grobb284
-
Posts
185 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by grobb284
-
-
Here are some photos of the Studebaker Avanti body sitting on the stainless steel frame.
It is sitting on 2x4's, as the body needs to be notched for the rear 4-link pivot, as well as clearing the front a-arms.
We are thinking of using a plexiglass cover for the spare tire well opening.
-
I'm working on body 63RQ-302.
It was reportedly sold at the auction in Ohio when the plant closed in the early 90's.
It is a 1962 body, with the following changes:
Has the later second cowl vent installed.
Front parking lights filled in.
Front bumper mount opening slotted for raised body.
Front bumper body side openings filled.
Front bumper body side "bumps" removed.
Rear bumper body side openings filled.
Rear bumper body side "bumps" removed.
Rear bumper end openings filled.
Tail lights filled.
Fiberglass boxes to cover rear shackles removed.
Filler around all four wheel wells, since removed.
Driver's side rear wheel well filled and masked for a different wheel well opening.
Marking on rear of body, similar to what the later rear kevlar bumpers would fit.
My question is, was this body ever used on a production car and later as an engineering buck, or was it an engineering buck carried over from Studebaker to Avanti Motors?
Any information appreciated.
-
Interested in what convertible top mechanism was used by Avanti on their convertibles? I'm speaking of the more original style bodies, before going to the AVX style.
Also any help with what rear quarter window was used with them?
Any help, information, or leads appreciated. Thanks.
Here is a picture of perhaps a 1984?
-
I was just over at the SDC forum, somone had posted pictures on the internet of our stainless Avanti frame at the SDC/AOAI meet in South Bend. This would have been late Thursday morning, for I had already removed the calipers and rotors to install the "donuts" for transporting.
These photos with the "donuts" are about 1 1/2" to 2" closer to the ground than it will be with the correct wheels and tires.
-
Took the frame off the frame bench for transit to South Bend. Would like to think of the "donut tires" not as spares, but Salt Flat tires.
If we make it, be sure to come and introduce yourself and your family. Should be located near Fairborn Studebaker (Shameless plug for a friend.) in an air conditioned building.
-
Here is the left front suspension, completed today. We welded both upper shock mounts to the frame last night. Just have to assemble the right front now.
-
The stainless Avanti frame is almost a "roller"
Here are some photos of the stiffener (diagonal) for the rear frame kick-up, as well as the 4-link bracket we fabricated.
This is the view of the rear upper shock mount. We made sleeves to represent the springs on the coil overs to established a fixed height (length).
-
These are not really muffler bearings for the Avanti. They are the new muffler hanger brackets just back from laser cutting.
The top of each bracket will be supported through two high temperature silicon grommets with bolts attached to the body mounts.
The bottom of the bracket will be welded to a partial sleeve, matching the contour of the chambered muffler. This partial sleeve will be secured to the muffler with a t-bolt clamp.
The copper wire is there just to simulate what it will look like, not a permanent solution.
We will probably use a flex coupling from the headers to the side exhaust, as it will be semi-rigid.
Perhaps no more toasted feet is indeed attainable.
-
Here are the coated block hugger headers from Sanderson in the stainless Avanti chassis.
If you like the idea of the Chevrolet rams horns, Speedway Motors sells these for street rodders, and they are available in cast iron, stainless steel, or polished stainless.
-
quote grobb284'
Would suggest drilling the hubs and rotors. Provides a factory style solution without "add-ons", and keeps the halfshafts and cambers bars longer. We can drill them for you if you wish.
Grobb, thanks for the information, who would I contact to drill the rotors and hubs? I have found some new hubs at a slightly more reasonable price so I think I am going to buy the new hubs and have them drilled rather than taking a chance on using the old ones because I just don't know how good the bearings are.
Dave
David:
Enjoyed speaking with you on the phone yesterday. I hope you found some of the answers to your questions useful.
