Ron Dame

Thanks Bob. Basically I paid too much for the car and am upside down after what I have done ( no surprise there, eh?) so I'm going for broke and donating all proceeds to SNM, The Studebaker National Foundation, and McPherson College of Auto Restoration. So donating the car won't work to help all three, and maximizing the sales price by advertising it as a 100% donation is my goal. BaT can do that by collecting the sales price and donating it, ensuring the buyer that all proceeds go towards these 501(c)(3) organizations. I've not yet approached Hemmings, but assume they will work in a similar manner. I'll post later when I list it, after I make a few repairs and give it a good detailing. And I'll ask everyone to get the word out to help all three organizations.

I've decided it's time to sell Thea, my 1980 Avanti II originally owned by Thea Gabor. It's not a bad car, in fact it's pretty darn good except the cosmetics are just OK. Solid #3 car. Anyway, my estate plans are to donate either cars or proceeds from the sale of cars to a mix of Studebaker Foundation, Studebaker National Museum, and McPherson College/Auto restoration program, so an auction now that supports this plan is my desire. I've done well on BaT, so-so on eBay, never tried Hagerty's , and there are other options. What are the opinions of my fellow Avanti owners on the merits and demerits of each of these platforms? Ron

I just tried ( 1/23 at 4:00 PM) and it's not working for me. Maybe it's short term glitches? I'll try again in a few minutes.

R1092 was mine. Though I have little history on it, the supercharger was black, and had what I believe to have been original stickers. As of Fall, Lance Bush of the Restored youtube page owned it and was trying to sell it.

That's pretty darn good, especially for a machine to write it. It goofed the picture, but the line about going down the highway running hot, is dead on!!

I'm late to the game, but added the emblems to my 1980, both hood and sail panel. I like it. I bought the gold "S" buckles, but they quickly faded to silver. Disappointing, but they still look good. I also added the 63/64 wheel covers and plan to remove the front spring shims.

'63 R2. The left rear axle had stripped threads (how? I dunno) and the axle nut "secured" with red Locktite. Once around the block after I got it running, and the wheel nearly fell off. Thank goodness it was a literal block, because I was 1/2 way around when I knew something was way bad. I replaced the axle and then rebuilt the non-functional rear brakes... front brakes too. Oh, and it had about 3/4" of toe out.

As an aside, why did Avanti Motors switch from having a lock in the handle to a separate lock cylinder? It's ugly and you have the filler plate where the cylinders used to be.

1 and 2 are kind of humorous for us older folks, but also true. I friend told me that my 185 OHV6 Champ was pinging, but I could barely hear it once he pointed it out. Which begs the question: With modern engines having knock sensors, is there a way to add one to a Stude to have a warning light or something?

Not yet. I've got a good laundry list of repairs and upgrades, but building a house and garage has kept me from getting to them. I did temporarily "fix" it with some weatherstrip cement.

Wow, that's what I want. Did they have to remove the glass to do it?

Here's my follow-up and hopefully final post on this thread. The tank was actually nearly full instead of 1/2, thus fuel was dripping from the fuel line with the carb off. The carb looked great inside, though nasty outside. It had been remanufactured sometime in the past, with new throttle bushings and the well plugs epoxied. The float was set correctly, and I found no damage to the needle or seat. Choke was functioning and I reinstalled the thermostat at the same setting as it was. So far, (knock on wood) the flooded starting condition is gone, and the car runs as good as ever. All I can figure is that there was junk on the needle or seat allowing any residual pressure in the line to flood the engine at shut off, yet was not big enough to cause an issue when running, because the engine was using more fuel than was leaking past the seat. Or maybe the float was weak. I installed a new float too. Anyway, so far, so good. Thanks for the ideas and advice!

It seems that the amount of glass and the curves would make this difficult without seams and wrinkles, but it sure would be nice to reduce the heat gain through that thing! I'd need to remove the defroster (which has too many breaks to fix anyway) but can a tint shop do a decent job of it?

It looks like everyone has already mentioned what I was thinking, but if the ignition timing is retarded, it will run hotter. Same with a plugged exhaust. I don't think that either would heat so fast that you couldn't complete break-in though. Second, get an infrared temperature reader and see if it is really hot, or if it is a gauge issue. As an aside, my Champ had the wires to the gauge reversed, and within minutes of starting, the gauge would peg, but then soon drop. I never understood why it would act that way, but once the wires were in the correct place, it acted normally. My point being, don't rely on the gauge only. Third, I like the idea that the racing water pump may be designed for serpentine belts, thus runs backwards with conventional belts. Keep us informed!