SeventhSon
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Posts posted by SeventhSon
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Hey Bill - you have some nice cars! My first thought was ignition problems when you were talking about how the Avanti was running. I don't think you can go wrong by following Ernie's advice and John's too. Maybe you should put a dual point distributor back in it - Dave Tbow probably has one or two laying around. When I was changing all the plugs, wires, dist. cap on my Avanti I had a look at the points and they looked good so I left them alone. When they worked on it at Alan Himes' shop they actually pulled the distributor and rebuilt it - they said it had the problems that Ernie mentioned in his posts. They also said that although the points were good, the pivot point was frozen and the little nub that engages with the cam on the dist. shaft was flexing at each high spot on the shaft. Wouldn't have lasted long like that. I'm glad they took care of that - it paid to have their experience working on the car.
I don't get to fool around with my Avanti during the day anymore, as I have my hands full trying to keep up with the office and field work. Today, on the way back to the office after another fun day in the field, I happened to notice a road sign as I passed through an intersection. Oh, I thought, MAACO is right up that road, so I did a u-turn and checked it out. I think I'll check out another one. This MAACO is all congested - no parking, cars all parked haphazardly, people juggling cars around. I did see what appeared to be a small 2 seater Ferrari that they were moving around. I'm not sure if it was even a Ferrari - it had the Ferrari taillights, but the car was tiny, like a TR7 or something. But man, it sounded right! Wicked, like a Ferrari would sound.
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Thanks John! I'll make that my next tasks on the old car. This week I will get by the local MAACO shop and talk to them - maybe even make an appointment to drop her off. Then I'll start pulling the chrome off of her - I'm excited! I'll post on here what is happening.
Today was daily driver fun. Last night when I got in my car to leave work I turned the key and heard click, click, click. It wasn't too much of a surprise, since every time I started it in the past week I could tell it wasn't cranking with as much "verve" as usual. I've had the car 3 weeks past 3 years - how do they design stuff to give up the ghost right after the warranty expires? I headed out late today to get a battery at Advance Auto, then hoped to run by the storage unit for a cruise in the Avanti. Well, Advance took some old oil I had and even tested the battery (yep, it was bad), but then they couldn't get past the goal line. Things stalled and I decided to head over to the storage unit and see if this extra battery I have there would fit. Nope, terminals are in the reverse positions. Went by Napa. Closed. So, I did what I should have done in the first place. Went to Sears, got the right battery (thanks to the guy working there), brought it home, installed it and took the old battery back to Sears. Job done, but no Avanti driving. Ah well, gotta set priorities sometimes.
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Thanks Ernie, John and John! I really appreciate the info and encouragement. I get frustrated when I can't get by the storage unit and make progress, but I just have to be patient and take it step by step. It'll get done eventually. I think that MAACO will be the way to go, as I am not looking for show car quality - just something presentable. Interesting thing - when I was searching for a storage unit to put my Avanti I researched all the nearby storage places and one of the reasons I picked the one I picked is because the local MAACO outlet was less than a mile away. So, I rented the storage unit and a couple of months later I took a ride by the MAACO shop to check out what they could do. CLOSED. Yep, they closed that MAACO. But they have others - just further away.
I will keep moving forward as I get time, then I'll take it to MAACO and see what they say. I can strip the paint and remove the bumpers and chrome, etc. to get it ready.
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Absolutely no Avanti fun this week. Work, grinding work - I spent 12 hours at the hospital job on Wednesday, putting stakes in the ground. Sounds easier than it was. I got home and ate something, laid on the couch and turned this way and that to alleviate the cramps in my old muscles. Have you ever been too tired to sleep? Well, I knew that was coming, so I took one of those combination pain/sleep pills (Advil PM). Ahhh, blessed rest, until I had to get up and head out again and do it again. Enough about me.
I called a fellow (who shall remain anonymous) the other day and innocently asked him about Avanti paint jobs. I figured if I didn't have time to paint the car myself, then maybe I could pay someone to paint it. Mr. Anonymous gave me the name of someone who could paint the car.
"Is he reasonable?", I asked.
"More so than this other fellow I told you about - the one I can't recall his name."
"Okay then."
Today, I finally got around to calling Mr. Anonymous. I told him what I had, inquired as to what something like that would run.
"Well, ballpark, and this is rough because I haven't seen the car, but ballpark could run anywhere from 12, to 18 to 24."
"You're talking thousands, aren't you?"
"Oh yes."
"Ah, you're doing show car quality - concours type stuff."
"Well, yes, it'll look nice."
It had better.
So much for reasonable - I'll keep my old Avanti on the schedule and pray for some free time to work on it myself.
