And it looks like it’s been sitting there for quite a while. Eric Clem found it and posted it to the Cohort, and we can guess just how long it’s been there. Twenty years? Thirty? More? Well, it’s not like anybody is needing it for transportation, as there’s an apparently functioning car in the carport. And it’s a vary apt replacement for this ’62 Lark.
Related reading: 1963 Studebaker Lark Wagonaire 1960 Studebaker Lark: South Bend’s Beater King
I’ve always wondered how people can live with themselves with crap like that sitting out in plain sight. Don’t get me wrong, I love old cars but to have one sitting in plain sight just laying on its frame just show a complete lack of class.
Hey Roger. I agree. If you’re going to have a car in your driveway, make sure the thing runs and drives, and it’s safe to drive, not just sitting there collecting dust or rusting to death.
I have seen worse tho, in a small city not far from me there was a house with a very ratty sailboat sitting all cockeyed in the driveway. Seems the boat’s trailer rotted away out from under it…
That’s crazy, that people would allow things like that to happen. 🙁
I grew up in the countryside where useless and useful junk lying around is normal. I dislike the suburbs where the houses all match, the lawns are teeny, and the houses take up most of the lot. Especially if there is an HOA.
I’m surprised that the City of Seattle would allow something like this to go on for so long. Most cities try to at least get old cars out of sight.
My parents bought a ’62 Lark wagon that was a demonstrator model in the spring of ’62. It was a 6 cylinder (as this one appears to be) with automatic transmission. It was about 6 years old with under 60,000 miles when a rod bearing went bad. That does not seem very good, especially by today’s standards, but it had a hard life. We lived in Alaska, and it had two round trips over the Alaska Highway, which at that time was about 1,100 miles each way of dirt road. Both times were loaded with 2 parents and 3 kids. And that was before my dad discovered the value of regular maintenance, such as oil changes. So it probably did fairly well. It went down the year before I started driving, so I never got to drive it. There are still plenty of memories, though.
If you have enough chill non-NIMBYs in one area (that can still afford to live there) some surprising stuff can be got away with.
This is what I used to think about when I think of an old Studebaker, a rusty hulk of a car ready for the scrapyard, unless someone is interested in buying it and restoring it. That being said, I’ve seen some nice looking survivor Studebakers that have been taken care of.
I always see ancient, rusting cars from the 50’s-60’s on craigslist for a few hundred bucks, many of them obscure models that will most likely end up as scrap fodder. If I ever have a place in the country, I always thought it would be fun to buy a few just to watch them rot in the woods. Is that weird?
I don’t know if people do it intentionally but the end result is the same! It seems that rusty patinas are all the rage these days but hasn’t Hemmings been selling those rusty hulk calendars for years now? Since I was a kid I study these things when found and just wonder at the life it must have led. dust to dust. amen.
My in-laws live in a small town in rural eastern NC. Whenever we visited, one of the things that always interested me was seeing how many interesting old rusting cars and trucks one could see sitting around the periphery of farms, next to old houses, behind trailers, etc–it made for some great spotting. So, no, I don’t think that’s weird at all.
Then the county passed a law about inoperable vehicles visible from the road, and most of them disappeared. I’m sure some people were pleased with the result but I thought it made the local scenery much less interesting!
How can we know if the Dart runs? This looks like a classic old person hoarder situation, this car was probably the spouses car, who went off to boot hill many years ago, but the car remains in the driveway. I’ve seen scenes like this, even made inquires about the car, only to usually be rudely chased away or have a door slammed in my face. This car is there because that person WANTS it there, and nothing is going to change that, until the also die, and then EVERYTHING will go the the dump/junkyard.
We can’t, which is why I used the word “apparently”.
Maybe both owners are long dead inside the house and no one has bothered to check, they are just sitting their on their LayZboy..with long vacant eye sockets staring at a permanently on TV playing the 700 Club …….ooooohhhoooooooo! Cue the haunted house noises.
It wouldn’t be the first time something like that actually happened!
/r/nosleep
The other car sports what looks like a valid license plate, so it’s most likely a running car (and it’s a Plymouth Valiant, not a Dodge Dart).
There’s a difference?
Plodge Darliant
No the Mopar doesn’t sport a valid license plate. Eric Clem’s other photos are from WA and the green and white plates were replaced about 15 years. Now if you have it registered as a collector vehicle you can run a restored green and white plate but it would not have tabs on it to run it as a collector plate. So since that plate has tabs I’d say that Mopar hasn’t been on the road for a long time.
My guess is the Dart doesn’t run and hasn’t for awhile. I took these photos in the Wallingford neighborhood in Seattle. It is an upper middle class neighborhood popular with wealthy hipsters and upwardly mobile lesbian couples. It’s common for people in this neighborhood to commute by bike or bus, so a senior could continue to get around without a car.
This neighborhood is at the end of the gentrification cycle so these cars stand out like a sore thumb. A notable exception is a late 60s Charger with heavy patina is parked several blocks away. This car was a featured CC several years ago.
