Dwight FitzSimons

Some have used a modern activated-charcoal canister to replace that vent hose. That was described in a thread on here (or the SDC Forum) --Dwight

WTF! I have worked on a couple of these & have never seen anything like this. All I can say is to put the fuel-tank attachments back to original. One issue with these is the vent hose that goes off the top, then over & down near the right rear wheel. Over time that hose will crack & let gas fumes into the cabin. That issue has been discussed on this forum (maybe also on SDC Forum). --Dwight

I think that all of the pieces are screwed on, with phillips-head screws.

"....Shortly before the Avanti was introduced" would have been way too late. The drive-train system would have had to be re-engineered, and that would have delayed the introduction by quite a bit. Sherwood was in a great hurry, and for good reason. Besides, using Ferrari engines would have driven up the price of the car by a lot, certainly pricing the Avanti out of the (Corvette, Riviera, Tbird) market. I do think that Studebaker should have bored out the R1 & R2 engines 0.080" to make the displacement 302 cu. in. There was a displacement race then and 3-something sounds better than 2-something. Plus, "302" would have separated the R1 & R2 engines from the plebeian 289 engine. And, they could have cast the intake manifolds out of aluminum to take some weight off the front end. Plus, how much more could the R3 exhaust manifolds have cost to manufacture than the regular ones? Adding both of these as standard would have added considerable "wowee" factor when people looked at the engine. Adding, say, $100 to the price of the car might have been worth it. After all, the Avanti wasn't intended to be a volume car, or even a profit maker; it was intended to be a traffic draw at their dealers. Dwight ('63 Avanti R1, '64 Avanti R3)

A couple thoughts: 1) Even back in the day those electromagnet voltage regulators were problematic. The VR in my Avanti was converted to modern electronics by Dave Thibeault in Mass. Highly skilled fellow and very helpful. If your VR turns out to be the problem you might give Dave a call (late AM or late PM). 2) There is a modern alternator that looks more or less like the original, with the VR built into it. And, It bolts right on. The conversion is written up in studebaker-info.com (IIRC). This modern (Japanese) alt. should be much more reliable than the original alt. & VR. --Dwight

The essence, and qualifier, for an R3 engine is the cylinder heads. More pix will help us identify your engine. R3 heads are identified by the casting number on the center exhaust port of the head. The last three digits of that casting number are 479. From your picture it looks like you have a Lionel Stone reproduction R3 intake manifold. --Dwight (got one R3 & that's enough)

Anyone who doesn't think that 4 door cars can be cool should look at yours. Nice job!

Here is the URL: https://www.worldwidevintageautos.com/vehicles/20939/1963-studebaker-avanti-r2 --Dwight

These guys may be of help. I don't know if they can supply a steering column, but at least they advertise that they fix them correctly. --Dwight

Just have the one, and it's going on 56J no.1. Both of my 56Js have P.S., but I've become shiftless in my old age and will stick with automatics. --Dwight

'63 or '64? AFAIK the rear arm rests are the same for both years, but the front arm rests are a little different on top. Perhaps, hopefully, either year could be used for your car. --Dwight

AFAIK, all modern cars have their air cleaner on the engine, but with a hose leading out to behind the grille in order to bring in fresh air. So, Studebaker had the right idea, just didn't implement it very well. For my car I'm stuck with the factory setup, which at least, is better than the R2's air cleaner. But, ideally, one could leave the air cleaner where it is on an R2 and do major surgery on the air cleaner and fender apron to bring in fresh air. The fresh air could be sourced from a hole in the fiberglass to the left (i.e., passenger side) of the radiator (behind the grille). Oldsmobile implemented a fresh-air intake well in the '60s on the 442. --Dwight

This is a good topic for discussion. I have an R3 Avanti that I will soon be putting back together, so I have a near-term need to know. I would assume that rotating the air cleaner so that the intake is pointed toward the grille would achieve a bit of ram-air effect. One wouldn't want to ever drive in the rain, though! --Dwight, R-5407, R3, 4-spd

Avanti63! is exactly correct. The same "can" is used on '64 R2 Avantis and '63-'64 R2 Larks & Hawks, just with different brackets depending on the application. There was an article in Turning Wheels about these air cleaners a while back. Someone may have that issue handy. We need more pictures to identify this one. --Dwight

It's definitely not original, so it's a guessing game as to what it might have been intended to do. Brake lights? Oil pressure idiot light? Parking light brake light?