How Studebaker Automobiles Are Made 
A Heart-to-Heart Story. No. 4 
O UR last story gives ^us the run¬ 
ning part of the car complete. 
The running part of the car 
without the body is called the chassis. 
Before we go on to the Studebaker 
methods of body manufacture we wish 
to call your attention to a few points 
regarding the Studebaker chassis. 
First—the steel frame of the car. The 
frame is the backbone. It carries and 
forms a protection, so to speak, for 
the vital organs—the motor, transmis¬ 
sion, propeller shafts, rear axle, etc. The 
steel pieces which make up the frame are 
formed in what is called channel section. 
They are cold rolled from specially pre¬ 
pared tough steel which, like a bridge, is 
built with twice the strength necessary to 
carry even the heaviest load that will 
ever be placed upon it. The strip of steel 
is cut exactly the right length and then 
Machine for measuring leather to get every inch of its 
good surface. 
placed in a gigantic press, which bends 
the two edges at right angles with the 
face, this is what is meant by “channel 
section.” It is bent this way to give 
it strength to meet strains in every 
direction. The long side pieces are 
held together by cross pieces, or cross 
members as they are called, which are 
riveted and braced (gussetted) to the 
side members. The rivets are heated al¬ 
most to the melting point before they 
are put in the holes. When the auto¬ 
matic hammers strike them, they ex¬ 
pand to fill the holes exactly and at 
the same time, they are riveted down 
against the steel side pieces forming a 
joint as strong and as secure as a weld. 
A Studebaker frame will not work 
loose in years of the hardest service. 
The placing of these cross members in 
the frame has been carefully studied 
and they are located at exactly the 
points where the greatest strains come. 
In speaking about the chassis, again 
we would like to mention the great 
advantage of owning a car which is 
manufactured and not assembled. The 
Studebaker car is manufactured. The 
motor, the rear axle and transmission 
and every part are made in our own 
factories in direct relation and har¬ 
mony with each other. In an assem¬ 
bled car, however, the motor is pur¬ 
chased from one manufacturer, the rear 
axle from another, the transmission 
from a third, and so on. This means 
that the entire car is no better than 
the weakest part. This means, also, 
that these parts are brought together 
in the chassis, assembled and compelled 
to fit each other as best they can. In 
the Studebaker factories every part of 
a Studebaker car is made for every 
other part. This is why a Studebaker 
car will run so smoothly and so silent¬ 
ly; none of its power is wasted in the 
attempt to adapt one part of the car to 
another part. There is a straight line 
drive between the motor and the rear 
axle and every part is perfectly ad¬ 
justed and perfectly fitted to harmonize 
with every other part. This is what 
gives the Studebaker car the speed and 
the power with minimum consumption 
of gasoline. Every part is of the high¬ 
est quality; there are no weak parts to 
spoil all the good parts. 
After the chassis is completely built 
and tested by miles of actual hard driv¬ 
ing. over a test course of country roads, 
it is steam-cleaned, painted and made 
ready for the body. 
. The body of the automobile is a very 
important part, and especially so from 
a sales standpoint. The body is the thing 
that you see, it is the only thing, unfor¬ 
tunately, that a great many people see in 
buying a car. A poorly made body can 
be painted, varnished and upholstered 
to look exactly as good as the best 
made body, but a season’s wear will 
tell the tale. You will find joints open¬ 
ing, paint checking from the vibration 
and strain of the metal work, leather 
pulling apart and many other evidences 
of poor body construction work. 
Studebaker bodies are Studebaker 
made from the rough frame work to the 
twenty-fourth coat of paint which goes 
to finish them. First a Studebaker body 
is made of a special grade of sheet steel, 
which will give the least expansion and 
contraction in changes of temperature, 
and which has a surface especially pre¬ 
pared to take a glass smooth final finish. 
This sheet steel is placed upon a frame¬ 
work of hardwood, braced, reinforced 
and morticed together under specifica¬ 
tions which it has taken years to de¬ 
velop. The steel brace work in the 
Studebaker body is drop forged. In most 
bodies you will find that wrought iron 
and malleable iron are used instead of 
steel. The framework of the body is put 
together by men who have spent years 
in framing Studebaker vehicle bodies. 
