Avanti R2, 1963, refresh

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, March 7th. The glaciers in the front yard are finally melting, 50 degrees today, you can taste spring.

Yesterday I pulled the Avanti out and figured that I would install the new coil. Started right up so I pulled it in front of the main garage to be closer to the tools. I had not touched the coil other than replace a couple of wires early on that were broken. So it still looked a little grungie, and the resistor on top was all corroded. So sprayed everything down with Kroil figuring that that would clean up everything. Turned out that it was a bad move on my part.

I put in the new coil and hooked everything up. Went to start it and it would not not fire, in fact the resistor was blowing smoke out its metal sides. So turned it off to check things out. Everything was hooked up correctly so tried it again. No engine start and still smoke out of the resistor. I figured the new coil was bad so put in the old one. Still the same problem. Oh god, another issue, what have I done. Well, I figured the resistor was fried so just turned on the ignition and let it burn off the Kroil that I had sprayed on everything. When the smoke stopped from the resistor, the engine fired right up. I guess that the Kroil somehow reduced the voltage to the distributor. Oh well, live and learn.

So now it is Sunday, I put in the new coil, again..... and she started right up. Took her for a five mile run, gosh she sure runs and drives nice. Took her up to about 45 or so, solid as a rock. Had a great run. Changed the oil now that the oil was nice and hot, and then put on the rear view mirror button. Let that sit all afternoon in the hot sun and put on mirror this afternoon, great to be able to look what is coming behind me.

Tomorrow is going to be another nice day, before it turns cold again. Snow is coming back later in the week. So I hope to do some cleaning, washing and detailing for a couple of hours.

Oh, Greg is working on the R3 Paxton engine. Here is what he said. "The Paxton block is back from having the main bearing caps re-linebored and the cam bearings installed to check the camshaft fit. It was again shot peened, so a coat of Glyptol to protect the interior. I guess I need to look into the sleeving of the one bore and resulting overbore to clean up the pitting in the rest".

Attached are pics of the old and new coil; and Greg's engine.

Edited March 7, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[Roger Zimmermann]

It was again shot peened, so a coat of Glyptol to protect the interior.

Does that product/paint not prevent a good heat evacuation? In other words, the oil is carrying away much of the engine's heat. This coat can act as an insulator or am I wrong?

[unimogjohn]

Roger, re Glyptol. From the web: "It's supposed to do two things - help oil drainback, and encapsulate any casting sand or debris that might still be lurking in the block, so it doesn't get into circulation." It is expensive stuff and toxic. If you look it up on a search, you will see many pro and cons in regards to its use. The old school engine builders seem to use it a lot, not so the new kids coming up.

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday, March 8th. Another nice day, but farm chores had to be done for most of the day; fence repair, sawing down broken branches, cleaning the barns and giving shots to the llamas. But the Avanti is waiting.

After talking to my favorite trimmer about fixing my seats to "make due" for a year or so. He said that it did not make much sense due to all the work making repairs, and I would still have old junkie seats. So I have put that task on the back burner for now and start saving my pennies for new seats next year.

So what should I do now? Well the paint on the body has some major problems. It was painted in the early 70s. In a few areas large sections of paint are missing as the previous owner decided to do some repairs and gave up. I picked up some jade green metallic in a couple of shades from Duplicolor that looked close to what I have. All I want to do for right now is to have the car one color.

This afternoon I decided to play with the paint in jut one area. This is a 2 inch by 10 inches of bare fiberglass on the driver's side front fender. My goal is just to see how close the paints are to the car's green. Figured that this was a good place to start. This is not going to be a professional job, but just a "lets see what happens" little project. So I sanded a bit, added primer, and then the body color. Will let everything dry over night and see what she looks like in the morning.

So here are a few pics of what I did; and then pictures what I need to fix. The big thing is the door; and I want to paint the engine compartment where the red is showing through the flat black, and of course the vacuum booster needs a shot of semi-gloss black. So with is little cleaning and painting, the engine compartment will start to come back to life. I am also going to paint the engine block as I get it clean. It will not be perfect, but presentable.

