous editions of the Main Page going back to October 1995 have been reposted. In the process of reposting the pages, I have made corrections and revisions as needed, and in some cases added material that was not used when a page was first posted due to download speed and file storage limitations. A complete list of Main Pages and Studes of the Month with links to each is located here.

If you have a particular interest in Bullet Nose Studebakers, visit Bill Junge's Bullet Nose Paradise which is dedicated to the 1950 and 1951 Bullet Nose models.

This Custom 1953 Studebaker Starlight Coupe is owned by Dave Weiss who lives in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dave says that he bought the car from a middleman and that it appears to have been someone's project car. Body parts from several years of Studebakers have been nicely integrated. The hood appears to be from a 1962 to 1964 GT Hawk with an earlier 1956 to 1961 Hawk grille. The dash appears to be a 1956 to 1961 Hawk type and the steering wheel appears to be a 1957 or 1958 type. The side grilles have the egg crate inserts with no parking lamps as used in 1958 and both the grille surrounds and inserts are painted black. The headlight rims are also painted black.

Dave's car is powered by a Fox Body Mustang 5.0L (302 cubic inch displacement) HO crate motor with a matching 4-speed automatic overdrive transmission and 9" Ford rear end with a 3.55:1 ratio. The subframe is also from a Ford Mustang. The car has rack and pinion power steering, power disc brakes up front with drums at the rear, and a dual exhaust system with equalizer. The power bucket seats are from a BMW and will be redone in black and silver and the headliner, side pillars, and package shelf will be redone in black Naugahyde. Dave has installed seatbelts as there were none in the car when purchased.

Thanks to Dave for sending the pictures and information about his cool Stude. Dave is new to Studebakers but not to old cars as he also owns a 1965 Buick Wilkdcat.

Dan Armstrong from Mansfield, Texas has created a number of crossword puzzles and games for car nuts. Dan has a strong interest in Studebakers, particularly the 1956 Sky Hawk, the performance equipped 1963 Lark Daytona, and the performance equipped 1963 and 1964 GT Hawks. The Studebaker crosswords are copyright by Dan Armstrong and are used with his permission. Thanks to Dan for providing the link and the downloadable Studebaker crossword puzzles for readers of this page to enjoy.

This 1965 Commander Wagonaire is owned by Dave ODonnell who lives in Reedsville, Pennsylvania. Dave's Wagonaire is powered by a 1995 Chevy LT1 small block V8 with a Borg-Warner T-5 five speed manual transmission. It has a narrowed Ford 8.8 rear axle with 4.11 gears. A Sun 8,000 RPM tachometer is attached to the steering column. It also has alloy wheels and modern radial tires. Another interesting feature is a Pioneer combination 8-track player and radio mounted under the dash. The upolstery appears to be original and in excellent conditiion. Thanks to Dave for contacting me and providing the information on his Wagonaire.

The pictures were taken at the October 2019 Mifflin County Studebaker Swap Meet in Reedsville, Pennsylvania. Attendence at the meet appeared to be down this year at least on Friday but I was able to purchase some items at great prices. I also took a number of pictures of Studes at the meet which I will use in future editions of this page as space allows. Current information is that the meet will be held once again in 2020 on October 20 and 21 at the Mifflin County Youth Park.

The 1937 Coupe Express is owned by Chester and Nancy Bradfield of Bridgewater, Virginia. It was featured as Stude of the Month on this page in December 2003. It was a "basket case" that was found in Parsons, West Virginia. A full frame up restoration was done by Bud Rogers. The 1963 Lark Custom 2-Door Sedan is owned by Larry Zirkle of Broadway, Virginia. Larry has owned this car for 47 years. The Custom trim level was new for 1963. Lark Customs came standard with extra stainless steel trim and upgraded upolstery. Larry's car appeared on this page in August 2013.