Sent you an email today with more information on narrowing the Corvette independent rear suspension. Call again if you think it would be helpful.
Best regards.
-
The problem now is do I use wheel adaptors, aluminum or steel, or do I try to have the hubs and rotors redrilled to the new pattern? I have been calling around and it is hard to find anyone who will redrill the hubs and rotors and some people say use wheel adapters and others say no way. Anyone know how you clean up the aluminum components of the C4?
Would suggest drilling the hubs and rotors. Provides a factory style solution without "add-ons", and keeps the halfshafts and cambers bars longer. We can drill them for you if you wish.
To polish the aluminum, use finer grades of scotchbrite (sheets, drums, pads), followed by Simichrome or Wenol.
To accomplish your Avanti project you will need at a minimum:
1. A rear differential mount
2. A front differential mount.
3. Shorter half shafts.
4. Shorter camber bars.
5. New tie rods.
6. Reversed tie rod mounts at the knuckles.
7. Lowered inboard tie rod mounts.
8. New 4-link front mounts.
9. New lower shock mounts for the coil overs to clear the half shafts.
10. New upper shock mounts.
You can design those yourself, or I can help you with any of the above individual items.
If you want, this could be set up as a kit.
By the way, go here and see some of the brake kits we have available for the C4 front and rear suspensions. Corvette brakes for C4 suspensions
-
I have been told by Corvette shops that the 84-87 Corvette rear ends are 61.5 inches and the later ones are at 62.5 inches.
No, we have not found them to be the dimensions you are mentioning.
If it is actually 61.5 inches I would need to narrow it by about 1-3/4 inches per side which may cause some concern about the way the wheels contact the ground.This does not affect how the wheels contact the ground. It does effect how the universals are angle limited and the overall suspension travel.
-
Dave: The rake of the Avanti is built into the body. The frame is essentially level.
I doubt that you will have room for your wheels if you use adapters. The early C4 rear Corvette suspension is 62.5" wide, where the Avanti is around 58". Even if you narrow the rear, adding an adapter is taking up space that you can't typically spare.
If you narrow the rear assembly, are you still using the orginal C4 cast brace? Be sure to check for clearance if you do. Have you made cursory measurements to be sure this is doable? The reason I ask, we put a stock C4 independent rear in a 1955 Chevy, and the body is at least 4-5" wider than the Avanti, and we needed to use approximately 35mm offset to put a 9" rim inside with adequate clearance.
If you narrow the Corvette rear, the axles do not come out straight from the central carrier.
Tom: The "sealed units" are the rear bearing assemblies for the Corvette independent rear. They retain the wheel hub, and as they are 4 3/4 BC, they would need to be drilled for 4.5".
-
I did send an email to Electro-Dynamics and received a very nice email back along with a price list for the Viper adaptor and a lot of other components. I am looking this over to see what I might be able to use and the note indicated that I might want to just purchase the Viper adapter and make the remainder of the parts myself. They have beautiful stuff including a stainless steel Avanti frame but for $13,000 I'll have to wait for a while. It sure would be tempting to purchase some of their products as the end result would be very nice.
Thanks for the kind words.
We often work with Corvette differentials, but with the narrower Avanti, the Viper differential already has a narrower mount vs. the much wider Corvette mount. Both are internally the same (speaking of the Dana 44's), the Viper having a crush sleeve on the pinion, the Corvette shims. Also, the Viper differential is often less expensive to purchase used, as compared the the Corvette C4 Dana 44.
Something we haven't discussed: How about a Champ quick change rear end with independent suspension? Here is a photo of one where we made an isolated mount for it, narrow enough to fit the Avanti (27" mounting)
-
You can still have a Dana 44, and independent suspension as well, in your Avanti. Here is a Viper differential, which is a Super Dana 44. It is matched to aluminum half shafts, stainless cambers bars, and aluminum tie rods. The outboard knuckles are Corvette, with C5 dual piston calipers. The overall width is in the vicinity of 58/58 1/2" , same as the original Avanti.
