Skip Lackie
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Posts posted by Skip Lackie
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Studebaker cars for sale, from the estate of the late Daniel Webber. All with clear titles. Located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, about 20 miles north of DC. Loading assistance from two old guys is available. Inspection possible with prior arrangement. No walk-ins.
1. 1964 Avanti #R5009, automatic, square headlights, 77K. Complete, but rusty frame. $1900
2. 1963 Avanti #63R1975, no engine or trans (had standard). Jammed in barn with dirt floor, not easily accessible, condition of undercarriage unknown. $1000.
3. 1964 GT Hawk, not JT, auto, complete, in same barn. $1000
4. 1964 Daytona convertible, 259, auto, complete, in same barn. $3500.
Drop me a PM and I’ll provide POC phone numbers.
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My memories of serving on the SDC board are mostly pleasant ones, mostly because of being allowed to work with people like George Krem and Stu Chapman. But it did cost me a fair amount (there was no compensation) to fly to board meetings at intl meets that I would not have otherwise attended. And I was too damn lazy to request reimbursement for things like phone calls and postage.
I have no feeling for what duties might be listed in the SDC forum administrator's position description, but they couldn't pay me enough if I had to read every posting every day. The thought of spending that much time in front of a computer makes my stomach hurt.
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On 2/25/2021 at 6:24 PM, mfg said:
Just received the latest issue of AVANTI MAGAZINE (issue 193)...I notice that although one of the other auto related magazines I subscribe to has gotten 'thinner', due of course to much less activity in calendar year 2020 because of the covid virus, AVANTI MAGAZINE seems to somehow have gotten 'thicker'!...Well done editor!
I would like to mention the Studebaker Drivers Club position statement found on pg 38....Dennis Foust, President of SDC, is adamant that the 57th International SDC Meet, which will be held in Indianapolis, will be a closed event....and that's simply one more reason that after giving it quite a bit of thought, the decision I made last year to leave the Studebaker Drivers Club was sound. (I had been a member since 1968)
I would rejoin the SDC in a heartbeat...but only after the powers that be return that club to what it once was..... a fun, low pressure auto enthusiasts club..... instead of the highly regulated business ($$$$$) it has now become.....Ed
At first reading, I also was disappointed in SDC's decision regarding a closed event. However, absent a discussion with Denny or any SDC Board member about the reasoning behind the decision, I am reluctant to go high-order over the matter. I served on the SDC Board and as SDC VP for a number of years in the 80s and 00s, and remember that there were often complicating factors that made decisions difficult and initially unpopular. In that pre-Internet age, I spent many, many hours on the phone (and even writing letters) explaining board decisions to unhappy members.
On the one hand, I have always appreciated the fact that the three clubs honored each other's members by allowing them free access to joint meet events. On the other hand, I am aware that big intl meets, while almost mandatory for a car club, have become a major financial drain on SDC, as local chapter members age and decline to take on the chore of doing most of the work. Venues capable of handling such meets have become more difficult to find and much more expensive. Given these circumstances, it seems unlikely that we will ever return SDC "to what it once was". One way we can alleviate this problem is to register for both SDC and AOAI meets.
And for the life of me, I can't figure out who "the powers that be" might be. SDC, like many such organizations, has a lot of trouble finding ANYONE to run for elected office (or even vote). During my last election for the board, I ran unopposed. Two years earlier, I won by 13 votes to 11 votes -- in a zone with about 1000 members. Since I declined to run again, the club has had trouble finding ANY candidates for the position. So I will withhold any opinions regarding the closed meets until I get more data.
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I don't think there are any records of cars ordered but not built. I spent some time in South Bend in the 70s and 80s, and there were file cabinets full of production orders stored in the stairwell at Avanti Parts Corp. They included only POs from vehicles that were completed. As I recall (would be glad to be corrected), Studebaker refused to accept any new orders for Avantis or trucks after they had announced the closure of the SB plant. They built all vehicles for which they had orders, and then closed the plant. Not saying that maybe an order from a special customer might not have been honored, but I don't think that there were any ordered, but un-built, vehicles in the queue.
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I think the problem is semantics -- it's not really siphoning out. What is happening is that the acetone is evaporating inside the bottle, and the excess pressure created thereby is forcing the acetone/ATF mixture out of the nozzle. Most of us have experienced the same physical process after parking a Studebaker with a full gas tank in the sun on a summer day.