Edited March 8, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[RocketDude]

I put in the new coil and hooked everything up. Went to start it and it would not not fire, in fact the resistor was blowing smoke out its metal sides. So turned it off to check things out. Everything was hooked up correctly so tried it again. No engine start and still smoke out of the resistor. I figured the new coil was bad so put in the old one. Still the same problem. Oh god, another issue, what have I done. Well, I figured the resistor was fried so just turned on the ignition and let it burn off the Kroil that I had sprayed on everything.

I assume you were talking about the ballast resister smoking... That's standard procedure, they always smoke when new... always scary when viewed by someone not familiar... Not to worry...

[Roger Zimmermann]

Roger, re Glyptol. From the web: "It's supposed to do two things - help oil drainback, and encapsulate any casting sand or debris that might still be lurking in the block, so it doesn't get into circulation." It is expensive stuff and toxic. If you look it up on a search, you will see many pro and cons in regards to its use. The old school engine builders seem to use it a lot, not so the new kids coming up.

Thank you John for the comments. I'm wondering if there is still some casting sand ready to go after more than 40 years! By reading in the Avanti Magazine (I got some issues as a reward for the pictures from my Avanti model) it seems that the Avanti is prone to overheat. It would be my first concern.

[unimogjohn]

Roger, I would love to see pictures of your Avanti that you are building. Cannot find them on the WWW.

It is Tuesday, March 9th. What a nice day, 66 degrees; and the weather folks now say that the temps will remain in the 50s and 60s for the next week, no more snow or freezing rain. However, rain is forecasted for Wednesday and Thursday.

Today was a great day. Took the Avanti on long ride on the various country lanes around the farm. Went approximately 15 miles, and she ran great. Exercised all the gears and zoomed up to 50 mph once or twice. She handles great, no wobble at the steering wheel; and the engine just rumbles along without any hesitation or effort. She feels like she is ready for a cross country trip.

After I got home I started cleaning the engine compartment and got a few things painted. Here are the pics. Tomorrow am going to do some more cleaning of the interior as it is still very dirty. And hopefully I will pull the battery and start work on the hood hinge pocket. Found all the parts in a couple of boxes, so I am ready to go. I would really like to get the hood back on.

[ErnieR]

I hardly recognized the pictures without a backdrop of 3 feet of snow. It's great that the car is driveable at the beginning of driving season. They drive nicely don't they?

I think it's time to push some boost through that AFB.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Roger, I would love to see pictures of your Avanti that you are building. Cannot find them on the WWW.

Thank you John to your interest to my model! You may go to:

accForum :: Voir le sujet - Avanti au 1:12 it's a French forum with a lot of discussion between pictures. Some pictures have been posted in this forum by Barry Wolk: http://forums.aaca.org/f169/way-too-cool-278189.html

As the model is now completed, I will publish here pictures when I can do them outside. For the moment, it's too cold and gray...

[unimogjohn]

Roger, Greg sent me a note on why he is using the block sealer. Here is his response. Makes sense to me.

Greg says:

1. Casting sand after forty years? I doubt it, but that block has been shot peen blasted twice since January. I live in fear of not removing or sealing every last grain still lurking in nooks, crannies, and oil galleries.

2. The block had a big chunk replaced by welding rod, so I'm trying to seal any pores that would leak oil.

3. If you drop the pan on your car, or any R series owner drops the pan and shines a flashlight inside the crankcase, you'll see red. I don't know for sure if Studebaker used Glyptol brand, but they used something that's all but impossible to remove. Unless you clean it vigorously during overhaul. I'm unfamiliar with other series' Stude engines so I can't include them.

I don't think replacement with a light coat will affect the cooling. I think my personal cooling issues might be traced to the tiny little R-3 fan blades, and the fact that the previous owner lost a waterpump which put his fan through the radiator. Lots of tubes were soldered shut so he could keep driving. Think I'll fix both issues with the new Avanti.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thank you for the explanation John. The explanations from Greg make sense.

[unimogjohn]

Roger, found your Avanti. What fantastic work. If only mine looked as good. I will add a couple of pictures here to encourage others to look at the pictures on the French site. Amazing!

[Roger Zimmermann]

You are too kind John!

