Gunslinger
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Posts posted by Gunslinger
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You have a lot of issues to resolve there. You have to determine if there are any outstanding taxes to pay on the property (the county should be able to tell you that), or any other outstanding debts or liens against the property the contents could be seized for auction to pay those debts.
If you can get the VIN's of the Avanti's it will be a big help in determining more about them. At least see if the cars say Avanti II or Studebaker (on the trunk lid). Do they have round headlight frames or square? Automatic transmission or manual? Do either have "Supercharged" emblems on the front quarter panels just ahead of the doors? The 1972 sticker is likely a state registration sticker, not a model year sticker...probably the last year the car was registered.
If you can get the VIN's of the cars, check with your state motor vehivles administration. See if the cars have a current title, or any title. Maybe you can file for lost or abandoned titles to the vehicles.
The finned Stude with the hood bulge sounds like a Hawk...also a desireable car if not too far gone. It certainly may have a supercharger and other parts that can be sold off if the car isn't restorable.
For more info on the Hawk go to the Studebaker Drivers Club website. There are also many other websites that can help. Just do some web searches.
Let us know more of what you find out. We can be of more help also.
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You're right about the 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. So many problems with cars are generally a simple or straightforward fix...it's the time and effort diagnosing the source of the problem before the fix can be done that gets so frustrating.
Just follow basic techniques of diagnosis from the easist to the more involved maybe the problem won't be too tough to repair. More than once I've followed the adage "if it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is!"
Best of luck!
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I'm just taking a guess here, but it sounds similar to the reproduction rubber seals made for others. I have a Corvette I installed new weatherstripping on and had problems getting the windows to close properly. From what I've been told, the reproduction weatherstripping is solid, where original manufacture rubber is hollow through the center. The repro stuff is simply not pliable enough to work easily at the beginning. The Avanti rubber you have may be similar to this.
About all you can do is wait for a very hot day (or maybe use a heat lamp on the rubber), park the car in the sun and close the trunk lid tightly. The rubber will soften up and settle in to where the trunk lid can operate normally....more or less.
I've done this with the rubber on my Corvette, but the windows, while they close better, still haven't gotten to the point where they worked like they did with the nearly 30 year old seals.
Good luck.
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Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the fraternity of the most wonderful, misunderstood automobile that gets no respect. If you're like many of us, it will be a love/hate relationship you'll have with the car.
Someone other other than I will have to help you with the sunroof leak. I have intentionally avoided owning an Avanti with a sunroof precisely for that reason. I've read where the problem has been due to seals needing replacing as well as the channels and drains being clogged and needing cleaning.
Again, congratulations on your car and hope you thoroughly enjoy it.
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How come they left Avanti out of the list of manufacturers attending? After 45+ years Avanti still gets no respect!
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Regarding elimination of the hog troughs...I know they're engineered as an integral part of the car's safety design, plus they serve as an anchor for the roll bar plus help secure the body to the frame. Have you made provisions for tying the the roll bar to the frame?
I'm not trying to criticize what you're doing...I simply am interested in the engineering behind it and how you're solving issues that crop up. I know automotive engineering has progressed far since our cars were built in the '60's (Hell...the Avanti chassis is early 1950's technology!).
I'm really interested in seeing your finished product and how it works in the real world. It should make a real screamer of a automobile...Avanti or otherwise.
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The VIN plate is on the top of the right frame rail just ahead of the firewall. It's a metal plate riveted at that location.
It could well be covered with oil and grease so you may have to wipe it off to see it.
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I wholeheartedly agree. I know advertising is expensive, and Avanti's would have to be targeted to specific audiences...but if you don't let people know you're out there and available they can't even consider your product for purchase.
More times than I can count when driving my '02 people have said they had no idea Avanti was still in business and producing cars. One guy even told me seeing my car made his day just to know they're still out there.
That doesn't necessarily mean these same people would buy one, but if you don't let the world know you're out there, there's no chance anyone will consider your product. It's Mike Kelly's company, and if he's happy with sales as they are, that's fine. It's his money and his call.
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Call Jon Myers of Myer's Studebaker (614-674-4897). If anyone can help you, he should be the one.
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Call and ask an auto glass shop what the current stuff to use would be. You could also ask someone like Jon Myers (www.myersstudebaker.com>) who is in the business of restoring Avanti's. If anyone would know I'm sure he would.
