Geoff

I'm guessing numero uno, Chrysler.

I am unfortunately a bad reference point to ask, as my car was left outside with a leaky moonroof 24+ years in an alternatively snowy and humid climate. Disassembly for me just involves grabbing and pulling. Pruning shears have been used. The sawzall will be coming out to separate the frame from, well ... both from itself and from the body. I'm going to plunge cut my Blake with an oscillating multi-tool to put the turn indicators back in Raymond Loewy's location. I bet you have the picture now. So I am guessing here but I would handle a nicer car by first removing the side trim pieces and the roll bar cover (which I believe is held on by those triangle shaped pressure-fit clips). That should give access to edges of the headliner where fingers or tools like hooks or scrapers could get in and start to gently pry apart. The thing I keep reminding myself, and it was true when I was working on 63R-1025 also, these cars weren't assembled in a very complex manner.

How large of a logo? Would you want the logo to span the whole side of the cover, or one reasonably sized logo centered over the hood / bonnet? And do you mean the logo with the skewed three stripes with Avanti lettering in red and the arrow? Or would you just like the Avanti with the arrow? I have the ability to save as an .eps file and could probably make one fairly large. There aren't any [® ™ ©] hangups associated with this are there?

That's what I've heard from J. Pepper, that the heads put on the last of the performance Studebakers would have been more at home with the 3.875" or 4" bore blocks. Oh if only Studebaker could have been in business exactly 10 more years, and bowed out with the oil crisis, Dec. '73. Due Cento could have returned to Bonneville on dry salt and recorded 200 MPH. Maybe ... possibly ... a privateer team campaigning a 5L Challenger in 1966-1972 SCCA Trans-Am?

Thank you for that suggestion. My current plans involve some research to find another vehicle's spoiler style moonroof to install in my car. The spoiler style slides over the top of the car when fully opened. I was advised by a sunroof company this gains as much as 1.5" more headroom over the inbuilt type. If I become extremely anal retentive adhering to Colin Chapman's, "Simplify, and add lightness" another alternative is to buy the least expensive sunroof type which either pops open at rear, or gets removed and stowed to be opened. Two other choices I have involve closing the hole. I could DIY that with either fiberglass/FRP, or maybe some tinted polycarbonate/Plexiglass and seal out the air but let sunlight in.

No problem. I shall be removing that moonroof as these next seasons progress. 4174 is getting torn down to bare minimal levels, as I have a massive build in mind.

I took the car cover off today, it was finally warm enough for that. Here are some behind the scenes peeks at what lies beneath (above) the headliner. My poor basket case was left outdoors 24-ish years, uncovered with a leaky moonroof, so um, rust happened. But besides that, this is how the moonroof is in the car. I'll be taking this one out of the car in my quest to build her back to my specifications. My post above this one goes into that. The first image is looking back from the windshield The second is at the rear, the rear glass is to image's left. Last pic. is along the left side, looking toward interior's rear.

How is your research coming along for this question? I have a 1985 that I'm tearing down completely and don't need many (if any) parts out of it. That being said this thing sat up to her rocker panels in Mother Nature for quite some time. I'm ditching the whole shebang, no more solid axle, leaf springs, or auto trans. Once I remove things later this season I can take a leaf spring height measurement off the car. How much settling was done on mine? I don't know but my car didn't get driven at all post-1997.

Yep, seat belt light. My '85 has that light in place. Well had, anyway. I'm tearing down for a resto custo mod. But 4174 was a basket case anyhow.

That CHMSL looks like the ones used on the roll hoop of C4 Corvettes (1986-1991, plus all ZR-1). There are 'vette owners whom have swapped those halogen bulbs for cheaper and modern LED solutions. Search the Internet for C4 ZR-1 CHMSL LED and that should get all the necessary information to make the conversion.

Guessing, 3) Eighty

I did put Silvertone loud mufflers on 63R-1025 August of 2021. It was loud! There were some type of glasspacks on it before those went on, but they had one baffle within (couldn't see through those mufflers). The former mufflers were loud but not as loud as the Silvertone ones. Also, 1025 was an R3 prototype so I wouldn't know exactly how an R1 would sound but that combination was a raucous.