The pictures were taken at the December 2019 Greater Virginia Chapter of SDC Christmas Party. The event was hosted by Wayne and Marilyn Eberly at their Rockingham County farm and home west of Harrisonburg. The weather cooperated with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper forties although it was a bit windy. The meal was excellent and included Turner Country Ham which is cured locally at the Turner Ham House in Fulks Run.

This rare 1958 Packard Hawk is owned by Glenn Koogler of Raphine, Virginia. It is one of 588 Packard Hawks produced for the 1958 model year, which was Packard's last. The Packard Hawk was powered by the same supercharged Studebaker 289 cubic inch V8 engine used in the Studebaker Golden Hawk. Differences from the Studebaker version included a unique front with a flat oval grille, sloping hood, and chrome bumper with two bullets. Other differences included a sloping rear deck with a fake spare tire and gold Mylar inserts for the tail fins. A very attractive leather interior was standard with unique matching armrests on the outside top of the doors.

Studebaker and Packard merged in 1954 to form the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Studebaker was the larger company but Packard was in a better financial position. The idea was for Studebaker to be a volume producer is the lower price fields and for Packard to be a luxury car maker competing with Cadillac and Lincoln. Packard production continued in Detroit through the 1956 model year. During 1957 and 1958 Packards were built in South Bend and were essentially restyled Studebakers. In 1962 "Packard" was dropped from the company's legal name.

The pictures were taken at the October 2019 Greater Virginia SDC drive to Glenn Koogler's Garage. Glenn also owns a beautiful 1954 Packard Convertible that appeared on this page in December 2019. Glenn is active in the Old Dominion Packard Club and enjoys driving his Packards on tours and to events. An earlier picture of Glenn's Packard Hawk appeared on this page in December 2006.

This 1:43 scale Brooklin 1950 Studebaker Commander Land Cruiser Sedan is a recent addition to my collection. It is Number BRK 104 and is not listed as a current model on Brooklin's web site. As is typical of a Brooklin model, it is quite heavy with a nice paint job and a detailed interior. The doors, hood, and trunk lid are fixed and the chassis is plainly detailed with model identification and "Made in England" cast into the base. It comes securely packed in inner and outer boxes and with foam padding around the model. This model has appeared in several colors including dark red, light gray, pale green, and black. The dark red version seems by far to be the most common based on eBay listings. The example above was purchased on eBay for about $70 inclding tax and shipping. The black version is currently available on Amazon for $149.95 plus tax and $11.95 shipping.

Brooklin Models was founded in 1974 by John Hall in Brooklin, Ontario. The company relocated from Canada to Bath, England in 1979. From its beginning, Brooklin has specialized in American cars including those from companies like Studebaker, Nash, Hudson, and Packard. Brooklins are cast in heavy white metal from hand crafted brass patterns. The models are hand spray painted and feature nickel plated bright work and rubber tires. Brooklin has issued a number of Studebaker models including a 1934 Commander Land Cruiser Sedan, 1935 Commander Convertible, 1950 Commander Land Cruiser, 1952 Champion Starlight Coupe, 1952 Commander Convertible, 1953 Commander Starliner, 1954 Conestoga Station Wagon, 1955 Champion Sedan, and 1959 Lark Sedan.

More toy Studes can be found in the Stude Stuff area of this page and on my Studebaker Toys Home Page.

Click here for information on ordering hard to find Studebaker toys made by manufacturers such as Johnny Lightning, Racing Champions, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Muscle Machines, Maisto, and EKO.

Jim Geary's book Studebaker Toy Treasures is the standard reference for collectors of Studebaker Toys. This wonderful book has 294 pages of color pictures and details on hundreds of Studebaker toys. Publication date is 2004 and just about every Studebaker toy and model produced up to that time is pictured and cataloged. Jim is making the book available for $25 plus $14 for shipping. Jim will sign the book if requested. It also comes with a CD of more toys than what is in the book. This is a must for the serious Studebaker toy vehicle collector. Jim can be contacted at sanjim76@live.com or send payment to Jim Geary, 181 Allendale Hills Road, Franklin, NC 28734.