Studebaker did not make post-war wagons until 1954, a bit late for the booming all-steel wagon market. But for their new 1947 line a woody wagon was intended to be part of the line-up, and this prototype was built and shown at several car shows. At the last minute, the wood plug was pulled. It’s handsome enough, but woody wagons were very quickly falling out of favor, as all-steel wagons were cheaper and of course much more friendly for everyday family use. Not having an all-steel wagon was a missed opportunity.
So it was a pretty obvious call to leave this as a one off, which then moldered away somewhere on Studebaker’s sprawling test grounds. It was found in 1980 by a team of Studebaker Drivers Club members, who retrieved the body. The Studebaker National Museum eventually took possession and complete restoration was undertaken. It was a long, painful restoration but it was finally completed in 2012.
And here it is, looking as fresh—although a bit out of date—as it did in 1947.
Nice! Most interesting to me are the white letter Firestone tires. Studebaker PR must have wanted that look over white walls or black walls. Not what I recall seeing any woody wagons using. Of course, the font is small but that was the style then – not like BFG Radial T/As or anything.
Rather handsome, and in those colors: lots of visual appeal!! Certainly far, FAR better than the current NON-color palettes of white, gray or blACK! Suicide doors at no extra charge, unlike Lincoln’$ latest suicide door offering…..:) DFO
You can see three remnants of prewar car construction that Studebaker continued with their postwar car: stuck on rear fenders with a welt at the seam (on four doors the part of the fender that was on the door was just a part of the door; on two doors the whole fender was one piece with the welt), the full strip of body between the doors from top to bottom, and the cowl making up part of the body ahead of the front door (which no other postwar model car had). And the little vent doors on the front fender, which they finally got rid of in 1958, and never did on Hawk models.
It probably wasn’t just their outdated factory and high labor rates that cut into their profits, but also cars made of a lot of bits and pieces and maybe using more labor to assemble.
Yes indeed – I guess it has now been quite some time since we featured this one here. The modern outdoor picture is a nice addition.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics/museum-classic-1947-studebaker-champion-station-wagon-recreated-prototype-woody-in-the-woods/
Studebaker would have had a winner on its hands if someone would have had the foresight to make one of these in steel. But very few have that gift to see new markets before they exist, and it’s pretty plain that none of those folks worked at Studebaker.
Now you have me thinking – both the Willys and the Plymouth (first two steel wagons) were 2 doors. What was the first steel 4 door wagon – were there any before the 1951 Chrysler/DeSoto?
The ’49 Chevy was offered as a 4-door all-steel wagon (with painted “wood look” trim).
We had a ’51 Dodge 4 door wagon. Instead of being a companion to the Plymouth, it was just like the Chrysler and Desoto, with front end Dodge hood covering the engine. I remember making a new cover for the front seat in our apartment dining room.
I learned how to drive with that car and its gyromatic transmission.
GM: Chevrolet and Pontiac had all-steel 4-door wagons in 1949, although I think they were introduced with the model year in progress. There was no 2-door, only a 4-door (GM didn’t have 2-door wagons until 1955). For ’50, Chevy and Pontiac went steel-only. Olds and Buick stayed with at least partial wood construction for a few more years.
Ford: all 1949-51 FoMoCo wagons were 2-doors of part-wood, part-steel (?) construction. They went all-steel for ’52, and introduced a 4-door at the same time.
Chrysler: Plymouth had an all-steel wagon in its 1949 2nd series, but it came only as a 2-door and was built off of the short-wheelbase, almost compact body used for low-end 1949-52 Plymouths and Dodges. Then, midway through the 1950 model year, Chrysler introduced an all-steel 4-door wagon, but built off of the larger body used for upper-middle priced brands (DeSoto and Chrysler). There was a Dodge version, but it was big and expensive for Dodge, and didn’t sell in large numbers. They didn’t even bother with a Plymouth version. So Chrysler now had a really small 2-door steel wagon, and a really big all-steel 4-door wagon, but no normal-sized (low-middle priced) steel wagon at all.
A steel-bodied wagon on the regular Plymouth/Dodge body finally arrived for 1953, but only as a 2-door. Dodge switched from the former oversized 4-door to the new 2-door at that point. That seems like it was going backwards, but the 2-door was so much better suited to Dodge’s market range than the 4-door had been.
Chrysler did not have a 4-door for the Plymouth/Dodge body until 1955, although a small number of ’54 Dodge 4-doors were built by an outside coachbuilder.
Seems odd that they used the stubby Champion chassis. I guess it was typical to put wagons on the cheaper and less powerful models, but it doesn’t really fit the luxury aspect of woodies.
Actual wood framing and skinning over steel panels looks fine as does this Stude its the plastiwood formica used on numerous models that just looks sad and desperate.
Postwar Ford woody wagons all had fake wood on the darker flat areas with real wood framing. Not sure about the window frames, but certainly at least by 1952 it was wood grained steel. In 1954 the real wood was replaced with fiberglass. I don’t see anything wrong at all with for example the 1957, perhaps as close to the Platonic Ideal of station wagons as a physical form can get.
Nice set of wheels. I would love to see the load area.
The strip of metal between the front and rear doors looks strange.
Cantrell of Huntington, L.I. built bodies for C series Studebaker trucks for export. I think these all went to Arabia. Wonder why these didn’t also get built by them or somebody else? Maybe the auto industry as a whole was too busy? Saw the handwriting on the wall for steel? Packard came out with a beautiful partial wood wagon in ’48 that sold poorly.
Looks beautiful .
-Nate