Modifying an antique 1960 Studebaker Lark station wagon: A New Balance of Form and Function for the roads of Costa Rica

When Heidi and I chose to move to Costa Rica we also had to decide what we were going to do with our 1960 Studebaker Lark wagon. We had owned the car for a year and it was completely stock. We spent a couple of months debating all of the different options we had regarding our transportation needs and the requirements of Costa Rica. We looked at importation issues, the state of the largely unimproved (i.e., unpaved) roads of Costa Rica, money and time issues, and our desires. In the end, we decided, while it was completely ridiculous and unreasonable, we wanted the Studebaker to come with us. She would be a “fair weather” vehicle.
At that point, we determined that to have the Studebaker survive (“fair weather” in Costa Rica is not “fair weather” in San Diego, CA), we would need to install some modern drive train components such as a fuel-injected engine, automatic transmission, disc brakes, power steering, and we thought an a/c would be nice as well. A bonus, if we could have it, would be 4 WD. The dry and wet seasons of Costa Rica each play a unique role in the quality, or lack thereof, of Costa Rica’s roads.
For weeks prior to the actual beginning of the project, I could be seen at night, canvassing the neighborhood of Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA, with a tape measure and a notebook in hand. I looked at Chevys. I looked at Fords. I looked at Toyotas. I found that the track of an early to mid-90’s Chevy Blazer was within ¼ inch of the Studebaker. In addition, it had a full frame that lent itself to a potential conversion. And an added advantage was that it was half the cost of a comparable Toyota- which was up until then, my first choice for a donor vehicle.
I was fortunate to have a friend and former employee, named Herb English, who offered to work with me on this project. He offered work space, time, experience, and labor. Probably most important, he also had a forklift, which we used several times to lift the body on and off the frame for test fits. This entire project, after purchase of a Chevy Blazer, took the better half of every week of our time for 4 months.We purchased a ’91 2-door Chevy Blazer with a 4.3 liter V-6, automatic, 4 WD, and air conditioning. Our first step was to strip the body from the frame off of each vehicle.
We positioned them side by side (see photo below of both rolling chassis). Herb and I spent the better part of an afternoon discussing the myriad possibilities regarding how to perform this graft. We finally deemed it wiser to make a frame graft somewhere between the front suspension and rear tortion bar mount. If you look closely at the photos of the Chevy Blazer’s rolling chassis, you will see that the front suspension utilizes a tortion bar. The rear tortion bar mount is back behind the transfer case. We could either graft that cross-piece into the frame or make the frame graft behind this cross-mount. We decided just to go for it, realizing that we could not anticipate all of the details ahead of time.
As an added bonus, which at first it did not seem like anything positive, we had managed to buy the only Chevy Blazer in San Diego with extensive frame damage to the front, right-hand side. After all of that effort, we were still going to need to buy an extra frame! However, the damaged frame was useful in allowing us to cut and hack frame sections without worry of irreparable damage. By the time we were done hacking on the damaged frame, we were ready to utilize the “new” (junkyard procured) frame, making cuts only where experience showed us we needed to.