I've always had this bizzare fixation with owning things that weren't available in the US, or have completely different specs from other electronics. Probably because electronics made anywhere other than in the US are significantly better :lmao:

I am trying also to get British TVs 625 line and a 405 line but something about shipping across the big pond cost is toooooo much. Where did you find this set?

Probably because electronics made anywhere other than in the US are significantly better

I hope you were only joking on that one!

Yeah, I hear ya' about the shipping costs. I just found this set at my town dump today, and I'm assuming someone brought it over to the US in the moving process. Why they did, I have no idea, unless they planned to use a converter, but you still have the PAL/NTSC issue. I'd love to test this set out, but the only converter I have is a 220V to 120V one, and even then, i dont know what kind of picture I'd get. I'm not even sure what line count this set uses. I'f you're interested about owning it, prewtv, I could ship it out to you, I'd just like to examine it and lean as much about it as I can first *tinker*

nice score! No offense to you, but I've always thought Brit TVs looked kinda homemade with the way they mounted the CRTs in 'em- kinda stickin' out like a sore toe & had the ugly black stripe on the edge. However, if I were to find one,I'd scarf it up too w/o hesitation. Hope you get it goin'! -Sandy G.

Well Doug, I agree that the quality and workmanship of all TVs, radios, test equipment, ect. was fantastic up until the Japanese, and other countries really started to catch up to the Americans, and then surpass our abilities. Yes, I know i'll get many comments about that, but its true. Americans really have dropped the ball, and I'm not saying thats a good thing either. That goes for American cars as well. I'll probably get kicked off the forums for saying this, but American cars are probably the worst product this country manufactures. I'm not some sort of ex patriot or anything, but its a real shame whats become of American design.

When I say design, I mean it in an esthetic sense, Doug, and I didn't mean to insult you or anything of that sort. I guess what I should have also stated is that I believe American design in a mechanical sense really is quite good, and being an American, I'm very proud of that. We definitely can build things that last, and work day after day. Look at how easy it is to get a 50 year old tv set to work perfectly in just over an hour or so.

I guess my main point is that American's have dropped the ball with fine technology, and with esthetic design. I believe there are many reasons why this problem exists, but I wont go into it, as this is a TV forum :blah:

Actually Sandy, thats why I think those 70's-80's sets are soooooo cool. They're just so damn quirky, and odd. I'd love to know why the CRTs in most, if not all of the sets from that era are mounted like that....:scratch2:

When your done playing with it I would be interested in it.
Sent email.

H2s04, it's not that you don't have a right to an opinion.. (Just as I have the right to think you're not all that bright, and probably believe a lot of antidoctal evidence to be "fact".) FWIW, that type of logic plays well with the KKK.

I can only wonder why you would post such flame-bait in an otherwise friendly forum. It's not as if I'm going to the Gold-Star afficiando forum and talking about how much better Zenith sets were before the GS takeover.

I guess my main point is that American's have dropped the ball with fine technology, and with esthetic design. I believe there are many reasons why this problem exists, but I wont go into it, as this is a TV forum

Oh please continue, I'm sure your theories about the lack of recent American technological breakthroughs are fascinating. Heck I'll bet your PC doesn't even run off Windows, but perhaps some type of advanced, reliable European operating system that requires coal and periodic vavle adjustments. Maybe it's a Korean OS that looks just like Windows 95, but is slightly less reliable.

Yeah, the cars are horrible too. I'm so glad GM/Ford/Chrysler were able to invent things like catalytic convertors, (75) electronic engine management systems, (76) ABS, (71) airbags, (72) etc. back in the 70s, before the Japanese surpassed our abilites and invented items such as.... uh.... Well, maybe they aren't innovators, but at least car companies like Mitsubishi build a quality product. :lmao:

Nifty English TV though.

