Avanti83
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Posts posted by Avanti83
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My engine is fuel injected and not sure if the computer is working or not. Sorry not that sophisticated. The people who did the work moving it didn't seem to think it was worth much and really neither do I. They said have the hook up for the check light was not needed as these cars do not go thru emission testing and it could actually run better without it so I let them do it. I don't have the light in the dash anymore. I had black anodized aluminum inserts put in and did not have them drill the hole for it. Sorry can't be more help.
Kevin
If it's fuel injected then that's not the original computer. The original was a controlled?? carb. I'll agree on the worth of the original setup but because the new setup runs well the rest is moot. I'd be curious how the engine light would effect performance but again a moot point as long as you are happy with the setup.
Avanti, Bob
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My 83 came with a new 350 engine and the computer hanging by straps under the dash. Silly. A company I used mounted it on a wooden board under the carpet on the passenger where your feet angle up when sitting. The carpet and the computer fold down when you need it and you don't even know it's there. They also disconnected the check engine light a n d the car runs great.
Kevin
Are you still using the computer or is the engine back to a conventional carb and dissy? I'm curious as I replaced my SBC in the 83 and stripped out the computer harness. It now runs a Holley EFI setup. Other than a couple of power wires, the computer harness is a separate add on. Not suggesting you pull yours but just FYI. Bob
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It may not apply where you live, but most states with a vehicle inspection will not pass the vehicle if the air pump has been removed. Think about the future when you may want to sell the car.
Cars of that era with smog equipment are some of the worst running low HP POS's built. If you want to remove the emissions equipment, do it, throw it in a box and keep it for the next guy. Life's to short to muck around with under powered, poor running, low fuel mileage vehicles of that era.
Bob -
Agree on the safety first but don't turn the engine without adding lubricant into plug holes and pulling the blower. A few seconds can do terrific damage. Personally, I'd run the compression test first and if there is any question just pull the heads. That will tell you about the heads and piston condition, then roll it over and pull the pan. The worst you have then is the need for a new gasket kit, which I'll bet it needs.
If the engine needs a rebuild, contact Jack Vines on this or the SDC forum, he knows what he's doing. Studebaker engines have a couple of uncommon things, so let an expert build it. Pull the trans, pull the side pan and see what you've got inside. Same with the rearend. Gaskets are cheap, grinding metal is expensive.
A lot more to write but enough to get you started. Bob
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Need a bit more info. Front, rear, middle, under yoke, leaking down pan or at the cooling line connections.. The most common places to leak are the pan, speedo cable seal and rear yoke. Pray it's one of them. Get it up in the air and look it over. Report back, as it's tough to diagnose without much info. Bob
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Much easier to tell you what's not in need of repair and/or replacement.
Just start by totaling up the cost of an engine rebuild, blower rebuild, carb rebuild, complete repaint job, total interior (except maybe seats), frame repair ( particularly rear cross member), complete front end rebuild, complete brake/caliper/rotor rebuild and I've just only passed $20K. I've got more if necessary like hog trough replacement, rechroming bumpers, front glass replacement et, cetra.
All-in-all it's an expensive proposition. Now!!! If you're young, full of energy and can do all the work yourself it's a possible save. The frame is better than I expected so you will only need to replace the bottom plate in a few sections, 1/8 X 4 in steel plate and the cross member that can be bent by your local exhaust shop. Paint is a couple of grand if you do all the work including painting. So a driver could be $8-10K away but still not a show car.
It's your choice as to your limits but it is in better shape than my 74 was when I dragged it home but I can do my own work and the lower expense of an SBC and a some connections with local race guys so my engine and 6-speed were under $2K. Craigslist and Ebay were my friend, not as easy with the Studebaker parts.
Good luck, if you plan to repair the frame and hog troughs and prep the body and paint it, I'll buy you a couple of beers sometime and we can compare story's. It will be a long night.. Bob
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As it should! The car looks to have been stored in damp conditions at some point in time by looking at the corrosion under the hood. I'd want to have a good look at the underside before I'd go any further.
There are plenty of issues with the car from the deteriorating interior to the major corrosion under the hood. It will not be an inexpensive car to restore.
