The best April 1st stories on the web
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I'm going this afternoon to pick up a new to me vehicle!  A barn fresh 1958
Packard Hawk!  It seems the owner left during a family dispute in the late
1960's and had bought the car cheap because of a bad engine.  He had
transplated a drivetrain from a wrecked '62 Corvette into it and never finished
the conversion (most missing parts in trunk).  Car is in Palatka, Florida and a
guy called me about getting it running.  He thought it was a customized
Studebaker and was wanting to get it running and sell.  I didn't see any
corrosion, just a couple of flat tires and some mouse turds.  I'm hoping to
have it at Charlotte, so look for a two-toned (crappy) brown Packard Hawk with
a 327 F.I. & 4 speed in it, best $1500.00 I have ever spent!
Calvin (I'm so full of schitt my eyes are brown!) Lowell




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    For years, there has been a discrepancy in the production orders for
1964 cars. It is not known if the cars were ordered and then taken off
production after December 9 but not taken off the serial number roll.
Fred Fox had several years ago questions about this: no answer was
ever found.

Three days ago, I got a call from a friend that works for Pacific
Fruit Express, a branch of Southern Pacific Railroad. It seems there
was a couple of freight cars found in the salvage section near Gila
Bend, AZ that have been there for years. When they were opened in
order to make sure that nothing was inside before the cars were
scrapped. Inside each of the two cars were 6 Studebakers. He asked me
if I could go to Gila Bend and see if the cars were of any value or
scrap.

I was in Gila Bend yesterday and could not believe my eyes: All twelve
of the cars were 1964 Studebakers: 1 Avanti, 3 Hawks, 2 Champ Trucks
and 6 Lark types including one Daytona Convertable. All the cars had
about 3" of desert dust on them, but they still had the window
stickers on them. Leo Hamby, my friend, then checked on the history on
Microfiche to see what had happened. An hour later he had the answer.
It seems the cars were heading to California to  a dealer in Pomona,
but when the annoucement was made that Studebaker was stopping South
Bend Production, he cancelled the order for the cars. Too late, the
cars had already been shipped and he refused to accept the order and
said to ship them back. South Bend deleted the production orders when
the dealer cancelled the order: when the cars came back, Studebaker
did not have any numbers for the order and did not accept them back.
There was a note to that effect in the Southern Pacific archives and
the cars were to stay in Chicago until this was sorted out. They were
in Chicago until 1978 sitting until they were shipped to the scrap
yard in Gila Bend. The paper work had long been shipped to microfiche
and the cars just sat in the Arizona Desert until now.

The cars are currently property of Southern Pacific Railroad. They are
not sure what to do with them. I am tentatively advising them about
the cars: What does the NG think? I will be going back to Gila Bend on
Monday for pictures and see if I can post them to the NG.

Bob Miles
Tucson AZ
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