Geoff

Oh! Interior headlight bezels were painted body color. [edited] If somebody were to desire the chrome appearance without using chrome, turn to paint. The world's "mirroriest" paint. It's costly, at $50 for 15ml but that amount covers 64 sq. ft. https://www.culturehustleusa.com/products/mirror

I hear that. I don't suppose the rear end is C4 'Vette, complete with the "batwing" differential carrier, is it? That's how Mr. Heacock's electric Avanti adapted IRS. My final build will also have little in common with its peers. I could select darn near any engine but am leaning toward GM LS. On that note, I have been trying to figure out some fitment math. My hope is making the C7's [engine, torque tube, & trans-axle] setup work while maintaining the car's 2+2 status, and not putting a large ridge between left & right passengers.

What would be involved in that swap? If you're ever inclined to do it, I'll offer a couple more hands to help out.

That looks like it has some Camaro IROC-Z influence. Like, a lot. Especially the part of the fascia beneath the Camaro's headlights. [The addendum] Looking more in depth at earlier 3rd gen. Camaros, the Z28 had styling the later IROC would get. That gen. Camaro went on sale December '81. It's plausible some 'inspiration' was noticed and borrowed. I'll be posting more pictures and videos of my build as I get started with a gusto come "No Mo Snow Twenny-Fo!" This year saw some pitfalls but I've been stripping the car at a moderate pace.

This will be an interesting answer to learn. Are you specifying the angled fascia panel housing the headlights? "Avanti" badge. No more "II" designation. That's my guess. I'll do an early nod with my Blake; move the turn indicators back to the 'pontoons'. Then install Hella FF75 (driving or fog pattern) or similar where Blake put the turn indicators. Extra light helps in dark New England nights.

I believe that's the last one on the initial post, listed for $6k

I'd be living a dream if somebody knew where to source a recreation of the 20th anniversary's bumper. All bumpers [bumper covers] post-1983 chrome are urethane, ya? It is a material I've not worked with much but I have a feeling I'll plunge down that rabbit hole. Lord knows I love to learn content in various rabbit holes. I'll be making and installing the correct GT fender flares, and I will install some other racy parts, but with an Avanti we don't have many options over stock. If I were to buy a 1989 Avanti front bumper and remove the air dam portion to meld onto my car, I can't do that without subtracting from the total number of 1989 Avanti front bumpers. I would be far more friendly to other Avanti owners if I found a [Cervini's, Saleen, or other] urethane piece I like and work some modification magic on my car.

Yes, hey Terry, and welcome. I sent a private message in the forum with my contact information.

So I'll be going, oh let's just be accurate, "totally nuts" with my build. Here are some of the mods I will be doing: Air extracting elements in the hood and front fenders A skid plate (if I can fit one under the engine bay) A belly pan A rear diffuser I'd love to recreate the 20th anniversary car's front fascia/bumper Some of those necessitate other changes which I will make, and there are more changes I will make to my car. The preceding added to say, I don't mind doing exactly as your illustration shows, blocking space behind the fascia, especially if it means smoothing the incoming air.

Ed, I'm a late X'r so I didn't see the animosity between Studebaker & Avanti in the 60s and 70s. Though today I notice SDC & AOAI operating as two separate entities, and more than that, it's like they go out of their way to be separated. I would love to see them co-mingle. My Blake era car says Avanti on the trunk but I will make that change to read Studebaker. I look at every Avanti and think, "Without RL doing work for Studebaker, the Avanti wouldn't be here." It's because of that I connect all Avanti models to Studebaker. True, not all Avantis have Studebaker engines. These days not all Mustangs have Ford engines either. Some owners like to take the gen. III & IV GM small block and swap that in because: less weight, more power, LS & Vortec interchangeability, huge aftermarket support, etc… Once my car is done, It'll be driven anywhere and everywhere. I live in Maine with family still in California. My build does plan for an LS and I'll take it to LS-fest west (Las Vegas), east (Kentucky), and LS-fest Texas. My plan also calls for Corvette front and rear sub-frames, and I would love to attend Corvettes at Carlisle with it. If I hear of a Cars & Coffee gathering within a day drive and enough notice, I'll leave my house whenever I must to get there, just for C&C. Then drive home. I can hear people saying, "Don't forget to dance with the one who brought you." And I get that, I will attend SDC & AOAI meets. However, it would be so much nicer if those could be one and the same.