By looking at the French forum you may have difficulties to understand unless you can read French. At first the vehicle is complete, then there is a new frame and a funny one, then again something which makes no sense. Here is shortly the reason: I began the model in 1963; it was ready in 1966 I believe. When I was put in early retirement, I had a look at that model and decided to refresh it a little bit. At the end, it was a reconstruction at 95 %. Therefore the first pictures in the French forum were posted somewhere during the reconstruction. It will be different with the Mark II model: pictures will be posted since the beginn.

[unimogjohn]

It is Wednesday, March 10th. 70 degrees! What a great day. Spent a couple of hours washing the outside of the car (it's first real wash in 30 years), and did some more cleaning of the inside, and put back in the planels that go on either side of the console. I had removed them to get a the radio and the wiring. I also found a small screw and fixed the back wing window. Since it did not have a screw holding the latch and post, it would not lock; now it works! Boy, the interior is still dirty, I am using a boat vinyl cleaner/polisher and scrubbing lightly; dirt continues to just roll off. I still have lot more to clean. I did take a couple of exterior pics of the car all clean and bright.

I also got a couple of chrome exhaust tips. They were priced right (closeout from JEGS), very good quality, fit great, so will tack weld them on in a few days. I have to make some adjustment to the pipes to make sure they are about even and level. I may have to change out a couple of exhaust hangers as a couple were marginal. When I got the pipes a few months ago the goal was just to get them on, I really did not worry about level. Normally I do not put on bling, but I know that Avantis had chrome tips. I don't think that these are correct, as I think that they were larger in diameter on the outlet side, but these look just fine for our driver.

I have received several emails asking what still has to be done to the Avanti to make it fully operational. Well, here is the list that I am working to officially declare my “refresh” complete:

1.Repair and re-glass the hood hinge bracket.

2.Install and align hood.

3.Repair fuel gauge.

4.Repair turn signals. Currently, they do not blink on their own, and only the rears light up when the turn signal stock is manually tripped L or R. Parking light do work just fine.

5.Repair the horn. It works, but if you move the turn stock to L, the horn honks. Probably related to item 3 above. The horn is currently disconnected.

6.Repair and repaint passenger side door.

7.Align exhaust and install exhaust tips

8.Re-install Studebaker and Avanti logos on the body (Have the originals).

9.Replace wiring for the driver's side headlight/parking light. Replacement wiring now spliced in with wrong color wire and no connectors. Not grounded correctly.

10.Repair and re-paint passenger door.

11.Repair the chrome trim rings over the headlights to seat correctly.

12.Purchase correct front turn signal/parking lenses.

13.Repair clock.

And of course over time will re-paint the car body, re-chrome bumpers, and redo the interior.

Edited March 11, 2010 by unimogjohn
added "to do" list of items (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday, March 11th. Well, I have three topics to post so will break them up in separate replies. The first is the driver and passenger side wiring. The drivers side is the worse, but the passenger side has been cut also. I know now that the front of the car has a new nose, probably in the early 70s. I figure that is when the car got its repaint.

On the drivers side, you can see the original wires with two disconnected and taped. I believe that these are for the horn, which is missing. The original flat connectors are missing, but I have ordered new ones. There is also one wire disconnected under the fender. I do not have a clue yet what that is for.

On the passenger side the connectors are still there, but the wires have been cut. The plan there is to just make sure that the splices are redone and heat shrinked.

Here are the pics.

[unimogjohn]

OK, the second topic is the hood hinge pocket repair. I have included a pic of the passenger side hinge so you can see what it is suppose to look like. Here are pics of the damaged side. My plan is to remove all the debris so I get back to a smooth surface, put some metal bracing to the body to support the repair, and then re-glass in the hinge connector support (small rectangle). Here are the pics.

[unimogjohn]

And finally, Greg has been able to get back to his Avanti now that the snow has melted and the temperatures moderating. So he is installing the vinyl that has to be installed before he can reinstall the glass. He sent me these pictures. I am glad that I am not doing this. It does not look like fun.

Edited March 11, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[keiser31]

The only thing I can think of for that wire under the fender would be for a power antenna maybe.

[unimogjohn]

It is Friday, March 12th. Raining hard all last night, and forecast for the next two days. What a soggy mess now with all the snow melt.

But yesterday was nice and spent a few hours on the Avanti. Enlarged the pocket area with my Dremel tool to accept the hinge attachment plate. I test fitted a couple of metal backing plates to hold everything together as it is glassed in. I will use pop rivets to hold the metal to the fiberglass. I think that it will work OK and will be plenty strong.

