Gunslinger
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Posts posted by Gunslinger
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I believe early Avanti II literature stated the Stingray engine…they never said “Corvette”…put out “nearly” 100 horsepower more than the original Avanti. A bit of hyperbole but hey…that’s advertising.
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I’d say Prestolite…ignition points, condenser, cap and distributor…starter…alternator. The only big thing they didn’t provide was the spark plugs…Champions were used…kinda surprising as the rest was Prestolite…or Prest-O-Lite as it was then known.
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They can be swapped but as already said…the underside is not finished or barely so.
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Some tires…particularly made with nylon…tend to flat spot after sitting. Once driven and the tires heat up they straighten out and ride smoothly.
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True…the fuselage only and is owned the Hagerstown, MD based Hagerstown Aviation Museum. The fuselage…AFAIK…is stored at a facility in Wyoming. The Museum hopes to bring the fuselage to Hagerstown and turn it into a classroom/demonstrator on how the aircraft was assembled.
No idea what happened to the wings.
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First...does your Avanti have a moon roof? If so...the drains dump right into the hog troughs so there might already be problems. If you don't have a moon roof that's one less thing to worry about.
If your hogs are still solid, you can drill 1" holes in them in one or two places to allow any water to drain out or moisture to dry. Then you can use plastic body plugs easily found at auto parts stores to snap in the holes so you can keep an eye on them and drain again if necessary down the road. With the holes you can use a boroscope (flexible camera) to view the interior of the hog troughs to get a better idea of what you have.
If everything looks ok, you can use a fogger with some kind of corrosion inhibitor or an oil mist to coat the interior...then snap the plugs in. Then you should be good.
For the frame...give it a coating of POR-15 or other encapsulating paint to keep rust from forming.
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Once that system has been opened up you may realistically be looking at having to replace the entire system...or at least significant parts of it. Everything may well need rebuilding or replacement. A/C systems do not like open air introduced to its internals.
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Less restriction translates to more power and less back pressure which helps fuel economy. How much depends on how efficiently the engine makes power and if you can keep your foot out of it. It may make a noticeable difference but it could also be negligible.
The stock exhaust is probably 2” diameter tubing…move it up to a 2.5” piping for better efficiency.
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In the '70 I owned, I replaced all the gauges with AutoMeter units. The gauges are all a standard diameter so you have lots of choices out there.
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The tachs used in Avantis…especially Studebaker…as well as earlier Avanti IIs…were notoriously inaccurate. The faster the engine revved the greater the error. The same goes for the speedometers.
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Possibly...depending on the tire and rim combination...or the body bottoms out and strikes the tire. A/C adds weights...as does a supercharger. The spacer is there for a reason.
I used to have a '63 Avanti that I installed 15'x6" Keystone Klassics on...didn't realize the coil springs had compressed. When the springs bottomed out the inner lip of the front wheel well would bounce off the tire tread. New coil springs solved that problem. Yes...the car did have A/C.
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A tire could be out of round...all tires have a high spot...just the nature of manufacturing. All rims have a high spot...the high spot on the tire could be mounted on the high spot of the rim...it happens. Rotate the tires on the rim 180 degrees, rebalance and try again. If it's the same...the problem is elsewhere. If it improves or changes otherwise it's the tire/rim combination.
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It's not a real Avanti unless the ground shakes under when you fire it up.
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2 hours ago, Kodjo said:
I have these on my Avanti II two. Can I leaf them out? Would enhance the stance 🙂
If you leave them out and your coil springs have sagged with age (very common on Avantis) you might have issues and cracked fiberglass. Make sure you have good coil springs before doing something like that.
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Contact Wedge Engineering...I believe they're in California. They make (or at least made) the seat frames and sliders for Recaro seats for the Avanti. Some years back when I needed those parts they have the plans and make them on order.
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Glad that they were...quad headlamps ruin the simplicity and elegance of the Avanti design.
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Avanti Motors would usually bend over backwards to do whatever a buyer wanted...it's possible the factory installed those wheels albeit unlikely. Only a copy of the build sheet would show what the car left South Bend with.
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The 700R4 was designed for a much heavier car than an Avanti...it has a very low first gear and upshifts almost immediately. I had a 700R4 installed in the '70 I owned in place of a badly leaking PowerShift and while it certainly worked well...it took time to be able to keep from smoking the tires starting out...it was that touchy. The trans was built by a transmission guy to match the GM 350HO crate engine being installed and an aluminum driveshaft. You simply couldn't give it any amount of power starting out without breaking traction. That's why the gearing of a 200R4 is better suited to an Avanti. It just has to be built by someone who knows what they're doing.
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A 200R4 has a better gear selection and can be built to take punishment but normally doesn't come that way. If the driveshaft has to be modified, take the opportunity to get an aluminum driveshaft...it saves weight and reduces rotating mass making for better performance.
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While you have to be careful...dash pad replacement isn't bad. The procedure is pretty straightforward but it helps to have small hands and be very limber. While you have the dash out, take the opportunity to replace every light bulb for every gauge as well as the radio. The cost to do so is negligible and a real pain to do so one at a time with the dash in place.
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For a 700R4 it needs a different shifter quadrant...that has the original 1-2-D-R-P design for the Power Shift. The 700R4 has one that's 1-2-3-D-R-P. With a 700 the shifter will not line up properly when in gear. Dan Booth has the correct parts.
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One advantage to the aluminum pan is that it's very stiff and less likely to leak fluid. Standard stamped steel pans have a bit of "springiness" to them and depending on gauge and quality of manufacture can more easily allow leaks to start.
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I would say true. Early sketches of what became the Avanti showed a targa roof.
I can't imagine the tornado inside that car with so much air being trapped inside when traveling at speed. Anything not held down would be sucked out the roof. I experienced that when I had a '78 Corvette with the T-Tops off...more than once something got sucked out of the roof when on the highway. I can see the rear window requiring even stronger brackets to retain it.
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Aftermarket...popular among the boy racer scene. The aluminum drops a little bit of weight and the fins are supposed to aid in cooling the transmission fluid by shedding heat faster. Whether it truly does that to any effective degree is probably more theoretical than practical.
That one does look deeper than stock...probably adds a quart or more capacity which by itself would aid fluid cooling but reduce ground clearance and be more prone to damage.
Brake rotors for 1964 R1
in 1963-64 Avanti
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Look into the Turner kit…you can get it from Jim Turner himself or Jon Myer at Myer’s Studebaker. It contains all the parts necessary to convert to Ford rotor and GM calipers and pads plus bearings, hoses and other parts. It’s the way to go.