I think there is kind of a crème component in your choice of color. That if so makes it appear rich in my opinion. I agree that the color being even close to the period but very uncommon today was a good choice.

Have you had any luck with the Studebaker drivers club for chrome parts? I have no ideal of how good they are as an organization. On occasion local guys used to ask me to buy certain parts at Hershey if I found them.

Back then it was a great place to do so. At least a couple of our site members still go each year. Personally I never minded looking as soon as my needs where met.

Actually was successful getting their parts from time to time. Requests like looking for a rear fender emblem for a very large open 1920s Hudson where not uncommon then.

There are parts around. I have not been able to buy anything in trim that I wanted, being not quick enough to score what I needed.

Really nice color choice. Originally i was pulling for keeping the look similar to the photo in your sig, but the color change turned out great. Nice work.

I really liked the black too but once I decided to give it a nice paint job I dreaded taking care of the black paint with the way it shows every little bit of dirt.

I just looked at a 39 coupe on ebay with all the trim stripped off, painted flat black and the lines on it were just right with no trim.

I like the sneaky look though with all the trim and such.

new pics above.

What a nice looking truck.

It's a keeper.

What's the plan for wheels?

polished full moon wheel covers. With Studebenzer on them.

I passed a late thirties or perhaps early forties original unrestored commander 4 door going into a mall yesterday. Swung around and caught the owner before he got into the mall.

Asked him the year and he said 39. So then asked him if he had accumulated any spare surplus parts of a trim nature. Like grills etc. You tend to pick up things like this I find when the condition and price are right. Or I do.

Unfortunatly other than some mechanical parts the answer was no. Nor was he aware of any locals that may have some. Older Studebakers even though we had a dealership here are rare to non existant here.

Some people ask me how I aquire things. Ocassionally it is as easy as asking and does no harm to do so. How else are they to know. For example I have two extra sets of front grills for the 39 buick. If someone needed one. One extra pair is more than adequate for me.

Strange lens on the headights I thought that made them unlike the fords of that time. Dash instrumentation was kind of spread out across the top of the dash.Not that common either.Could not miss the S in the center of the nose trim either. I have always thought that if someone offered me a 53-55 commander coupe in good condition at a fair price I might grab it. Style wise the car was well ahead of the time.

Thanks for asking Barry! I have two sets of the headlight lenses and trim myself, and lots of grills but I also have one nos drivers side that I cannot locate at the moment. I need that center trim on the front edge of the nose. They seem to get ruined in minor bump events.

I'm guessing that the color came thru better in the last set of pics. VERY nice!

Rock On!

Dan

Thanks Dan!

It looks good in daylight. In his shop with those awful cool blue fluorescents it looks like baby ***** brown when baby is feeling a little queasy!

The body is so smooth and the paint is near show quality.

I had him do single stage paint so it can be buffed and touched up.

Over on the Studebaker forum one of the guys posted the picture of this other CE with a larger rear window installed.

This is well done but for myself, the tiny stock window is growing on me and I will not change it.

The treatment of that rear pan is pretty nice. They have extended it down to the bottom of the fender nicely. I'm not sure how the bumpers are supported without the slots in the body work though, looks like a flat support coming out.

I see they have solved the license mount question by splitting the bumper and putting it there. I was going to just screw it to the valance panel as the PO had done at some point but Michael has filled the holes now and I am finding resistance in my mind to drilling holes in it again. I also don't want to mount it out in the air stream as it was from the factory so at the moment it is a dilemma.

It also looks like there is a brow built out over the door. The fellow who posted says this build has had over 200K invested in it....yikes!

Just screw that plate to the tailgate! We see that all the time around here. (Or maybe not.......).

But how about this - Can you make an extension from one of the bumper brackets that would sort of roll from behind the bumper bar 180* and then use a plate mounting bracket (I think Speedway Motors has a universal bracket for street rods). That way you can use the stock bumper mount bolts and not drill any holes though the plate would sort of float out in the air. It seems like pretty much anything else would involve some sort of body mods and it would be a shame to mess up that pretty body. On the plus side - the beige should touch up easily and there is a product that will blend the clear coat so you don't have to clear the whole car - I recently did a repair on a rear bumper cover using the clear blending stuff and it works great.

If you have a shot of yours with the rear bumper in place maybe we can think up something else. IF there's enough room to display the plate in the space between the 'gate and the bumper (there's that panel there) you might be able to make a similar 180* bracket that fastens under the truck and lets the plate "float" just off the bodywork but I can't exactly tell where the bumper will go.

Dan

There are some good ideas there, thanks Dan!

The bumper brackets are recessed into the side of the rear fender which extends below the stock rear valance. The bumper top more or less sits with its top edge even with the bottom of that valance under the bed.

I might just get a magnetic bracket like the used car dealers use and stick it on somewhere so it can be taken off at a show.