I actually found the car with 5800 miles on it. Bought from first owner who bought it for his wife. She would drive up and down river road in it. Her lipstick stained cigarette butts are still in the ashtray, and a menu from Perkins (with pancakes for 99 cents)is in the glovebox. What preserved the car was a garage with no windows and the widower's heart condition.....I took 400 pics of the car, including the entire undercarriage, since I didn't figure we'd ever find one guaranteed so original again. I documented the position of just about every hose clamp! Sooner or later I'll offer a CD to help Avanti restorations. I have just gotten nervous about having such a nice car, and found a project I'm anxious to get financed..... Greg July 2008 Original owner VirtuMachina Restorer's Graphic Sourcebook The owner’s story In 2000, I found an R-2 63' Avanti that had been stored in a windowless garage in south Minneapolis for 23 years. The car had 5800 miles on it and had not been moved or started in all that time. The original owner had purchased #63R3152 from Rauschnot's Studebaker agency in St. Paul in 1963. He drove it briefly but had a heart attack. His wife would drive it up and down West River road puffing on mentholated cigarettes looking cool until she died suddenly a few years later. Her lipstick stained cigarette butts remain in the ashtray.... Finally, at 84, Wes was ready to move out of the house where he had lived since the late 50's into the senior community where he was already active. Selling the car was emotionally going to be a hard thing to do. My buddy, a mechanic, is a neighbor, and Wes approached him to fix the brakes in preparation for putting the car on the market. Fred told Wes that he knew a Stude nut who would buy the car untouched (me), and the fun began. Below are some pictures of the car minutes after I first saw it . The air in the tires is from Southbend..... On inspection, I noticed that there were no puddles under the car and that the rubber was really excellent. The car had been sitting in the dark (aside from the light transmitted thru the fiberglass garage door). Some time in the past, a lawn chair had fallen and cracked the rear window. Wes arranged for the window to be replaced as the car sat. Unfortunately, it was replaced with a newer defroster type window. I have recently replaced this with an original again. Wes was unsure about how much to sell the car for or whether he should keep it in the family somehow. I knew that the seats had not been sat on in 23 years. I told him that I would really like to "renew" the seats before anyone plunked down into them, regardless if he was to sell me the car or not, as they were without any cracks. I guess this is what finally helped him decide to sell it to me.... It took from 11/2000 until 5/2001 before I actually was able to buy the car from him. I trailered it to my friend's garage and the two of us began to "unwrap" the mummy. We found the car, despite its prolonged hibernation to be in fairly good shape. To "wake it up", my friend and I did the following, carefully keeping hoses and wires etc. exactly as they were found: Rebuilt carb, fuel pump, brakes. Installed new points, plugs, air filter, hoses, fan belts, fluids. I ordered all original parts from Ted Harbit, who also inspected and renewed the supercharger. In June '01 we put it up on the rack to start it, to watch for leaks. As it ran, it came off fast idle all by itself after warming up, almost like it was telling us that it was good to be breathing again after all that time! The exhaust pipes had developed a coating of rust inside, and when the engine started to vibrate everything loose, it all blew out the tail-pipes and deposited itself in two neat little piles on the garage floor.... I took the car to the international Stude meet in Redwing last summer. The judges used the car (still dirty) to help determine what might be original on all the other 63's. Took home a second place in points with my dirty bird. Wes actually came down to the show, and for the first time in 23 years he drove the car (and can he drive!). How many entrants could say that not only was their car original, but that they still had the original driver to show too! Was in a second show shortly after that, and won a cup, which I promptly gave to Wes, who came to that show too. I figure that this car has now done its "museum time" and should be driven, as it was supposed to be driven and enjoyed. I intend to do just that, but before getting started in earnest, I figured that it would be good to digitally record the car so that it could be used as an accurate example of this mark. As I said, the car is, according to Wes, and a number of concourse judges, a rather original piece. One must remember that Studebaker was made up of its employees, and at least one who worked on the assembly line for the Avanti recently told me that certain features were "subject to change" at the whim of the workers, or the company. Anyone who is being hard-nosed about whether the horn is right side up, or upside down (both are reported) needs to spend less time on cars and more on therapy..... Greg Meyers