Just wondering if anyone here can explain to me what the 'climatizer' option that could be found on many Studebakers was. I notice that it spans several models over a couple of decades, and is found on cars bot with and without air conditioning. From what I've read so far, it seems to be some sort of add-on to the defroster - a dryer, maybe? Any help would be great; I'm thinking of buying a 1962-ish GT Hawk later this year and would like to know what I'm looking at.
Studebaker 'Climatizer'
- Thread starter casm
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Matthew Currie
NAXJA Member #760
- Location
- Vermont, land of big clay
The Climatizer was a thermostatic climate control.
RichP
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Effort, Pa
I am floored that our resident studebaker, Hudson, AMC guru did not respond to this post... not to mention all the snow and ice he's missing down there...is eagle ever coming back ??? Too much sun is not good for a connecticut resident...they NEED that 'for one day of sun two days of rain' cycle... 
Matthew Currie
NAXJA Member #760
- Location
- Vermont, land of big clay
RichP said:I am floored that our resident studebaker, Hudson, AMC guru did not respond to this post... not to mention all the snow and ice he's missing down there...is eagle ever coming back ??? Too much sun is not good for a connecticut resident...they NEED that 'for one day of sun two days of rain' cycle...
I'm not sure whether Eagle would consider it proper to lump Studes with the AMC/Hudson family.
However, in my google expedition to find out more details about the climatizer (about which there is very little, by the way, other than the name being mentioned in spec sheets) I did discover that there was such a thing as a hot police package Lark. The cops' Lark had a climatizer too, by the way.
- Location
- Terra Firma
Now that you ask ... I would not.Matthew Currie said:
AMC was formed by a merger of the Hudson Motor Car Company and Nash-Kelvinator. AMC later purchased Jeep, so me it has been an "all in the family" progeression from Hudsons to Jeep Cherokees.
Studebakers aren't even distant cousins. Never drove one, never worked on one, don't know anything about them ... except that I used to really have the hots for a Golden Hawk.
MaXJohnson
NAXJA Forum User
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- The Kansas Rockies
my u-googlizing says it was an auxillary heater mounted under the passenger side seat. In an era when you had to leave the heater on defrost to keep the windows even slightly clear, Studebaker added the second heater so you could stay warm and see at the same time. There was a guy just down the street from me that had about a 1/2 dozen Studebakers in his backyard. I would've walked down there and asked him about this, but he passed away last summer.
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- Terra Firma
You youngsters may find this hard to believe, but as recently as WW2 heaters in automobiles were options. The pre-war and immediate post-war cars had a lever under dashboard that lifted up an air intake that was located in the center of the cowl, between the back edge of the hood and the windshield. You opened it if you wanted fresh air, and closed it if you didn't. The heater was a stand-alone box with a fan built into it that could be hung under the dashboard so the air from this intake would flow through it when the louver was opened.
- Location
- NJ, U.S.A.
Matthew Currie said:
Funny you should mention the Police edition Lark...
Studebaker won the police car bid once (much to the chagrin of the cops themselves, who were apparently Ford/Chevy fans) in the town my father grew up in.
The Larks delivered were slightly smaller than the typical Big Three equivalent, but it came with a pretty snarly V8. From what my dad has said, there were very few cars around that the Larks couldn't keep up with (and for those few exceptions, you know how the saying goes: "you can't outrun the Motorola").
Anyhow, like I said the cops weren't big Studebaker fans. According (again) to my father, the cops beat the living $%@&!*%^# out of those cars - driving over curbs, swinging doors open into traffic/objects, and probably just about any other kind of abuse you or I could think of. Those little Larks just shrugged it off and kept on going. Eventually they did wear them out, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying.
Rob
Lawn Cher'
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- Westampton, NJ
Eagle said:
That makes sense.
Matthew Currie
NAXJA Member #760
- Location
- Vermont, land of big clay
Eagle said:
I guess there are still a few of us who remember the used car ads that included "R & H." The 41 Chevy I got for 12 dollars when I was 8 (the ultimate playhouse!) had one of those accessory heaters, a big square box under the dash. For defrost, it had a little fan on a swivel, screwed to the top of the dashboard, just like the ones they still have in school buses. I kept that fan for years, and eventually it ended up replacing the burned-out heater fan in my first Peugeot. A 6 volt fan in a 12 volt Peugeot actually made it almost possible to defrost the windshield by the end of a 13 mile commute.
And of course, there was the even earlier generation of heaters. If you had a Model A ford, for example, you could go the fancy route and get a gasoline-powered heater (very complex jetting, I gather), or go the cheap route and get the manifold heater, which was essentially a heat exchanger with a tube that came through the firewall. When I was about 12, I went with my parents to see a piece of land that was for sale, and on it was an old Model A truck with one of these. I thought someone had rigged it to commit suicide, and was very glad they didn't buy the land (of course if they had it would now be worth millions, but that's hindsight and another story).
RichP
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Effort, Pa
When I was stationed in hawaii back in the 70's new cars coming over from the mainland from the big 3 did not have any heaters in them at all, 90% of them had A/C though. The only ones that had heat were active duty peoples cars that were already owned and were being shipped over for change of station. My roommates TR3 had no heater either or for that matter A/C. My other room mate had a 58 Oldsmobile, same thing, no heat, aftermarket A/C....
Remember the volkswagon Thing from the 70's, looked like a WWII kubelwagon, it also had a gas fired heater under the back seat as factory, at least the ones I had seen here in the North East.. a few did burn up which may be why they did not become more popular.
Remember the volkswagon Thing from the 70's, looked like a WWII kubelwagon, it also had a gas fired heater under the back seat as factory, at least the ones I had seen here in the North East.. a few did burn up which may be why they did not become more popular.