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Sounds like you made a good choice. The dollars alone don't tell the story on a body shop. High price doesn't necessarily mean quality work anymore than a low price automatically means substandard work. Experience, stability and reputation means a lot.
I picked the shop for rebuilding RQB1574 for several reasons...I know the owner from my Corvette club, they've been in business for years, while they do general body repairs, they also have a team dedicated to restorations and they specialize in Corvettes, so they're experienced in fiberglass and body on frame assembly techniques. Right now in their shop, besides my car, is a '67 GTO, '70 Chevelle SS396 and a '96 Corvette Grand Sport. BTW - the Grand Sport is owned by the President of my Corvette club...a beautiful car he took to the drag strip and lost control of, hitting the guard rail. What he was thinking I don't know.
While the money is certainly important, having the job done correctly is equally important.
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You can try Studebaker International, Nostalgic Motors, or Myers Studebaker. Any of them should have what you're looking for.
I bought a right front quarter panel for RQB1574 from Studebaker International...great service and quick shippers. They shipped the parts right to the restoration shop. My '70 also needed some work under the battery box and the body shop fabricated that repair and it looks like factory new.
Also...if you're interested, there's a nearly complete 1970 Avanti II body on Ebay right now.
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Are you sure you didn't simply blow a fuse to the dash lights when the work was done? Check the obvious before tearing things apart looking for the problem.
For the electrical drain, you can isolate the circuit causing the problem. You'll need a second person (or very long test wire leads). Remove the negative battery cable and run a test light between the battery post and the cable end. It should light up if there is a drain. Then make sure the doors are closed and all accesories are turned off and pull one fuse at a time. When the test light goes out you've found the circuit that's causing a problem. From there you can start isolating the exact problem. It's better to use an ammeter/ohmmeter tester, but I don't know what values you would be looking for as excessive since all cars will have some minute drain, particularly if they have lots of electronics on board.
I don't know if Avanti's are like this, but the electrical switches in Corvettes are different from most cars. Since the cars are fiberglass as well, switches such as the door and glovebox switches aren't self grounding. The switches are wired so they're always hot and ground when the door or glovebox is opened, completing the circuit. If Avanti's are the same way, a switch such as this could be the culprit.
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I understand the R-5 engine in the Due Cento was disassembled and its parts are unknown. I've never seen anything to the contrary of that.
I believe the car still exists and is owned by someone...who I don't know. After this many years it's probably been through a succession of owners so who knows what it looks like now compared to its appearance at Bonneville. I haven't seen anything which identifies the VIN of the Due Cento.
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It's pretty straightforward dropping the steering column. If you have the shop manual it gives the instructions. It's only a few bolts.
If you have a steering wheel puller, it would help to remove the steering wheel (and unbolt the driver's seat...makes for much more working room).
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If you have small hands, and drop the steering column, you can remove the tach. It's tight, but can be done. There is also the sending unit attached under the dash. That's the electronic part which could well need rebuilding. Depending on when your car was assembled, it is either a flat, round can with wires attached, or a squarish plastic unit.
No telling what the problem may be, but both parts are rebuildable. I believe the guages were supplied by Stewart Warner...maybe they can rebuild them. There are specialty rebuilders that can do it as well. I'm not sure, but somewhere I've seen a schematic to rebuld the sending unit...maybe in a back isue of the AOAI newsmagazine. Maybe someone else here can clue you in on that.
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Joe...
The car's been given a full dual exhaust...Sanderson headers and Magnaflow mufflers and 2 1/2" aluminized pipe. It's on only as far as the mufflers. The speed shop wants to wait until the body is back on before they add tailpipes so there's no interference problem with the body. Since the car is a '70, there's no issue with catalytic converters.
The shop owner gave me several options regarding mufflers. I didn't want a really loud system so he recommended Magnaflow as opposed to Flowmaster. I wanted a lower tone and quieter system, not a loud and raucous one.
They did need to add an oil filter adapter for better servicing access.
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My '02 has an LS1 in it and it is a fabulous engine. In my '70 I just had a GM Performance 350 HO/330 hp engine installed with Edelbrock fuel injection...now the body should dropped back on soon.
