Over the weekend, I joined my buddy, George & his mom(age 90) on an expedition north for some parts scrounging. A fellow near Louisville had invited him to come look at his 50's & 60's Mopar parts stash. The gentleman was a retired parts manager from a Dodge dealer. George had also heard of a Dodge dealer near Omaha which was closing and being auctioned off on Thursday after 53 years in biz. Phil Jones had mentioned to me that a garage & former small town Stude dealer in S. Ill. was being auctioned off on Saturday. Inquiries determined that the old dealer had very little Studebaker stuff left, but I decided to ride along & check it out since it was on the way between the 2 Mopar stashes & George could use some help with his purchases.
The Dodge dealer auction was something of a disappointment, as there were few parts, and the large number of books were attracting very high bids. George snagged a few nice items & books, though, & I got a nice film strip projector/phonograph which had been used by salesman in the 50's, along with some misc. tools & parts. The best thing was an elderly gentleman whom George had met previously who had a nice car collection which included 2 Studes, told George that he had an inventory of suspension parts he wanted to liquidate. They were mostly Toledo & McQuay from the 40's & 50's. He bought 300 boxes for $200.00. I took the van and loaded them while George stayed at the auction.
We left there, & spent the night in Columbia, MO. In the morning, we drove through St. Louis & stopped in W. Salem, IL to preview the auction stuff there. there was much interesting stuff at the place which had been in business since 1912, but very little Studebaker stuff. Geo. told the owner that he did not think that there was enough there to justify returning for the auction, but would like to buy a few things if he would like to sell them ahead of time. The seller agreed to sell some stuff which was not on the sales flyer. George bought a beautiful, embossed porcelanized blue & white Mazda light bulb cabinet which probably dated from the 20's or 30's for $50.00 . I bought a few Stude parts, some unidentified NOS steering wheels, & a governer for a steam engine for $50.00. We then headed east to Croydon, IN to look at the Mopar stash. It was an incredible trove of beautiful, clean, prime
50's & 60's parts, with 300 chrome moldings in the NOS wrappers, along with emblems, bezels, lenses, etc. We agreed to return in the morning to load up. Upon arrival in the morning, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the seller had recruited his grandson to help handle the parts & that the parts were already out of the storage conatiner and ready to be loaded. We stuffed the lwb van full, paid for the parts & headed west, with time to make the last half of the auction in W. Salem. I bought a few more neat items there, and we headed south, driving all night, and arriving home on Sun. morning. We all had a good time, but it was not nearly as profitable trip for me as it was for George. He will probably get a handsome price for the light cabinet, & the parts will net him thousands. His mother, though quite senile, seemed to enjoy the trip, & was not very much trouble. All in all, a busy, but fun weekend.-- Barry'd in Studes
58 Packard Hawk 40 President 39 Coupe Exp. 59 DeLuxe 1/2 tn. 56 Packard "400" 58 Commander 4dr (FS)