It may seem heretical to see a Ford truck hauling a load of Chevys. In fact, competitive brand trucks simply weren’t allowed to enter the factory yard at GM. But Convoy, based in the Pacific North West, was a bit different: they didn’t haul from the factories; they picked up cars on the docks in Tacoma and Portland, shipped via barges from California, and then distributed the cars to regional dealers, so they were exempt.
Here’s a few other typical Convoy mixed loads:
Convoy had a special permit to operate these double trailers.
Ford truck must be thinking:
Hey! I started this headlights inside the grille trend in 1948, and I’ve been doing it ever since. Now GM is claiming to be first as usual. Well, you may be over my head, but I was there first.
In that 1st pic I want the Chevy on the top at the end.
Isn’t that Ford Galaxies?
Oops! I was looking at the wrong pic.
I’d love that Chevy, too! I wonder what the colors were?
It’s one of these five:
Aspen Green Metallic 903A
Highland Green Metallic 905A
Frost Blue Metallic 910A
Harbor Blue Metallic 912A
Roman Red 923A
No matter how many times I see a photo of it, nor in what context, that Studebaker Champ pickup with the Dodge bed always infuriates me. The fact that someone in Studebaker management took a look at the prototype and said, “Meh. Close enough.” really makes my blood boil for some reason.
Lighten up, Francis. 😜😇
Anything that has come out of the midwest that requires a spark plug has been a POS. Just my 2 cents…
At least they redid the stamping for the tailgate so it didn’t say “DODGE”. 🙂
Actually, that bed didn’t look good on the 59-60 Dodge either. The width contours were better, but that low, square bed mated up better in profile on the lower, squarer Champ than it did on that ancient tall, rounded Dodge. It is arguable that Studebaker matched the rear wheel opening shape and contours better than Dodge did, too. But yeah, sometimes good enough has to be good enough.
Evan,
I’ve been a Studebaker nut for about 60 years, and remember when these came out. The local Stude dealer was touting the “New Wider Bed” and was quick to point out that the bed was wider than the cab, following that statement with: None of the competition has beds that much wider than their cabs!
“Close enough” was the best they could do considering the amount of money they had to spend. Or should I say “… they didn’t have to spend!”
Yes, it’s not a good look, but a lot better than the old stepside that had pre-ww2 history. The entire Champ pickup was done on the cheap because S-P was already beginning to fail, and there was no money.
The Champ only required 5 new body pieces, the back center panel, the seam panel at the top back edge above the rear window, the 2 rear corners, and the grill shell. The top and floor panels, as well as the door jambs, were simply stamped with shorter steel sheets, then trimmed. The optional sliding rear window consisted of parts already available from suppliers.
While the Dodge bed was not a great fit, most of the public back then didn’t realize what it’s history was. And it allowed the company to offer a truck with a full size bed. Champ pickups did well for an independent manufacturer.
A close look at that Dodge bed vs. the Stude versions shows that the leading edge that abuts the cab is different in the two versions. The Dodge has a curvature across the front that sort of hugged the curve across the rear of the cab, while the Stude versions is straight across up there. I cannot figure out if the front panel of the bed and the side stampings were different, or if someone just cut the side panels shorter before assembly. So the Dodge bed is not a drop-on replacement.
I presume that they subcontracted these (just as Dodge had)? It would probably have been possible to make some minor changes to the bed front and to the tailgate stamping for not very much money, which would surely have been a lot cheaper than doing the part on their own.
As you note, most folks probably never noticed the Dodge history – Dodge only used it for 2 years (59-60) and had a poor market penetration at that, especially for the wide bed models.
JP,
Yes, the beds did come from outside South Bend. Somewhere I’ve seen photos of a railroad boxcar full of these beds being unloaded, and the front leading edge was straight across. Until you just pointed it out, I never noticed how the bed curved around the cab on the Dodge. Since they arrived in Indiana with already squared corners, it must have been done by the supplier if not MoPaR.
Champs sold in Argentina and some other South American markets got a bed that actually matched the cab. These were shipped from South Bend without beds, which instead were made by a local manufacturer. These also have better integrated bumpers than the North American models.
