This is a very nice truck, and the original license plate is a nice touch. The asking price on the For Sale sign is $30,000. This seems a bit steep to me. It is not the more desirable 5-window cab. The license plate is the only thing to clue me as to the year this was made. These trucks were identical from 1947 to 1953.
This truck looks like it's trying to tell me stories about 66 years of traveling the pacific northwest. The 3200 was the long-bed model. I understand that the length and width of the beds on Chevy trucks stayed the same for 30 years. Note that the grill is painted, not chrome. That was optional from the factory, I assume it was slightly cheaper. This was the last year before they went to four headlights.
IH pickups are pretty common in Seattle. I hardly ever saw them in the midwest even as a kid. I guess if you can keep them out of the Rust Belt they are pretty durable. 1975 was the last year for the IH truck, and 1980 for the last Scout SUV. Too bad, as trucks and 4x4 vehicles were just starting to get a lot more popular.
In 1955, Pontiac replaced its venerable straight-8 with an OHV V-8 and 12-volt electrical system. Though very similar to and slightly more upscale than 1955-57 Chevies, they've never been as popular. An IH pickup with faux-wood trim is not something I see every day.
This truck arrived in 1948 as Studebaker's first new post-war design. Well, the cab and bed were new but the solid-axle chassis and flathead motor were already very old. This design lasted through 1953, then was actually brought back for 1958-9 as the Scotsman. This same truck finally got a new cab in 1960 and new ohv 6-cylinder engines and a new bed in 1961, but the old-fashioned chassis was made all the way until Studebaker closed operations in Indiana at the end of 1963.
From Hemmings.com: "Faced with certain extinction near the end of the 1950s, Studebaker clung to solvency by building new cars and trucks out of the stuff already in its parts bins."
"Without the resources to design an all-new truck, Studebaker passed the ball to the Lark. Using the front half of a Lark sedan body with a unique grille and bumper, South Bend created a pickup cab that fit remarkably well with the edgy styling direction Detroit had taken. Inside, the Lark's dash added a civilized touch to the workaday hauler. Unfortunately, almost everything else about the truck was still very much a rolling representation of a bygone era.
While Detroit's haulers rode on independent front ends, two-wheel-drive Champs used straight front axles with leaf springs as well as leaf springs in the rear. In 1960, Studebaker's six-cylinder truck engines were still flathead designs dating back to the 1930s. The Champ's box, too, was a throwback to the previous model, and those pontoon rear fenders that looked so right on the 2R in 1949 didn't blend well with the Lark-derived Champ cab. Even the Champ's brake and clutch pedals seemed old fashioned poking up out of the floor, as swing-style pedals had become so common everywhere else.
For 1961, Studebaker did its best to bring the Champ into the modern age. The flathead six-cylinder engines were discontinued and the smaller 170-cu.in. six was brought back with overhead valves. (Both V-8 engines remained in the lineup, the 259 as well as the 289.)
The most visible change was the addition of smooth bedsides, but rather than design and build its own bedsides for the Champ, Studebaker purchased tooling that had been used to make Dodge's "Sweptline" boxes. Studebaker's Dodge-derived "Spaceside" box was more modern looking than the old fender box, but it was disproportionately big for the Champ's cab. The body creases in the Champ's doors didn't jibe with the Dodge's bedsides either, further making the combination look cobbled together.
If the Champ had an advantage in the light-truck marketplace, it was its low price. In 1962, the Champ half-ton, with a 6.5-foot box and six-cylinder engine, was the most inexpensive hauler in its class, weighing in with a base price of $1,870.
The Champ soldiered on, more or less a footnote in South Bend's proud history, until December 27, 1963, when Studebaker pulled the plug on civilian truck production."
This post is a reader submission, and not actually in Seattle. But it's my blog and I'm making an exception. Note the wood bed. My father's '77 Chevy pickup had one. Apparently they were available as late as 1987.