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Sunday evening, another week looms ahead. Not much to report on the Avanti, other than to say I did get to the storage unit this evening to take her out for a drive. I drove around a bit, then figured I should throw in a little fresh gas to keep the gas in the tank from getting stale. I stopped at my usual place and got 10 bucks worth. Then the old girl wouldn't start - I've heard a couple of other Avanti owners say they have trouble getting theirs to start when they've been running a while. I'm sort of used to it, really. It's happened a few times - I have learned to just sit for a spell, then crank her and she usually fires right up. Today, I pushed the old car back from the gas pumps and into a parking space. I waited five, then cranked it. Wasn't happening. I waited five more - then cranked again. This time I just rested my foot on the accelerator pedal, barely applying any pressure. She fired right up, and had a very smooth feel to the idle. Hmmm...maybe that's the trick - wait five, then barely give any gas when cranking. I'm sure I'll get to try it again.
I've been so busy at work that I haven't had time to work on the paint stripping. I was going to do it today but then I read the can of stripper. Pretty noxious stuff, according to the directions on the can. I guess it would have to be to pull the paint off of something! Well, I didn't have time to get into all the precautions and cleanup that was going to be necessary, so it'll have to wait.
Since unimogjohn has been having a thrilling time with his rear springs I decided to poke my head under the car and see how mine look. I knew that the spring bushings were toast (on this car, imagine!), so that was already on the docket. But today I stepped back from the car as I got ready to put it to bed. The rear end is a bit flat - doesn't seem to have that Avanti stance. I took a flashlight and peered under the rear of the car. No broken leafs, but the springs look right toasty, along with the pads, u-bolts, etc. So, a rear spring refresh goes on the list.
Let's see, paint job, hog troughs, rear springs, probably clutch and pressure plate too. Ah, looks like lots 'o fun in store for me and my wallet!
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If the bushing is rubber, the bolt is clamping the inner tube which is vulcanized to the rubber. There is no movement allowed. If the bolt is not tight for one reason or another, the inner tube is moving. creating nasty noises.
Ah well, so much for my theory. No "hole shots" for me!
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Wow John - looks like that was a workout. I got to thinking (uh oh) and I was wondering if the fact that the spring bolts and bushings being frozen may have caused that spring to break? I'm not sure how much "give" the bushing point has, if any. Like a pivot point, if it was frozen then it might have put extra tension on the spring and caused the break. Just pondering, really.
If I ever get around to doing mine I think I will soak the bushings and bolts repeatedly for a week or two with Kroil, then take the car out a do a series of "hole shots" to see if the Avanti power frees up the stuck bushings. Or maybe take it on a "cowpath" country road, bouncing up and down over bumps!
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Ernie - you are a font of knowledge on these Avantis (I'm not being facetious here). I have to ask, though, why in the world did you ever sell that '64? I believe they would have to bury me in mine if mine was ever as nice as yours!
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John, I bet you're right - mine have become one piece, I am sure. I know I need bushings in mine - it will have to wait until I have the energy to tackle it. That might be a lonnnng time!
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Very odd that the brakes won't work properly with all that bleeding. Is your booster OK? Vacuum lines? Strange that the brake performance is poor when running, are you sure the vacuum lines are hooked up properly? How about the check valve on the booster - almost sounds like a vacuum problem. That could also be part of your rough running problem - what does your vacuum gauge show while idling? How about running full tilt? Oh, that's right - you might not want to go full tilt with no brakes!
Not much happening in my Avanti world today - a long day of work for me in the field. Whew! I'm not as young as I used to be!
I did see a package on the stoop when I arrived home tonight - my paint stripper! Now I just have to find the time to see how it works.
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I was going to replace the bushings on my rear springs. Now I'm not.
I'm not seeing pictures :confused: Is it me??
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Well, the rain kept me out of the field today, so I had a little visit to the storage shed at lunch. More of the same, scrape, scrape, scrape. I don't know who is having more fun, me or unimogjohn, who is wrestling with the rear springs on his Avanti. (Well, I do know who is having more fun, definitely John!) I remember a while back, Dave Tbow telling me that you can't get the rear springs off the Avanti, like they had installed them on the assembly line, then put the body on, thereby locking everything in place. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about at the time, but now I think I know. Hang in there John!
So, I scraped a little more paint today, looks like it's gonna be a long haul here folks. It's boring, I know, so if you want to come back in 6 months I'll probably be just about finished with the "Well, I scraped some more paint today" posts. I'm beginning to realize why they get 10 thousand dollars to paint one of these things....
Below, besides the freshly scraped paint, you can see a nice crack that I am going to have to repair. No, I didn't crack it - it came standard equipment from Texas.
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Thanks for the info John. Hmmm, I guess I should have left the vent cover and kick pad off. Doh! I hate when that happens!
