…making your dream car a reality
This one brings home the trophies and ribbons! Auto Alchemy restored Bill Clark’s 63 R-2 which he debuted at the 2019 Amelia Island Concours.
The car has won:
Post-War American – Best in Class 2019 – St. Michaels Concours – Easton MD
Jr. show award at the 2019 AACA show – Parsippany, New Jersey
Senior Award in a 2019 AACA show
Best in Class at the 14th Annual Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance.
Congratulations Bill!
An update for the Stude community. I am no longer taking on new resto jobs. It’s time for me to scale back and move toward retirement. My health issues have slowed my output and ability to work on these cars.
First and foremost, I now need to attend to keeping myself as healthy as possible while waiting for a kidney transplant. The good news is that I have accrued almost 2 years of wait time on the national and on my local kidney transplant hospital lists (which can range from a 3 to 5 year wait). My transplant team believes a surgical opportunity will happen within the next 10 months.
Like old car parts, these old guy body parts are precious few. So I wait…….
However, if any of you reading this have a spare kidney to donate, let me know. These days a trade it forward program is in place, so a perfect kidney match is not necessary. Your kidney will be given to someone other (who is a good match) and this will shoot me to the top of the wait list for my replacement, lessening my wait time.
If only I could repair my own kidney. wink!
For the present, I will continue to restore gauges, blowers, carburetors and other smaller car parts. Contact me for more info about this….
This ’64 Daytona is a rare bird – one of only 703 convertibles produced in the final year of operations at South Bend. The paint color is Jet Green, which is a Studebaker color. The original body color (as delivered from the factory) was Desert Sand. Not one of the most exciting Stude paint colors.
I replaced suspension, brakes, did body and paint and some engine work.
Installed new upholstery and carpet and topped it off with a new white convertible roof. I also repainted the interior trim, steering wheel and column.
Did a complete disassembly of the body for repair work and paint. The car had several points of previous damage – shoddily covered up with bondo, more bondo and failing paint over rust. A not uncommon condition for a 63 year old metal car.
I replaced the front lower valance and replaced the inner fender on the driver’s side with the correct two light panel. Cleaned/refurbed the light housings to replace the front park light lens. I installed a re-chromed rear bumper and replaced the front one with a new bumper. New window and door weather striping all around. Also welded on the correct brackets for the dampener weights in the front of the car, which were missing.
The owner, who does some of his own mechanic’n will install the front grill, the headlights: rims and lens and finish the detail work, such as painting the rims and other small jobs.
Minimal engine work was done. I freed up the valves, rebuilt the distributor and changed the carb to a four barrel with an aluminum Quademon intake manifold. This manifold is a rare aftermarket Studebaker piece of speed equipment. Then tuned it – this old car now starts on the first crank and purrs like a kitten.
Yep….I restore more than just Avantis!
My work on this Daytona is finished and it’s ready to roll – waiting for owner pickup. What a classy ride! As I think of driving this baby with a light breeze blowing back my hair…I’m a bit jealous.
1964 in Avanti white factory color. Supercharged 289 engine bored out and upgraded to 299 with carb replacement of a modern Sniper II fuel injection and timing control.
The Sniper creates higher fuel pressure, reducing or completely stopping that good old vapor lock. It changes ignition timing to compensate for the blower boost. It can be computer programmed to change the air/fuel ratio and idle speed and the Sniper can be put on any engine size.
If you’re not restoring your car to its original state, I recommend this engine upgrade for better performance and it works with today’s higher volatility fuels. When Avantis were manufactured, fuel was a different beast. Gas was formulated for lower fuel pressure and with higher octanes.
I installed an overdrive transmission – a modern 5 speed Tremec. The fifth gear is the overdrive. You can haul butt off the line and drive on the interstate at higher speeds without over-revving.
This car has Turner 4 wheel disc brakes. You’ll be able to stop on a dime if the car ahead of you is driven by an actual, fallible human who slams on their brakes.
Because I fabricated new mounting points for the supercharger and the alternator, the original power steering pump would not fit. I upgraded the steering, losing the hoses and the leaky control valve. The new steering is all electric, inline in the column and leaves behind the days of building arm muscles while trying to park the car. Today’s tires, unlike the original bias ply narrow tires, have a larger contact area which take more physical effort to overcome steering resistance.
Almost ready to begin painting…a bit more smooth-sanding and then into the booth it goes for final cleaning/masking before the prime coat is laid down.
This is a rare Daytona convertible, only 702 were produced by the Southbend Factory. This car was from the last year of convertible production.
I’m spraying it a factory color, Jet Green. Replaced the battery acid damaged inner fender and battery tray on driver’s side. Installed the correct dual headlight air deflector. Rebuilt the convertible top pump, added new pump lines and actuation cylinders. Refurbished the steering wheel and column. New rag top is waiting to be installed along with new carpet, new upholstery and new windlace. Replaced the wiper motor with a refurbished one and put in a new master cylinder. The resto-chef’s kiss is the Turner Brake system!
This is a sweet ride for catching summer air.
SOLD! This R3 Avanti will soon be offered for sale at Hymans, Ltd in St Louis. The last pieces of restoration are now finished and it’s headed into the city for the next phase of it’s life. Resto by Brad.