What would scare me the most would be the lack of a title, I'd ask the seller for the engine and Vin number also. That way you may be able to find a little history by using Google or this forum and you'll know more about what is there. The issues with no title is the difficulty in getting one particularly if the data plate isn't there. IT could be anything up to stolden and you don't want to find that out later.
$6995 is really on the bottom end of the price range but the car needs a lot and I'll bet it would easier and less expensive to buy one in driving condition.
Just be sure to proceed with great caution if you decide to pursue it and don't, under any circumstances, buy it without a close inspection of the car and any paperwork.
JMHO, Bob
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Norm
I couldn't find them with the rest of the airport rentals but I found this site. https://www.economyrentacar.com/reserveStep2.aspx
I have no experience with them but I do have a reservation for February with them in Florida. Good news, no cancellation fee.
I'd still Google rental cars to get all the data. Bob
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I ran the same experiment yesterday for the Orlando area. I Googled "Orlando Rental Cars" and finally ended up with Economy rentals. They are off site from the airport and the savings were significant. The price varied wildly with the bigger names being outrageous and Economy has an airport shuttle, if necessary.
We are using the rental in the mid-Florida (Orlando area) so I'm not real critical about who I rent from. To me, if it's non-smoking and an automatic, I don't much care about to other issues, I'll just exchange it if it has problems.
I'm a bottom line guy so I don't care how they add up the numbers, I just want the cheapest. I'm not buying it. We will be north of Orlando about 25 miles, so I checked renting in that locality, The Orlando rental was much less expensive so let Google be your friend here.
As a note: Check with your insurance and credit card company about insuring the rental and carefully ask about loss of income and decreased value coverage before you decide to decline coverage on the rental.
Good Luck, Bob
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Joe
You could look for a wire taped around the front or rear glass which is the old style hidden antenna or this, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JE4GQ24?psc=1 whichis what I use on my cars as I remove the fender antenna on them.
It works quite well but if mounted under the dash or front area anywhere would be prone to the problems you describe. I always mount mine at the top of the rear window and they work quite well.
Bob
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Thanks Lew, Looks like a real brain trust at work. Post some more when it completely together and on the road.
Beautiful car. Bob
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This causes me to question your original trivia question and your answer. If RQB3650, used as a prototype, was just one Avanti and not the beginning of the series/run that used the Avanti script gauges, it was NOT when Avanti "switched" over to these gauges.
3651 has SW gauges
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I believe RQB 3650 is the 1983 Avanti that was used as a prototype for the 25 - 20th Anniversary Special Editions.
Was it just that Avanti (and the Anniver. cars) or all of the rest of 1983 production (and following) that had the Avanti gauges?
Interesting question, I'll check 3651 sometime in the near future. Something in my memory says it has SW gauges.
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I found the best way to push the rear glass out after cutting the rubber seal is to put on a pair of tennis shoes and push the glass out with your feet. Spreads the force over a fairly large area.
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Now that is close to ol' RQB-3651 setting in my polebarn.
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I am replacing my TH400 with a 700r4 & am going to use a 92-98 Camaro selector any ideas on cable selection?
If you are using the Camaro unit, I'd think the OEM cable would be OK. The T56 6-speed manual falls right where the Avanti 4-speed shifter was located in the console so I would suspect that the 700R4 (slightly longer than the T56) shifter cable would work.
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Nostalgic is your best hope but they show up on Ebay occasionally. No matter where you find it be sure to fit it prior to painting. There is a fair amount of variability in them.
Also, why not contact Brad Bez and see what he would advise, might be cheaper to fix yours than repaint another one. Also on the SDC forum, IIRC, there have been a couple of posts on repairing that issue.
Good luck, Bob
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I'm a bit confused. Is the tank loose but won't come out of the rear compartment. If that is the case, the as Regnalbob said above, get under the car and remove the 90 degree fitting from the bottom of the tank. If you do, be aware, that is the gas feed line and everything in the tank will come out when you remove the hose. Best to find the brass TEE fitting under the passenger side door and empty the tank there.