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Well,I ordered the paint stripper - now I just have to wait for it to get here. Meantime, I stopped by Home Depot this afternoon to check out their selection of razor scrapers. I picked up a couple of more to add to my collection - I have my full contingent of scrapers now. I headed out to the storage unit late this afternoon to try them out. The long handle one is much better than the one I was using before - more leverage, I suppose. Scrape, scrape, scrape it went, until I ran out of time - if I could get a full day on the task I am sure I would be pleased with the progress. Ah well, my work schedule is filled up this week so it'll be a few days before I can get back to it, looks like.
Another thing I was looking at this evening was the emblem removal for the side "Supercharged" emblem and the front "Avanti" emblem. I haven't really gotten into the removal yet - just starting to figure it out so I can proceed when ready. Not sure about how to get behind the "Supercharged" emblem - I believe I remember reading on unimogjohn's Avanti Refresh blog that you need tiny hands to get those off. Leaves me out....
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Well, I managed a quick trip to the storage unit today at lunch. I gotta get more time over there if I expect to make progress. And of course the humidity has returned, so I'm drenched after a few minutes. But, it's fun, even if the visits are short. I'm getting a hankering to put in for a day of leave and spend the whole day at the storage unit working on getting the paint off the beast. Today, after scraping a little more on the roof, I tried out removing the paint from the hood - hmmm, the hood paint is a bit tighter than the roof paint. It was difficult to get a toehold under the paint and get some of it off. But I made some progress anyway. A little.
I checked out some paint strippers online and at Home Depot since I haven't ordered the POR 15 stripper yet. But I wanted to see how a stripper would work in the meantime so I checked some out. Most of the Home Depot stuff says "not for fiberglass" - the only one I was tempted to try was Citrustrip. But I'm not sure about that, even. I don't want to mess anything up, so I left Home Depot empty handed. I think I'll just keep scraping away until the right stripper arrives - as a matter of fact, I think I'll go shopping right now for some.
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John - I believe Dave Tbow has the springs too. Heavy duty set. Not sure of the cost though.
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I said tomorrow, but I couldn't wait. So here it is:
Sweet Avanti - I love the Studebaker white rims!
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No Avanti fun to report - I've been out in the field the past couple of days so I can't get to the storage unit at lunch time. Since the big Powerball lottery is in the news lately I must confess I fantasize about what I would do if I had the planets all line up and the stars shine down upon me and I got to stand there with the big faux check for $150 million. First thing I would do is go hunting for a 15 car garage - then I would call up Reliable auto haulers and send my old Avanti down to the Solanki brothers in Georgia. I would say, "Fix it up just like this one":
That Avanti is the beautiful work of art accomplished by Nimesh Solanki, with help from his brother Deepesh, I'm sure. What can I say, the guys know their stuff. Nimesh sold the Avanti in this video, mainly because it was such a show car that he feared driving it in public. Heck, I fear driving my Hyundai in public anymore, so I know what he means. Nothing like a texting twenty something running you into a tree while you're driving a jewel. When Nimesh had this beauty on eBay I sat here one Sunday night right before the auction closed crunching numbers in my head, "What if I got a ten year loan....? Hmmm..., you think my wife would leave me if I bought this...? I wonder if I can sleep in it....?"
Tomorrow I'll post a video of the latest Nimesh Avanti. I think it's as nice as the one he sold. Almost.
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Yep, John, I'm excited about getting started! I hope I am as excited in 8 weeks - I'll keep in mind the little bites advice.
Thanks Erinie! I'll get some of that stripper and give it a try.
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True about the money, John, it's the tangible things that matter, I suppose. Like fast old cars and loving wives.
Yesterday, after the show and a trip out to the monied enclave of Middleburg (in the daily driver, not the Avanti, unfortunately) we stopped by Lowe's on the way home. I wanted to check out their selection of razor scrapers - I found a few I thought might work well so I picked them up. I also got a cheapo sanding block. When we arrived home my wife asked me not to sand the car. She's concerned about the fine paint and fiberglass dust particles invading my lungs (see, I told you it was good to have a loving wife). So I decided to do the Ernie method of Avanti paint removal - scrape off some paint, use paint stripper on the rest. So, no sanding, or none to speak of. There will be light sanding of hole filler and primer, but not wholesale body shop sanding.
So today, at lunch as usual, I headed to the storage unit to test out my scrapers. I have a wide one that is razor sharp, a tiny baby razor scraper, and a thicker solid blade scraper. I gave the roof a test run with the wide razor scraper. Not bad - peeled the maroon paint off pretty well. Not really surprising, since that paint is the Earl Shieb special, "I'll paint any car for ninnnety-nine dollars!" (Yep, I used to see that commercial when I was a kid, then saw it again last week on American Pickers). Some of the paint stuck pretty well, but most peeled right off. The paint underneath the maroon wasn't coming off so easily, but that is factory paint for you, I suppose.