Always a joy, when a freshly rebuilt carb bolts on and runs like this…..
Contact Brad for your next carburetor rebuild at Bez Auto Alchemy.
Is your surge tank leaking, corroded, in need of help? I repair these tanks, if they aren’t too far gone due to cracks in the metal tank body.
Disassembled tank. Only four parts in a surge tank – top and bottom covers, inner baffle and the holding bracket. The solder holding the top and bottom covers together can fail. It corrodes, then blows out from years of pressure as part of the radiator system, leaving gaps that leak coolant. On these 60 year old cars, rust can be a problem. The bracket becomes rusty, the rust expands and cracks the underside of the surge tank.
Received a question about this surge tank: “Why is the tank not painted black ala original?” Answer: Normally a surge tank is painted black, but this surge tank will be installed on an R3, which was a Paxton engine. Paxton painted the R3 surge tanks red and shipped these engines to Studebaker where they were installed on the assembly line at the Studebaker factory in South Bend, IN.
As good as new when the tank repair is finished.
Update!! This R4 Avanti is for sale by owner. Contact us for more details….
When a restorer works on a car like this, it’s a large time and money investment. This car had significant damage. A full body off restoration was done with an interior revamp and some fun resto-mod tweeks. The upper engine and carb were rebuilt, a new blower was added, mechanical systems were upgraded, custom parts were engineered and machined, AC was custom fit under the hood, extensive body work was done and new paint was sprayed. It was a lengthy restoration process. With Bez Auto Alchemy restorations, you get in-depth professional restoration work and in this case, customization from a knowledgeable repair, fabrication expert.
There is very little work that is jobbed out by Auto Alchemy. Upholstery, original to the car radio repair and engine machining are the exceptions. Everything else is done by Brad, in-house, which keeps the quality control intact.
A new front nose panel was fit and fiberglassed in and the frame was undercoated with a zinc chromate treatment. This is the real deal – military spec chromate (not a recent version with the good protective chemicals removed).
—Kids don’t spray this at home! Take your frame to a pro for this spray work—
You do not want sniff poisonous chromate fumes.
The frame was stripped using a sandblast method, cleaned and metal finished smooth, then sprayed with the zinc chromate, which is a superior galvanizing rust preventative. A sealer coat of factory black paint was sprayed over the zinc chromate.
Is it overkill or necessary to do this type of frame coating? No – it’s a choice: you crawl under your car and spray rust stop on the frame every year or add a preventive when you do the frame off. This is especially important, if you’re living/driving in wet environments.
The brakes were upgraded to modern Wilwood brakes to tame the power of this beast’s engine. Stainless steel brake lines with brass fittings were installed. The wheels on this Avanti are original magnesium Halibrands – not after market re-pops. Dialing in the correct settings.
Starfire White paint color from Lexus – a three-stage pearl paint was applied after weeks of fiberglass repair and body prep. From one light direction the paint shimmers silver, from another it glows pearl white. When you get up close you see the array of finely cut pearl that gives this car its shimmering presence. Sparkle, shimmer and glow. This car paint has it all going on.
The dash was fitted with a carbon fiber inlay, as well as a carbon fiber console insert. Bright LED bulbs light the instrument cluster, the headlights and tail lights.
The original radio was retro-fitted with five channel output, Bluetooth, a class A Kenwood amp, JBL component speakers on the kick panels, tweeters mounted in the front upper side panels and two hidden 6×9″ rear deck speakers. This stereo system rocks!!
Engine Work – the original conversion of the 289 engine to R4 was done a number of years ago. When the car was brought to Brad, he reworked several elements of the previous conversion. He rebuilt the dual carbs with a complete interior – exterior clean, it was re-jetted and the venturis were sleeved to improve throttle response – to ensure it is not over-carburated. AC and a Novi blower with serpentine belt drive were installed with custom made engine bracketry. The upgraded blower breathes additional life into the engine. The custom chrome tube airflow system was hand fabricated.
The brake master cylinder was upgraded to hydroboost which runs off the power steering. When you’re running a high output supercharger (up to 20 pounds of boost) such as this Novi, you will lose manifold vacuum. A regular Studebaker supercharger produces less than 5 pounds of boost. The addition of a hydroboost cylinder provides reliable braking for this powerful engine.
Tribute R4 / 1963 Avanti debuted at the annual MCACN Show in Chicago. This is not an orginal R4 produced by the “speed shop” Granitelli Brothers, this is a modern version of that original Avanti R4 retrofitting.
This R4 is a hot car! As muscled and powerful as any of the 60’s cars. Do you love the mad roar of a high output engine and the whistle of a blower? This car has both! It’s a stunner, ready for the track or the road. Street-smart, fun and fast!
If your gauges, clocks or radios are no longer working, we can repair them for you. Has your clock stopped working? Do you need your radio repaired or want it upgraded with modern internal components, including Bluetooth?
We can do this for you….send them to us. We’ll repair, refurbish and upgrade them.
We open the gauges, clean them, refurbish the face plates and needles, polish the glass and have the rings re-chromed, if necessary. They look like new when we’re done with them.
Bez Auto Alchemy