Check out SpinTech mufflers. Similar to Flowmaster's lineup they have different series (and shapes) ranging from mild to race. The flow through their design is great. I had a model 3222 on a Mk1 Rabbit GTI and it was a hearty sound, all things considered. I am thinking of building my Avanti like so: Custom long tube headers into a 3" collector, then down to 2.5" pipes with Silvertone's loud option between the outer rail and X-brace. Then cable/rod or electronically opened cutouts, with Spin Tech mufflers mounted somewhere aft of the frame kick-up. That'll be four mufflers in sedate mode and only a pair of Silvertone loud for obnoxious mode. I mean I'm going to be an LS-based Blake, but that should still cause quite a stir. Plus, with Lee Z. doing his things, I might be able to substantially derestrict this build.

From my home of San Jose. Still have my 408 mobile number. At least the metal parts beneath should be good, maybe light surface rust but that would be the extent of it.

At best I can apply general knowledge. Differences in traction bars, radius rods, an added Panhard bar / Watts link? Do their pinion angles vary? Does one model have a pinion snubber and the other doesn't? "Since the snubber tries to lift the car at this point, the rear differential is actually forced downward and improves rear traction." - https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/mopar-rear-leaf-springs-suspension-get-hooked-up/ Sounds like a piece I'd love to fabramacate on my future 1025 modded-dupe … along with some Super Stock Dart leaf packs.

I'll yield to someone who knows these cars, as I haven't dug into the 'Lark lineage' much.

Acceleration contest. Which test are we running? [0-60, 1/4 mile, 1 mile, V-max] I don't know the inner and under workings of these specific cars. My guesses are: Weight bias. Suspension geometry. Aerodynamics.

"not quite there" leads me to believe it's further to go, rather than an overshoot. 4) 63R 1004

Personal experience has me conflicted; the 25th frame, 21st engine and 19th body came together to make 1025. So there's no rhyme or reason to use. I'll throw my dart in the pitch black at a dark wall and hope I hit with, 3) 63R 1003

No offense here, I love the composite bumper Avantis. A 'fat lip' isn't totally unique to some Avanti years, either. They have excellent company in E46 M3, but only the rare V8 equipped GTR package.

4174 says, Hey, I resemble that remark! I have also heard them called 'fat lip' and 'picnic bench.' Though I do like Blake's twins I had an idea which truncates the bookshelf. It looks plausible the front bumper may be pulled in tighter. Plausible might convert to "Yep, it's possible" as I progress with my build. The filler panel could be "86'd" and the remaining outer piece, through some cosmetic work and shortening of the bumper brackets, would get much closer to the car's fascia. On the other hand I may leave it factory and reinforce this area as a place to sit. Some people bring lawn chairs to car shows. I sit on my car. Regardless of my decision I will have (a / some) 1/4"-20 threaded rod(s) protruding so I can mount action cams when I autocross or do track days.

Oooohh! USN submarines were using some supercharger pieces and they cannot afford to have failures. It is a tough call but I will say true.

Yep, MFG tried to assemble the first, how many? Some number around the first 86 cars were attempted to build without a jig. The story I heard about 1025 from my father. And he bought the car with my uncle in 1970. It left the factory, did whatever it did for the Granatellis, and then went to Bill Alderman who got into a fender-scruncher, looking as it did when it left South Bend. There was a sizeable divot in the roof which would hold water. The passenger side door's fit was so far off you could reach under the door from outside and be holding the bottom of the door while it was "closed." There was a wrinkled-oopty at the cowling/fender on the driver's side. Look at photos of a Ferrari F12. Notice Pininfarina sculpted the body so the air flow falls away at the cowling, diverting some of the airflow from flowing over the windshield. 1025 kinda sorta had that aerodynamic feature, albeit inadvertently and on an asymmetric basis, from July '62 until it was corrected in the later 1970s - early 1980s. Let me loop this back to judging vehicles today. Take 1025 (or any of the first 86 cars) back to "Factory stock" as it left South Bend, and make that car the judging manual's metric! Everyone else's car would score 140% - 160% by comparison.

This hit the SDC Facebook group too. John Hull says, "Unfortunately many errors which clouds the Avantis history." [Someone didn't want Studebaker carrying on. I say it was the banksters who were up to no good; they are nothing but trouble anyway. 1) The Lehmann Brothers pulled their funding and they didn't have to. Yep, the same company we had issues with during the '08 housing crisis. 1a) My father and I saw a photograph in Tippecanoe Place while visiting for the '12 SDC Int'l meet. The photo's caption mentioned similar to the above. 2) Henry Ford warned people how the nation's financial system works but not enough heeded his words. Henry was heavily involved in automobiles and was familiar with all the ins and outs of that industry. I believe all he said pertaining to that matter.]

I just inadvertently gave everybody else the ol' 50-50 from 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' 😁