Avanti Paint confusion

[Palantirion]

I am starting the process of restoring/painting my early '64 Avanti. There are a few small cracks in the body that I am planning to fix. I sanded one of these, behind the PS C pillar, to see how far it went and was surprised to discover more layers of color than I expected. My dad bought the car as the second owner, and he never repainted it. As you can see in the pic there is the fiberglass, then dark red, then medium gray, then light gray, then off-white, then black, then white. Jason from OCS told me the red was an adhesive spray, the dark gray was a high buildup primer and the medium gray was a finishing primer. He told me it was not uncommon for dealers to repaint new Avantis to different colors based on customer demand, and thus supposed that most likely the off-white was its original color, and the black and final white were factory colors painted on when the car was still undelivered. I welcome other opinions.

[brad]

They (Studebakers) were all red oxide lacquer primer, then color. Yours looks to be Avanti Grey. Look closely at the first layer of grey. I'm betting it's metallic.

The subsequent layers are repaints.

[Palantirion]

You called it. The first, darker gray is metallic. So now the question is what and when are the other colors.

My best guess is that Silver Mist was the original factory color. The lighter gray shown may be primer, or might be Seabeach Sand if I'm looking at the online paint chips correctly. Then Ermine White, Midnight Black and either Astra or Avanti White on top.

If the third layer is primer, then might that mean that the subsequent colors were non-dealer-applied? IE: post-sale?

p.s. This is an early '64 (round headlight) and has '63 style c-pillar interior trim, so I'm not sure if this might change which exterior colors would have been in use at its time of sale.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Palantirion

[boogieman]

You might check with Dan at Nostalgic, or the Studebaker Museum, as they may have the "build sheet" for your car giving the as-built paint color and code.

[Gunslinger]

This is an early '64 (round headlight) and has '63 style c-pillar interior trim, so I'm not sure if this might change which exterior colors would have been in use at its time of sale.

Without knowing your car's serial number, it's likely a '63 that was titled as a '64. Studebaker instructed dealers to register unsold '63 inventory as '64 model year cars. That's quite common among Studebaker Avantis. That's allegedly the reason Studebaker dropped the "63" prefix on the serial numbers and simply went with "R-xxxx" in place of "63R-xxxx".

There's a limited number of true '64 round headlight Avantis before the changeover to the square headlight bezel and a host of other changes. It's something like eighty cars that are true transition '64 cars with a mix of early and updated parts. As I said...'63s rebranded as '64s are much more common.

[Palantirion]

Without knowing your car's serial number, it's likely a '63 that was titled as a '64. Studebaker instructed dealers to register unsold '63 inventory as '64 model year cars. That's quite common among Studebaker Avantis. That's allegedly the reason Studebaker dropped the "63" prefix on the serial numbers and simply went with "R-xxxx" in place of "63R-xxxx".

There's a limited number of true '64 round headlight Avantis before the changeover to the square headlight bezel and a host of other changes. It's something like eighty cars that are true transition '64 cars with a mix of early and updated parts. As I said...'63s rebranded as '64s are much more common.

I thought the s/n was R3785B, or am I wrong?

Thanks for the other info. I'll see what info the Studebaker Museum has.

[Gunslinger]

That's definitely a '63...it's way out of range of the transitional round headlight '64 cars. As I said, it must have been an unsold car that was reregistered as a '64 by the dealer.

[Palantirion]

That's definitely a '63...it's way out of range of the transitional round headlight '64 cars. As I said, it must have been an unsold car that was reregistered as a '64 by the dealer.

Thank you very much for the info.

Also, I noticed yesterday that the paint color under the outside rear view mirror was Ermine White. Apparently the car was repainted Avanti White without the mirror removed. BUT, unlike what the sanding uncovered on the C pillar, there was no black layer between the two whites. So I don't know what to make of that. Could the black be an adhesive or primer used in a revious C pillar repair?

There was also no light gray color between the Silver Mist and Ermine White under the mirror. So perhaps that light gray was a primer (looks like gray primer) used in some areas between the original factory color and the presumed dealer repaint.

My deduction at this point is that the car was originally Silver Mist, repainted at the dealer level Ermine White, sold to the guy my dad bought the car from, then the mystery mirror was added (http://www.aoai.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=2796), then my dad had the car repainted Avanti White to match a '63 he had bought for his then-wife.

[Gunslinger]

The colors made available by Studebaker for the Avanti were limited...

Avanti White

Avanti Grey

Avanti Turquoise

Avanti Gold

Avanti Red (two different reds depending on when the car was built, but both were shades of maroon, though one was more red)

Avanti Black (special order)

There were no silvers, Ermine White or any other colors Studebaker painted Avantis in. Any other colors were done after it left the factory. Avanti Motor Corporation would paint the cars in any automotive color available the purchaser wanted.

When I owned a '63 and had it painted, the paint shop found numerous colors under the turquoise it was wearing. That's when I found out the car was originally Avanti Grey. When I eventually obtained a copy of the build sheet, Avanti Grey was confirmed as the original color.

[Palantirion]

The colors made available by Studebaker for the Avanti were limited...

Avanti White

Avanti Grey

Avanti Turquoise

Avanti Gold

Avanti Red (two different reds depending on when the car was built, but both were shades of maroon, though one was more red)

Avanti Black (special order)

There were no silvers, Ermine White or any other colors Studebaker painted Avantis in. Any other colors were done after it left the factory. Avanti Motor Corporation would paint the cars in any automotive color available the purchaser wanted.

When I owned a '63 and had it painted, the paint shop found numerous colors under the turquoise it was wearing. That's when I found out the car was originally Avanti Grey. When I eventually obtained a copy of the build sheet, Avanti Grey was confirmed as the original color.

-Thank you. I must have been looking at a Studebaker paint chart for '63, not the Avanti chart.

[brad]

The Avanti Grey IS a metallic color just like silver. It has a bunch of blue in it.