Maybe so, but they DID make some SORRY engines! Like the 3.0 v6 in the late 80's Chrysler products. that was a LOSER, i have seen ,and heard of MANY of them that were DEAD, by the time 100k miles came around. I think the Chrysler engines are MUCH better, like the 3.8v6, the 2.4 four cyl, and the v-10.in the viper. Of course, g.m. makes some of the best engines I have seen in a car, like the good ol' 3.8 v6, an engine where, if treated even HALFWAY good will give way over 200k miles, and still run strong, just like the good ol' 350 v-8 will!

I'll stick with american cars(just bought an '01 Chrysler minivan, to replace my old one, that my ex-friend/the garage ruined).

And yes, the US car makers DID introduce most of the major innovations in cars today, and continue to do so.

Listen, I guess I really should have kept to myself here. I honestly didn't to provoke any arguments here, please. I'm not anti-american, and I'm not trying to create some sort of negative attitude here. Honestly Carmine, I just think you got a little too worked up here, I really didn't mean to offend anyone. I don't agree with you completely, as Volvo pioneered many of the safety technologies in cars today, and there are other examples. Americans do many, many things that are absolutely wonderful, and do produce many fantastic products; that is true. I guess now the whole issue is ludacris for me to bring up in a tv forum.

I guess I shouldn't voice my opinions anymore...

I agree that we should all continue buying American.I'll feel my American pride everytime I take my less than 1 year old Ford Explorer in(like my fellow employee does) just to have them tell me theres nothing wrong with the A/C-Transmission-Cadalydic converter-hoping that they win the warranty race before they have to replace all three.Ill stick out my chest proudly when I take in my GMC pickup(another buddy) with less than 2000 miles with smoke billowing out,they "fix " it,it does it again,and another mechanic tells him the Valve cover was never tightened at the factory,and the engine is toast.I havent owned an american car for at least 15 years-not because I dont care about American workers quality of life,but because I value my own.If its a cross between a warm fuzzy Im making a difference feeling,or the good night sleep I get knowing my Japanese car will start in the morning,and if it doesnt the dealer will honor its warranty,guess which one I'm choosing.
Jimmy

Originally posted by Sandy G
I've always thought Brit TVs looked kinda homemade with the way they mounted the CRTs in 'em- kinda stickin' out like a sore toe & had the ugly black stripe on the edge.

He he - as a Brit, I've never understood that "design" either; Sony seemed to be the only brand until the mid 80s that bothered to cover the glass envelope around the CRT...

If you guys can tell me why CRTs have 1 pixel dot at each centre of the tube's bezel, 1 pixel away from the actual screen pixels, I'd love to know.

I always feel those CRTs that stick out are a safety hazard myself...

BTW - love the fact that that TV still has the UK 3pin fused plug on it - urm, why bother??

I just wish us Brits had colour TV when you guys did - I'd love to own a "roundie" :)

Yeah-I remember the 1st time I went to England-in '74- & saw a gen-u-wine Brit "telly", I thought to myself-"Man! sure does look like the pitcher toob could be busted easily in this thing. Would never go back home."(I was a TV nut at an early age.) It was a Pye, IIRC, & being 17, I got a kick outta that name, too.("Hey Scott !! Looky here !! This thing's a PIE !! Wonder if it's a cherry pie or an apple? Har Har Har !!!) The next place we stayed had regular old boring Sony Trinitrons, more or less like ours. I DO remember they weren't shy about showing things on the telly that wouldn't have gone here-1st time I got to see NEKKID TITTIES on seemingly regular network TV. That was a big deal, too. Wow-the world's a big place & they do some things differently than they do at home.....-Sandy G.

Jack, I'm sure Carmine was joking about that great house of quality, Mitsubishi....they made junk 20 years ago and made junk 10 years ago and they make junk today. I worked on a late model Galant the other week and the controls on the dash were of a lower quality than anything GM uses. MOST Japanese makes are the best in the world when it comes to quality, but the "second-tier" makes (including Suckzuki and Isuzu) are pretty ratty.

A large percentage of Japanese cars on the market here were, of course, made in the US, with many American made components. Where they excel is, when Honda shops for climate control switches it pays, oh, I don't know, say $10 for the whole assembly. When GM goes shopping it finds someone who will make it for $3. You get what you pay for. In cars as in tv sets, the manufacturer is mostly just in the design & assembly business these days, using components bought from someone else. Not much left to assemble on a typical bread & butter tv set these days.