Attached are a few pics. Note the adjustment holes in the main bracket. Also the little hinge attachment plate was bigger than the pocket hole. That again told me that the nose had been replaced. To attach it to the new nose they used a combo of JBWeld and a couple of layers of fiberglass cloth. Both of which failed. Hopefully, my repair will be better. And the new flat electrical connectors arrived so I can begin to correct the front end wiring.

Also Greg informed me that the big brown truck returned his Schieffer magneto for his R? engine. "It had been to Tom Cirello's house for R&R. Tom's father took over the Schieffer mag business in '69 I think. Tom worked on them then, he works on them now. Freshened with a new coil and other things, it looks like new. The Granatellis used these for some of their Bonneville runs." Here are a couple of pics.

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, March 14th. Rain, rain go away ....... Four inches in three days. With the last of the snow melt all the streams everything is flooding. At least the Avanti is nice and dry in the garage.

Been working on the back plate for the hinge pocket. Made two galvanized brackets to fit behind the fiberglass. Used a pop rivet to put one in as a fit test. I think it will work OK.

In my part boxes I found the rear cover for the console. It is a soft foam type of assembly covered with glued on material. The console itself is fiberglass. Since I will be replacing the interior at some point I did not want to permanently bond the cover to the console. So am using some 3M double back tape. It is holding it on, but the little flaps on the side are distorted and pull away from the tape. So it is a quick fix at best. The little flaps are covered up by the seat anyway.

I spent all day Saturday working on the Unimog Army truck. I went to start it, and it did not want to start, like is was not getting fuel. After an hour of fussing and inspecting I wondered why my oil stick was way over the fill mark. Well, I must have a bad diaphram. So put on a spare that I had, and changed the oil. I had a gallon of fuel in the engine! After four or so hours she was back chugging like a good army truck should.

Heading off to AZ for a week so this will be my last post for a while. Alice wants to see the Grand Canyon (like 1000 places before you die) so will head there for a day or so, and then down to Lake Havasu to see the kids race their ATV quads in one of the big pro-series. Always fun.

So bye for now. Here are a couple of pics of the console semi-repair.

[keiser31]

There is no feeling like standing next to the Grand Canyon at night and hearing the wind blow through there. Very peaceful and soothing. Have a great trip and thanks for all of the updates on your car.

[unimogjohn]

It is Wednesday, March 24th. Hi gang, we made it home from our little trip to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Flagstaff and Lake Havasu. We had a great time. But glad to be back on the farm with all our critters.

Had a chance to work on the Avanti today. I installed the metal brackets that I had made. Had to do some final fitting, but everything is nice and snug. Drilled holes in the brackets and mounted the original fitting. Used pop rivets to fasten everything together. It seems to be plenty strong. I then installed the hinges back on the car.

I plan on putting back on the hood on Saturday when we have friends coming over. I need two people to hold the hood into position while I put in the mounting bolts and make adjustments. I do plan to glass in the repair, but I want to make sure that everything fits and the hood closes correctly. I would hate to have to bust out the complete repair if the hood does not fit. Much easier just to drill out the pop rivets.

Here are pics of the repair. The first is the brackets installed, top and bottom. The hinge point attached to the brackets, and then the hinge installed.

Oh, will include a couple of pics of the Grand Canyon.

[unimogjohn]

Here are the pics.

[unimogjohn]

Here is the latest on Greg's Avanti. He told me that the windshield wiper motor was sluggish and had lost it park feature, so he sent it out to be rebuilt. He also continues to work on the interior vinyl panels with material he got from SI and Phantom Works. Work also continues in the machine shop with his R3 motor.

Greg's report and pictures. "Chilly weather is back. I'd spent some time on the Avanti installing the upper upholstery panels, two more to go before I can begin the windshield/rear glass installation. It gets so cold in that hangar that the glue doesn't dry."

"Meanwhile.... Engine project: Spent some time today in the storage garage with a flashlight. Standing in a corner behind some shelving were a couple Studebaker crankshafts. One in a wooden crate. I didn't waste any time extricating it, especially when I saw the trace of racing red paint on the flywheel flange, just like on the Granatelli block. Pretty rusty, I hurried it over to the machine shop where it was shot peened and cleaned.

