1957 Utica Bend Restoration

[maccus]

Last week I picked up a 1957 Utica Bend. The last gasser I did was a 1951 REO M34. I was not going to do any more trucks (to **** old) but this one is such a cherry and at $300.00 I had to have it. Came off of a ranch about 50 miles from here.so the recovery was easy. No rust anywhere as out here we are spoiled that way. The only items missing are the front bumper shackle and its mount on the left side. And the blackout drive light. Even has the hardware for the rag top mounting. As the Utica Bends and the Curtis Wrights were really just Studebakers made under a different management team the serial number is a M-XXXXX number.

I will post here soon on the restoration of the vehicle. Tomorrow if the sun is out I will post some pictures of how it looks at the start of the project.

I am just wondering why I gave all my REO gasser stuff to hndrsonj. Might have to go down to Cheyenne and swipe some of it back. But I think I will not need very much to make it a good runner..........mostly just a paint/decal job, seats and some small items.

 

[tommys2patrick]

Sounds very interesting. Be nice to see some pics of the dash plates and engine bay when you get the time. Good find.

 

[nk14zp]

How can you sleep at night? You stole that truck.
Congrats.

 

[Monkeyboyarmy]

Great save. Just don't see many gassers any more. Yes...pics when you can please.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Nice Gene. I was unaware that the Curtiss Wrights and Utica Bends had the Mxxxxxx SN. Learn something new every day.

 

[Tracer]

Looking forward to the pictures. Good job.

 

[maccus]

Here are some pics. The green tint is caused by the green tarp I have on the cab ........ a temporary deal. Like I said a few items to deal with but no biggie for sure

 

[maccus]

Kenny here are some interesting facts on the Studebaker, Utica Bend, Curtis Wright connection. Looks to me like the folks that were asked to loan some money to Studebaker Packard in 1956 did not want the current management to continue running the existing Studebaker outfit as they had obviously not done a good job. So they contracted with the Curtis Wright outfit to run the business until Studebaker got back in the black. Which the were by 1959 and they then reverted to the Studebaker Packard name on the trucks.

If you go to this web site and pull down to two paragraphs below the picture of the 1956 Golden Hawk the info on the change is there. It reads like this quote below from that paragraph. Some pretty high powered folks were in the decision to put Curtis Wright in charge temporally of the business. And I bet the name Utica Bend came from the fact that Curtis Wright was located in UTICA, MI and of course the Studebaker plant was located in South BEND............hence "UTICA BEND"

http://www.stude100.com/stu/Pg4/pg4.php

"""""In April of 1956 a panel of consultants advised Nance to liquidate. This precipitated high level meetings in Detroit and Washington that included, among others, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Treasury, Curtis-Wright and several investment firms. Weeks of discussion finally produced a solution. In addition to new financing from several banks and insurance company's, Curtis-Wright agreed to oversee management of Studebaker-Packard and received the option of purchasing 5 million shares of unissued S-P stock; a new subsidiary corporation to handle defense contracts, Utica-Bend, was formed; and finally, Studebaker-Packard was given distribution rights for Daimler-Benz. All of this was done without approval of share holders, a patently illegal move """""

So it seems like to me that the UB and CB trucks were really Studebaker Packard's all a long. Just a top management change and name change that I am sure had a lot of political direction and correctness to it........ Imagine that.

 

[Recovry4x4]

That's too cool and just a fine specimen of a truck. Looks like in needs almost nothing more than a bath and a coat of color.

 

[maccus]

I have now to decide which connectors to use on the new wiring harnesses I will install. The older Douglas or newer Packard connectors. The darn Douglas ones can be such a pain to deal with but are correct for that year truck. Probably will have to end up making my own harness anyway, which I have done many times before. Do get tired of wrapping the black electrical tape though.

 

[hndrsonj]

Gene, if you can find a front harness; I have all the correct Douglas connectors (new) for the back. We can just make a new rear harness.

 

[maccus]

Thanks Jim. I think I have a ton of Douglas connectors. As I mentioned they are just a pain in the shorts to deal with. Did I give you or Dan some of the spider harnesses I had for the instrument panel? Even if they are Packard ones it is an easy change to install Douglas hardware on one. Not checked yet but I suspect the gauges have Douglas connectors on them also.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Gene, I have an M35A1 front harness if you want it. You would have to switch out connectors and fix a few differences. Yours for the taking.

 

[maccus]

That would be great Kenny. Thanks it will save some monkey business. Anything you need in the MV world? I might just have it.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Not really, down to nothing but CUCV stuff. PM me an addy and I'll dig it out and box it up. Its been on the shelf for years so will be a little dusty.

 

[USMC 00-08]

Now that is a cool truck! I had never heard of Utica Bend before now.

 

[tommys2patrick]

Thanks so much for posting the pictures and the history of where the name came from. I think Kaiser Jeep is another interesting relationship and history. Looking forward to see your end results.

 

[waayfast]

Wow, nice truck and what a steal!

My M-35 (avatar) is also a numbers matching Gasser-- a 1957 Utica-Bend!

Congrats, Jim

 

[maccus]

Waayfast has your truck been upgraded to A1 or 2? Can't really tell by looking at your avatar. Very clean looking truck however.

 

[clinto]

That is really nice Maccus. I just cn't get over how good the sheetmetal is.

So unmolested-the mirrors are even the )completely worthless) early ones.

I can't wait to see it done.

Here are some various M44 gasser pictures I've collected from the internet. Wonder where all of them have gone?