BE AWARE, that even if you drain the tank through the fitting there is still some fuel in the tank that will come out when you remove the hose. Do it outside!!!! This is also the time to replace that hose with EFI quality hose. The one thing about the Avanti tank location is if that hose fails everything in the tank empties directly under the car.
If the tank won't move, then it is possibly held in place by foreign material or corrosion. In that case, you should be able to get a thin pry bar between the side of the tank and the rear body. Tape the bar head up and just pry gently until it is free. Patience and gentle is your friend here.
If the second example is the case, be sure to complete draining the tank before you try further to remove the tank.
DO IT OUTSIDE!!!!!!
Bob
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Sorry I am late with a response but I recently put a set of JW Speaker knockoffs in my Avanti II. They plugged right into to the connector. I did have to enlarge the hole in the rear of the headlight bucket about an inch. Since these are supposed to last for 50,000 hrs of operation, I don't expect to have to replace them ever. They throw a very bright white pattern that is much better than the SilverStar's pattern that I had in the car. I am very pleased with them and night driving is a pleasure. I even got rid of the driving lights that were hanging below the bumper as they didn't even show up with the LED's on. Another benny is that they throw all that light and draw half the amps that the conventional lights drew.
chuck
RQB-3553
What model, cost and ease of installation? Inquiring minds need to know. Thanks in advance, Bob
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Like this Bill.
Essentially all the relay does is apply current straight from the battery when high or low beam circuit is switched on. The switch only handles the low voltage duty of powering the switching side of the relay. You need two relays so the high/low switch can power the correct circuits to feed the headlights.
Easiest way is probably just buy this harness off Ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/CERAMIC-H4-HEADLIGHT-RELAY-WIRING-HARNESS-2-HEADLAMP-LIGHT-BULB-SOCKET-PLUGS-7-/330997592807?hash=item4d10fe72e7:g:474AAOSwEK9Trseb&vxp=mtr
Bob
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Someday I'd like to meet the appraiser that says $26K on this car and see his comps. Bob
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H4's are usually 55-60 watts divide by 12 volts and get amps. About 5 amps each give or take but some of them can go as high as 130 watts (11 amps). Whether you use Halogen or HID or whatever, I'd be sure you have a newer 100+ amp alternator and use relays.
That's what I'm going to do on my 74. The wiring is new but I just like to have my head lights fed directly off the battery circuit with sufficient wire gauge to handle the current. I'll leave the normal headlight wiring to switch the relay. That way I have nothing on the high draw circuit other that the head lights and they should stay on when I need them.
Remember, that's per bulb so about 10-11 amps total for the standard H4 set up.I don't recall what the standard head lights were back in the day but probably somewhat less than the 6024 standard halogen currently sold.Bob
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Thanks for all the suggestions. A pal of mine has an experienced engine shop and has built many 400 cid motors achieving around 420 hp/ 430 lbs torque. Since I have a brand new short block it looks like a no brainer to go this route.
I'll proceed this spring and keep you posted as to the outcome. My trans is most likely a 200r4 so sourcing a bullet proof unit shouldn't be very difficult. Proper dual exhaust from Silvertone, cat delete etc should make it similar to plwindishes' '76. I have a serious SpeedPro Roller cam kit to top things off.
Cheers, Bill
Good choice, Before I picked a cam I'd call a couple of cam mfgs and talk to their techs. Tell them what you will be building, the use you expect to pit it to, and car data like weight-rear ratio-etc. They will make some recommendations based on that and you can compare the recommendations and narrow down the cam. I like the roller choice, eliminates startup and oil issues during it life. Bob
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Good 'catch' Norm,....Indeed the tops of the front fenders were also tu-toned on the 'Due Cento'......Hmmm!, I wonder how my Avanti would look done up that way??????
Put a picture of it in Photobucket, go to the "Draw" function make any changes you want to the body color, shades, stripes, etc.
Cracks near hood hinge!
in 1963-64 Avanti
Posted
Possibly someone used filler there and it cracked. IIWM, because it's in primer, I'd grind away that area to see what's what. Then I use glass mat or Kevlar body filler to repair said area. It will help to undercut where the repair will be.
Bob