Maybe so, but they [mitsubushi] DID make some SORRY engines! Like the 3.0 v6 in the late 80's Chrysler products. that was a LOSER, i have seen ,and heard of MANY of them that were DEAD, by the time 100k miles came around.

Maybe you didn't see the little laughing smiley RCA 2000, but that was sarcasim. For anybody involved in the auto industry, the idea of a high-quality Mitsubishi car is laughable.

Which of course illustrates the problem. The public at large is sold on the idea of high-quality foreign products on the basis of names like Toyota, Honda and Sony. With an occasional exception, this reputation is deserved. However, since we are a melting-pot nation that prefers not to deal with "details", we tend to paint things and people with broad strokes. So we forget the crummy Suzukis, Isuzus, and Gold Stars.

Rather than say "Sony builds a good TV", people say "Japanese TVs are good". Of course, the other side of this coin is "American made TVs are bad.", pretty soon it just becomes "Foreign stuff is better".

What makes the the statement of:

electronics made anywhere other than in the US are significantly better

...laughable at best, is the idea that US and Asian electronics were ever really competing in the market at the same time. We all know that most US brands started using foreign parts around the same time foreign sets started catching on, not years later. First in the cheaper B&W portables, then in color sets. For this statement to be even slightly true, you would need to compare (for example) a Chicago-built Zenith color set from around 1964 to a color Sony from the same era. What? You say there were no roundie color Sony sets back then? Hmmm, maybe we should compare grandad's old Zenith to a solid-state Sony color set from the 70s. That's fair, right?

Of course the idea of "anywhere" beside the US is stupid too, since I'd be pretty surprised to find an African, Russian or Chinese set from the 60s/70s/80s that was built better than its US counterpart. Sorry but when when you make such a broad statement, it sure does sound like you've got an axe to grind with your countymen.

So tell me Mr. Anywhere-but-US, why does the rest fo the world do it better than US? You clearly consider Angelo, Asian and Germanic goods to be superior (even if you can only offer stories from yer buddies). Thus it can't be that part of America that you dislike.... Are our corporations somehow greedier and more evil that those in other nations? Reading a foreign newspaper filled with corruption and corporate cover-ups wouldn't seem to indicate this.... hmmm, must just be something about "those" American workers.

You see, I am not a bigot. I have no problem admitting that many foreign products are better than certain American products. The reverse is also true. I don't consider any particular race or nation's people to be better or worse than Americans. I don't judge based on the actions of a few. I take the time to judge individuals, (products or people) and don't make blanket statements.

I share your interest and fascination for "foreign" products, not because I automatically consider them superior, but simply because they are different and I like to see other takes on product design.

BTW, Volvo's primary safety innovation was the shoulder safety belt. The first Swedish-spec Volvos to use it did so WITHOUT any lap belt. Shoulder belts alone practically guaranteed a neck injury in a crash. These early models were soon recalled. However, you can thank Chrysler (1974) for being the first manufacturer to install inertia-reel "uni-belts" (three point). This style of belt is the standard to this day.

That is, unless you were implying that when Volvo propped-up the roof of a sedan with 4x4s and cut the roof supports on other vechicles during an infamous TV commerical during the 80s as a safety feature?

Volvo story, Sixth paragraph (http://www.ballem.com/resources/publications.asp?pubid=684)

I guess I shouldn't voice my opinions anymore...

Boo-Hoo. Playing the 1st amendment marter doesn't impress me. Opine all you wish, just don't expect me to sit by silently.

I think the rot set in when corporations en masse started worshipping the cost accountants & stock analysts, decided that a good 6-months earnings report was more important than making quality PRODUCT. Then some bright cost accountant decreed that "Our Widgets can be made 25-30% cheaper" in (insert name of bugaboo country here) & you have the situation today. There is no way RCA, w/their vast research & development resources, should have been beaten by a poor compny like Sony-but that's what happened. Imagine the world if RCA or Zenith had had the foresight to come out w/a transistor set like the 8-301 Siony in 1960- there might be a domestic home electronics industry here. And Lucky-Goldstar would have their hind ends kicked back to Korea where they belong. -Sandy G.

