unimogjohn

Joe, it is looking great. Keep up the good work. I would much rather see a survivor versus a redone car; and your girl is cleaning up really good. What stories she could tell. Keep us all posted. We are reading and watching.

It is Sunday, April 25th. It is late in the afternoon, and I am "wired". Actually, I have spent most of the day tracing wires. I did un-tape the engine bay wiring harness to find the splices. The splices all have new wire, but not of the correct color so it does me no good to really try to find the right wire to the left turn signal and horn. The harness also has been spliced under the dash, of course with another color of wire. So my factory wiring diagram is of little use as none of the colors match. But I have figured out that the horn wiring is all wrong. Tomorrow I am going to use some new wire to see if I can wire it correctly and bypass all the old stuff. We will see if I am successful. Here is a pic of the splices. Greg also stopped by and gave me the correct 1034 parking light bulbs, so put them in. They are actually brighter than the 1157s I had in there. The 1157s were painted yellow, the 1034s are clear. Greg did some work today too. Here is his report and a few pics. "Not adjusted, not tightened, but off the floor and on the car. The bumpers arrived from the chrome shop on Friday. Saturday saw some of the irons cleaned and painted. Today found me short of some hardware. They used 7/16 carriage bolts to secure the front bars to the irons. Some of the fasteners were so rusty that when disassembling the car, I had to drill and blast . What could be so hard about finding carriage bolts at the hardware store? Maybe no problem in the old days when men were men and hardware stores were on Main Street, (not the mall). 3/8 or 1/2" but no 7/16 in this one horse town. Pics of: * machining replacement carriage bolt. Also had to machine the two missing spacers for the front rubber snubbers. * front and rear bumpers on vehicle."

David, glad you are still enjoying the blog of sorts. I am still alive; Alice did not shoot me, yet... It is Saturday PM, just got Greg's report and pic. Here it is: "Today I've been blasting and painting bumper irons and hardware. Tomorrow should see the rear bumper installed. The front ready, but I find I'm lacking good rubber grommets for it. They will be ordered and the installation will have to wait." Told Greg that I have the rubber grommets for the bumpers if he does not want to wait.

It is Saturday, April 24th. It is farm day so did not get much time on the Avanti. But last night we decided to head into the nearest little hamlet for dinner. Of course we took the Avanti, but this time Alice drove. The Avanti is her car so it is time for her to learn and drive it. Well, Alice is not patient at all. She is a get in and go, type A person. So the first thing she decided to adjust the rear view mirror, of course it came off in her hand. Not a good start. I tried to explain to her to go easy. Not a great thing to say. But she smiled. Then it was adjusting the seat. She likes to sit way back with her feet barely able to reach the pedals. She actually will move her body forward to hit the brake. Drives me nuts! So made her move the seat forward. Now she is not starting to like this Avanti business especially with me in the car. She is not smiling as much now. She starts her up, and off we go, NOT! I explain that you have to let it warm up. Now she is really not liking this, and there is no smile, but is now giving me "the look". But after a couple of minutes, the engine idles down, and we are off. Great ride and dinner. And she loves her Avanti. They are getting to know each other. Success! Today the only thing I was able to do was put back in the two plates in the arm/pull rests. Here are a couple of pics. Looks much better now. Oh, no parts came today either. Looks like it will be early next week before they come. No rush anyway, it is suppose to rain for the next four days.

Greg was able to get in a little "bling" work before he ran off to "tango" with his dancing partner. Here is his report and a pic. "Well, if I didn't get anything else done today, I got to uncrate my shipment from the plater. All the bumper parts . I sent them to Jerry Forrester who has a lot of Studebaker club clients. Those of us who have suffered through auto restoration know that a chrome plater can bring a grown man to his knees . The parts look very nice. And Jerry is a very likeable guy. I'll send him more when I can." Wow! those bumpers look great. They will really look great with the new Maroon paint. Knowing Greg he will have them on by the end of the weekend.

