Tom's Purple Passion

One of my passions is working on what I like to call "Tired Iron" and without boring you completely, I wanted you to see what I'm working on now.

Have you ever seen one of these before?  I'd bet the answer is no, because the car is from 1963 originally, not many were made and they were made by a company that's no longer in business.  Back in the early 60's a Washington state native was appointed president of the company with the idea of building a muscle car and in so doing, bringing 'cool' to the name Studebaker! 

He succeeded with the Avanti, which, at the time, set the land speed record for the fastest production car in the country.  Even after Studebaker stopped making cars, an enthusiast bought the rights and all the left-over parts to continue making them.  In various forms, the Avanti was in almost continuous production until 2006!

Mine is from the first year, 1963, and I have quite a bit to do before it's road-worthy again.  It was in a barn, sitting for several years.  In fact, mice had moved in and my first job was to clean things up.  The previous owner tried to hook up a battery and start the car, but when the wiring began to smoke, we pushed it on the trailer instead.  I like to do as much of the work as I can, in that I'm the cheapest labor I can find (hee hee) and there's that sense of accomplishment thing that goes with it.

So if you're not completely bored reading about my car project, I'll update you from time to time and when the day comes I drive it to work, I'll post a photo!  It really is a cool car.