Early Avanti front seat reinforcement

[Nelson]

I will be having my front seats reupholstered in a very early 63 Avanti. I know the seat shells had some problems and needed reinforcing. I’d like to do this work before they are upholstered and before they fail. The problem is I’m uncertain what needs to be beefed up? Anybody done this or have photos?

[Dwight FitzSimons]

Hi, Nels,

I haven't done this (I'm a '64 man), but we have a member in the GVC chapter who had to do this repair on a '63 Avanti.  I'll ask him when he returns home early next week from FL.  He bought the car to fix a few things & resell and found that the previous owner had had someone make that repair at considerable expense.  The repair wasn't adequate, so Lin redid it.  He is a retired master locksmith and does whatever he does well.  I doubt that he took pix (unfortunately), but perhaps a verbal description will help some.

--Dwight

[mfg]

As an aside....when I bought my first '63 Avanti I was just a young guy 'starting out"....That Avanti had seen hard times, and the bucket seats were a mess.....the driver's seat back rest was broken badly, and supported by a 4-way lug wrench!

Anyway, I purchased a pair of '65 Ford Mustang bucket seats, (almost same red color), and installed them in the Avanti...I remember how easily it was to fit them...almost like they were made for the car!!

(only obvious giveaway to the casual observer was the pleats on Mustang seat were horizontal, while Avanti pleats are vertical!)

[Avanti83]

Check out the pictures in post #29 of this topic. There may be more on Bob Johnstone's website where I found this one.

https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/forum/your-studebaker-forum/general-studebaker-specific-discussion/1882149-studebaker-avanti-front-seats

[Nelson]

On 12/2/2022 at 2:04 PM, Avanti83 said:

Check out the pictures in post #29 of this topic. There may be more on Bob Johnstone's website where I found this one.

https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/forum/your-studebaker-forum/general-studebaker-specific-discussion/1882149-studebaker-avanti-front-seats

Those photos answer a lot of questions, thanks for the tip. I also have a 64 Avanti with thin back buckets and would like to convert that one to the thick back style just because I like the looks a little better. I assume the horse shoe looking fiberglass panel in the prior mentioned article is all I need to make the conversion? Anyone know where those additional panels might be purchased?

[64studeavanti]

In order to do a conversion, you would need to fabricate the steel frame for both the seat bottoms and top. The horseshoe shaped filler panels are made out of a material similar to Styrofoam. You could likely achieve the same result with upholstery foam. 

As far as upholstery goes, the seat backs are 3 piece instead of the single piece. When I get home in  couple of weeks, I will post pictures of the later seat back upholstery.