The Studebaker Corporation makes 
its own auxiliary seats, it is one of the 
few automobile manufacturers that 
makes this part of its car. The method 
of fastening them to the side of the 
body is distinctly “Studebaker,” and the 
fastening is drop forged steel engaging 
with two body braces, which make it 
impossible for a Studebaker auxiliary 
seat to work loose. 
It will require a herd of 150,000 cattle 
to furnish hides to supply the Stude¬ 
baker factory with upholstering in the 
season of 1913. These hides must come 
from' full size cattle and they must be 
of select quality. Only the outside lay¬ 
er of the hide next to the hair is used. 
This means that every available inch of 
the hide is used and it takes three hides 
for each car. 
There is probably no furniture manu¬ 
facturing concern in the world where 
more skilled workmen are required to 
cover the finest furniture than those 
required to trim automobile bodies in 
the Studebaker factories. If you visited 
the Studebaker factory you would be 
surprised to see the amount of hand 
work that is used in upholstering a 
Studebaker car. Even the cushions are 
made by hand. The leather, of course, 
is stitched by a machine, where machine 
stitching is better for this purpose than 
hand stitching, but the cushion is stuff¬ 
ed with hair, tufted and placed upon 
the springs entirely by expert hand 
work. In looking at the next automo¬ 
bile, remember this point: it is practi¬ 
cally no more expensive to provide 15- 
inch upholstery than it is to provide 10- 
inch upholstery. It is usually a question 
of the length of coil steel springs. The 
car that seems the springiest when you 
sit in it first may be the first one to 
cave in—like the old lounge at home— 
when you give it a little hard usage 
on the road. Studebaker upholstery 
not only depends upon coil springs for 
its depth, but also upon good quality 
of hair and plenty of it. 
The springs that are used in the 
cushions are reinforced in every direc¬ 
tion and we guarantee that Studebaker 
Studebaker Automobile Bodies are upholstered by hand. 
seats will not cave in *at any time. They 
will not bulge at the edges even after 
many seasons of hard wear. Our secret 
of making a cushion this way is simply 
the secret of good hand work and an 
ample supply of good material and 
plenty, of painstaking thought in design. 
The piece of upholstering in the back of 
a Studebaker car is about 15 ft. long— 
it is made with the same painstaking 
care as the cushions. It is subject to 
the same guarantee. It is made of the 
same quality of leather. It is put on 
the car by the same skilled hand work. 
When it is completed it is as good as 
the highest grade upholstering on par¬ 
lor furniture. 
Running around the top edge of the 
body, there is a molding of real walnut 
—not imitation walnut stained to re¬ 
semble the real thing, but real walnut. 
It is fastened on the body frame work 
with screws set in washers. The holes 
are drilled and the screws put in by 
hand and with the most careful work¬ 
manship. 
Probably one of the most interesting 
operations in body finish is the painting 
operation. The body of the Studebaker 
car is painted, rubbed and varnished, 
twenty-four times before it is finished. 
There are six coats of filler put on 
the body and rubbed before the first 
coat of. color goes on. This rubbing 
process is done by hand—every inch of 
it. It is rubbed with a piece of pumice 
stone of special quality which is as 
smooth as a razor hone. These various 
rubbing processes work the filler into 
the metal until the surface becomes as 
smooth as glass. Then coat after coat 
of color paint is used and each coat 
rubbed with the same care and until 
it shovvs the same glass-like finish. It 
is . particularly interesting to see the 
skilled workers place the varnish over 
the color work. The richness of the 
color stands out under the very first 
coat of varnish like magic. The suc¬ 
ceeding coats of varnish give depth 
and added richness to the color and also 
durability to the finish. These are the 
marks of its quality and an indication of 
the skill with which it is applied. It 
has the quality which will make it 
Six coats of paint foundation are rubbed on the Studebaker 
jBody before the first coat of color is put on. 
stand for years without checking or 
without tarnishing, provided proper care 
is exercised in washing the car. 
It takes several weeks to build a body 
for a Studebaker car. but when the 
body is finished it represents one of the 
highest specimens of upholstering, 
painting and varnishing knowm to the 
art of body building. 
