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Why Studebaker and why the 1953 Starliner?
In 2009 my wife and I bought a few acres of land with the intention of building a house upon it. Since we are happy in our current house and neighborhood, we haven't been in a rush to build on the land. We did, however, start the planning process which included preliminary house plans. The house planning process included locating a building site on the property. On April 8, 2014 I went to the property to do an informal site survey and to take photos to send to the architect.
The lot is off the beaten path and it was/is being farmed by a friend. It has a thick hedgerow on the western part and a thick wooded area on the southern part of the lot. As I walked to the point where the hedge row and wooded area meet I noticed a reflection of light from an otherwise brown-washed environment. Walking towards the reflection, I realized that there was a car hidden deep within the wooded area. It was obvious that it was put there decades earlier. If I had been there a few weeks later it wouldn't have been visible through the vegetation that would be present.
I had no idea what make or model of car I was looking at because I'm not very good at vehicle identification. A Mercedes emblem on the hood became visible as I approached the car so I figured it was an older Mercedes from the 60s. Even though the car was stuck in the ground and shot full of holes it still looked like an especially stylish vehicle. I subsequently noticed a Studebaker emblem on the back of the car. I took several pictures and noticed more Mercedes and Studebaker emblems. I rushed home to interact with the best investigative tool, Google.
I didn't have any actual data on the car, especially since the driver's door was stuck in the closed position thereby hindering the access to the door jamb identification plate. The search eventually narrowed down to a 1953 or 54 Studebaker via a lot of searching through Google images. A few clicks later brought me to the Studebaker Drivers Club forums to get an exact identification of the car. After posting a few pictures it was identified correctly as an early version of the 1953 Studebaker Commander Hardtop, aka Starliner.
I researched the car online for the next few days and realized that the car in the woods was a landmark car for multiple reasons. It was an early first year version of a successful line of what was to be known as Studebaker Hawks. It was the exact Studebaker to restore if you were going to spend time and money on a long restoration. I learned from my 1972 Challenger restoration that it is very important to choose the right version of a car to restore. The difference in values between years can be immense. Most people wouldn't attempt to restore a car in the condition of the car in the woods because it truly is a foolish thing to do. I felt a connection to the car as soon as I saw it so I threw common sense out the window and decided to go for it.
Why the 1953 Studebaker Starliner? I found it and I love the design and story of the car.