I considered installing an LS engine in the car, but the additional costs would likely have spiraled out of reasonable control (it's expensive enough as it is). The installation of an aluminum engine would have been nice, though. I figure that the new 350 is somewhat lighter than the original engine, along with the much lighter induction system, the aluminum case 700-R4 transmission in place of the cast iron case Borg Warner, and an aluminum driveshaft is taking some needed weight off the car as well as reduced rotating mass the car should make the car a real runner.
Avanti's have been set up for the small block Chevy for so many years, it seems to go with a Ford or other make engine would require too many engineering changes to make it worthwhile. Not that I'm bad mouthing Ford engines...I'm not. Chevy engines are so easy to get parts for, the car is set up for them already, aftermarket performance manufactureres make items for the small block Chevy before they do any other engine, and the cost is generally less as well. To me it's a no brainer.
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The rear window would pull out for a couple of reasons. The shape of the Avanti creates a vacuum behind it...it gets worse as the speed increases. Combine that with what was determined to be insufficently secure rear window attachment points and the vacuum sucked the glass right out. Supposedly having the side windows open made the problem worse allowing blowing air inside the car pushing even more on the glass from the interior. Studebaker made at least two modifications toward improving the rear glass brackets to eliminate the problem. I may be wrong on some of these specifics, but I think it's basically what happened.
As far as aerodynamics go, I'm not aware of any testing, either back then or now, done on the Avanti design, though the Avanti design seems based on practical aerodynamics. There was little known of items taken as normal now, such as spoilers and air dams to push the air around the car rather then allow it underneath creating turbulence. I read that the Due Cento, when raced at Bonneville, had complete belly panning installed to alleviate the underbody turbulence. I feel sure a good spoiler mounted under the front end would go far in getting more cooling air to the radiator rather than create under chassis turbulence. I believe someone in the club has posted a thread in the past doing just that.
In one article I've read on the Avanti, the author said Porsche engineers said the Avanti has long been their favorite American design due to its aerodynamic design. I have that article somewhere...it was written some years ago.
'53 Studes have always been popular at the Salt Flats due to their shape. A beautiful design that didn't sell well way back when. Sometimes it's true when people say that Stude designs were often ahead of their time.
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Are you sure you don't already have electronic ignition? GM began installing HEI as standard in '75, and Avanti Motors had been installing the previous GM Delco transistorized ignition as standard equipment since 1970.
If you do have a points ignition than someone has swapped the distributor at some point.
If you do have points, you can buy a Pertronix conversion kit for about $75 and it's an easy install. A complete HEI distributor can be bought through Summit Racing or Jeg's. Through them you can get a complete new Mallory, MSD, Pertronix or Summit HEI distributor for about $150-$225.
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It sounds like you're talking about the "Pirate's Buckles" on the sail panels (or "C" pillars). If your car is an untouched early car, who knows for what reason they might be missing. Being missing simply could have been a factory oversight, or removed by a previous owner and the mounting holes refinished.
About the only way to tell if they were ever there, short of stripping the finish off would be to remove the interior trim and see if there is evidence of body filler where the holes would be. Local to me is the #8 car Bonneville racer, 63R1014 (the 14th Avanti built) and it has the emblems.
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I believe all records prior to the late 1980's are owned by Nostalgic Motors. I have seen a breakdown of Avanti II VIN's by year online, but don't know the website. Maybe a Google search might come up with it.
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I just had my leaf springs rebuilt. I took them to a shop that specializes in auto and truck springs. It took them about two hours to rebuild and refinish them. They set them up to raise the rear of the car about a half inch higher when reinstalled.
They said the middle leaves of the springs were dimensionally identical to Nova springs.
If you can get fiberglass springs at a reasonable cost, I'd say go for it...less weight, better ride and should last forever.
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It could also be the sending unit which is located under the dash behind the gauges. Check all the connections but the sending unit could still need rebuilding or replacement. Check with Stewart Warner and see if they have a trouble shooting procedure to determine the problem.
Time for an Avanti
in Avanti Pub
Posted
Everything else being equal (which it rarely is), the Stude Avanti is a better long-term investment (particlularly a supercharged one). Practically, an Avanti II is better since there was no real standard as they were built for a particular customer so you can change whatever you like to suit yourself and not hurt its value. The Chevy drivetrain is a plus for most purposes.
Also, it's not strictly about the up front price...condition, condition, condition!