The designing of an automobile body 
is a very important part of automobile 
manufacture. Skilled engineers and de¬ 
signers work for months to plan the 
new model body on paper before the 
first step in pattern work begins. There 
are dozens of measurements to be taken 
into account, and every inch of room 
must be planned to give the greatest 
amount of convenience and comfort to 
the users of the car, and at the same 
time the lines and shape of the body must 
be beautiful, symmetrical and grace¬ 
ful in every particular. The next time 
you look at a Studebaker car, compare 
its wide doors, the ease with which 
you may enter or leave the tonneau or 
the driver’s seat, the perfect fit of the 
seat cushions and back, the ample room 
for you to lounge and stretch out— 
compare these features with those pro¬ 
vided by manufacturers who ask twice 
as much for their cars as we do. 
Perfection is made up of small de¬ 
tails. Notice, in the Studebaker car, 
that the carpet is fastened to the floor 
with a ball and socket fastener. It 
will not scuff up under your feet. No¬ 
tice the care with which the small 
fittings are put on. The exactness and 
perfection in Studebaker workmanship is 
especially evident ./lien you compare it 
with that used by the manufacturers 
of other cars. The nickel work on a 
Studebaker car will not wear off and 
show the brass beneath. Notice how 
well the doors on the Studebaker cars 
fit. Notice the mortice work of the 
locks and fasteners. These are the little 
things which you can see and which in¬ 
dicate the careful workmanship in build¬ 
ing Studebaker cars. 
The Studebaker Corporation makes 
its own tops complete. We do not buy 
a top in the open market and adapt it 
to our bodies, but we design and manu¬ 
facture the top in perfect harmony with 
the body. We buy 600,000 yards of 
cloth to keep the owners of Studebaker 
cars dry in wet weather and shaded 
from the sun in tropical climates. This 
The sewing room of the Studebaker Top Factory. The 
tops of Studebaker cars are cut and made as carefully as 
the nnest garments. 
is another place where buying in enor¬ 
mous quantities gives us splendid mar¬ 
ket opportunities. Not only can we 
select the highest grade material but we 
can buy it at a price which other manu¬ 
facturers pay for inferior material. 
Here is an important thing for you 
to consider in buying an automobile. If 
you select a car manufactured by a 
manufacturer who produces cars in 
large quantities you can be sure that 
every part of it is built by skilled work¬ 
men. It is only under the conditions of 
quantity manufacture that true special¬ 
ization can be obtained. There is enough 
work in our factory to keep certain 
men continually busy doing certain 
things. This is particularly true in our 
top department. For instance, one set 
of men do nothing else but place the top 
sheets of mohair on the frame work of 
the top.. The precision with which they 
do their work is a precision learned 
from years of specialized effort in the 
same direction. We might take every 
part of our top, and in fact every part 
of our car, and go through it the same 
way- The Studebaker car is one of 
the finest examples in the world of the 
quality produced by highly specialized 
skilled labor. The cutting of the cloth, 
used in the tops, is done by experts as 
skilled in their work as those who cut 
the most expensive clothing—they have 
the same kind of patterns to go by and 
the same high standard of accuracy is 
required.. All work is subjected to the 
most rigid inspection. This is true in 
every part of body manufacture. Every 
operation has its inspection. 
It is difficult to put on paper the tre¬ 
mendous power and capacity of such an 
organization as Studebaker, which seems 
so simple and which yet embodies the 
enthusiasm and energy of so many thou¬ 
sands of skilled men. Yet this power is 
real, it is vital, and we hope you are 
coming to feel it. Our next and last 
story will appear in the April 5 issue. 
Look for it. In the Studebaker Proof 
Book we tell more than we have been 
able to tell, here about an automobile and 
explain things everyone ought to know 
on this important subject. Tear off the 
coupon below and send it to us. We will 
send you Proof Book immediately. 
THREE GREAT CARS 
Studebaker “25” Touring Car, $885 
5 passenger—Qas starter 
Studebaker “35” Touring Car, $1290 
6 passenger—electric lights, electric 
self-starter 
Studebaker “Six” Touring Car, $1550 
6 passenger—electric lights, electric 
self-starter 
All prices; completely equipped f.o.b. Detroit 
The Studebaker 
Corporation, 
Detroit, ^ 
Mich. ^ V 
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