Avanti R2: what to look for/ask seller

[T. Turtle]

Thanks again to those who replied. Have spoken to the seller and it's obvious Studebakers are not his specialty (more of a Mustang person). What I gathered is he imported the car from CA to Germany with a view to selling it on. He could not tell me much about the chassis welding so I will ask for more pictures, but for me heavy accident repairs are a definite deal breaker. At the moment the car is not drivable as he needs to recondition the brakes - so much for a test drive. All he could say was that the car "pulled good" when he took it for a drive before putting aside for the brake job. He also admitted the box is hard to shift but that could be no more than adjustment - again something he'll have to look at. He will provide me with chassis and engine numbers. The more I think about it, it looks like a car which has been modified in the 70s-(maybe) 90s when Avantis were just "strange old cars", and I have a feeling I'll need to do a lot of sorting before it's ready for the road. There is also the issue of passing the local smog test (yes) which is not as bad as for a modern car but you cannot go over certain CO numbers. But I'm still interested - it is an R2 after all...


I will post more when and if I get the additional info.


Cheers


T

[StudeNorm]

I see you are doing your "do diligence" and this is always good. Studebaker Avanti's are sometimes a 'crap shoot'. You did the right thing to ask for advice and I hope with this knowledge in hand you have a better chance to make the right choice. If you make the plunge let us know.

Good luck.... Hope it works out.

[T. Turtle]

Well I got some more pics from the seller. He assured me he never experienced any overheating issues with the car and that as far as he can see there is no visible accident damage on the chassis or bad repairs. In addition there are some numbers, so maybe someone could help with identification:



There are chassis pics here (some or png files and the forum has not yet heard about those, so I can't upload them, lol)

http://imgur.com/a/ayDNG

[6hk71400]

The second picture is the casting number not the engine number. The engine number is on flat machined surface right center when facing the engine top side from the front of the car. It looks like an early production Avanti. There were running changes during the 63-64 production run. In Austria, not having A/C is not a problem, at least not like in Arizona

Bob Miles
Tucson AZ

[64V-K7]

Curious why the chassis number and the engine casting numbers were obliterated...


Also I have a notation that body#RQ-874 was in Concord, California in 2015. I can't verify the source right now however....

[T. Turtle]

64V-K7: sorry, do you mean on the plate at the first pic? To be honest, if it's not a true R2 but everything works as it should, I would live with it but it's a negotiation point...

[karterfred88]

The plate on the frame rail, shown riveted in place with the 63R-17*9 where the * represents the scraped off number-which was the identification of the original car-that was it's serial number-now useless in the US for registration as is the fact it is riveted in place, it was spot welded from the factory. Various valid reasons for the rivets, such as a chassis replacement, but no valid reason for attempting to obscure the serial number-unless the paperwork doesn't match the car. Beware!!

[studefan]

I believe that the rivets on the Avanti plate above are original from the factory.

[WCP]

They are no exactly rivets but brads and can be tapped out from the bottom of the frame.

[bezhawk]

I think the obscured numbers in the pictures are the sellers way of protecting himself, and is in fact a photo effect, and not actually scratched off in reality. Yes, Avantis have the serial plate push riveted to the frame.

[T. Turtle]

64V-K7: Oh, I get you - I obscured those to avoid fraud - I'll send you the full number in a PM if you think it'll help to identify the vehicle. And yes the car came to the EU from Cali.