Most high end rear drive cars have independent rear ends. Mercedes, BMW, Lexus. I'm unsure what the negatives are, unless you are an all out drag car. There are a number of postives, one of them being less unsprung weight.
If you want you can just purchase the Viper adapter plate, and do the work yourself.
It does require a modification to the floor pan under the rear seat for the 4 link attachment.
Here is the tag that we found under the sand cast rear housing after we polished it smooth.
-
Wondering if anyone successfully completed the crossword puzzle?
-
Just posted an automotive crossword that has some Studebaker/Avanti references in it.
It is at the bottom of the Avanti stainless steel chassis page in the automotive section. ( Sorry for the shameless plug
) -
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?
The most rearward body mount in this photo (the one prominent in the photo) will be able to mount directly to the roll bar. In this case it will be directly tied to the frame. Good question.
-
Here are some photos of two of the larger body mounts to eliminate the rusted out hog troughs on an Avanti body. This should save the expense of replacing the hog troughs.
You can see we also left clearance for the chambered exhaust to act as a side pipe, but hidden underneath the rocker panel. We are hoping this eliminates a great deal of heat from under the floor pan.
The opening within the supports should allow brake lines and fuel lines to pass through the body mounts and lay along the main frame members.
This is a rearward view of the new body mounts.
This is a forward view of the new body mounts. The mount closest to the rear is sufficient for tying into the roll bar.
This is a forward view of the new body mounts with a standard factory style mount laid beside it (it is the one with the hole in it, much lower and smaller).
-
Here are some photos of the engine/transmission being located in the stainless Avanti frame.
Headers selected for clearance to the frame as well as the suspension.
It's not an optical illusion, the engine is placed towards the passenger side.
You can see on the drivers side a side pipe being positioned for placement under the rocker panel.
The aluminum heads should lighten the front end by another 50#.
-
Last night we had the front crossmember TIG welded to the frame. We now have an Avanti length wheel base established.
The young man that does the welding does an excellent job, take a look at the welds inside the front cradle.
You would not belive how long it took to verify the location, as we did not wish to make a mistake. We probably have at least 3 hours checking and multiple checking. It only took him an 1 1/2 hours to weld it in. Pretty sad when the placement takes longer than the welding.
That's not another diagonal weld on the mounting plate, it's the reflection of the front crossmember in it!
-
Although we have designed the new stainless Avanti frame to mount directly to the hog troughs like the original frames, we have been considering other ideas.
One is to mount the stainless frame directly to the body/floor pan as the rear of the car is done. This would eliminate the additional expense for an Avanti owner of replacing rusted out hog troughs. This could be a savings of multiple thousands of dollars for the hog troughs with their installation.
Having said that, we did the hog trough installation on a friend's car, to keep the original style hog trough equipment.
Should the hog troughs be deleted, can use wider, as well as more body mounts to provide additional structural support.
The other is to run the exhaust at the perimeter of the frame, reducing the under foot (hot) temperature in the cabin.
Here is a mock up of what we are thinking.
This is a side view of the stainless chambered exhaust tucked under the rocker panel.
Here is a picture simulating the chamber exhaust tucked in where the hog trough was.
-
Welded the front frame horn extensions on where the front bumper and radiator support mount. Note the the tabs formerly welded seperate for the radiator support were incorporated into the front tubular members.
The front crossmember is in the appropriate position.
AS the frame is not yet completed, we can't take the "remove before flight" ribbon yet. [
] 
-
The independent rear assembly has progressed farther. Here are a few more pictures of the assembly, now with the forged aluminum rear knuckles, calipers, and rotors installed.
Avanti Motors prototype body?
in Avanti Pub
Posted
Here are some pictures of the body that show some of the modifications.
Second air inlet on the cowl.
Horizontal lines from the kevlar bumper?
Different wheel opening blacked out.