Washington started replacing the white plates around ’86 or ’87. I don’t recall that people were allowed to retain the old plates except for some collector car circumstances.
My camera phone doesn’t have high enough resolution to capture really small details. There is an older style disabled driver’s pass on the back bumper.
The introduced the blue and white plates around then but they didn’t force you to switch to them on currently plated vehicles until sometime in the 2000’s as both of my Scouts had the green and white when I got them in the mid and late 90’s and I was able to keep running them until the mid 00’s when it was required to switch to the new plates. Now they require new plates every 7 years since they have cut the quality so far down that they are starting to fail by that time and it is another revenue source for the gov’t.
I was walking past this car about a month ago, and two guys (middle-aged, but who knows if they were the owners) were cutting back a huge blackberry bush that looked like it had been previously covering this Studebaker.
A Washington year-of-manufacture (YOM) plate has to have the correct year sticker to match the year of the car. I can’t tell what year sticker is on the Dart in the photo, so I don’t know if it’s a valid YOM plate. Guessing from plates in my collection, that plate would have been issued in 1974 or maybe 1975, which means it could have been the Dart’s original plate from new. My guess is also that it’s been parked in the carport for a good long while. Since the carport provides some cover for it, it’ll take even longer for it to reach the decayed state of the Lark. Probably the estate will go through probate before that happens….
I believe King County (Seattle) plates at that time started with vowels. The “Ixx” plate would back your theory.
Both the cars look like potential restoration projects. Everyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s has seen a Dodge Dart of this vintage. How many people have seen a Studebaker, unless your family had some or you knew people in your neighbourhood who owned Studebakers.
I came home from the hospital in a ’60 Lark way back in ’63 😀
and I came home from the hospital in a ’64 Spitifire like yesterday’s CC, only it was yellow
In 53, I came home in a 51 Champion.
The Champion was still on the job in 58
The missing headlight bezel just adds to the photo and I never knew they were just decoration.
My Grandfather’s first car was a ’50 Champion. I don’t think he had it when my mom was born (’51), as living in NYC a car wasn’t realy necessary, but he had it by ’53. It was probably the car my uncle came home from the hospital in, in ’55.
(My own “ride home” was a ’68 Impala in 1980.)
The Stude is indeed a potential restoration project – the kind that will require $12,000 to be put into a car that is worth $3500 when it is finished.
That said, there may not be a better combination of low price and great parts availablity than with a 60s Lark if you are looking for a cheap, simple, offbeat old car to have some fun with.
I think what we have here is the definitive “parts car.”
Or a nice place to hang all of the good parts from one of our nice but horribly rusty old Studes from here in the midwest.
Very common and well-regarded in Australia back in the day – they were seen as a well-engineered, sensibly-sized and sensible-looking American car. Take my comment in the context of 1962, and you’ll understand – I hope. Hey, I love excess as much as the next guy, but when you’re just coming out of a recession, and it’s your money on the line…..
I agree. That’s what I’ve always liked about Studebakers of this vintage. They were perfect in size, well built, and durable. Who’s to say what the cars the Big Three automakers were like? They were generally attractive, but how reliable were they?
The Studebaker is missing a few trim pieces and lights.
I picture other Studebaker owner stealing various parts from this car at night. In a few years, there won’t be much left.
My Grandparents lived near a large USAF base and Studebakers were a rare sight compared to the Big 3’s cars.Even Ramblers were more common,though apart from the Hawks and Avanti there was nothing Studebaker made to interest me in the mid 60s.When we went on holiday to America Studebakers were seen in nothing like the same numbers as the big 3 again.I might be wrong on this but I’m sure I’ve seen a Lark in one of my brother’s magazines racing though I don’t know if it’s modern classic racing or a shot from the 60s
But….but….but….it ran when parked!
My favorite eBay/Craigslist comment 😀
Right after “A/C works but needs freon” and “good breaks”
How about “ready for restoration?” 🙂
“All original”
“needs restored”
I figure they mean “requires restoration” but “needs restored” tells me it formerly had no needs, but the needs have subsequently been restored.
Go to various car shows…reading the descriptions of the cars for sale always unearths gems such as these.
“Original condition – repainted once in original colors.” (If the car has been repainted, it’s not original.)
“Car in great condition, air conditioning can be fixed cheaply.” (Okay, so why didn’t you just fix it yourself before bringing the car?)
“Great car, have $10,000 invested, only asking $11,000.” (Sorry, but even with all of the work you’ve done, the car is still only worth $4,000. Like it or not, you’ve just thrown in several thousands of dollars of work for free.)
My favorite, or really, least favorite, is when they used the term “loaded” or even worse “fully loaded” to describe a car that doesn’t even have cruise control fitted to it. “Loaded” must then mean how full of sh*t the seller seems to be.
Yes, there are some owners who will be merely loaded if you check out their car between Noon and 3, and then fully loaded after 4:30. 🙂
Or how loaded with filler the body is!