Local manufacturer made the beds, that should be
The Dodge bed got me to thinking about the obvious answer, from a modern perspective, for the mismatched cab and bed. Think Lil Red Express. They had twin smoke stacks. The perfect foil for this mismatch. Stretch the frame to accept the stacks between the cab and bed and put a filler piece on top of the bed between the stacks. Twin stacks with big chrome heat shields behind the cab and suddenly who is looking at body lines anymore?
When looking at a Champ, what amazes me most is the amount of handwork that was done to mate the back cab panel with the front half of a Lark 4 door… it doesn’t look like a wham-bam operation, at least as far as production line speeds go. And how did they rough stamp the cab out? Like, did they actually chop the back half off a complete 4 door passenger compartment?
Also, I’m betting they sold more Champs on their cargo capacity i.e.- being able to haul 4×8′ sheets of building materials betwixt the wheelwells, than they lost because of any oddities due to the Studebaker-Dodge mis-smash.
E.A. Cowan,
When stamping out panels like the Champ roof and floorpan, typically what they did was insert a shorter sheet of steel into the press. It would be a few inches longer than needed. They would next put it into a jig that would trim off the excess to the exact shorter cab length. So they didn’t use full sedan roofs or floors.
Those last two shots look like the exact same lode, coming and going.
On the second one, I wonder if that truck was the only place outside of the factory or a dealer lot where Studebakers outnumbered anything else. And I have never understood their decision to paint wheels off-white for the last few years in South Bend. Unless maybe it was the same paint used for bumpers and grilles on low-trim trucks and was a cost-saving measure.
JP,
It certainly WAS 100% a cost cutting move. Many Studebaker rims were identical or had a similar offset to Ford rims, so the rims could be painted by the rim manufacturer and the tires already fitted by the tire companies. By keeping all the rims white, there was no worrying about color matching rims to the car’s paint, while getting the rim width and tire correct. It saved a lot of time and effort by standardizing the rim color. And if I remember, the cheaper Ford cars had white or black rims only.
I do remember my dad ordering a new 1967 Plymouth Fury II wagon with poverty caps. The rims were the same metallic tan as the car, and it made it look so cheap, that my thrify father ordered 4 “chromium plated” generic 14″ wheel covers from J C Whitney. They looked cheap, and after only one rainstorm, they began to rust. So dad went back to the dealer and bought 4 new Fury full size wheel covers on my mom’s order, ’cause she said the car looked too damn cheap!
And it encouraged both new and used car buyers and dealers to “upscale” the car’s look by adding trim rings or full wheel covers. Back in the 1970s I bought out more than a few Studebaker-Packard dealer parts inventories that had multiple boxes filled with brand new “take-off” smaller Studebaker hub caps. Back then I had a hard time selling ’em for $1 each.
This one is all-Chevrolet (eBay postcard), said to be 1970. I tip my hat to the designer(s) of these trailers!
Love the way they pack the cars into those trailers but they are still fairly light loads for a truck to haul, very top heavy and awfull in high wind but even today lower hp tractors are still in use towing car carriers here, thought about applying to drive them recently but milk is starting so maybe when thats over,
It is indeed rather ironic to see a Ford pulling a bunch of new Chevrolet cars.
I speak for myself but working at a dealer is kind of revealing. Most people working there go out of their way to drive the cheapest thing they can get their hands on. They could be selling and servicing toasters for all anyone cared. My old friend is the top seller for all the Ford stores in Oklahoma and he drives a 2013 Chevrolet Cruz. I drove a $1000 beater and was soundly congratulated for it.
I recall new cars arriving at my work places all the time but I don’t remember who made the truck pulling it. I was more interested in looking for transportation damage.
Canuck,
I had a similar job that included checking for damages on new Ford cars. I often had drivers who tried to trick me into signing off on the car conditions before they even drove them off the trailer. Whenever they tried that trick, I was wary, and made a special effort to check everything, even opening the glove box to make sure the owner’s manual package was there.
If it were nowadays, the easy way around the mismatched Studebaker cab and the Dodge bed would be to stretch the frame just enough to fit a couple of upright smokestacks. A filler piece between them under the back window would complete the look. Those big chrome stacks with their big chrome heat shields would draw all attention away from mismatched body lines.
CC effect in reverse: last week on my way home from the dentist, a 1963 Studebaker sedan like those in the second pic drove past me. I haven’t seen a Stude in the wild in over five years, and haven’t seen one actually being driven in about twenty. This was in a newer, upscale development where I almost never see old cars.