An old Studebaker convertible, like this 1948 Champion, is always going to be an attention getter. But what really caught my attention is the fact that this car has graced Barn Finds‘ web pages before. We actually had it listed in January of 2020 so I thought it would be interesting to see what, if anything, has happened to it over the last two and a half years. It’s still located in Cecil, Wisconsin and is available, here on craigslist for $4,000. Thanks to T.J. for dredging this one up again!

Well, the most obvious difference between then and now is the price, it’s $1,000 less than it was in ’20. Beyond that, not much else has changed. Back in ’20, the seller stated, “I acquired this car as a birthday gift on my 30th. That was 42 years ago. It was never restored. It was driven into dry storage at that time, I moved 30 years ago and the car was then driven into our pole building where it is now“. The seller also mentions that her late husband started to do some work on it but health problems allowed nothing more than a general cleaning. It’s hard to attest to this car’s solidity, there’s a lot of surface rust and dents but it looks like it’s all mostly there, and again, unchanged from two and a half years ago.

The only interior image is of the dash and instrument panel, and in it, you can see the bare frame of the front seat, so that’s something to add to the resto list. The instrument panel appears to have been made from genuine wood, or a wood veneer and it’s showing the effects of age and exposure. There’s another partial image of the folded convertible top and it doesn’t look too hot. It does have a neat original radio, however.

There’s nothing on the engine front but research tells us that it should be an 80 gross HP, 170 CI, flathead, in-line six. No automatic transmissions were available so one would need to make do with a three-speed manual gearbox though O/D was available as an option. There’s no word now, or in ’20, about possible operational capability.

In 1948 Studebaker was still a player having come in seventh place in the production race with a total output of 185K units. The Champion convertible was just shy of 10K copies or 5% of total – not really rare in ’48 but probably obscure today. To put things in perspective that year, number one Chevrolet managed 696K units so Studebaker did OK. Compared to their competitors like Nash and Hudson, they were way out in front. It would be nice to know a bit more about this car’s last two years. One could assume that it just didn’t sell and now its 74-year-old owner is trying again at a reduced price. Whatever the case, it would be great to see this Studebaker drop-top move to a new owner that would be capable of making it right again. It’s got a solid double-whammy going on being both a Studebaker and a convertible so salvation is needed, wouldn’t you agree?