Now I find that it is the '444 "long nose" shaft, the journals appear to be standard diameter, and there has been some fine tuning of the balance with some welding rod. Not only to the web, but notice inside the drilling. I don't see any damage caused when the side of the block was knocked out. There is a tooth missing from the gear. Easy fix.

Now if it only passes the magnaflux check for cracks. Then polishing/regrinding. I don't have too many days like this."

[John Byrd]

Welcome back, John. Looks like it was a nice trip. Hope you enjoyed it all. We've missed your posts, so we're glad you're back. Looks like the hood hinge area will be plenty strong. Be careful with the hood placing even with help, surprising how awkward they can be, later, John

[Roger Zimmermann]

John, how can you adjust the hood up or down with your construction? At your place, I would have installed the nuts in a cage to have the possibility to raise or lower the leading edge of the hood. Maybe the hinge plate has elongated holes to permit the alignment; if it's the case, forget my remark.

[unimogjohn]

Roger, both hinge points for the plate and hood have large holes for adjustments.

Just got this from Greg. He is moving along with the R3 engine. I asked him what he is going to do with it. He said that he did not know, maybe a museum. He told me that he has parts that he bought from the Granatelli (sp?) brothers after Studebaker shut down. This was in the early 70s. He bought most sight unseen as he was in the Army at that time.

Here is his report and picture. "Today I made the trip to fetch the Studebaker crankshaft . Very pleased, this crank that pushed a connecting rod through the block magnafluxed ok, wasn't bent and the journals cleaned up at .010/.010. Main bearings will be on order so that I can bed the crank in the block. Coming along."

[unimogjohn]

It is Thursday, March 25th. Overcast, and cool this morning, but it is suppose to get about 60 degrees. Storm coming in tonight so lots of rain tomorrow and SNOW tomorrow night. What the heck is going on!

Decided that the next project was going to be the horn/turn signal issue. x!kaxp, darn, just cannot get the cap on the steering wheel to come loose. Have tried just about everything to get a grip on it and turn it counter clockwise. I do not want to bung it up so have not used a pipe wrench on it yet. Gave up and took her for a ride. A long one. I went about 20 miles on all the back roads around the farm, she ran great.

So I got home and decided I had to do something. I found the Studebaker and Avanti emblems in the glove compartment. So I put them on. I did not want to permanently mount them so used a bit of hard foam on the mounting pegs to attach them. I also used some double backed tape, cut to size and under the emblems to stick them on as insurance. I had to drill out the front cover for the Avanti, but I could see where it once was under the paint. They had filled in the holes with body filler when the car was repainted in the 70s. The Avanti emblem looks to be a NOS one so maybe the old one was broken in the crash, and it was decided to just leave it off. Well, both are back on now.

Both wing/vent windows were also stuck, so spent an hour or so getting them free again. Used Kroil to break the bottom pegs loose and then removed the pegs on top of the window frame to clean the top pegs. Both work great now. These vents are going to be my AC for the summer.

I am really tired at looking at the primer square on the passenger door, so grabbed a can of the dark jade green paint and just painted it over. I was going to do the body filler routine, but thought better of it. It is going in for a repair and repaint in the fall, and somethings are better left to the professionals. The paint really does not match, but I figured it was better than the white primer. So just painted it. Actually, it came out pretty good. At least it is green.

I also did some more cleaning and detailing the engine bay. It is starting to look presentable as a driver car.

The car started right up this morning, waited just a few seconds, and hit the accelerator to kick down the choke and high idle. She died. Still too cold to keep running. So attempted to restart it. No go. So adjusted the auto choke plate counter clock wise 6 notches and she fired right up. I will see how this setting does versus the old setting. At least I know the issue and can work around it. Also explained it to Alice so she can do it if I am not around. I am sure we will get it sorted. And I have to let it warm up a bit more, before I attempt to move it.

Here are the pics for the day. I included an old one of the white rectangle so you can see the before and after.

Edited March 25, 2010 by unimogjohn
Snow forecast just came in (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, March 28th. Boy, cold again this morning, about 26 degrees. More rain coming this PM.