Most DVD players can be switched from NTSC to PAL mode, and assuming that the UK has a TV channel near the American channel 3 or 4, you could use a video modulator to get it to drive that TV. Oh, the sound modulator's carrier frequency will need to be changed from 4.5MHz to something like 5.5Mhz... At that point you could also modify its picture carrier to match a UK channel.

As for power, if you happen to have a large air conditioner power outlet in the room that has 250V@15 or 20 amps, you could run the TV off that. 60Hz shouldn't make any difference to it. Don't use a dryer or electric stove outlet, too much amperage available if a short circuit happens.


As for American quality, we build the world's best nuke bombs....

I'm too young to have seen it first hand, but from what I've seen companies like Sony and Panasonic beat companies like RCA and Zenith by producing better products. I'm pretty sure they were significantly more expensive than their American counterprats, but people wanted TVs that worked for years between repairs. No American company bothered to make a VCR, instead they just slapped their names on Japanese VCRs. By the 80's RCA and Zenith were way behind. They didn't make any of the new high tech devices such as VCRs and CD players. The inside of a Zenith TV from 1986 reminds me of a Sony from 1976 with it's many boards, dozens of connectors and a mass of wires connecting everything together. Zenith and RCA came up with lots of great ideas even in the 80's, and their products were good, but not as good.

I think a lot of it may have been because all the best engineers were leaving consumer electronics to make things like computers. America is still a leader in many areas such as computer technology. It's like we got bored with designing and making TVs.

How true or not the following is I really don't know, but offer it as an interesting comment......I remember hearing someone say that American TVs were designed and built with the requirement of a TV repairman having to set it up initially and then be available for service....whereas the foreign (Jap) stuff was built to be basically plug n'play/idiot proof.

Dunno how much of any of that is true, but it kinda sorta does look that way (at least in the pre-solid state days).

Please don't shoot this messenger, am not slamming American goods! LOL

Anthony

Anthony I won't shoot any messengers here, but I think you're missing the point...

At one time, TVs were a complicated household appliance... Much the same way that a central A/C unit is today. You wouldn't expect the average Joe to drag one of those home and be chillin' in an hour?

Back in the days when American sets were the only game in town, you would likely need to re-set purity, convergence after shipping. Then maybe sell the customer a decent antenna. Sorry, but the technology for "plug and play" just didn't exist back then.

By the time that Japanese sets came on the scene in the later, they were selling 99% hybrid color portables (vs. big monster consoles). How can you fairly compare the two eras? I can't imagine a 19" Zenith SS table model from the 70s requiring a whole bunch of set-up... In fact I know it didn't, because I can remember my parents loading one into our '70 Dodge Dart at Fretter's in 1975. That "piece of inferior junk" lasted us until 1984 without trouble, and then we only got rid of it for a remote Sylvania (the Zenith went to the basement and later a relatives cottage). The NAP Sylvania, which I suspect was full of Japanese ICs lasted 6-years, until it became useless. They switched back to Zenith in '90, and that set is still in my living room (albeit in a rather differnt cabinet).

IF American-branded sets from the 70s were still being set up in the home, it was largely because television servicemen/dealers were the primary retailers of these traditional brands, not do-it-yourself stores like Best-Buy, etc.

I remember reading repeatedly in the 80s that the Japanese patentholders for vcr's would not allow them to be licensed for manufacture in the US. I'm not sure of all the specifics. I also remember when an American company, GO Video, came out with the dual deck VCR and it was noteworthy because they somehow were able to license the technology, but then they still didn't make them here but in Korea or someplace.

Relibability of most 70s solid state sets can be amazing. Many, many RCA's and Zeniths still plugging away today. There were some junk ones, though, and that helped the Asian companies get a foothold. Lots of the earlier Japanese stuff comes across to me as junk-lots of hybrids with odd tubes, thats my limited experience, anyway.

