plwindish
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Posts posted by plwindish
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I got my floor mats from Studebaker International. At the time they had the mats in red, black and brown. They had matching rear mats as well.
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My '76 has the same color interior. Gladstone acorn full vinyl seats, Gladstone Acorn vinyl paint on dash, sun visors, roll bar and headboard, with the simulated walnut wood trim around gauges and console. Carpeting was Adventure Walnut shag, but was long gone before I got the car in 2011. My car has the headrests incorporated into the seat backs and I also went with the brown Studebaker mats. Sorry, I couldn't find a more recent picture of interior, car is still in storage sleeping through the IL winter. This was taken when the car was repainted in 2015 and the A pillar rust was discovered when taking the windshield out for repaint.
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tanda62,
Three years ago I had an MSD system put on my '76 with a 400 SBC. I have an MSD distributor and spark box as well. Other than the inline electric fuel pump crapping out in under a year, the system's been trouble free.
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Gunslinger, that's what I'm remembering. Thanks Regnabob for pulling it up.
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For some reason, I got a hitch and put it on the '64 Avanti back in '66-'69. I installed it myself. As I remember, it had a couple of U bolts that attached to the rear frame crossmember and two flat stock pieces the veed from the hitch bar up to the rear bumper vertical supports for attachment. Why I bought it, I have no idea. I most likely only used it a few times, and sorry, no pictures.
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I thought that I had seen on Fakebook that Alice had also had a newer Avanti convertible on the GM or Mustang platform. Does anyone know?
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I've seen a lot more orange superchargers on Avantis than black ones. I also have no idea whether they were rebuilt or not. Back in the day, around 1964 or '65, an Avanti drove through my little town and it sure sounded like it needed a supercharger rebuild. It was growling and winding, sounding like a half broken siren, raising and lowering as the engine revved up or down.
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Ford. Seeing the two episodes, I'm surprised he is such a Ford fan as a SBC sway would have been much simpler.
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Brad had it right that the birdhouse holes are for critter access. One expensive winter I had stored my '76 and '89 convertible in my son in law's garage/machine shed on the farm. For some reason, the mice preferred to inhabit the convertible, chewing wiring and carpeting in it to the tune of around $1500 to repair. Trunk carpeting, door panel carpeting and electrical window wiring all had to be replaced. The '76 had tracks and crap under the hood, but no damage. They must have found the '89 tastier than the '76. I learned my lesson about free storage and have been taking the vehicles to a facility that keeps the rodents under control since then.
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I don't know if there is a good way to spot a rusty pillar without taking the stainless piece off. I seriously doubt any seller is going to allow parts to be taken off to check. Maybe some body experts out there have an answer, but I don't. With the pillars always being covered like they are, I suspect garage kept Avantis as well as ones stored outside may all be vulnerable to the rust as moisture is going to stay under the stainless. My '76 has been garaged its entire life and still had some rust on the pillar.
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Wm Daly, glad you got it properly fixed. Unfortunately, that's an area of concern that's not readily apparent, needing to take off the stainless in order to see the pillar. I met you in Milwaukee some years ago while my daughter was attending MSOE. Hope you and your car are doing fine. I sold my '89 convertible July '21 and am back to just having my '76 to enjoy.
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Hotter thermostat.
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Both my '76 and '89 only had the rust from the bottom going upward for around 4". That pillar looks to be toast.
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I went through Studebaker International some years back to get the chrome outer rings, plexiglass covers and gaskets for my '76. Dave Kenny's company (Endurance Products, I think is the name) does make the glass round and square lenses. The plexi lenses have held up really well, not showing any scratches at all, but if I replace them, I think I'll go with the glass lenses.
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Gentlemen, These beautiful cars are meant to be out on the road! Avantis will always draw looks and admirers at any stop you make on the road. I got my '76 in January '11 and have driven it more than 53,000 miles, all around the Midwest, East coast three times, out to Colorado and also to the West Coast. I'm anxiously awaiting Spring to get it out of storage to continue the adventure, 2022 edition.
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The trans shop said the lock up could be done by setting the trans to lock up by speed/rpms or a separate switch. I opted to have the trans do the lock up. If I'm going through town at 45 or lower, I usually put the trans in 3, which makes the trans act like a turbo 400 in drive and it won't lug down at lower speeds.
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The pieces just snap into place. The lower part of the windshield posts must be a good spot for the moisture to get trapped and accumulate.
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My '76 had the electric washer pump mounted right above the bladder bag on the passenger side fender well, just forward of the right hood latch. Dan Booth has the plastic cowl mounted ones you can replace the bladder bags with, but the mounting bolts go through the cowl on the driver's side and are a pain to tighten up. My car had enough tubing that I could run from the pump to the drivers side the new container without getting more tubing.
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My September/October order from Nostalgic was for a new rear frame cross member, rag joint and also a new bell crank throttle rod. I got all three items taken care of before putting the car in winter storage in November.
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I check yearly on the torque boxes on my '76 and have not found any issues. Don't just look at the hog troughs. Here's a couple more areas for concern.
I had the car painted in '15, rust was noted on the passenger side Windshield pillar, treated and repaired by the shop. Since the pillar is under the stainless strip, you don't normally see it. When I had a windshield replaced in an '89 convertible I had, rust was uncovered in the same exact spot as was on the '76. It might be an inherent weakness for rust at that spot.
Last fall, I had the rear crossmember under the trunk of the '76 replaced and a new one welded in. It started flaking and once that thin wall pipe starts flaking, there's nothing left of the tubing.
Avanti II owners should also be doing a good and thorough frame inspection on their Studebaker framed cars. Avanti Motors used left over Avanti/Lark frames for 20 years after Studebaker made them. Speculation was that the frames were stored outside in the elements and then cleaned up as they were needed. Once they ran out of the Lark convertible frames, lighter 6 cylinder frames were used and beefed up. 20 years out in the elements can cause a lot of damage to the steel frames, so please get under the car yearly and check out everything.
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Living in Illinois, my '76 is stored from November-April. I usually start getting antsy around this time of year to enjoy the car and have to wait until Spring to get it out of storage. I'm thinking about the trips I'll be taking it on to South Bend for the May SDC Meet and the June AOAI Milwaukee meet as well as a June trip down Rte 66 in IL.
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I had a shop install cruise control and keyless entry on my '76 Avanti during the same visit. The car already had an interior power door locks switch under the left lower corner of the dash. The shop said since the solenoids were already in place, it was no problem getting keyless entry to work with it. My remotes are Commander and work fine since I got them in 2013. The remotes also will unlock the trunk with the B button on the backside of the remote. The front side of the remotes have lock, unlock and an A button on the front side.
I had not been on the forum for a while and saw you had sent a message about the 200R4 trans length. I had a trans shop do the job. They got a trans, rebuilt it, installed it and set up the lock up for it. The owner said they did not have to adjust driveshaft length as the 200R4 was the same length as the turbo 400.
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The body shop repainting my '76 in 2015 uncovered a rusty passenger side windshield pillar on the car, treated and repaired it. Several years later, I had the same shop install a new windshield in my '89 Avanti convertible and found the same amount of rust and rot in the same place on it. That also was repaired before installing the new windshield.
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Dan is a valuable resource and a wealth of information on anything Avanti related.
Installing quick steering arms
in 1965-83 Avanti
Posted
I had inquired about getting the quick steering arms installed on my '76 and was told by a couple of good Avanti guys that they made the steering more "twitchy", not really improving the steering/handling.