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On 7/5/2020 at 11:15 AM, mfg said:
Hmmm....my opinion on your thoughts (for what it's worth) is this.......I doubt there would be a factory serial number on this R3 block if were built as a warranty engine.....We know that Studebaker V8 replacement engines either had a 'cloverleaf' on the serial pad, or nothing there at all.
A very minor nitpick to the above reference to the cloverleaf symbol. The cloverleaf symbol (with or without an accompanying serial number) indicated a HD engine, intended for use in trucks, police cars, etc. As noted in the truck parts books, the cloverleaf 289s had HD main and rod bearings, chrome top rings, and an aluminum timing gear. Some or all of these parts were also used in other engines. Cloverleaf-marked engines came as standard equipment in the two-ton model E40 trucks and were optional in other models.
The cloverleaf association with replacement engines came when Newman & Altman ran out of non-cloverleaf replacement 289s around 1980, and then started substituting their remaining supply of cloverleaf 289s. Those receiving them concluded that the cloverleaf symbol meant replacement engine, which it did not.
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On 7/5/2020 at 11:15 AM, mfg said:
Hmmm....my opinion on your thoughts (for what it's worth) is this.......I doubt there would be a factory serial number on this R3 block if were built as a warranty engine.....We know that Studebaker V8 replacement engines either had a 'cloverleaf' on the serial pad, or nothing there at all.
Deleted -- duplicate
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My 74 (bought used) is a sort-of gold/bronze color (a Chrysler color) with a saddle interior. Fortunately, no button-tuft velour. I like the color combo, but my wife comments on the dated shag carpet every time she sees it. I've left it in there (even though I have replacement carpet still in the box) because it's in almost-perfect condition.
Geoff Newman gave a couple of us a tour of the Avanti factory in about 1977, and noted that they would provide any interior that the customer wanted, including from grandma's dining roof drapes.
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A very well-known Stude & Avanti expert named John Poulos (now pretty much out of the hobby) once wrote: "There is nothing more expensive than a cheap Avanti". It has become a watchword in the hobby.
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I think the original post (dated Oct 20) has been in the Twilight Zone somewhere, as it was not visible last weekend. Anyway, if the original poster is still around, follow Gary's advice. Take a poss on this one unless you want to go into the used Avanti parts business.
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Back in the day, tires came in two forms: white walls on one side and black walls on both sides. White wall tires cost more, so if you ordered white walls, you displayed them. It would not occur to anyone to mount tires with the white wall side hidden. Nowadays, some size tires come only in a white wall -- they're cheaper to produce and inventory than two different types. So now one gets to decide how to mount them, rather than which type to order. Whether to expose the white wall side is a matter of personal choice. Some like them (I do), as long as they are more or less authentic to the style and width that would have been originally mounted.
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Under firewall: 7.25". At front of rear spring perch: 6.75". (No visible rake!)
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Bob's 74 has been modified. My 74 is pretty much stock with somewhat tired front springs and 215-75x15 tires. I get 15.5" from the ground to the frame next to the radiator.
I think we sometimes need to temper our expectations from this forum. I belong to a number of other forums (Camaro, Chev/GMC trucks) where I am 3 or 4 times as old as most other members. Many questions get answered in minutes. Others go unanswered forever, despite hundreds of views. One never knows. In my case, I didn't read the OP's question until a couple of minutes ago, and went out to make a measurement right away. I know from experience that when one posts a question, one expects an authoritative response within minutes -- but sometimes it doesn't happen.
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What Avanti83 said. Things that won't turn on or won't turn off are almost always due to bad grounds. The electrons are always trying to find a way to get back home to ground, and if their path is blocked, they will seek other paths, including gong backwards through other circuits. Add some grounds like Bob said, and/or add some temporary ones with alligator clips on test wires.
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Agree with Gary -- this is a question without an answer. You have to look at such things within the context of their times. Steve Blake had to do something to update the 12-year-old styling of the Avanti, and I think he did a decent job, given the resources he had. At least he didn't ruin the basic design.
