Brian Earnest
Bruce Garvey refused to believe his car was cursed. His 1949 Studebaker Champion Regal Deluxe sedan was just too lovable, and too solid, to ever be a permanently doomed by bad luck.
But it’s a good thing Garvey has a good sense of humor.
“I had a ’46 Studebaker that I wanted to re-do, but it was too far gone,” recalled Garvey, a resident of DePere, Wis. “I wanted a runner, and so I bought this one in northern Illinois, just north of Chicago — and it blew up on me on the way home! [laughs]. That was in 2005, 2006, somewhere in there.”
Garvey soon decided that the Champion was going to be his maiden automotive restoration project, and with the help of family friends it turned out great — with the exception of one other little hiccup.
“Well, we had a little explosion in the garage,” he says. “I don’t want to point any fingers or get into specifics about how it happened … but I had second- and third-degree burns over about 21 percent of my body. UW-Madison did a phenomenal job [with his treatment and recovery] and the volunteer fire department did a great job of saving the rest of the house as well. Overall, I’d say I was out of commission for about two months, I guess, and it took about a year to recover.”
The ’49 Champion was in the garage at the time and was slightly luckier than Garvey. “A few panels had to be re-done, but luckily the interior was out of it at the time,” he says. “All the interior and chrome were elsewhere in the house. The main chassis had to be repainted and I think two doors and two fenders.”
Brian Earnest
So how good did the project turn out? Last September Garvey decided to have the car judged at the Studebaker National Meet in Manitowoc, Wis., not far from his home.
“I drove it to the show and lost a headlight, but we got still 391 out of 400 points! I thought that was really good, for a car that was pretty much all done at home with friends and family!”
THE POST-WAR CHAMP
The Champion model was a success almost from the beginning for Studebaker. The nameplate was introduced in 1939 and sold more than 33,000 copies that first year. As was the case with all the American car companies, World War II put a temporary halt to production, but thanks to its war contracts and the early traction gained by the Champion, Studebaker emerged from the WWII hiatus in good shape financially and ready to hit the ground running with postwar production.
Brian Earnest
The 1946 Champion was basically a warmed-over 1942 model, but a year later Studebaker launched what was considered the first true “new” car lineup. The new Champion was a product of Raymond Loewy’s design studio and had a love-it-or-hate-it look with a wrap-around rear window futuristic styling that made more than a few observers joke that they couldn’t tell whether the car was coming or going. In addition to the new rear glass, the redesign included flat front fenders and interior niceties such as courtesy lights and backlit gauges. Under the hood was a 169.6-cid L-head six-cylinder rated at 80 hp. It was hooked to a three-speed manual gearbox.
For 1949, the Champion continued as the base model in the Studebaker hierarchy, a step below the Commander, and was available in Deluxe or Regal Deluxe trim levels — the difference was mainly a chrome windshield surround and rocker moldings on the Regal Deluxe. The Champions were available as a base coupe, two- and four-door sedans, the five-passenger Starlight Coupe, and a convertible in the Regal Deluxe lineup. Prices ranged from $ 2,019 for a bare-bones coupe up to $ 2,467 for the droptop.
The main updates for ’49 were new standard wraparound front and rear bumpers and a different grille with a full-width horizontal stainless steel bar.
Brian Earnest
Garvey’s ’49 is one of 10,005 Regal Deluxe four-door sedans built for the model year. It would have had a base price of $ 2,149.
The Champion line underwent several other dramatic changes in the following years. The memorable “bullet nose” Studebakers arrived a year later in 1950, and another major redesign came in 1953 with another makeover from the Loewy studios — this time a racy new facelift courtesy of Robert Bourke.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
The Studebaker enthusiast community is famous for its members’ willingness to share knowledge, sell stuff and go out of their way help each other. That was exactly the experience Garvey had during his first restoration attempt. He not only found helping hands in his own social circle, but from total strangers as well.
“I did a little homework and the Studebaker community is just so helpful,”: he says. “You can buy parts at some of these wholesale houses out of the original catalogs, the same parts numbers… Parts are available and people will help you anytime to get you what you’re looking for. That’s one of the big reasons I chose a Studebaker.”
Garvey’s sedan was originally sold in Alma, Neb., on May 31, 1949. It was originally titled in Illinois, he said. Beyond that, he’s a little fuzzy on the car’s history. Somebody had obviously taken very good care of the car, however. Overall, it was in excellent original condition.
“Structurally, it was very good, but the paint was pretty well shot. It did have some rust in the posts — in between the front and back doors, so we welded some metal in there,” he said.
Much of the interior is original. The front seat still has a cover on it that Garvey suspects has been there almost from the beginning. The engine and transmission are original and have accounted for all 79,000-plus miles on the odometer. The six-cylinder did require some work after the breakdown on the maiden voyage home to Wisconsin.
“The guy hated to get rid of it. It was blowing a little blue, we just didn’t know how bad it was gonna get … A little more smoke and I knew it was done. Broken rod,” he recalled. “So we re-did it, but that’s the original six that’s in it.”
Brian Earnest
Garvey admits he wasn’t dead set on keep the Champion all stock and authentic when he first acquired it, but he’s glad he did — especially after getting it judged last year.
“We had some plans, but when we got into it we decided to go straight original,” he says. “Actually, a lot of the paint was done in a plastic booth with 2x4s in the garage. A friend of ours is very good with paint, so he did the paint job … We took every component out of the engine compartment and sanded and painted it. I mostly did the grunt work on the grinder!
“The bumpers are original, the bumper guards were re-chromed. Otherwise, we did all the stainless steel trim by ourselves, pulled it all off, put new glass in it, except the back windows are original. The paint is Midnight Blue. Studebaker always stapled their paint tags under the glove boxes, so we knew that was the original color.”
Even in Studebaker circles, the early post-war year cars are a bit on the oddball side. That’s precisely why guys like Garvey like them. The ’49 Champion is both nostalgic and different, and it has a certain charm that’s hard to define.
“It’s just a fun car. When we take it to shows, it is unique. A lot of people coming up and looking at it,” he says. “And it’s not bad to drive. It brakes very good… When you get into tight quarters it’s a little tough with no power steering — and like an 18-inch diameter steering wheel, like you are driving a semi! But the three-on-the tree is fun, and with the overdrive we’re getting 60, 65 mph an hour.”
“I just kind of like it. It’s only a 3-year window that they made these. And like they say, with these you can’t tell if they are going forwards or backwards!”
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