63 R1 Avanti (tarnished gold)

[11SecAvanti]

This is the Avanti I recently purchased. As you can see it has decades of abandonment and time and weather. I don't believe it has been driven since the mid 70's. The last decal of time I could find was an oil change in 1974. First priority will be the mechanical issues. I removed the frozen master cylinder and booster to make room and get the ignition shielding off. It does have thankfully the correct R engine. I hope to research the background history. If you know any info, thanks.

[Silverplate]

Very nice find! I look forward to following your progress in getting Gold road worthy and running again. Mike

[qsanford]

First thing you should do is get the Production Order from the Studebaker National Museum. Great Avanti!

[Commander Eddie]

Judging from those rockers it appears it was well maintained while it was still on the road. No sludge. You may get lucky with the engine.

[nckid4u]

I agree, the top end looks very clean. Might be a good motor.

[candbstudebakers]

The engine number is hard to read in my picture if it is a "R" then it is a Avanti but if that is a "P" then only a 289 on the surface, but my guess is an "R" if car has been of the road that long what does the miles show? might be a low mileage car. I once picked up a 62 GT that was last run in 71 by the tags on the plate and engine was stuck but a week with soaking the walls the engine came free and a compression test showed 150 in all holes and miles showed 74,000 engine runs great with lots of power so one never really knows until he digs in to the project.

[Dick LeRoux]

You say '63, but I see square headlight covers. Are you sure it's not a '64 or is it a '63 that had front end damage & the front was replaced with the '64 front end. None of the pictures show the hood support rod. If it's on the leftside, '63. Rightside, '64.

[tim333]

I enlarged the photo, definitely a R engine.

[WCP]

There's no evidence of a hood prop support on the right side, as a '64 front clip would have. The engine number appears to be late '63 as well.

[SN-60]

Someone definitely kept the oil changed in that baby!

[GrumpyOne]

Looks like a solid basis for a restoration. I hope that it's structurally as sound as the engine looks. Nice find!

[8E45E]

There's no evidence of a hood prop support on the right side, as a '64 front clip would have. The engine number appears to be late '63 as well.

The nose panel may have been a replaced at one point. Replacement round-headlight panels were NLA for years, and most often got substituted with the later style panel.

Craig

[starliner62]

Tom,
It looks like a basket case to me. Just let me know when to come get it and I'll take the poor old thing off of your hands!!!!!

[11SecAvanti]

Yes, it has like any abandon vehicle a lot of issues. Will take it one problem at a time and conqueor. The carb is correct now. Had to do a total breakdown, carb parts solution soak over night and reassemble. Replace the pump shot and intake gasket. Secondaries were frozen but finally broke free. Has the light weight air valve weights. Primaries were tight but removeable. .089 primary and secondaries came in at .072 something. Restored the intake for install. Removing the shielding showed damaged wires, two were pinch cut and one was heat manifold burned nearly in half. Talk about poor maintenance. Replaced 4 spark plug wires for now. (tom c)

[11SecAvanti]

Sucess in engine start and tranny tests. Had to replace the fuel pump and make some tune adjustments. Cylinders were presoaked earlier to free up the engine first. Coil was incorrectly wired and had to clean and repair all the connections related to ignition start/run mode. Vacumn seems low but rings are most likely not fully free. Main pieces replaced so far was carb gasket, pump shot plunger and fuel pump. (tom c)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNtD6seKGOs