Wayne, thanks for the suggestion. It is Friday, April 23rd, early PM. Done for the day, but with some success. I got one side of the turn signals work. This is the side that had not been cut and spliced together, and still had the factory flat connections. I lubed and then pulled out the bulbs for the first time. They are #1157, not 1034 as required. I have ordered some 1034s, and they should be here in a couple of days. Cleaned the bulb contact after spraying with Kroil and working it slowly out of the socket. Reinstalled it, and it worked!!!!!! Just love that blinking. Here is the video. I was so excited I did the other side, no go on that one. Checked the current with the meter and am not getting any juice out of the turn signal line. Now I know the line I am going to trace it back to the master plug under the dash. Will leave that for tomorrow. I am hoping that that line and the horn line somehow got switched in the repair after the fire or crash in the 1970s. And yes, I do carry a fire extinguisher with me at all time. I would hate to have a melted Avanti at this point. I then decided that I would repaint the two decorative caps on the inside of the door pulls. They were pretty bad. They look to have had semi-gloss black paint on them at some point, so cleaned them up and repainted them with the same color. Will let them dry overnight and put them back on tomorrow. Here are a few pics of the before and after.

It is Friday, April 23rd, AM I was so excited that the Avanti ran so great yesterday I decided to reward it with a few more parts from Studebaker International. So I ordered the hood emblem S insert, two parking light gaskets for the covers, hood to body rubber seal, license plate light assembly (mine is missing the plastic/glass cover, but it works), and new flasher unit for the turn signals. So this will be another $100 purchase. I am also going to check the bulbs in the parking lights to see why I have only blinking in the rear lights if I manually work the stock. Maybe I have incorrect bulbs in there? So will check that first today. The parking lights do work fine. Also Greg continues to be busy on his Maroon Avanti. Here is his report and a pic. "Some parts came in today. The clutch and pressure plate. Also the wiper parts. That was my ticket to get the wiper motor installed. I'd ordered new chrome nuts and washers for the pivots, so decided to get all that mechanism in and hooked up. Working under the dash is alway fun. Getting that monkey motion back in is today's bonus."

this is from a Dave Chambers article from 1971.

I have seen them on ebay from time to time. Here is something that may fit. But it is for a 1925. More out there for master series than standard. If this will not fit, might write the seller a note, he seems to have quite a few. 25 BUICK MASTER 6 HEAT RISER SLEEVES NEW : eBay Motors (item 110314014709 end time May-11-10 20:25:17 PDT)

It is Thursday, April 22nd. Took the Avanti on a nice long drive. Did not miss a beat. Filled up in the closest town to us, about 15 miles away. Took five gallons. So it looks like that the half full mark will be 7 gallons used out of 21, so we know that we will have about 14 gallons to use at half full. Will watch the gauge and see how it reads over the next couple of fill ups. All toll, I think that i probably went 40 miles today. Great to be able to just drive and enjoy the Avanti without having to work on it today. Greg is working on the Matheson automobile engine (circa 1908) for a client. The body and frame are being restored by someone else. Greg sent me pics of the frame and body so I thought I would share them. Also included are pics of the engine. One mighty fine automobile.

There is one on Ebay today. It is at 1926-27 Vintage Buick Starter Drive11 Teeth All ser NOS : eBay Motors (item 380226796691 end time May-21-10 18:44:37 PDT)

It is Wednesday, PM. Greg send this is PM report for today. Here it is plus a pic. He is moving right along. "Took some time during lunch to base in some Fawn color on the column parts, places that don't show but were painted. Now this evening I assembled the pretty parts and mounted the column on my trusty rotisserie, gave it a several coats. When dry it should be ready for final assembly of the shaft, bearings, turn signal switch. Then back where I found it. Lots of parts on order, but apparently they are still on the road. Clutch, pressure plate, stainless brake lines, taillamp gaskets, wiper motor gasket, rechromed bumpers, other odds and ends. Maybe tomorrow. I'm considering changing my course. I've been working towards installation of window glass, body details. Now I'm thinking it is smarter to resume finishing the engine, getting it and the transmission installed. That will make it "a car" again. Buffed , primed and painted the front console cover. I'll darken the black lettering after the Fawn is dry."

It is Wednesday, April 21st. Sorry I did not do anything today. But thankfully Greg did. Here is his report and pics on his Maroon Avanti. "Chased around town after work. Looking for #1034 bulbs for the parking lights. Finally bought the last two in captivity. '63 Avanti guys, they're getting hard to find. Also got that gallon of paint remover. Bead blasted the steering column and shaft parts. Got them in prime. Dunked the console parts in the paint remover and got them stripped. Worked with the new bulbs trying to get the sockets to work. Think I was successful. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Never know."

