lschuc

FALSE!! Operation Airlift brought two cars, both EX-serial numbered prototypes (EX-R5652, a white car with orange interior and EX-R5653, gold with red interior) were either introduced in one or two cites each day, May 1 through May 24. May 1, 1962 in Boston; May 2, New York; May 3; Philadelphia in the morning, and Wash. DC in the afternoon; May 4, Pittsburgh; May 7, Detroit in the morning, and Cleveland in the afternoon; May 8, Dayton, Ohio; May 9, Chicago in the morning, and Minneapolis in the afternoon; May 10, Omaha; May 11, Kansas City in the morning, and St. Louis in the afternoon; May 14, Memphis in the morning, and Atlanta in the afternoon; May 15, Miami; May 16, Tampa in the morning, and New Orleans in the afternoon; May 17, Fort Worth, Texas; May 18, Houston; May 22, Los Angeles in the morning, and San Francisco in the afternoon; May 24, Portland, Oregon, in the morning, and Seattle in the afternoon.

In today's mail from Old Cars Weekly:

The Avanti convertibles from 1987 to 1991 are unique and not the same as any other car. The factory originally tried to adapt a Chevy Cavalier convertible top, but discovered that this would not work. Avanti Motors, at the time had the top material and mechanisms made by Dura Convertible Systems, a business unit of Collins & Aikman, Inc. In 2007, Collins & Aikman, and all of its holdings were liquidated in bankruptcy. Dura Convertible Systems was closed as an operating business, and its assets sold off at auction. Now, as to Dura's Avanti activities, they were never "regular" business for Avanti. The Avanti engineer that designed the system administered everything about Avanti as an advanced engineering project with Dura, and had prototype suppliers make or assemble all things. The patterns wound up in the hands of Lewis Vinyl Trim in Adrian, Mi. The owner does custom trim work on convertible tops, seats, carpets, door panels, etc. At one point, Avanti was supplied by Robbins Auto Tops in Oxnard, CA [ https://www.robbinsautotopco.com ], a large highly reputable after market convertible top supplier, with an '88 pattern. They don't list Avanti on their website, but may still have the pattern, as they seldom destroy a pattern, which may help you with the top material and pads, but not necessarily with the frame and bows. Anyway, I hope that helps a little. There is also a company in Florida that can make the top material for you, I'll have to look up the name later. But you still need the top and bows. If I may ask, what happened to the frame and bows? Lew

You should really replace your tires. 12 years is much too long to use tires. With steel belted radial tires, all tire manufacturers recommend replacing tires at least after 6 years, although some say it is safe to wait 8-10 years at most. The reason is that rubber degrades and can separate from the steel or rayon internal belts. Many automakers tell owners to replace tires six years after their production date, regardless of tread life. Tire manufacturers such as Continental and Michelin say a tire can last up to 10 years provided you get annual tire inspections after the fifth year. Cracks in a tire's rubber begin to develop over time, appearing on the surface and/or inside the tire as well. This cracking can eventually cause the steel belts in the tread to separate from the rest of the tire. Improper maintenance and heat accelerate the process. Since you say that your tires have been on your Avanti for at least 12 years, most likely the date code on the tire's sidewall will indicate that your tires are at least several years older. Over or under inflation can cause rubber degradation or separation from the belts on the inside of the tire, and that is most likely what caused the bubble to appear on your tire. Please remove your wheels and get your tires replace as soon as possible. They all me look like they have a lot of tread life left, but underneath the tread, they are an accident waiting to happen. If the tire comes apart on the highway at speed, that can lead to body damage and / or an accident that can injure or kill someone in your car or another car. Please do not drive on your old tires!! See: https://m.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=138 Or: https://www.edmunds.com/car-maintenance/how-old-and-dangerous-are-your-tires.html

If the bubble is on the sidewall, It sounds like the tire has a broken belt and needs to be replaced. If left on the car, it could result in a blowout.

Contact George at Olympus Avanti. I saw these window switches at his South Bend swap meet tables last weekend. His contact information is in his full page ad in the last several issues of Avanti Magazine.

The AOAI memorabilia committee has what is probably the only tractor feed computer printout of virtually all the parts used for the 1990 Avanti four-door cars. Let me know here what you're looking for and when we usually meet once a week, I can look up the part number.

But my '63 black Avanti is an R1 and was built much earlier than the one supposedly sent to England. Mine was the 250th Avanti produced and the 15th black car with black and fawn interior.

