WCP  (SDC Forum)  Dec 2011
Location
    Glenburnie, Ontario, Canada.

Avanti Frame mounts

    Studebaker used all steel shims between the body and frame mounts, with the exception of 3 rubber pads (tire tread)
 placed on the x-member at the rear footwell location and the center of the crossmember under the fuel tank location. I 
see no point in adding neoprene and may cause problems. Start shimming by placing 1/4" shims on the support towers
 at the rear and 1/2" shims at the cowl inner mounts. Then see what you have got in clearance at all the other mount
 locations. If the rad support is in contact with the frame, increase the shims at the cowl mounts to give at least a 1/4"
clearance at the rad cradle. The rad cradle will be the last thing to shim. You may need to adjust one or more of these 1st 
4 shims to make side to side clearances acceptable due to possible twist in either the frame or body. Make sure that you
 have at least 1/16-1/8" clearance on all frame outrigger mounts. If not, go back and increase the cowl mount shims to yield
 that state. Don't be surprised if you end up with total shim thickness of 3/4" at some locations. Then adjust all shims to a 
maximum clearance (daylight) of 1/16" (0" is best). Put in the body mount bolts and washers and snub up. Now shim the
 rad cradle while providing slight upward lift of the cradle. As bezhawk pointed out, you want to have no downward stress 
on the front fender section. Slight upward stress is OK to offset the weight of the battery, but only slight. I prefer to fabricate
 a frame mounted support (rubber padded) to carry the battery weight as this will eliminate cracking and failure of the fender
 apron at the battery. The shimming process takes a while, but once you have established solid contact between the body
 and frame, the body can be raised or lowered by modifying each shim pack the same amount. You can also taper the
 adjustments front to back, but this gets more difficult to avoid pulling the body down more than the recommended 1/16".