It is Tuesday, April 20th. PM report. I took out the plastic signal mechanism and checked its fit, function, and for broken contacts, wiring, etc. It looked and worked fine. I did check for power at the appropriate connections and got a bag of mixed messages. Circuits that were suppose to have power did not. For example, the horn did not have power, and I knew that the front parking lights blinkers did not have power. I do not think that my problem is in the steering wheel components at this time, I believe it is in the wiring bundle someplace. So I spent a little time lubing up the turn signal mechanism with a little white L grease here and there, and then put it all back together. I can at least drive her again. Well, my next spot to check is the wiring on the front parking/turn signals. I have new flat connectors to replace the all red wiring. It should be an easy job to check each wire to make sure that they are connected to the light assembly correctly and each to a good ground. I also have to do the headlight wiring as they have been cobbled together with incorrect connectors also. But the headlights, both regular and hight beam do work fine. Put in another five gallon can of fresh fuel. Now we read a bit over half full. We have to take a trip to Baltimore tomorrow so nothing will get done on the Avanti. But maybe Greg will send me a report to file. One can only hope.

Speed, my books say 1129 or 1133. Also: Stop Light 87; Tail Light 63; Dome 81; and Instrument 55.

It is Tuesday, April 20th. Picked up 10 gallons of premium fuel last night. Will put that in the Avanti to make sure I have enough fuel to run around the neighborhood before heading into town at some point. The nearest gas station is about 12 miles a way. My plan for today is to continue to disassemble the steering. Greg send me his report late last night. He must have quit working about midnight. A good thing is that I was able to see the various components in the steering assembly. Great to have him working on the same stuff I am working on. Here is his report. "I've put off parking light repair for years, so tonight was the night. The bulb socket retention screws had rusted into the knurled nuts in the fiberglass. I drilled the heads away to release the sockets. I knew the drilling the remaining screw threads out would be a real bear. It was. The screws must have been made of Kryptonite. Pushed on the drill so hard that one of the knurled nuts blew out the back. That one you'll see was replaced by filing a hex and epoxying a standard nut in its place. So that's another almost check mark on the list. [] Parking lites Removed the console plates to freshen them up with new paint and polish. Had called about new bearings and stuff for the steering column rebuild. Most of what I need is NLA. So I spent some time with the upper ball bearing and since cleaned and greased will return to service. The lower bearing is a nylon thing. Badly worn and then badly broken on disassembly. I see that's available but since I can't tell if it's NOS or a new machining, I just took a few minutes at the lathe and turned a replacement. Yeah, I know it's the wrong color, but Greg the purist wants to drive this car. Shortcut taken. And I left the bearing a little heavier duty. We'll check it again in another forty-seven years. I'll let you know how it held up. You can't see it anyway. The knob on the turn signal lever is broken. I've seen the levers at swap meets, but didn't buy. Dumb. Now I see the knob only is in the catalog. That can wait. Goodnight."

It is Monday, April 19th, PM. Had a great day, it was my 64th birthday. Alice and I went out and bought me ten corral panels and a Mexican dinner. Life could not be finer. And I did have a little time to work on the Avanti. This morning I remembered that I had bought a universal, professional, puller in the early 70s when I took an outboard engine repair course at a local technical college. Still have it after all these years, and I knew where it was on the shelf. I am in business so did not have to drive down to Gregs and borrow his. I got the steering wheel off. Came off with a snap and a pop. I looked at the underside of the steering wheel and the contact ring looks OK, but the little arm that has the contact that rubs against the ring was stuck and not moving on its spring. Sprayed that with Kroil and it loosed right up. This could be the problem with the horn not working. I also removed the turn signal stock and the on/off plastic cams look fine. All the wiring in the hub looks good. But I ran out of time. Tomorrow will dig more into the housing and remove the wiring to see what they look like. I was also looking at the hood, I thought it looked a bit odd. It has a big chromed scoop that is suppose to have a plastic gold S emblem in it. Well it is missing, and it looks like for a long time. Studebaker International has them. Another gold plated piece of plastic to the tune of $44. Maybe next month. Here are pics of the steering wheel removal.

Greg has been busy as usual. He has pulled his steering and is going through it. Here is his report. Maybe I can re-use his old parts on mine, hummmmmmm. "Couldn't find the puller I'd made to remove the steering wheel. Now that I've made another (quick and dirty) I'll find it. Pics show the dissected column assembly. Need to order a few things, new turn signal lever, upper and lower bearings, etc. And strip and repaint the outer jacket parts. Another of those jobs I hadn't planned to do, but now's the time." Maybe I should re-title this little blog as "a tale of two Avantis".

