Studebaker Commander restomod 1948 images

This 1948 Studebaker Commander keeps its groundbreaking postwar styling but swaps everything underneath for modern GM hardware — a Chevrolet 305 V8, a 700R4 overdrive automatic, and a Camaro front subframe with Mustang II-style steering. It’s a build that raises a fair question about how much of the original Commander survives beneath the sheet metal. See the full restomod in the photos below.

This Studebaker Commander has been modernized inside and out; plus its powered by a Chevy 305, V8 complete with chrome valve covers/ chrome air cleaner. The engine is bolted to a 700R4 automatic transmission with overdrive Â and ends up at the Chevrolet S-10 differential riding on 16 inch wheels. The sub-frame is from a Camaro with rack and a pinion steering setup like the new Mustang II.

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Studebaker wasn’t just building cars again after World War II — it was trying to prove it could out-innovate Detroit’s Big Three while doing it. The Commander that resulted was genuinely groundbreaking for its era, all-new styling penned largely under Raymond Loewy’s studio barely a year after the war ended. Eight decades later, this particular Commander has been reimagined again, this time with a drivetrain that has nothing to do with Studebaker at all. Underneath its restomodded body sits a Chevy small-block, a GM overdrive automatic, and a front subframe borrowed from a completely different era of muscle car — a combination that raises the obvious question of how much of the original Commander is actually left.

The Postwar Studebaker That Beat Detroit to the Punch

Studebaker restarted production almost immediately after World War II, but the real milestone came in mid-1946, when the company introduced what’s often credited as America’s first genuinely all-new postwar design — styling primarily developed at Raymond Loewy’s studio, with much of the actual work done by a young Virgil Exner, who would go on to shape Chrysler’s most famous 1950s designs. The 1948 Commander carried that design forward largely unchanged, riding on a 119- or 123-inch wheelbase depending on body style, originally powered by a 226 cubic-inch L-head six making 94 horsepower.

A Chevrolet Heart in a Studebaker Body

This build strips out that original inline-six entirely in favor of a Chevrolet 305 cubic-inch V8 with chrome valve covers and a chrome air cleaner, backed by a 700R4 automatic overdrive transmission and routed through a Chevrolet S-10 differential on 16-inch wheels. The front subframe comes from a Camaro, fitted with rack-and-pinion steering borrowed from the same era as the new-at-the-time Mustang II — a mix-and-match approach to GM and Ford parts bins that has become common practice among builders chasing modern driving dynamics inside a vintage body.

A Design Studio’s Reputation, Sitting on the Lot

Studebaker entered the postwar era with one of the most talked-about design departments in the industry, led by the legendary Raymond Loewy studio. The 1947 Studebakers, sold as “first by far with a postwar car,” broke from prewar-derived styling faster than any of the Big Three managed, and the 1948 Commander shown here carries that same design confidence, well before Loewy’s team pushed things even further with the bullet-nose look that arrived for 1950.

Independent, and Increasingly Alone

Studebaker built its cars in South Bend, Indiana, as one of the last true independent automakers competing directly against General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler without the benefit of their combined dealer networks or economies of scale. That independence gave Studebaker’s design and engineering teams real freedom to take chances the Big Three often wouldn’t, but it also meant the company was perpetually vulnerable, a vulnerability that eventually pushed it into a 1954 merger with Packard and, ultimately, the end of American production in 1966.

Why a Studebaker Makes an Unusually Good Restomod Canvas

Restomod builders gravitate toward Studebakers for reasons that have little to do with nostalgia and everything to do with practicality layered on top of genuinely distinctive styling. Because Studebaker stopped building cars decades before GM, Ford, or Chrysler wound down comparable models, factory parts support dried up early, which pushed owners toward donor drivetrains out of necessity long before “restomod” was a recognized category. A Chevrolet-sourced small block, an automatic overdrive transmission, and a modern subframe, exactly what’s under this Commander, solve a parts problem while updating a car whose styling never needed updating in the first place.

Borrowing the Right Parts From the Right Donors

The choice of donor components on a build like this one is deliberate rather than random. A Camaro subframe brings rack-and-pinion steering to a chassis that never had anything like it from the factory, while a Chevrolet S-10 rear differential is a common, well-understood, and easily serviceable way to put modern gearing and axle strength under a car whose original rear end was designed for a much lighter-duty driving experience than a builder wants today.

The Restomod-Versus-Numbers-Matching Divide

Every custom-built classic invites the same debate among enthusiasts: does modifying an original car destroy its history, or does it save a car that would otherwise rot in a field because nobody wanted to fund a numbers-matching restoration for a model most people can’t identify on sight? Studebakers sit closer to the “saved” side of that argument more often than most, simply because so few survive in original condition and even fewer owners are willing to hunt down increasingly rare factory parts for a full concours restoration.

A Marque That Rewards a Second Look

Studebaker’s postwar cars rarely get the attention that contemporary Fords, Chevrolets, or Mopars receive at a typical car show, but that relative obscurity is exactly what makes a well-executed build like this Commander stand out. Modern drivetrain, updated suspension geometry, and styling that still looks purposeful more than seventy years after Loewy’s studio drew it: it’s a combination that turns heads precisely because so few people expect it from a Studebaker.

The Overdrive Advantage on Modern Roads

Pairing the swapped-in Chevy 305 with a 700R4 automatic, rather than a period-correct three-speed, gives this Commander a genuinely usable overdrive gear that the original 1948 driveline never offered. That fourth gear drops highway RPM enough to make sustained interstate cruising far more comfortable and far less punishing on the engine than anything a buyer could have expected from a stock postwar Studebaker, a quiet but meaningful upgrade that period-correct restorations simply can’t match.

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