1959 Studebaker 4E1-112 Pickup

Matthew Burnette, 17

1959 Studebaker 4E1-112 Pickup

Feature Article from Hemmings Classic Car

October, 2007 - Jeff Koch

It's not easy being a Studebaker man these days. Oh, sure, there are fine examples around and there are any number of great national and regional clubs full of swell people, but in terms of recognition by just about anyone under, oh, 40, Studebaker is nowhere. Most kids these days wouldn't know a Studebaker if it ran over them, although they'd likely find a clever abbreviation to use for that long name while text-messaging their pals from the hospital afterwards.

Imagine a family where the preservation of this fabled old name, pre-dating motoring itself, is not looked upon with tut-tutting, disdain and a roll of the eyes, but is encouraged, all the way up and down the family tree. Such is the lucky case of Matthew Burnette of Hazlehurst, Georgia, not quite eighteen but already proud to call this 1959 Scotsman 4E1-112 pickup his daily driver.

Matthew's grandpa bought a 1948 Champion convertible in 1965 for 35 bucks. It later went, but its departure is characterized as "one of his biggest regrets" by Matthew. Rather than be relegated to some wistful memory, Grandpa went Studebaker crazy. A string of South Bend's finest followed: a cast of Hawks (including a 1957 Silver Hawk he's had since 1970 and redone twice now), an exultation of Larks (with apologies to James Lipton), and a loaf of trucks. The fleet numbers more than a dozen runners, with more parts cars on hand just in case.

The Studebaker affliction isn't something that's skipped a generation, either: Matthew's mom drove a six-cylinder 1963 Daytona hardtop, a car that Matthew is in the process of restoring, while one of Matt's uncles has run a 1951 Champion Starlight Coupe for the past 20 years.

Which is all background and reasoning for the 1959 Scotsman 4E1-112 pickup that Matthew calls his daily driver. "It's been repainted and the engine's been overhauled," he says, "but it's never had rust problems or been apart." At this writing, the factory-born 170-cu.in. OD powertrain with three-speed transmission hadn't quite reached 53,000 miles yet.

"The story of my Scotsman started in May of 1960, when a local Farmall tractor mechanic, Mr. Ryles, bought the pickup from a Buick dealer," Matthew reports. "He paid all of $1,389.64 for it; he used the truck in his business until 1974, when a radiator hose blew and the engine ran hot. Mr. Ryles pulled the truck into his barn and overhauled the engine.

"But the Scotsman sat in the same spot until 1994, when my Uncle Mitchell bought it. He repainted the entire truck and installed the original 170-cu.in. Champion 6. The original color was a light blue, but Uncle Mitchell decided it had to be Omaha Orange."

From there, it's done the family tour: "Uncle Mitchell had the truck a few years and drove it to several shows, bringing home many first-place trophies. He decided to get married and build a house, so he traded the truck to my Uncle James for some building supplies."

You'd think that the little Scotsman had earned its retirement by now, but if anything it was keeping an increasingly difficult schedule. "Uncle James had it for a while. I recall a cube of brick and even a pallet of stone in the bed of the truck on more than one occasion when he owned it.

"When Uncle James was getting married, he sold the truck to my granddad. Now, Granddad really used that truck like a truck was meant to be used! He owns a masonry business, and he used the Scotsman when his regular work truck broke down. He towed his mortar mixer with it, and hauled brick, block and bags of cement. It was still running like new, and was still earning its keep."

Matthew, meanwhile, had lucked into a Studebaker of his own: a 1951 2R16 dump truck. It was a donation to the South Georgia chapter of the Studebaker Drivers' Club, and Matthew's grandfather restored it for the club to raffle off. Later, the pair drove it a couple hundred miles round-trip to appear at a swap-n-sell meet, in order to generate ticket sales for the raffle. "I bought six tickets. I didn't really want it, much less have a use for it, but thought I would give it a try anyways." So no one was more surprised than Matthew when, at the annual meet in April 2006, his name was drawn as the raffle winner! "I had no idea what I would do with a 1.5-ton dump truck," he told us.

Then, in a night of sleepless, giddy excitement, that idea came to him: maybe Granddad would entertain a straight swap for the Scotsman, which at that point was down with a mechanical issue. "Over last summer, the little Scotsman had developed a loud knock. We did a partial teardown, and when the timing gear cover was taken off, we saw that timing gear had lost a few teeth and caused the knock." An easy enough problem to fix, with the parts and expertise provided by several generations of Studebaker owner-drivers on hand.

Once the Scotsman was roadworthy again, Matthew proposed the swap with his grandfather. Granddad had apparently become attached to the dump truck over its two-year overhaul, so he eagerly accepted the trade. "I wanted the Scotsman, as the dump truck was too much truck for me, and my granddad wanted the dump truck to use in his business." Hey, if he restored it once, surely he could use it for awhile and restore it again if he had to.

The proud young owner shared some other facts about his now-smooth-running Scotsman. "I'm the fifth owner of this truck, and every owner since 1960 has lived in Jeff Davis county. It hasn't been out of the state of Georgia since being delivered here in 1959. I've really enjoyed my Scotsman, and I hope to keep it in the family for many years to come."


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