Topic: 2 Men & a Floorpan #355 - Avanti fiberglas floorpan at the Molded Fiber Glass Co

[Otto Puzzell]

Made in USA?

Yes

[fyreline]

How about the Studebaker Avanti?

[Otto Puzzell]

How about the Studebaker Avanti?

That's half of the answer! Locked for fyreline

[fyreline]

The Molded Fiber Glass Company of Ashtabula, Ohio manufactured this floorpan (among other parts) for the Studebaker Avanti.

[Otto Puzzell]

That's it!

[Otto Puzzell]

GM product?

No sir, though it was replaced by one. Sort of.....

Ray - by way of explanation. The more-or-less original Avanti molds, tooling and plant space were sold to two South Bend, Indiana, Studebaker dealers, Nate Altman and Leo Newman, the first of a succession of entrepreneurs to manufacture small numbers of Avanti replicas (usually called Avanti II's) for decades. A production version of the Avanti AVX - confusingly dubbed Avanti II,  and based on the Pontiac Firebird - went on sale in 2003 

[RayTheRat]

Thanks.  Now it's a little clearer.  I didn't know that the Avanti IIs were Firebird based.

RtR

[sixtee5cuda]

The Firebird connection only existed after 2003 or so.  Just before that, they were Mustang-based.  But for decades, they were very similar to the original Studebaker Avanti, except for the 350 Chev under the hood.

[Zerk]

As time goes forward, it will, I think, make sense.

"...Avanti (in most uses, Italian for ahead, forward, or before) may refer to:

The Studebaker Avanti, a model of automobile built by Studebaker
Avanti cars (non-Studebaker), a replica model by Avanti Motor Corporation following the bankruptcy of Studebaker..."

I see what you did, there