Here's the story as I have heard it over the years.
Studebaker decided to make the bodies in fibreglass and went about
making the tooling necessary to do this. Along the way they discovered
they didn't know how to layup fiberglass (it was a new process then) and
decided to "farm out" the bodies. It was at this point that Studebaker
made a fatal error, they sent the tools(made by a company that had no
experience in this field), that had never been used to see what they
produced, to another company to produce bodies.
As you can imagine, the parts didn't fit and Ashtabula Fiberglass had
little sympathy for the probablem since it was not their tooling.
Also at this time Ashtabula was very busy producing bodies for the
Corvett and the small order from Studebaker didn't get a lot of
attention.
I don't know if Ashtabula Fiberglass was "dragging their feet" or not.
But, after years in the manufacturing industry, I can tell you never
send untried tooling to a supplier and expect perfect parts.
jtusher@home.com  May 2001

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The Avanti introduction also coincided with the introduction of the '63
Stingray.  Molded Fiberglass held the contract for both the Corvette and the
Avanti.  The Stingray was a success, and Corvette Sales increased
unexpectedly.  I don't think there was any malice or intentional sabotage,
but the success of the Stingray forced Molded Fiberglass to decide between
servicing the Chevrolet Division of General Motors satisfactorily or
Studebaker.  Not enough capacity existed to do both contracts.  The primary
reasons Studebaker went with fiberglass on the Avanti were 1) The cost of
creating dies for metal production was too high.  2) Several portions of the
design were easier to do in fiberglass anyway.  3) The quick development
time did not include enough time for metal tooling.

The story I had always heard about the development of the first tooling was
that Molded Fiberglass and Studebaker Engineers did not communicate well,
due to Studebaker's total lack of experience with fiberglass.  No one was
really keeping track of how all the separate parts were to fit together, and
the first round of bodies were so out of specification that they had to be
sent back for regrind.  The two companies eventually did get the program
going, but the Corvette factor is the one that kept them from getting a good
supply after the teething pains were fixed.  Studebaker quickly saw that
they would be playing second fiddle to the Corvette with Molded Fiberglass,
and about half way through production pulled the tooling back to South Bend
and set up shop in the Body Assembly Plant with their best employees, and
learned how to produce fiberglass bodies.  It's ironic that they actually
became good at it by the end of production.  It's also ironic that today,
fiberglass work and gel coating factories are a dime a dozen in and around
South Bend.  Studebaker was the first in the area to train workers in the
skill of making fiberglass assemblies.

kwolford@kconline.com>  May 2001

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