64studeavanti

Been working on this car off and on for 5 years. Body is bare and on rotisserie. Glass, trim, interior etc has been removed. Frame has been media blasted and painted. Engine, transmission, and suspension have been rebuilt. All parts are NOS or excellent used. Hog troughs have been replaced. The undercoat on the body was removed and fresh was reapplied. Hopefully, this is the last push to get it in color and start the reassembly. The plan is to wind up with a brand new 60 year old car! Agreed on the powder guide coat. Works much better than the spray.

This is the first fiberglass car I have prepped for paint. On metal cars, I can fix most of the problems with a hammer and dolly, shrink, or stretch as needed. On this car, all I can do is add more filler to straighten the panels. When I redid the bad body work, I used resin, mat, and kitty hair so those areas are structurally sound.

I have 2 63s and 2 64s with A/C. They all have the same heavy cast iron pulleys as R2. Strange thing, the aluminum pulley, 1563110, is listed in the December 63 parts catalog. I have R5408 and R5423. R5408 was completed December 2nd.

I figure I have about three weeks to get it into primer. I should have a couple of weeks to finish block sand. I will have help mounting the body. Mounting the body, hanging the doors, hood and trunk lid should only take a day or two. The heavy body work is done, all I need to do is skim and true up the filler. The Ultra Extra helps quite a bit as it gives me a much longer work time and sands very easily. Doors, hood and trunk lid are in pretty good shape, at least according to the guide coat. I plan on doing a "scuff and puff", no block sanding, in the engine bay and trunk as well as the back side of the hood and trunk lid.

The R1 pulleys are the same as R2. The aluminum water pump pulley, 1563110 became available with an improved idle cooling kit announced in service letter R-1964-4, dated April 24, 1964.

As one of the Corvette Forum posters stated, "I will keep working it until my give a s... bucket is empty". I do have a deadline. It is scheduled in the paint shop the middle of April. If I miss that date, it will be several months before I can get another. I still have to complete body work, assemble the body (doors, hood, trunk), mount it back on the frame, prime, and block sand. Wish me lots of luck! This car was quite a mess. It supposedly had a "professional" paint job when I bought it 20 years ago. The driver door had a new skin over a destroyed frame. The hood had a hole cut in it that was improperly patched. The hood brace was installed on the driver side, the firewall was a disaster, evidence of lots of poor work done to the front fender, etc. I was able to source a different door and hood. and have been able to repair most of the shoddy body work.

Prepping a 64 for paint. Working on the roof as that is the 'flattest' panel. I am surprised at how wavy it is. I stripped it down to original primer using razor blades. I then used a long board to remove the primer so I would not create any new waves. Several low spots are identified using the original primer as a guide coat. In order to get the roof straight, I had to skim coat the entire surface. Are the waves the way the car came from the factory? I have nothing to gauge this as I have never worked on an Avanti or other fiberglass car. If a metal car was that wavy, I would do more metal work. The car did have at least 2 repaints based on the layers I stripped off. FWIW, I am using a 50-50 mix of Rage Ultra and Rage Ultra Extra to extend work times. It does have longer work time, and of course, longer cure time.

Nothing

Yes, I have a 63, and a 64 automatic. They have the same frame mount as my 64 4spd.

I have been told that if you are spraying metallic, which most Avanti colors are, it is better to spray everything at once to maintain a consistent pattern. Here is a pic of the window channel of a car I am prepping for paint that shows a similar gap between the lower frame and A pillar. This car had quite a bit of bedding compound.

Check with the paint shop. The guy I use prefers that the car be assembled with doors, hood and trunk. He charges extra if it is apart. FWIW, the factory painted the door, hood, and trunk hinges the same color as the body.

Here is a link to a discussion of different heads and gaskets. https://www.studebaker-info.org/Tech/Heads/Headcasting.html This web site, maintained by Bob Johnstone, is a great resource. Best gaskets used to supply a gasket that was about .040 compressed. For my R1 4spd, I had the block zero decked, bored .060 over with flat top pistons. This gives excellent quench. With an Isky ST5 cam installed, it runs very well on pump premium gas. Some did not care for the best gaskets. I do not believe they are available any longer.

Later Studes used the shim gasket. If you use the thick gasket on R1, the compression will drop about half a point to 9.75:1 instead of 10.25:1. This is good for today's gasoline. If you have the block decked and heads milled to ensure they are flat, the shim gasket will seal. Otherwise, use the composite.

The shop manual clearly states to use Sealer and bedding on the windshield and butyl tape and Sealer on the rear window.

Ernie loga @ http://www.studebakervendors.com/loga/ can make you any panel you need.

the picture that was posted sure looks weird. what were they thinking.

There should be two vertical bumpers labeled as 1807-3 with rubber cushions on rear bumper.

The shims are identified as 1805-3 for the rear bumper and 1805-9 for the front.

Not sure we are on the same page, but rubber shims between the body and bumper are normal to fill the gaps for both front and rear bumpers on the sides.

My concern is that I have 3 square headlight Avantis. Two 64s and a 78. all measure differently, and it looks like all have had work done to that area of the body. The parking lights fit snug against the body on all 3, so I assumed the headlight gap should be narrow as well. As you indicate, not likely a precision fit.

thanks, I thought it would be a narrower gap and the same all around.

As the title indicates, I am looking for info on the gap between the body and headlight rim for a 64 square enclosure. The Avanti I am working on has had repairs and I would like to make sure that I repair it correctly before new paint. Thanks

Try Ernie Loga. https://www.studebakervendors.com/loga/

yes, I deleted older attachments just as you described.

I had to go into each individual post and delete images in order to post more. Lots of good information lost. There needs to be a better way as it took quite a bit of time to delete the prior image postings.