Avanti dashboard in a..?

[Noxnabaker]

When "googleing" I came across this picture:

& now I wonder if anybody ever but an Avanti dashboard in a 53-55 coupe/HardTop or 56-61 Hawk?

[Noxnabaker]

124 views & not one single respond...

[r1lark]

124 views & not one single respond...

nox, I guess that tells you there are 124 people who have never tried to put an Avanti dashboard into a '53 thru '61 hardtop or coupe!

There have been plenty of GT Hawk dashes put into earlier C and K bodies, but I've never personally seen an Avanti dash in any.

[Noxnabaker]

Ah Paul, just as I guessed but didn't want it to be that way...
(on the other hand; it wouldn't be impossible to make one since it's fibre glas)

[Dwight FitzSimons]

I never heard of that particular swap.
1) Avanti dashes in nice condition are rare and would have to be adapted to fit a C or K.
2) There are basically three wonderful C & K dashes that will bolt right into any other C or K. Pic 1 below is of a 1956- 61 Hawk dash in a '55 President C body. Pix 2 & 3 are of a '55 Speedster dash and a '62-4 G.T. Hawk dash. These all will interchange into any 1953-64 C or K body. These dashes are in ample supply.

One of the reasons I am a Studebaker fan is the great dashes (instrument panels) they had while almost all other cars had jukebox dashes.
--Dwight

[StudeRich]

The biggest challenge would be the way different Windshield Curvatures, and then you would need to figure out the Width difference from Avanti to C & K, after that a piece of Cake !

[gordr]

This might be kind of heretical, but if one could swap a C/K dash into an Avanti, that might solve the crack problem once and for all. The Avanti instruments ought to fit the holes in a Hawk dash OK.

[Noxnabaker]

Then wouldn't it be fun(?) to find a bunch of Avanti dashboards laying unused somewhere..? I sure think so, not only for Avanti owners!

[J_Cole]

Noxnabaker I'm building a 54 Commander and trying to really play up the European theme of the design. The stock dash is fairly plain, I don't like 55 dashes, HATE golden hawk dashes, and was torn between using a GT Hawk dash or not. I asked the builder who specializes in Studebakers if an Avanti dash would fit and be said there are no similarities between a C/K and Avanti and wouldn't fit. So GT Hawk dash it is!

[Noxnabaker]

Well if the wideness is the same I can't see any problem in cutting the top piece to fit the windscreen shape, & as seen on the picture I posted it sticks out a bit by the doors anyway so the word "fit" might mean different to different people... & it's fiber glass.
If I ever found one I would for sure try it but that would mean that I had to have the car also...
(& while that might happen I aint gonna hold my breath)

[Alan]

Nox an Avanti dash is $2,000 just for the pad.

[Jessie J.]

One of the reasons why "There is nothing more expensive than a cheap Avanti."
Sad to see so many Avanti's rotting away or being parted out, but it is just too expensive to bring back a run down one.

[Dwight FitzSimons]

One of the reasons why "There is nothing more expensive than a cheap Avanti."
Sad to see so many Avanti's rotting away or being parted out, but it is just too expensive to bring back a run down one.

Perhaps, because of the $2000+ cost of an Avanti dash pad, we should be thinking instead of how hard it would be to put a GT Hawk dashboard into an Avanti. The Hawk dashes are indestructible and cheap to reupholster if need be. The fiberglass would be easier to modify than the vinyl of the Avanti dash.

Below is a pic of the best of the GT Hawk dashes, a '64. I think a Brooks Stevens design would go well in the Raymond Loewy-designed Avanti. The two stylists had much different design concepts, but very similar ideas of a great dash.
--Dwight

[Noxnabaker]

I've seen worse ideas...

[firestoper 25]

Hummmm, looking at the above photo in post 13 it seems as though the Avanti dash gauge insert ( complete with Avanti gauges )could be in-laid / fabricated into the Hawk space. The side angled 'instrument wings' of the Avanti insert could be manipulated as needed to match the Hawk cavity.
Kind of an interesting winter upcoming storm can't do anything on the Avanti kind of a day project to contemplate.