Here's a chart with good recommendations. Obviously some stretching can be done but literally your mileage may vary. One great example I can think of is the C4 ZR-1. That car's rear tires were (315/35-17) on an 11" wide wheel, which the chart doesn't suggest. Meanwhile the same car's fronts were (275/40-17) on a 9.5" wide wheel. The chart says that's the maximum recommended tire width for that wheel. Here is the formula to use if you're trying to stay close to stock wheel & tire diameter for speedometer and odometer accuracy: Cross section × profile as a percent × 2. That product / 25.4 to convert millimeters to inches. Then + the wheel diameter. So the above tire sizes would look like this: 315 × 0.35 × 2 = 220.5. 220.5 / 25.4 ≈ 8.68 inches. And then + 17 ≈ 25.68 inches. And 275 × 0.40 × 2 = 220. 220 / 25.4 ≈ 8.66 inches. And then + 17 ≈ 25.66 inches. If you can calibrate the speedometer and odometer all of that is unnecessary. Otherwise, it's interesting to play with cross section and/or profile changes in the digital world to discover what tire sizes your car could wear. All while heeding the above warnings from the posted picture, of course. The 1985 Avanti you have used 205/75-15. Those are about 27.11 inches tall. Stay close to that and you'll be all set.

So um, wowzers! What a week it has been here. Sheeeeesh! Anyway, I've had some thoughts on my current project. In no particular order: Fix what's in the car. Articles like these are helpful. "Simplify and add lightness." -Colin Chapman. Remove sunroof and offload to someone who could use it. Plus, less weight and less weight up high. Double bonus. Maybe remove and replace with a rudimentary moonroof (lift and latch rear for vent / pop out and stow the panel). Uninstall the current inbuilt moonroof and replace it with a spoiler moonroof. The idea of using a spoiler moonroof would be to reduce the size of the storage box inside the car. Spoiler moonroofs are the ones that slide rearward, outside. That's a re-engineering issue though because I have to find a spoiler roof I like and adapt it to the car. My measurements of the car's current hole are ≈35.5" wide ≈17" long. If I was to do this I am comfortable altering each dimension. I have also thought of getting a longer moonroof, with panoramic plexiglass extending rearward of the roll bar hoop.

My father would pop the hood on 1025 when daily driving in SF Bay Area congestion in the 1970s. Once the bottleneck cleared he'd stop on the shoulder, slam the hood and go. In his case it definitely worked but the speed we're talking was stop and go. Between the popped hood and the intermittent shift to N with a prod of the accelerator pedal (to spin the engine fan and water pump more) it cooled off the engine bay very well. My solution is going to be extreme. I love road course racing and both racing Avantis built under Blake. My current project is going to pay visual homage to the Mid-Ohio GT but with some extras. In addition to flared fenders I'll be styling in fender air extractors aft of the front wheel wells. I have a second hood which I will add in a "waterfall" air extracting element and some louvers over the exhaust headers/manifolds.

The way I've heard it come down through time was, Studebaker was working on an entirely new block; one with room for 4" of bore. It wasn't just a, "Let's rework what we've got" deal. At least that's going by what I have heard. Jim Pepper says that Paxton did prefer reworking R2 heads as far as performance is concerned. But that was because the R3 head was made for more bore (and thus more cubes). So R3 heads with 4" of bore (or maybe 4.040" as the new for '68 Mopar 340) could be made to perform very well. I know from talking to my father and uncle, that the heads on RS1021 (car 25) were ported, polished, and flowed. And those were factory R2 heads which were worked by hand (for many hours) to make them flow very well. Take R3 heads, port, polish, and flow those, then slap them on a 4" bore (or larger) Studebaker engine. Oh, what could have been.

I only asked him if I could give more traffic by posting his ad here. Call him if you're interested. Dave is a super nice guy who will talk your ears off if you want. His cup o' tea are Corvettes, C1 & C2 especially. I think he has like (5) 1953-1955 Corvettes in various stages of completion. You can see the body only car (being held up by a Model A frame); that's the Avanti behind the red one. The faded gold one is also seen in the distance. I know he would make a package deal to take 5 of the 6 (all the parts cars) in one fell swoop. The turquoise over turquoise runs but needs a little work to make it a driver.