Avanti Body Numbers!

[mfg]

Studebaker Avanti body numbers really were all over the place!........A recent Avanti Trivia question asked for the body number of the last production 1964 Studebaker Avanti (R5643).....and the correct answer was RQ3902.

Years ago I happened to own 1964 Avanti R5180.....a considerably earlier car.........its body number was RQ4092.........Go figure!

[1963r2]

I guess it was a case of the completed bodies being stockpiled and then grabbing the closest one when required.

Theoretically the deeper you went into the stockpile to lower the body number you would get.

pb

[Gunslinger]

Avanti bodies...at least those supplied by MFG...were complete painted bodies.  There was never any intention of matching body numbers to chassis serial numbers, nor could there be.  Bodies were chosen by color for a particular chassis per the build sheet.  If there was a run of one color for any reason then bodies were pulled regardless of body number.  It wasn't like a grocery store where the oldest item was pulled to the front of the shelf, newest to the back of the shelf prevails in rotating stock.  

[mfg]

It does stand to reason, as Gunslinger suggests, that Avanti bodies were painted (in all probability) in 'runs' of the different exterior colors offered by Studebaker,...... then a body was pulled from stock when a particular color was called for.

[mfg]

Several years ago I owned 1969 Avanti ll (RQA0298) for a brief period of time.....It had a Studebaker-type metal body number tag under the hood which read RQ4838

I was wondering if the Altman's decision to stop using these body number tags coincided with the production of RQA0423..... the last 'A' type Avanti ll?

PS.....I would be interested in owners of other early (RQA type) Avanti ll's posting the various body numbers of their cars....possibly figuring out a 'spread'!