To further get off subject, I don't think an American company could survive making tv sets these days without some terrible, terrible tariffs imposed by the government. I suspect that the $99 specials from China that WalMart sells would cost around $299 (assuming all parts came from the states and it was assembled here), only on higher-line sets (HDTV, big screens) might the US be at all competitive.

A few years back, I saw a TV show about how the Japanese took the US TV market. The essentially sold sets below manufacturing cost through Sears, etc. At that time US tv quality was as good or better than theirs. The courts actually ruled in the US manufacturers favor, against Sears, the Japanese and others, but by then it was to late.

It does not matter as this point, the manufacturing of TVs had moved past Japan into other countries. I

As far as cars, the US did have a problem in the 1970s, early 1980s, but I believe that they are much closer to the Honda, Toyota today. What I do not appreciate about any of the car manufacturers is the extensive use of cheap plastic. My wife's care has plastic wheel covers which began breaking at 5 years and a plastic/aluminum radiator that started seeping in cold weather about the same time. At the same time, I have a 27 year old Mustang (from the 1970s) which has the original metal hubcaps and original brass radiator that has never leaked.

They put all that nice fuel injection and antilock brake electronics in the car and then put junk plastic parts on them!!!!.

Carmine, I wasn't so much missing the point (some genes maybe LOL) but was just relaying some silly tripe I had heard. What you say about the state of the art way back when makes all the sense in the world. Just makes you wonder how much longer though that the industry (American) might've stayed with tubes if it wasn't for competition.....UNFAIR competition I might add.

It's fairly well known at this point (although seems to have been largely forgotten by the younger generation) that Japan industry and government work hand in hand. Ever hear of the term Japan Inc? That means their gov't directly subsidizes the research and manufacturing as well as assists in allowing their companies to literally dump their product on other countries at below cost for the sole reason of decimating the local manufacturers so that they may ultimately take over the entire supply side.

Paranoid? Nein. Just look how things have played out. It's text book. The moment Fair Trade was repealed in the early/mid 70's sales of Jap electronics went ballistic.

peverett, you mention car interior plastics.....for the longest time I've suspected that as some of the plasticizers evaporate that they may cause cancer. There are some reports now that are leaning in that direction. One thing is for certain though, some of these plastics allow mold to form in the HVAC with detrimental results. http://www.fordlemon.com/ There's a cute animation that's kinda worth the load time (I have dial up, yuck)

Anthony

Originally posted by Sandy G
Yeah-I remember the 1st time I went to England-in '74- & saw a gen-u-wine Brit "telly", I thought to myself-"Man! sure does look like the pitcher toob could be busted easily in this thing. Would never go back home."(I was a TV nut at an early age.) It was a Pye, IIRC...

He he - good old Pye - they're a Philips "cheapo" brand, and I think they're still making Pye stuff today, though it's rare... I bet the one you saw was a Pye "Studiocolour" - we rented this holiday flat, one week each summer for a while, and that had a 21inch Studiocolour that was pretty damn good - far superior to my folks' rented (they RENTED until 1994!!!) "Baird" (made by JVC I think) TV...

I bet you were just like the family in National Lampoons' (Easter?) Vacation - when they end up in the dodgy London hotel courtesy of Pig and a Poke, and the son goes "This telly's bust - there's only 4 channels!". Mind you, in 74 you'd have only had 3!!!

I don't get it - with terrestrial here, we have 5 channels now. And they're all invariably rubbish. There's maybe an hour's worth of programming on BBC 1, and the odd good thing on BBC 2. Forget ITV. And Channel 5. Channel 4 has it's moments, barring Big Brother :puke:

I went to the US in 1992, and, even with all that damn advertising (and, don't kill me, but I can't get on at ALL with Never The Same Color pictures - even with the more stable image 60Hz provides) I was loving it - especially since you could get McGyver a year ahead of what we got in the UK. Mind you, they axed it in the UK before we'd have seen the same episode there :(

One thing though - why oh WHY do we always have news of the US elections, but they said diddly squat about ours? Mind you, if I'd found out that the Tory muppets had got back in again in 1992, I'd have probably had a ruined remainder of the holiday ;)

BTW - talk about cars (US or otherwise) is lost on me, but I'll stick up for Mitsubishi TVs and Panasonic VHS machines; my old school (left at 18 in 1993) still has a 1978 toploader Panasonic in daily use (only had 2 services) and they also have a mid 70s Mitusbishi TV in daily use. My folks' Mitsubishi (the one they finally BOUGHT to replace that damn rental thing!) is still going strong a decade later, and has never been serviced.

