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Thread: 1969 Avanti Battery Tray restoration and upgrade

  1. #1
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    1969 Avanti Battery Tray restoration and upgrade

    As some of you may know I recently acquired my dads 1969 Avanti II after his death last year. The car was
    originally from California, and now its back from a 20 year vacation in Michigan. It spent most of its time in a
    garage, years ago it received a 1989 Camaro TH700R4 that was in my 1960 Hawk, and sports my Avantis '63
    steering wheel (which will go into storage after I get a Grant replacement for it).

    The car has the factory Corvette 327 engine, which I got running after first getting a battery to sit under the
    hood in the factory location. Avantis are known for having blown out battery boxes, the box was molded into
    the fiberglas fender and without enough bracing to handle the abuse. Most look like this by now ....



    with this piece no longer attached ...



    So the quest to fix this began. Many suggested to put the battery in the trunk, but I really didnt want to deal
    with that effort, back where its supposed to go was best. Much fiberglass work was what I was told, but I did
    not see a reason for it to be fiberglass, why not attach it better? I wanted to be sure that the mod would allow
    me to lower the body later to Studebaker height (by removing the spacers) after I visit the engine height. So
    attaching to the FRAME was key. I also wanted to go to a side terminal GM style battery and get away from
    the top terminal setup.

    First was to get a battery tray .. I wanted one with some material attached to work with, this 1990's Chevy
    Suburban looked like it would work nicely.

















    - - - Updated - - -

    Obviously the long metal piece spot welded to it wouldnt work given the angle they put the battery at and how
    close the frame sits below so it had to be bent over. After a few measurements I found that the thickness of
    a 2x4 would space the box where I wanted it off the nuts that hold the sway bar stand. For a Studebaker the
    body sits lower, so I feel this piece can be removed the holes drilled through the tray at these locations. Since
    the body is at this height now, that will have to wait.









    Next was some trial fitting, some guesswork and some luck. Cutting off the excess material not needed...





    They have a stud on this corner. There was still material left on the battery box in the fender, so a hole was
    drilled here to use it.





    Marked with a sharpie.



    - - - Updated - - -

    Time to remove more material not need ...



    Some guess work on hole locations by marking with the tray sitting ON the sway bar bolts ..





    A couple "Hail Mary" holes drilled... (one had to be slotted after trial fit)



    Flattened this a bit as the room next to the inner fender looked tight (I think it would have worked, but whatever)





    The stud to bolt to the fender below..



    Got dead on with one hole, the other needed slotting.



    Trial fit looks good..





    - - - Updated - - -

    Holes drilled and ready for final fitment check.



    Everything checked out so add some paint ..





    Bolted up.



    I through bolted the "tab" sticking up on the outer corner, feels pretty stout.



    Trial fit with a used battery looks good. This is a 75 series GM battery that fits Camaro, Caprice, Impala etc ...



    Napa had a battery sale .. AAA discount and a 10 dollar rebate ..





    Bought this conversion cable end from Oreillys .. you cut off the top terminal end and slide into the end tighten a set screw.





    Tom
    '63 Avanti R1, '03 Mustang Cobra 13" front disc/98 GT rear brakes, 03 Cobra 17" wheels, GM alt, 97 Z28 leather seats, TKO 5-spd, Ported heads w/SST full flow valves.
    Check out my disc brake adapters to install 1994-2004 Mustang disc brakes on your Studebaker!!
    https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...bracket-update
    I have also written many TECH how to articles, do a search for my Forum name to find them

  2. #2
    Golden Hawk Member BobPalma's Avatar
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    'Nice work, Tom...and lots of it! Good hold-down, too! BP
    We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

    Ayn Rand:
    "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

    G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

  3. #3
    Silver Hawk Member bezhawk's Avatar
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    They make AGM batteries now, that are smaller lighter, and have twice the CC amps of original. Then they wouldn't bust out the fiberglass over bumps.
    Last edited by bezhawk; 03-18-2016 at 09:34 AM.
    Bez Auto Alchemy
    573-318-8948
    https://bezautoalchemy.com


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  4. #4
    President Member
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    Thanks Bob, I like this design battery much better then the top post over the top hold-down. They do make this battery in a top AND side terminal if one didnt want to change ends.

    Bez, im sure there are better/lighter batteries now, unfortunately many Avantis have long since lost their bottoms.

    This might be more common on the II, with the body raised up, it looks like if the spacers were removed the frame would better support the battery.

    Tom
    '63 Avanti R1, '03 Mustang Cobra 13" front disc/98 GT rear brakes, 03 Cobra 17" wheels, GM alt, 97 Z28 leather seats, TKO 5-spd, Ported heads w/SST full flow valves.
    Check out my disc brake adapters to install 1994-2004 Mustang disc brakes on your Studebaker!!
    https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...bracket-update
    I have also written many TECH how to articles, do a search for my Forum name to find them

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