It was not the first black Avanti. My black '63 R1 is 63R-1250, and was the 15th black car.... but the first black car with a black & fawn interior. I've heard not long ago that Ian Fleming's car may be somewhere in Spain, but no confirmation yet. Lew

Wow... where did you find this information? As far as I have heard, no one knew the car's serial number or engine number.

if so, it is not even listed on my theavanticom site: http://www.theavanti.com/fleming.html

Ian Fleming's Avanti?? I didn't realize that this was the serial number!

Gary, it is more work than even I imagined!!

It is now 10 am Tuesday, April 30 and was up very late (or early this morning) fixing a number of issues with tech support from the very good people at our software supplier. It seems that everything is fixed and working. I am still testing, but think we're over the hurdle. Lew

MFG, just trying to reply to this to trouble shoot the forum problems. Lew PS: it works... for now..

Thanks Bob!! 👍

In order to get better service from our web hosting provider and much better features and website security, I backed up our AOAI Avanti forum and database early last week and transferred everything to a new, faster and more secure web server and finally got everything changed over and online. But because there was about a week delay in getting the forum and the rest of the AOAI website working from the new web server, any forum topics from the last week are not included. The latest posts are from March 31 and April 1, depending on the category. I am sorry that some topics or replies from the last week or two are not available, but in the long run, we should see a much better and secure website, both for this forum, as well as the main AOAI.org website and also the new, improved and more secure shopping system at aoai.org/shop . You may remember last month with the forum and the rest of our websites were offline for a few days because of hackers that loaded malware into our systems. I got the site cleaned up and operating again, but decided to install new version of our shopping system and forum making them more secure, as well as moving to new web servers with more built-in security features and faster response time. Friday, April 26 update: After applying a software update early Wednesday morning, the update stalled and blew up the forum files. I got everything restored to the forum early this morning and the forum is back online. But like I mentioned Wednesday before the forum went down, there are forum topics that are not here between April 1 and April 23, the time it took to get everything in place, for the regular website, aoai.org, and the new, improved and more secure internet shopping system. There are still a number of housekeeping items I need to do on the site, but hoping you all have the site available for a long time! Again, I'm sorry for any delay or inconvenience. Hoping for better service in the long run. Lew

Thanks Gary.... and yes, frustrating and very much time-consuming. But I'm working on what should be a more permanent and secure solution for the future.

I am sorry for anyone that has been puzzled or inconvenienced the last few days, since Sunday (March 24) when our AOAI forum was offline with various issues. We finally got the AOAI forum back online on Wednesday with a few times when it went offline for various issues. It might be a little slow for awhile as the server reindexes the site. Last week, we had to clean out and delete malware that looked like it originated from Chinese hackers. We got the main AOAI site working earlier in the week but in updating the forum on Saturday evening, some of the updated scripts kept the forum from being viewed. We got the forum back online today from backups from earlier on Saturday, and it looks like everything is there, although there might be a couple posts that where written late Saturday that might have been lost. Part of the problem is that the updated forum software relies on updated script versions, but the shopping cart has to use the older script versions on the server side. As an aside, I'm working to move the site to a different, better and even more secure server host that should provide better and faster load times through a dedicated IP address that will also host a new and improved and even more secure internet sales app for joining or renewing memberships. This will take a little time to fully complete, but first on the move will be the forum. As we seemed to have zeroed in on the source of the malware from China, that country has been a huge problem, and still remains a huge problem and cannot be trusted. A friend in the Washington DC area who used to teach Marketing at Georgetown University, said at the time that a senior official from the legal department at Department of Commerce come to talk to the students about legal protection for global branding. He said 95% of all international cases stemmed from China. (Also, I read a report a few years ago…China is expanding it’s military at a rate four times faster than Russia at the height of the cold war.) Hopefully the site will respond better as the day goes on the the forum finishes indexing itself. Please be patient. We/I am spending a LOT of time to keep things working for the AOAI, most of which is all volunteer time. Lew

Yes, just noticed the video of the headlight glass being made.

You will soon be able to buy the rear quarter window rubber seals sometime this month or at latest, hopefully in April. See their website for these and other very high quality Avanti parts at: https://endurancebuiltproducts.com/

Mike's business address and phone number are in his full page ad in recent Avanti Magazine issues.

This just in- Studebaker International will have a limited supply of new production glass Avanti headlight lenses available at the AOAI Tacoma meet!Identical to the original, both round and square glass lenses have not been available new for decades. They’re better than if NOS could even be found, since 60-year-old glass would probably have yellowed through the years. $99.95 each. Check out their reintroduction in Tacoma, Aug. 29-Sept. 1.