Yesterday we had the "hood" (neighborhood folks) over after a big dinner at the fire house. So I took the opportunity to have some additional hands to hang the hood back on the Avanti. It took a few tries at the adjustment to get it close to being able to close without binding on the sides or the front.

I still have the hood lip up on the passenger/left side and down on the drivers/right side. And I also need to see if I can get it to move down just a bit to close the gap in the front. But, after so many years of being off, it is good to just get it back on. I have not latched it as they need adjustment also. I would hate to latch it only to have it get stuck in the closed position. So will take my time to make sure everything is alignment.

I can now honestly say that the car is back to 100% with most of its systems operational. OK, there are still a few things to go, but they are all on the list to be repaired. I plan on making adjustment to the hood today if the weather cooperates. I have the pieces of hood installation that fell off at some point so will use some spray adhesive to glue those back in place.

I did take the car for another long run yesterday, ran great. I am now at a point where I feel comfortable that it will not let me down.

Tomorrow we are heading to the dreaded VA DMV to see if we can get her titled and registered to officially get her on the road. VA is still one of the few states that still has a title requirement for all cars. Most states do not both with cars over ten years old.

Here are pics of the hood.

[unimogjohn]

It is Sunday, March 28th. Cold here again today, but the rain has held off except for a small squirt last night. But the real stuff is coming, and we are suppose to get a couple of inches.

Spent the morning attempting to align the hood better than yesterday. In a word, I would probably be fired if I worked in a body shop. Yes, I made it better, marginally. You just cannot do it with one person. But I did make enough minor adjustments so that the hood now closes without hitting anything, latches, and most important, unlatches. Yahoo! I am going to call this a success and leave it to the body folks when the car is prepped for painting.

Took the car for a quick spin. It sure looks different peering over that long hood versus looking at the running engine.

Here are some pics of the work today. There are a lot of nicks and scratches on the body where the hood hinges are. The hinge must have been broken for many years, and as a result the body suffered some major dings.

Also, I have one issue with the hood. The little support mechanism is attached with two bolts to the hood, however, the bolt holes are too far apart to attach both bolts. There must have been some bracket that I am missing. Will have to look at another Avanti to see what I am missing. I did look through my cans of misc stuff that were in the trunk of the car, but did not see anything obvious that would fit.

[Frank Tate]

John,

you are an inspiration. I really enjoy reading your accomplishments. Once I get the deck done, I am jumping on my Tbird!!!

Frank

[TexRiv_63]

John,

I do not know how good the panel alignment on an Avanti was from the factory but if it was similar to early Corvettes and other cars with "plastic" parts your hood is looking good! We are used to precision panel gaps on new cars but back in the 60s and 70s it was a rare car that did not have a number of panels noticeably "off". Keep up the good work.

[unimogjohn]

It is Monday, March 29th. It was a very good day. Went to the DMV and spent 30 minutes filling out forms, and in a hour later I was out the door with the title in hand. Even got approval to use the 1963 VA license plates. They usually reject them if they are not restored. So I am a very happy camper. Now we can legally hit the road.

While I was looking for the original screws to hold on the license plate I spied a small plate at the bottom of a tin can, which held nuts and bolts, etc. I pulled it out, wiped off the oil and grease, and behold it was the tag that is missing from under the little badge on the console that says something like "this Avanti Belongs to:". The tag says Richard Linwood Chasse M.D. This was likely the first owner of the car. So I did some searching on the web and found his obit (he died in 2004 at the age of 88) and a listing of his children's names. I have a couple of phone numbers and an email address for his kids and will contact them to say the car still exists. He and Margaret had six children, and all now are in their sixties, but they should have been old enough to remember the Avanti. It would be great to get a picture of the Avanti and the family.

I also took a look at the parts manual for the hood support connection, and it does not have any other part shown or listed. So decided just to put on a large washer at will "pin" the back end of the bracket.

Well, tomorrow, if it is not raining I plan on taking the Avanti to Greg's home/business to show him that my Avanti is running and looking good. Greg's Avanti is taking a back seat to him building a buck for the fenders for his 1910 Stoddard Dayton Speedster that he is bring back from a rusty hulk. Greg is a master of many talents.

Here are some pics of the mounted license plate, the hood bracket, and the name tag for the console. I will see if I still have a pic of the Stoddard Dayton and will include that too.