Mitsubishi TVs really weren't that bad, but they were hit really hard in the early 90's with defective caps. Those TVs often have 1/3 of their electrolytics leaking and who knows if you can trust the rest of them. Mitsubishi VCRs were among the worst in the 80's. They had tons of belts and never seemed to work properly.

Wow, I guess this thread has gone everywhere from free-trade to stinky car plastics!! :)

domfjbrown: As a McGyver fan, you might like to know that the term "McGyver'ed" lives on today in American slang. As in: "You really Mcgyver'ed-up that old TV set with a bunch of incorrect tubes and parts, but at least it works" OR... "How did you get out of that locked car trunk? Are you freakin' McGyver?" (I know this one through personal experience... Don't ask!)

I can also identify with watching shows months behind when they are seen in their home country. What's my dirty secret??

I'm a Coronation Street fan. I catch it across the border from Canada, albiet 6 months late! :nerd:

I remember a local electronics dealer sold Grundig TV sets here with that exposed CRT design. Looked like an accident waiting to happen!

On a similar note, re-badged garbage from China... I was at BedBath&Beyond yesterday, and they were selling a "Grundig" AM/FM/SW radio for $40!! :screwy: Total piece of junk, with poorly screen-printed dials and crooked, flimsy switches. A real shame... Even made my wife (who is German) a little sad. I guess for her it was like me seeing the Zenith name on a set of flimsy $2.99 headphones.

Originally posted by Carmine
OR... "How did you get out of that locked car trunk? Are you freakin' McGyver?" (I know this one through personal experience... Don't ask!)

I can also identify with watching shows months behind when they are seen in their home country. What's my dirty secret??

I'm a Coronation Street fan. I catch it across the border from Canada, albiet 6 months late! :nerd:

Oh GAWD - not Corrie - :puke: Mind you, nice eye candy in the Rovers ;) Yum yum... Even fitter than the barmaids in Eastenders - he he!

My folks also have a Mitsubishi video - and yeah, it's a PITA. Sometimes it won't load tapes, but that said, it's never chewed up, never needed servicing (they barely use it so it's a decade old and hasn't had a head clean - oops!) and the performance is still very good. I'll have to clean it at some point I guess ;)

Grundig... Hmmph. I DO have a 1967 Grundig valve (tube) radio in my folks' loft. It worked last time I used it, but has no FM, just AM. I reckon there must be an additional module that came out for it 'cos it has an FM wave on the dial, but doesn't even produce static when switched to FM. Nice sound last time I heard it working though (1991 I think!). Oh, it also has an aux input and a speaker out - wander if that old 1936 speaker my grandad made would work on it?

You can still see Richard Dean Anderson in all his smart-ass glory on Stargate SG-1. He doesn't fix the universe w/a pocketknife & a bottlecap, but almost. I wonder what he's like in real life...but I always wanted to meet Dr Smith-Jonathan Harris- & see if he was as big of a pompous ass as he was on TV. Sadly, he died last year. Oh, the pain, the pain !!!-Sandy G.

Has anyone watched a Mcgyver recently? I couldn't help but laugh at how inaccurate most of his "science" was. One of my favorites was when he was fixing a stereo with "the speakers out of phase" by adjusting the trimmers on the tuning cap.

One of my favorites was when he was fixing a stereo with "the speakers out of phase" by adjusting the trimmers on the tuning cap.