After a while I declared the scraper test a success and proceeded to wash the front clip of the car again. Except for the nose. I didn't have enough water in my carry along jugs for that. Next time the old girl gets her nose washed. After checking back in at the office I had a look at the Eastwood website for paint stripper - yep, they have it. 70 bucks for a gallon. Yow! Hehe - it's just money, like John said. At work we have a total of 3 clients who subscribe to that line of thought. They are a pleasure to work for. Most people only care about how much it's gonna cost - not quality, not honesty, just the bottom line. Ya get what ya pay for, eh?
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Always a pleasure to see you too, John. And thank you for reminding me that there is a pretty cool car show every Sunday morning less than a mile from my house. Geez - I gotta get my head out of the clouds!
I'm glad the old Avanti has some fans out there - makes all the work worth it. That, plus driving it around whenever I can! :cool:
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John Byrd - I'm stuck with the brakes I got! I spent all my money on new calipers, rotors, pads, etc.!
I wasn't going to visit the Avanti this weekend, as I was doing a plumbing repair in the house on Saturday, along with some work related to my paying job. But then unimogjohn emailed that they were going to "Cars & Coffee" in my neighborhood. So I put in a request for some time off and went out early this morning and fetched the old Avanti for a trip to her very first "show", at least since I have owned her. Upon arrival I found John and Alice's Jaguar surrounded by a host of other cars. I went trolling for a spot to park the old girl - the nice weather had brought lots of cars out. After cruising a couple of aisles I spied a 1950 Studebaker "rat rod" pickup with a couple of vacant spaces next door. I decided to snag a spot next to the '50 and start our own little Studebaker section.
I was pleasantly surprised with the interest the Avanti brought - I barely had her parked when a gentleman said, "OK, let's drop the suspense, what's under the hood?". I popped the hood release and raised the hood. "Oh yeahhhh", said the man. Made me feel good that folks appreciated what I've been doing for a year and a half. Lots of people took pictures and asked questions - all in all, it was a fun time. And when I finally got to talk to the fellow with the '50 Studebaker pickup he joked that we were "raising the property values" in the neighborhood with our little Studebaker section.
I was able to get some pics of the cars - my car next to the pickup, a few shots of the pickup, a very nice '59 Cadillac convertible, and a sweet '59(?) Jaguar, more reminiscent of a Bentley than the sports cars Jaguars are known for. A couple of sweet cars that I spied but got away before I could get to them - a '59 (yep, good year) Chevrolet Impala that sounded monstrous and looked equally bad, and a '67 Chevelle big block just like the one a friend of mine had 30 years ago. A brute force machine, that '67 Chevelle was everything a muscle car was supposed to be, in my opinion, of course.
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Hey brother Brian. Once they got my brakes working they seem to be doing OK (knock on wood), but I have heard all the stories of the brake problems. I hope I don't experience any troubles :eek:. Every time I hear anything about Avanti brakes I remember the time your '64 needed front pads. You had to work so you left the brake job to brother Kevin and his assistant, yours truly. We needed brake pads, so we decided to head over to the parts house (I believe Riverdale Auto Parts). What car did we take? Why, the one that needed brakes! Why? Because it was fast! What followed was a harrowing blast around the Beltway, with Kevin weaving in and out of traffic at 90+ miles per hour, jamming on and pumping the brakes furiously (with worn out pads scraping metal to metal) every time some slow poke changed lanes and got in our way. Boy, what fun! Those were the days! Youth sure was great, eh? When we too full of life to be scared of anything.
The Old Car Guys Lottery Pool is hereby open. Please send your money to me and I'll buy the tickets!
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European cars then had a lot of oil because they could be driven at high speed for a long time. It was not the case with US cars; they can go fast but for a short moment as the oil is getting too hot and the lubricating film is getting bad. With more oil in the pan (or an engine oil cooler), US cars could achieve the same
Wow! That's a lot of oil. My Volvo P1800 had an oil temp gauge and I always wondered why I never saw that on an American car.
Avanti Rescue
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Welcome, and thanks for checking it out! Hopefully, folks won't give up on me during this rough patch where can't get to work on the car. But I have plans for the coming weeks and months. Saturday I plan on taking the old girl to MAACO to see if they can put some color on it. If we can get set on a price and time frame I will start pulling the chrome off in preparation for the body work. After the paint job and all the chrome goes back on I will look into replacing the rear springs. Other fun on tap: hog troughs, paint the wheels, maybe clutch assembly, etc, etc. Woohoo!