Another favorite of mine… “original miles”. As opposed to replacement miles?
My favourite is 99% complete.You can bet if your ever lucky enough to find the missing 1% it will cost a fortune to buy.
Now thats what I call “dropped”.
Although this does tug a bit at my heartstrings, looks too far gone. My own non-running driveway car does look a bit better than this.
Oh my God, I remember that car… I used to live in that neighborhood, and I’d go past that car whenever I’d go to the grocery store. I can’t believe it’s still there. It has been sitting in that same spot for at least 20 years.
This is the second time we’ve featured this particular Stude here at CC. Tom K did an outtake a while back, using an old photo of mine. This was back before I changed my name from That Guy to Actually Mike.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-outtake-hiding-out/
I see that it still had a license plate then.
They’ve trimmed the weeds, too.
I would love nothing more than to get a big group of people together one night, jack up that lark, put it on some dollys, spin it around in the driveway so it faces out, and remove the dollys.
You’d blow the mind of everyone in the neighborhood.
Love it! If I lived in the US, I’d join you for that prank.
Here I was just thinking the other day that it has been too long since we’ve had a Studebaker here on CC.
As much as I love the old Studes, I think I have come to the conclusion that the 62 Lark may be my least favorite of any postwar ‘Baker. The 59-61 Lark was cleaner. The new greenhouse on the 63 improved it quite a bit, and I have a genuine Jones complex for a 64. This one is just, well, uhhhhh . . . .
The 1959-61 Larks are clean, but they never really interested me. With the 1962 model, it’s apparent that Studebaker was doing anything it could to make the car look bigger and more “important” on a very limited budget. Considering the obstacles the company faced, they did an impressive job. I’ve always had a soft spot for the 1962-64 Larks/Daytonas.
One wonders about the result if Sherwood Egbert had used the money spent on the Avanti to make more thorough changes to the Lark.
It’s all a moot point, of course, as taking that course wouldn’t have made any difference in the final outcome.
the ’62 restyle was done by Brooks Stevens. His work spans the Harley Davidson Hydra-Glide, the Lawn Boy mower, all the way to the Oscar Mayer Weiner wagon. Of course he produced the Excalibur car as well, so like a lot of design guys sometimes you get a hit and sometimes you strike out. I think he did alot at Studebaker with very little money. His design firm is still in business. the picture is an advance concept Stude he did for Egbert.
The Avanti WAS a Lark — in drag.
My favourite Studebaker Larks are the 1959-61. I used to know someone who had a 1960 Lark VIII. It had a V8 engine under the hood.
Back when I was on the hunt for my first VW beetle, I saw an early 60s model sitting amongst some trees, already dissolved into the ground past the heater channels. I asked about it at the small country gas station down the road and they said it belonged to a local man’s wife who had passed years ago, and that he refused to sell or move it.
Take a good look at the back and rear quarters of the Lark… am I the only one who sees a ’62 Dodge ?
For Sale. 1962 Studebaker Lark. Low mileage one owner car. Always parked off street. Only driven on Sunday by little old lady to go to church. Last time little old lady went to church was April 1st, 1967.
Cool I dont see very many Studes driving about here at least not Larks, there a 55 that spends time on the road at weekends and a few 30s &20s models getting about but dead Larks are quite rare, At least all 3 cars in my driveway run and drive a battery shortage means only 2 at a time but no dead ones anymore
I do believe this is the same Studebaker I did an Outtake on back in 2012: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cohort-outtake-hiding-out/
A car like this has great sedimental value…. Har har!
Because it appears to be sitting on the frame, is it possible that, years ago, the wheels and tires were stolen, and if no one will pick up a junk car that won’t roll, rather than go to the trouble and expense of getting wheels and tires for it just to be able to have someone cart it off, the owner just said, “To hell with it”?
I have something like this in my neighborhood. Picture a long, heavily overgrown driveway, leading to a garage with a door that fell off decades ago, stuffed with architectural garbage, like broken doors and rotting lumber. In front of the garage, a ’62 Caddy in even worse condition than the subject Lark. In front of the Caddy, a c. 1986 front-drive Olds, interior stuffed with old newspapers and laundry, windows mildewed to the point that it’s hard to see in. In front of the Olds, a slightly newer Lincoln Town Car, only slightly less mildewed and stuffed with trash, with a registration that expired about ten years ago. In front of the Lincoln is the house owner’s latest car, some fairly late model SUV, that is actually occasionally used.
The Raleigh neighborhood I lived in from 2004 to ’07 had a variant of this, an ’80 LeMans sedan sitting under a carport on four flat tires sporting a lot of dust and a bit of moss. Given another 20 years it could be in the same condition as the Lark, but considering the occupant of the house was an older gentleman, I doubt if it would still be there in 20 years (if it’s even there currently, haven’t driven by in 3 or 4 years). Could be a similar story–older person who can no longer drive, or who loses their spouse, and lives within walking distance of necessities. So the car sits until the owner sells the house or passes on.