Edited March 31, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[unimogjohn]

It is Tuesday, March 30th. Other car chores this morning. Took our 2003 VW W8 Passat Wagon into the dealer for a recall of the fuel injectors. An hour in the shop and I was on the way home.

Decided to go to Greg's place and give him the extra new rubber brake lines that I got a few months ago. I did not need them, and Greg said that he needed a set. So in return he made me a new bracket for the hood prop. Now I can use both bolts versus the one. It is interesting to note that the Chev Corvette as well as other cars used this same mechanism, so the one I have was probably a replacement at some point. I will paint it this afternoon and put it on tomorrow.

I took the Avanti to Greg's place. About a 40 mile round trip. The car ran great at speed. Greg drove it a few miles also, and said that it drives like an Avanti. So that is good. It does have an engine stumble, not bad, but will have to check it out at some point. Greg says that it feels electrical. And there is a slight vibration at about 45, but it clears up at 50. Greg believes that it might be tires and says to rotate them to see if that helps. All in all it was a great run. The temp held at 190 degrees.

Greg is also coming along on the R3 engine. He has the dual superchargers mounted to the bare block, fuel injection connected to the intake that goes over the engine, and the racing distributor. Looks really impressive. Greg is waiting for a cam and heads to arrive. He will probably install the crank sometime this week or next.

Here is a pic of the bracket Greg made in about ten minutes.

Edited March 31, 2010 by unimogjohn (see edit history)

[Guest stude8]

In 1997 at the Harry A. Miller vintage racecar meet in Milwaukee, WI there was a 1909? Stoddard Dayton race car present. I think owner was from Ohio.

Stoddard Dayton won the first Indianapolis race on what became the Indy 500 speedway. Pass the photo on to Greg for me.

Stude8

[unimogjohn]

Stude8, forwarded your message to Greg. Here is his response: Oh man, great shot! A Stoddard on the pole ahead of a gaggle of Mercers. This one was built/owned by Don Lyons of Dowagiac, Mich. It sold at auction about a year ago. Don't know where it went.

Is this from my old friend John? Give him best regards and thank him for realizing there's more to life than Studebakers (but not much).

GREG.

[unimogjohn]

It is Wednesday, March 31st. What a beautiful day.

Contacted the son of the former owner this morning and was able to get his email address. So I sent a few pictures and a link to this site. So will see if he contacts me. If not, I will drop it.

After farm chores I got out the little arc welder that I got off of Ebay a couple of months ago. Decided I would use it to tack on the chrome exhaust tips. So measured everything up, made sure that things were even on both sides, and struck an arc. Wow, this little 110 volt unit sure works good. So the tips are on and look good. The look very 1960ish.

I then got out some of the high temp red paint, sprayed it into a can, and then used a brush to put it on the intake. I know it should be black, but it was painted red so red it is. If I do ever take the engine out I will repaint it black. Now is just looks a little better than it did.

Done for the day. Here are some pics of today's fun. Oh, I also took her out for a 10 mile run. No problems or issues, so we are ready for a long run, maybe this weekend.

[R W Burgess]

Hey John, put a little silver paint on the Acel. linkage. That would look real good.

Wayne

[unimogjohn]

Wayne, OK will do. At least I will get rid of the rust. It was on my painting list.

Since tomorrow is a new month my social security check will arrive soon. So in anticipation I ordered the inner and outer parking light lenses from Studebaker International. Ouch, those little pieces of plastic are sure expensive. Oh well, it had to be done. Looks ugly now with the home made plastic lenses.

Tomorrow should be another nice day. Going to grab the chrome cleaner and start on the bumpers. The little wings under the rear bumper are the worse for tarnish so we will see how good they come back.

[unimogjohn]

Stude8, more Stoddard Dayton goodies from Greg.

"Here's one for Stude8. Oct 1, 1910 Young Larue Vredenburgh went through the fence on the (and his) last lap at the Springfield State Fairgrounds track. He was driving his Stoddard-Dayton Speedcar.

I'm sure it must have changed a lot, but someday I'd like to do a lap there in mine and maybe drop off a bouquet for him at the spot.

Is John (Stude8) familiar with the track?"

Greg said that he used this pic and another from the front to document what when on his car and where.