Carpeting for my 63R2

[63 Avanti R2]

I'm restoring my 63R2 and wondering what color carpet to put in. Right now its Black. I know they came with a black and red mix.

My dash is fawn. The seats are Red vinyl. The door panels are fawn, red, black.

I looked on the AOAI website and saw the (red & black) pattern. Is that carpet available?

Also, my headliner has a waffle pattern in it, I think that's correct.

Thanks for your help

Steve

[Gunslinger]

At a certain VIN, Studebaker installed all black carpets in all Avanti production, regardless of what the interior color combination was. I don't have that VIN when the change was made, but it's at least possible yours was originally black.

[63 Avanti R2]

At a certain VIN, Studebaker installed all black carpets in all Avanti production, regardless of what the interior color combination was. I don't have that VIN when the change was made, but it's at least possible yours was originally black.

My VIN is 63R2585

[J Boyle]

Judging by your VIN, it would have had a "salt & pepper" carpet when new.

Tha all black didn't come available until very late in the production run...

This information was posted on the Studebaker Drivers Club forum.

It came from an article in Oct. 1987 article in Turing Wheels, the monthy magazine of the SDC...(which I'd recommend joining along with the AOAI) it details when the salt and pepper carpet was changed to all black by VINs:

Red and black R-4275

Turquoise and black R-4314

Orange and black R-4399

Fawn and black R-4709

If you get the car's build sheet from the Studebaker National Museum you can see what it was made with.

You say your door panels are red, fawn and black. It sounds like your car originally had "Color Scheme No. 7" the only one with red seats, so your carpet on the fllor and lower door panel would have been "salt & pepper" red & black. At sometime in your car's life, it has been changed to all black. Again not too unusual.

If you're new to Avantis, check out the great website theavanti.com

Here's their page on factory color combinations.

http://www.theavanti.com/combinations.htm

To see photos of what the "salt and pepper" carpet looked like in your car, click on the underlined "Color Scheme No. 7" on the left side of the page.

I asked a similar question on the SDC Forum awhile back...here's a link to that topic.

There is also a neat factory chart that someone posted that outlines what were the various interior options for your car based on its body color.

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/top...s=avanti,carpet

Finally, to answer your question, yes, suppliers do make salt & pepper carpets today, but I've bbeen told repeatedly that none of them are a correct and proper match for the original Studebaker blend..in other words, they have too much of one color.

Most restorations of Avantis seem to go with black carpet.

The judges at SDC shows don't seem to mind or take off points since the originals are NLA.

Edited April 12, 2009 by J Boyle

[63 Avanti R2]

Thanks, J. Boyle and Gunslinger, You have been a great help with this.

I think J.Boyle summed it up by saying it's not a good mix (too much one color) out there.

So I guess I will stick with black.

On my build sheet it reads: 14 953 RDV

Any other comments welcome

Steve