The 53-54 Stude coupes and hardtops have been universally recognized as milestone designs, yet they didn't sell very well, perhaps because the styling didn't translate that well to the family-friendly sedans. By contrast, the bullet-nosed 50 and 51 studes sold well, but are considered to be styling curiosities today. I'm old enough to remember when they were new -- I thought the 50/51s were hideous then, and still do. The 53/54s didn't impress me much one way or the other when new, but have grown on me a lot since then. In 1962, I thought the original grille-less Avanti design was a bit odd, but not unpleasant. Now I think it's truly classic. It's all in the eyes of the beholder.
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I think a lot of us would disagree with that statement -- there are several very good histories of Avanti that account for nearly every car. The fact that someone didn't read them or misquoted known info doesn't mean that the history is not known. The Altman Avantis all had the II on them unless the buyer specified its deletion. Steve Blake deleted it when he bought the company.
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Avanti Motors probably would have left the emblem off if the car was built to order and the buyer wanted it that way. I took a tour of the plant in the mid-70s and remember Geoff Newman telling us that several buyers had specified the deletion of several standard features and/or the use of the old Studebaker S emblem on the hood. My 74 has the S emblem, but it's not called out on the production order.
You should be able to tell whether the car ever had the emblem by looking for evidence of filled holes on the back side of the panel.
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I don't think this has been posted here yet. Michael Webb posted a link to this on the Stude Truck Talk site. It's an ad for lighting fixtures. That's the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson.
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Maryland requires the display of two plates, with the sole exception that vehicles displaying YOM plates are allowed to mount only one plate IF it was a year (1955, 1956) that Maryland only issued a single plate. That said, given the proximity of single-plate states like Pennsylvania and Delaware, the likelihood of getting a ticket while in motion is extremely small. All that said, a few years ago I got a $40 ticket for no front plate while parked at a meter in Arlington, Va.
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17 hours ago, Avanti83 said:
Put yourself in N&A's position, they wanted to sell cars. They needed an engine that fit, was proven to work in the chassis and fit with minimum modifications and cost. What would you chose?
It had to be the SBC, why - cause it fit. Not only was it already engineered into the frame and attached to the existing drivetrain but also came from it's fiberglass brethren that by now was establishing a performance image of it's own. So the afterglow of the performance of the vette could also shine on the Avanti.
All the other options needed to be fitted into the car and either didn't have enough cylinders to stir the soul of buyers or were just bigger, heavier and under powered compared to the Chevy.
They had no other choice either engineering or financially wise.
Agree -- no other choice made sense: reliable, powerful, already engineered to fit, could be serviced anywhere, and a reputation derived from use in the Corvette. The "V8 fever" that had started in 1949 had still not subsided. It can be dangerous to view decisions made 50-60 years ago from the perspective of today's mores and standards. I suspect that no one who wanted a car with a 6 would been interested in an Avanti anyway. It was clearly aimed as the Riviera - Thunderbird customer.
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Federal regs allow states to exempt antique/historic vehicles from emissions inspection on the grounds that such vehicles do not make a significant contribution to air pollution. However, state laws regarding historic vehicles vary widely from state to state, so experience in one state usually isn't much help in others.
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'Twas not me who made any claims about 2136. It was the anonymous person who objected to my claim that 2127 was the last one built with stick. He/she included a copy of the invoice for 2136 that showed it being built with standard shift. That's all I know.
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Am not home, but my recollection is that the dash-mounted brake cable extends horizontally through the dash, maybe 6-8 inches above the gas pedal. The cable goes through a clip on the back bolt of the exhaust manifold and heads downward.
Addendum to my post above: found the anonymous note stating that 2127 was not the last 4-speed built. The car referred to was, indeed, RQB-2136. The sales invoice is dated November 20, 1974.
Avanti engine blocks
in Avanti Parts
Posted
Studebaker engine sale, from the estate of the late Daniel Webber. Bare blocks. No apparent ridges on the cylinders. These were all saved by Studebaker dealers as good blocks from wrecks or warranty work, and saved by Dan for ~50 years. Located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, about 20 miles north of DC. $50 apiece for the engines, $25 apiece for the transmissions. Intakes and drive shafts are free. Loading assistance from two old guys is available. Inspection possible with prior arrangement. No walk-ins.
1. Two Avanti 289 blocks, R1324 and RJ304
2. Two Flightomatics
3. Bell housings, 6-cylinder intakes, clutch plates, drive shafts
Drop me a PM and I’ll provide POC phone numbers.