Hood Ornaments

[bobav78]

At South Bend in June 2007, I bought a 1978 Avanti II with Serial no. RQB 2679. When I bought it, it had a hood ornament that had the plastic lazy "S" as found on the Studebaker Avantis. I replaced the insert with a plain black one like early Avanti IIs had. However, in seeing pictures of Avantis from the late 1970s and looking at Avanti Motors promotional material, it appears that by 1978 the hood ornament had disappeared. Does anyone out there know what year the hood ornament was last used on Avanti IIs? I am not particularly upset to have it - in fact I rather like the view of it out the windshield and over the hood, but that is a personal thing. And, I do recognize it may not be "original."

Thanks for any insights on this.

[Gunslinger]

I have a '70 and there's no evidence it ever had the hood ornament nor the "pirate's buckles" on the sail panels behind the rear quarter windows. I would guess Avanti Motors dropped them in the late '60's...I have RQA literature (pre-1970) that shows the emblems gone.

If your '78 came with a hood ornament, it likely wasn't original. It could possibly have been a special order that way, added by a previous owner, or the hood could have been replaced at some point in time with a Studebaker hood that had them emblem installed.

[theGman]

Years ago I had a '69 (RQA0349) and it did not have the hood ornament or buckles.

By the way.....

I do like the original chrome stuff, so I recently added the buckles to the sides of my '81, and the hood ornament, which I think looks neat, especially being part of the original Lowey design.

What I have done is to eliminate the "IIs" from the front and back, leaving only the "Avanti" chrome.

I then epoxied/added a "II" to a solid black hood ornament center.

I like this somewhat cleaner look, since the "IIs" have always been a different shade of chrome and look like the add on they are, plus are often upside down or slightly crooked anyway. Now the only "II" is on the hood.

I couldn't find a plain black center for the pirate buckles, so they have the silver S is on them, but that's ok too, showing the heritage of the car, plus, if I did have plain black buckle centers, what would I put on them? The "IIs" would be too large a scale anyway.

I also added the chrome at the top center of the back seats, plus a few other pieces which were on my '69, such as the polished dash ends instead of that tacky cheap looking brushed ? aluminum. I really preferred the near original look of the trim on the '69 over the '81 styles.

Now, I have to figure how to build a center console to maybe velcro over that huge emergency brake handle. (Another area where I preferred the earlier storage compartment there).

Paul G.