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That’s one gorgeous Avanti!… Love the wheels & tires! My own ‘83 had factory installed Daytons at the ‘83 new car auto show, but it’s first owner ordered them off the car… too much trouble to keep clean I guess.

Nice job, Nels. There is a paint on the market to restore the texture of vinyl. And, for those of us who are less creative in the use of materials, there are materials for repairing vinyl on the market. It would not surprise me if the vinyl repair filler (below) is just re-packaged Bondo (like you used). I, too, have a '63 Avanti that I am trying to resurrect, including the dash. --Dwight

Good day all. Just wanted to show my New wheels and tires for the 83'. I now have 4 original Daytons that I will be putting up for sale. I'll be using the Boxes that my American Racing wheels came in, in order to ship the Daytons. I'll get pics asap and put them up on the "for sale" page here and on FB.

Thanks for the compliments. Yes it’s pretty much all bondo. I did use fiberglass mesh on the large cracks in an effort to keep them from returning. I also did the crack areas with the better bondo with glass fiber already in it. That stuff is a lot harder to sand so all the major applications were done using light weight stuff as it sands easily. There is no grain in the bondoed areas. I bought some spray bed liner thinking it might look ok but it just looked like paint. I was thinking you might be able to shrink wrap a grained skin on the whole dash? Actually it looks good enough. I doubt there will be many people that notice the different textures

WOW, not perfect but sure looks passable to me. Nice job you did.

.....and this is all Bondo???

Ah ha!…. Thanks

Compression ratios. The R2 needs more initial advance, and less total advance when the boost comes on.

Impressive results, but even more so by not having removed the dash from the car !

Concerning the major differences in Studebaker Avanti R1 and R2 distributor advance curves, and also basic timing adjustments … Why did Studebaker engineers feel it necessary to change these specifications between their supercharged and their unsupercharged engines?

I have a pair of brand new 1963 Avanti glass headlight lenses. Still in the box, made by Endurance Built Products. Never have been mounted. I can bring to the 2025 National SDC/AOAI Meet, if prepaid. They are ONLY for sale at this price, for delivery there. IF not presold, they will be available later, at a higher price, as I do not want to ship. Half price from what I paid, as I no longer own the car, that I was going to put them on. $100 for the pair. I paid $200. George Rohrbach

A friend owns a real nice white ‘64 Stude Avanti, that features a full claret interior, black carpeting, and the ‘woodgrain’ steering wheel & dash pieces…… Absolutely beautiful!

Thanks for your input.

IIRC there was a document detailing at what serial number all of these changes took place. I can't find it at the moment. --Dwight

if there is any local delamination at the hinge you may need to do a ply repair. I've heard of the disbond problem and panelbond would be the right thing to use for that. on my 79 the hood hinge pad was getting crunchy. I did a 5 ply tapered repair with woven cloth and SMC resin. There was a lot of panelbond smeared in and around the damage, I ground that out.

I am driving and will be able to bring it with me. I will send you a e-mail. Steve

Wow that looks really good!

Well I’ve been playing around with a 63 Avanti I bought out of Phoenix Arizona and yesterday I decided to try to resurrect a really shot dash pad. The pad had actually fallen down far enough to hide the instrument. The Arizona heat had pretty much cooked the dash. The car really deserves a new dash pad but trying to recoup a $2000 plus plus investment can be difficult to do with a run of the mill 63 Avanti. So yesterday I decided to try to repair the dash to bring it to something presentable. I didn’t get a picture prior to starting on the project but the dash pad was really BAD! My first picture is after I heated the underside of the pad by the instruments using a heat gun. I was able to raise it back up to its original location with a 4 1/2 inch by 12 inch piece of plywood and a wood prop from the underside of the plywood to the steering column. I left that prop there through the entire process and removed it prior to paint. I then sanded the top of the pad with 80 grit paper. I also completely cleaned the entire dash with “Prep All” prior to doing any work. All cracks were reinforced with fiberglass mesh to keep the crack from returning. After those repairs were made I started with the bondo. Shaping the bondo a cheese grader was used to rough in the shape followed by 36 grit sand paper to 150 grit to 400 grit. I found a close match to the original elk dash color in a Rustolium spray paint called French Beige. I have about $25 wrapped up in the project and a good day to day and a half worth of work. It looks pretty decent. Not a new pad for sure but beats what was there and looks better than a carpet covering the pad.

I believe Nelson was referring to changes phased in on the Avanti production line?

OK…. It was a light duty unit based on the same model ‘8’ BW. with first gear start.

I found a rebuilt booster from NAPA and the master cylinder that was used by Avanti Motors. I will be installing those two units to bring it back to factory. Hopefully, that will do the trick! Film at eleven.

Actually the 64 changes were on an EX prototype car made long before R4892. One of the last ones Gary Johnson is finishing up.

The 1963 & 1964 six cylinder Studebakers used a 3 speed Flightomatic.

Wonderful Leo!

Hi Steve. Are you driving or flying to the meet? I’m going to the show also. Is there any way to bring the shroud? What do you need for it?