Early Avanti Interiors

[HNCadet]

In early interiors, prior to the use of the rolled/pleated seat inserts and door panels.......I know the seat inserts were perforated, but were the door panels also perforated or just flat material. The pictures I have of my car prior to it's first restoration(by prior owner) showed a flat panel, but are not of good enough quality to determine IF there are perforations or not! Nicole at Phantom said she has pictures showing some perforations! Can someone here confirm this?

[JBOYLE]

For the best rundown of Avanti interiors I've seen look here:

http://www.theavanti.com/interior2.htm

http://www.theavanti.com/combinations.htm

From the second link given, click on underlined "Color schemes No. 1-9" on left side of page.

63 Avanti R1 2788
1914 Stutz Bearcat
(George Barris replica)

Washington State

[StudeRich]

It is not a matter of Pleated interiors replacing perforated ones, it is a matter of the car being ordered as a Std. Deluxe Interior or a Premium Regal Interior. Yes, the Deluxe door panels are flat plain vinyl. I have an original survivor.

The first two prototypes that were flown in a flying boxcar to all of the major cities for the Dealer Introduction in 1962 had one of each interior. So pleated was available from the start.

It is true that the "basic" interior was canceled quite a bit later though.

[JBOYLE]

UPDATE: I stand corrected! I've never seen an Avanti with that trim.

63 Avanti R1 2788
1914 Stutz Bearcat
(George Barris replica)

Washington State

[Rerun]

IIRC, the plain perforated seat interior was the Regal, and the pleated was the Deluxe. In any event, the pleated interior seemed to be much more popular than the perforated. My "very original" '63 Avanti (63R3351) had the perforated inserts in the seats. The vinyl on the door panels was NOT perforated, and not pleated. Very plain!

Another difference was that the door panels with the plain vinyl did not have the stainless divider between the upper and mid panels like the pleated interior did.

Jim Bradley
Lewistown PA
'78 Avanti II

[Bob Langer]

Bob Langer
Glenshaw,PA

[scott.rodgers]

Slightly off topic, I've seen in some of the early photos of Avantis examples with "flat" dashes instead of ones with the molded-in pleats. Do any examples of these Avanti dashes still exist? I've never seen any later pictures of cars with these dashes outside of articles introducing the car in late '62.

Scott Rodgers
Los Angeles
SDC Member since 1989
'60 Lark HT
'63 Wagonaire

[Rerun]

quote:IIRC, the plain perforated seat interior was the Regal, and the pleated was the Deluxe.

Well, I guess that I don't RC! [:I] Thanks for clearing that up, Bob.

Jim Bradley
Lewistown PA
'78 Avanti II

[HNCadet]

Thanks everyone! The Deluxe interior package seems to be a conundrum and not well documented anywhere I've looked online. This discussion has cleared up a lot of the confusion.

Studerich or Rerun, can either of you post a picture of that door panel? I am interested in seeing that picture without the SS trim separation piece. My pictures are rather old and of poor quality and understanding how the two colors(Fawn & Elk) are trimmed out would help my interior resto-guy. When my car was initially restored back in the nineties, the Regal trim package was installed, but the original pics, showed the Deluxe interior.

[JDP]

quote:Originally posted by scott.rodgers

Slightly off topic, I've seen in some of the early photos of Avantis examples with "flat" dashes instead of ones with the molded-in pleats. Do any examples of these Avanti dashes still exist? I've never seen any later pictures of cars with these dashes outside of articles introducing the car in late '62.

Scott Rodgers
Los Angeles
SDC Member since 1989
'60 Lark HT
'63 Wagonaire

You must be talking about the mock up dashes on the early prototypes. They even had a dash mount mirror.

JDP/Maryland

[scott.rodgers]

JDP,

Did any make it into cars that were sold?

I remember seeing the prototype with the horizontal instead of vertical pleats on the front seats. Did it make it into private hands in this condition?

Prototypes have always fascinated me. I've always wondered what happened to those '63 Larks with the weird turn signals in the fender brows...

Scott Rodgers
Los Angeles
SDC Member since 1989
'60 Lark HT
'63 Wagonaire

[Gunslinger]

Back around 1973 when I first got serious about buying an Avanti, the first one I looked at was pretty much base model car, about the only option was automatic transmission...no power steering, etc. I don't remember what upholstery pattern it had, but what I do remember is that it had a dash mounted mirror mounted in a ball socket like a '61 Chrysler my Dad owned had.

Since I was a poor college student I wasn't able to swing the money to buy the car...$3200 back then. A few years later I did buy one and once I started absorbing all the history of the cars I could, I found out only the prototypes had the dash mounted mirror. Oh...if I had that to do over again! I would have found some way to have come up with the money to have owned a prototype!




Poet...Mystic...Soldier of Fortune. As always...self-absorbed, adversarial, cocky and in general a malcontent.

[Rerun]

quote:Studerich or Rerun, can either of you post a picture of that door panel? I am interested in seeing that picture without the SS trim separation piece.

HNCadet,

Unfortunately, I sold the '63 Avanti a few years ago, and I can't locate any pictures with the door panel showing. The current owner has replaced the interior with the Regal style, since that upholstery is readily available.

Once again, IIRC, There was no stainless divider between the top (fawn) section and the middle (elk) panel. However, there was a welt (about 1/4" diameter) at that seam. I recall that the welt was covered in the fawn vinyl. Perhaps someone can confirm this. The separation between the elk panel and the carpet did have a thin stainless molding, about 5/16" wide. The kick panels also had this molding between the vinyl and the carpet.

In the 29 years that I owned that Avanti, I had noticed that there were very few others that had the perforated seats. I was unable to find an exact match of the perforated vinyl, but a couple of upholstery shops had samples of perforated vinyl that were very close.

Jim Bradley
Lewistown PA
'78 Avanti II

[JBOYLE]

For photos of the "Deluxe" trim look at this post from JDP.

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26590

63 Avanti R1 2788
1914 Stutz Bearcat
(George Barris replica)

Washington State