For more realistic depictions of "what to do in a crisis", I prefer the A-team. Ever notice how most of what they're doing is just grinding metal and making sparks? Same goes whenever they show a factory on a TV show... All dimly lit, sparks and molten metal everywhere. The only semi-realisitc version of a car factory I've ever seen was the opening 5 mins of Steven King's "Christine".

Speaking of Christine, my wife looks like a younger version of Shelly, behind the bar on Corrie. :D

Carmine, haven't you seen "Blue Collar" starring Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel? http://imdb.com/title/tt0077248/ It was shot in the Checker plant in Kalamazoo. Many moons ago a friend of the family was dating David Markin (son of the founder, Morris) so I was able to weasel my way into a visit back in the late 70's. My Dad bought a Marathon brand new for the family car.....see? Insanity DOES run in my family LOL

Anthony

Amazing! I was actually considering mentioning Blue Collar, but I couldn't get past the part where the big black dude gets killed in the paint booth... That seemed less-than-realistic to me.

That was Harvey Keitel??? Holy crap I guess you're right!

'course we all know that "mothafreakin' Checker Cabs" weren't built in Detroit. Always was surprised that Checker let them do that... Didn't exactly make Checker look too good! S'pose they didn't really care what the general public thought about their cars, since nobody would be crazy enough to buy one as a "private" car. :screwy:

oh... sorry.

Am wondering if Checker even knew quite what the storyline was about before agreeing to this.....they probably didn't or wouldn't really care anyway as their sales target sure wouldn't care either.

My dad bought it because he liked the idea of buying a brand new old style car, and the reputed heavy duty nature was a bonus.

The truth of the matter is that the front suspension was a crib from the first ball joint Fords, the X frame was cobbled into a "Y" to make room for the catholic converter resulting in a looser feel to the car.

The best mechanical parts were the TH400 and the Dana 44 rear, and to a lesser extent the 305 Chevy engine (although I told my father to get the 350, it didn't much matter as they both were the cheap thin wall castings)

Anthony (I know far too much about Checkers, don't get me to blabbing!!)

IIRC, Checker contracted w/GM to make the 1973-92 style full size Blazer & Suburban tailgates. I had an '82 Sub, & was proud I had a little piece of Checker.....-Sandy G.

Yep, Checker stamped out the tailgates and I think the rear quarter panels for the fleetside GM pickups. Also the frame rails for the "Fishbowl" buses, don't know specifically what they're stamping now other than they're still in the automotive supply biz as well as owning a trucking firm. They really began making good money once they stopped building the cars. That's actually pretty typical for the smaller car companies....Stude's profits went thru the roof when they stopped production---having diversified prior to this allowed them to remain in business.

Then there's the aborted engine building contract with Chrysler....signed, sealed, but not delivered. Checker sued and won big time. I suspect that Chrysler bought the Stude tooling and decided to build the engines themselves (the LA series small blocks)

Anthony

We had a Gravely tractor back in the '60s that was made by a decendant of Studie, Studebaker-Worthington Industries. Thing was WILD-you started it by pulling a rope, which you had to wind around this shaft, it had dual rear wheels, no fronts & a "riding sulky". The lawnmower, or whatever else you wanted to use on it mounted on the frront, & rode over the grass on skids. It was kinda an overgrown self-propelled push lawnmower, & it shook the Shite outta you using it. Very tough, though. My dad sold it sometime in the late '70s for about what he paid for it, he said. It was air-cooled, & I think the design dated back to the late-30s. Anybody else ever have one of 'em? -Sandy G.

Somewhere I have a list of well over a dozen companies that Stude bought, owned or controlled in some manner or another.

Did you know they owned Pierce Arrow for a couple of years? The irony is that the only corporate entity that is a direct desecndant and which still uses the Stude name is a leasing company....what's ironic is that Stude never had their own financing for their car sales! As a matter of fact, because of poor reseale values and low sales the banks didn't even like to loan the car dealers money so they could stock vehicles, which of course fed the vicious cycle---no cars to sell meant no sales.

Anthony

Think they also owned STP when they ceased automotive operations, to put it in corporate speak.--Sandy G