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plwindish

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Posts posted by plwindish

  1. I'll bite and say false. I'd think that that large of amount of air getting under the fiberglass might make those skirts pretty hard to keep on the car. Metal ones would be easier to fab and attach the mounting hardware to.

  2. To me a car should be all original, including paint, to be considered a survivor. Our cars are at the wrong end of the "collector value" market to get too hung up on originality. Record setting models like the #9 car in the Studebaker Museum, Egbert's car, Duo Cento and the Avanti GT and celebrity owned are probably the only Avantis that will see values north of 50 K.

    My 76 has the original motor, but has been overhauled and warmed up along with an AOD installed, Everything else has been re-done making it a frame on restoration. I would not call it a survivor, I would call it modernized to a high quality driver.

  3. Buzzard,

    My 76 has the original 400 SBC in it. I chose to have the motor rebuilt and warmed up 4 years ago after getting the car. The motor was bored .30 over, making it somewhere around a 406. New pistons, hydraulic roller cam and lifter, Edelbrock intake, Performer carb, MSD distributor, block hugger headers, line boring and heads decked and headwork were all done to the motor. The shop that did the work builds a lot of drag racing motors, so the 400 was pretty light weight compared to some of the 500 and 600+ cube engines. The motor originally was rated at 175 HP. The shop did a good amount of head work, cleaning up the intake and exhaust passages. The motor was dynoed before going back in the car, turning out 365 HP and 460 pounds torque.

    The THM 400 trans was replaced with a rebuilt 200R4 in front of the 3:31 twin traction Dana 44. Mileage went from around 14 to a range of 17 - 27 depending on how much fun I'm having on the road. Cost-wise, it probably would have been cheaper to go with a 350 crate motor, but I wanted to keep it "original". As the car doesn't have any of the smog equipment or catalytic convertor(cat was long gone before I bought the car), purists would not still consider it original.

    I had the car built for the purpose of driving it and going to Studebaker, Avanti and antique car meets. The car has over 28000 miles on it since being rebuilt over 4 years ago. Components such as the brakes, gas tank and fuel lines, and suspension have all rebuilt, replaced or treated. I wanted a reliable car that would keep up (or ahead) of traffic, getting me there and back with a reasonable amount of certainty. The car has done that, but with a few hiccups along the way. I've driven the car to 4 International meets, 3 zone meets, both coasts and have had a lot of fun doing it. Good luck with your car and deciding how you want to do it!

  4. Warren, I had my bumpers re-chromed and stainless taken care of by Jerry Forrester in Georgia. He's on the Studebaker Forum. He did a very nice job and the cost was reasonable. I put everything in one box and UPS'd it to Georgia and it was sent back to the body shop about 6 weeks later.

  5. Warren, just keep it under 120 and windows up to keep the rear window from flying out!

    Sadly, today's automotive technicians are trained on completely different cars and situations than our beloved Avanti presents. Most body shops will have have a glass shop come in and do the uninstall and install for Avantis. We need to have the shop manual or at least the part of the manual covering the glass removal and installation available to the technician to help educate him, saving him time and us money and aggravation.

    My Avanti is mostly sealed up now from this summer's paint job except for the area above the driver's door wing vent giving me a slight wind leak when driving and some moisture when washing the car. I may have to run a bead of the black caulk on the weather stripping to see if that seals it as I don't think there's any other adjustment to be done.

  6. Wow, that has got to be the definitive source for all exhaust knowledge! I think my engineer daughter is going to have to help me travel through the technical geek speak to fully understand it! Thanks, I'm sure that will more than quench anyone's "exhausting" thirst.

  7. It was my understanding the cars were taken out of the planes and set up in displays in tents or empty hangers and they had a roll out program for dealers, vip's, and other interested parties introducing the Avanti and they also were giving people a close up view of the car. With all that going on, 2 cities a day would have been a do-able schedule, not 3 or 4 cities.

  8. I'm curious as to the engineering idea of going with a 2" inlet and a 1 3/4" outlet on the mufflers. Be it ever so slight, but there's still a reduction of 1/4" of pipe diameter that's going to slow the flow down, or is this a "venturi" effect where the air and exhaust hitting a restriction actually speeds up passing through the restriction??

  9. My 76 had a very nice repaint in 1989 without taking out the windshield and rear window, several layers of paint were removed taking everything down to the fiberglass and except for some dings and bug hits, the paint stayed very presentable. There was a slight tape edge around the top of the rear window.

    Last December I took it back to the same shop to have a new paint job, this time with the windshield and rear window taken out. The paint turned out fantastic, I've gotten many many compliments on the paint job as the car was in the Great American Tour this summer right after it was painted, traveling from IL to CA along Rte 66. I also got new windshield and rear window rubber stripping, but don't recall it costing $750 plus labor, but the cost was also factored into the paint cost. I did have to take it back to have the windshield and rear window re-installed, this time with the body putty around the corners under the windshield to stop leaking. The glass shop tried the new technology of installing the windshield without the putty and it leaked in some rally heavy rain I was driving through starting on the tour.

    Also as a road rash and bug chipping preventative, I had the 3M Invisible Bra material installed after the paint was cured. The film went across the front from bumper line up to the hood line. I also had it put on the sides from rocker panels up to the belt molding line from front tires to rear bumper.

    New color was the GM Crystal Red Tint coat. It looks great.

  10. A fellow Chicagoland AOAI member has a 76 that was originally gray, now painted white, and has the factory avocado green vinyl interior with an olive shag carpeting. I don't know about that gray and green combination, the white with green looks much better.

  11. I have a California cover for my 76 Coupe that I'm very pleased with. I had bought a cover of the same material as Devildog's from Summit a couple of years earlier. While the cheaper cover was for an Avanti, it did tear in the rear corner as its a little tight when stretching it over the last corner of the car. I still use the cover for my 89 convertible. I will get another California cover whenever they have a sale on them as they fit very nice and roll up into a very compact roll. The California cover for the Avanti fits both coupe and convertible great. The mirror pockets are not necessary for the Avanti unless you have the flag type mirrors that were on the black anniversary models.

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