Steve, take the cover (kind of a triangle thing) off the back of the starter/generator. In the back you will see a large rod in the starter/generator. This is what moves the brushes from start to generator mode. There is a C type rod attached to it, make sure that these both move freely and have a good coating on the shaft. This is usually what make things work rather slugglishly. And yes, I do really have to jab my foot onto the starter pedal to get everything to push in correctly and start the starter functioning. Sometimes it takes a couple of hard stabs to make it all come together. Good luck. Let us know what you find behind those covers.

Still Sunday, but PM. Greg came over to look at the Avanti and to see how a few things go together; so hopefully things will go a little faster for him as he does not have to remember or guess on how things go. I explained that I could not get the steering wheel cover off. He jumped into the car and pried up with his fingernails. He showed me that the little tangs are held in place by the retainers, which are on held down by springs under big screws. So after he left I pried up a bit on the cover and squirted some Kroil under the cover. I turned it, and the cover popped off in my hands. Success. Thanks Greg! So now I am off to look for my puller to see if I can pop off the steering wheel. That is a job for tomorrow. Here are pics of the inside of the cover. Greg called and said that he made a puller for the wheel; he needed one for his car so he made one. He reported that it worked just fine and sent me the pic for proof. so will head to his place tomorrow and pick it up.

It is Sunday, April 18th. No rest for the weary. Today I thought I better put the back seat in. So spent the morning cleaning and scrubbing the seats, and then put in a couple of hours putting back in the panel over the gas tank. I also put in a note to the next person opening up the tank area. I just hope that it won't be me. I do have some issues with the trunk release. It pulls out of the fitting and sometimes does not release the trunk. So I have a clamping issue with it at the fitting. Just another thing to look into or replace at some point. But I digress, back to the seats. Got them all cleaned up and the old musty smell is finally gone from the car. Seats are in and all fastened down. We are ready for a cruise (as soon as I get some more fuel). Here are some pics of the interior. I took them from the good side. (if you look you will see no bolts holding in the back seat, they are in, just took the pic before I finished the work) Remember, I have black electrical tape over the rips in the seams. I have called a couple of shops. It is not worth it to repair the seat as it would cost as much as the materials for both the front and rear seat. So tape it is for now until we decided when we want to do it. I have an estimate of $400 to put on the seat covers, so we are probably looking at a grand to do the front and rear with new covers. OK, what is next on the list. Turn signal trouble shooting. The fronts do not work, there is no blinking on the rears, and if the horn is hooked up, it honks when you turn the stock to the left, and the lights still do not work. Have to get out the trusty meter and start checking what I have. Still have not been able to get off the cover in the steering wheel, but have a plan. We will see if I am successful; or not.

And check the linkages from your starter pedal to the top of the starter gear box. A simple broken washer or loose bolt can cause the gears not to engage as there is not enough travel. I would also take off the cover of the gear box to inspect and lube as necessary. With these old units, and not being used much, lube is usually the problem, either nasty hard stuff or non at all. I have been told (but not verified) that Precision Power does rebuild these units. Home Let us know what you find and if you were successful.

Roger, thanks. I will ask the Avanti guys to see if anyone knows. The tank itself is vented with a 1/4 line that goes from the top of the tank to the underside of the body. Greg did some work on Saturday also, here is his report. He is catching me! Gotta keep moving. "Didn't have a game plan for today. Decided to tackle something easy. I'd been putting off the instrument panel and steering column. In need of cosmetics, I found myself removing the steering assembly (thought I was supposed to be putting this thing back together). With it out of the way, I could get up close to the instrument panel that was scratched up and the meters needed the rusting and tarnish removed. Cleaned, scrubbed, polished and masked off prior to respraying the panel with fresh paint. And the clock reinstalled. I pulled the taillight assemblies out of the pile to clean. Retapped the threaded holes and loosely installed them . Waiting on fresh gaskets. Also noticed the parking light socket assemblies. Rusted, bulbs busted and stuck, they were finally bead blasted, sockets shot with rattle can galvanize before replaced loosely until the new gaskets come." Here are Greg's pics. Note that the tach has a limit dial, my R2 does not. And his clock now works after a good cleaning. Of course, my does not, yet.

Brian, fun isn't it! Maybe be are just odd ducks?

Scott, I believe it to be 21 gallons. Yes, it does appear to read low based on the fact that it is physically almost half full with about 10 gallons of fuel. We will fill it up next week and will have a better idea on how the fuel gauge is reading. I would rather have it read a bit lower so we always know we have a few gallons of fuel still remaining in the tank when she hits E. I did notice that the arm of the sending unit was a bit higher than the old one. But then the old one was sagging down as the arm was half eaten away from rust. I am just happy that we have a fuel gauge that is working.