Gunslinger
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Posts posted by Gunslinger
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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.
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I had them installed on the '70 Avanti I owned...if I had to do it again I would pass. They were designed specifically for the later Avanti II cars that had the fork lift steering box used once the originals were no longer available to restore the original handling. In that respect I guess they were fine. On an earlier car it made the car very "darty" in handling...too responsive in other words. You got no improvement in the turning circle and steering that slightly over responded.
Apparently you have an '80 Avanti...the quick steering arms would work for you. The change to the fork lift steering box was in the '77-'78 period.
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Record set at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
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Nate Altman passed away.
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The first Avanti I ever went to see with the idea of buying was one from the late Roger Penn...back in the very '70s. It was pretty much a base level Avanti...no p/s...no a/c...did have a PowerShift transmission though. I was still in school and didn't have the dollars so I had to decline. The one thing I remember about it was the dash mounted rear view mirror. Five or six years later when I did buy an Avanti and learned all I could about them was that only the prototypes had the dash mounted mirror...it was a prototype car I almost bought. Shoulda found the money somehow.
I ran into Roger Penn at the York swap meet about ten yers ago...he remembered me...a real gentleman. When I told him the car was a prototype he didn't realize that. He said after I didn't buy the car he had a pop-up sunroof installed in it before eventually reselling it.
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My go-to brand of care care products is Griots Garage...they have an excellent leather conditioner as well as a leather cleaner. That being said...there are numerous excellent car care companies out there.
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Undercoating was an option for noise silencing (as much as you can silence an Avanti) rather than rustproofing. As already said...it was a profit maker for the dealer. Rarely if ever was it applied at the factory.
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Call Dan Booth at Nostalgic Motors...he will know exactly which is correct.
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The owners manual is for the '64 Avanti. There were two (I believe) overheard switch plates but I don't know the difference between early and later...but they're interchangeable and work through the 1985 model years.
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I've seen both...body color and blacked out. They could each have easily been done post-Studebaker but I believe the factory painted them body color. Considering the financial condition of Studebaker it seems unlikely the added costs of masking and painting the headlight area a separate color would have been a non-starter.
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Avanti Motors would do pretty much whatever the customer specified. The door panels could be vinyl, leather or some fabric. The number of ribs could vary depending on the seat materials.
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From what I've read...most, if not all, new hires were experienced Studebaker people. Age and seniority were irrelevant...it was the best people available who were willing to work were hired. I'm sure pay had something to do with it...they were pretty much all out of jobs with few prospects...especially if they were older...so they probably could have been bought cheap. And Avanti Motors couldn't afford to to pay high union wages either as a new startup.
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The stone guard grill didn't come along until much later in production though many were retrofitted. As far as paint color goes of the inlet area it seems there has never been any definitive answer discovered. I guessed it might depend on whether Molded Fiberglass or Studebaker made and painted any particular body. MFG supplied complete, painted bodies...Studebaker did their own so it's possible each did it their own way.
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I have seen claims that the final R3 crate engines that were sold by the Granatellis were shipped with R2 heads as there were no more genuine R3 heads available.
Avanti stock exhaust
in 1965-83 Avanti
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It's not a real Avanti unless the ground shakes under when you fire it up.