It Was Meant to Be… 1960 Studebaker Hawk

It Was Meant to Be… Neil and Ruth Bell’s Story

New roadblock! To register to bid, the auction would only accept $1,000.00 cash or a cashier’s check. American Express not accepted. We didn’t go out to buy and don’t walk around with that in our pocket. Oh well, again! We watched a few cars go across the block then drove the 40 miles back home. When we got home, I remembered the auction was streaming live online. We logged on and since they had to take a credit card to register to bid, we registered.
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Had we missed the Hawk? First we heard the rumble of the exhaust and then the black Hawk rolled onto the block. Bidding started. When it stopped, we had won the Hawk, $500.00 under Ruth’s ceiling.
Okay! Now how are we going to pay for it? Gulp! No, the auction will not accept the American Express card. Called the Credit Union. “No, we won’t finance a collector car.” It’s now late Saturday afternoon. What are we going to do? I remembered seeing a booth for J. Best Banc at the auction. I checked them out online and found they financed collector cars. So we drove back out to the auction. By 8:30pm we had arranged financing and the Hawk was ours. All we had to do was drive it home.

And so the adventure began. By the time I had driven the Hawk from where it was parked to the auction gate, the temperature gauge was pegged. I eased the rad cap off and couldn’t see any coolant. (I know, I should have checked the radiator first.) We filled the radiator with bottled water and headed out. 50 mph in the right hand lane of the freeway, I could barely keep this “great driver” in the lane, sawing on the Lecarra steering wheel. The power steering seemed pretty heavy. At home, we found the power steering reservoir empty. After filling it up, we knew why. If the car had been driven across the auction block with the power steering screeching like this, we might have got it for a lot less!

Long story short, 4 years later and for twice more money than we purchased it for, we now have the great driver it was meant to be. A new windshield and rear glass were installed. The good looking tires were dry rotted.

New tires took care of that. The custom burgundy tweed interior was done in 1998. A couple of panels on the driver’s seat and door were worn through and have been replaced. We were fortunate to find a perfect match. Dual 12 volt power sockets, an additional AC vent and seat belts were the other additions to the interior. A Turner Brake dual master cylinder kit with remote reservoirs on the firewall was added and all new brake lines were installed. The manual drum brakes were upgraded to 11” HD finned drums with new shoes. The shock absorbers were replaced. The steering box and the power steering pump were rebuilt. All new OEM front end steering components and Quick Steering Arms were added. A 1” front and 3/4″ rear sway bar took the place of the 5/8” front bar. An additional leaf was added to help the sagging rear springs. The tapered rear axles were replaced with flanged axles. The 3.07 ratio differential was upgraded to a 3.73 ratio gear and Auburn limited slip (the only one available new with 19 splines).

The Turbo 350 transmission was swapped out with a Hughes Performance 700R4 and 2200 rpm stall lock up torque converter. In the engine, new head gaskets, headers, carburetor, and water pump were installed. A custom aluminum shroud, 3000 rpm electric fan, new hoses and overflow collector were added to the aluminum radiator which had to be dipped twice to clean it out. A 100 amp alternator and new starter motor completed the work under the hood and a hood pin was added. An Optima battery was moved to the trunk. The engine compartment was completely rewired with all systems now working off 4 individual 12 volt relays instead of just off the ignition key.

We drive our Hawk to car shows all over Arizona and have won multiple Best of Class and Best of Show awards. Apart from the joy of driving our Hawk, our greatest satisfaction comes from the response the Hawk receives from the general public. We call it our Smile Mobile!
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