[From the "What Goes Here" file]

2 hours ago, pantera928 said:

$4K to redo the A/C?! That is incredible. THe last Alfa Romeo I did I spent under $1K and replaced everything

I don't know what it is.  I have a small car collection.  I tell people that I do most of my own work, with the exception of AC, transmission, and paint.  Still, they BS me like I am 17.  I have a very nice Avanti, I am sure members have ones here that are even nicer.  Why do they think they can get away with this BS?  The same in the paint world.

My son had an older 318i with some paint lift on the roof and trunk, the hood was surprisingly OK.  I was getting quotes for $2k to $3k and more.  I finally took it to a guy who is very good but has a shop in a not particularly nice town.  $550, computer matched paint.  I have associates that said, yeah, that's a good deal, but it will fade horribly.  5 years later, and it still has not faded and looks great.

I must have a sign on my back that I cannot see that says "This guy's an idiot and will pay anything you ask him to".

[From the "What Goes Here" file]

6 hours ago, R2W55 said:

I used VTA-07321-vvc from Summit. It does not have the low pressure switch output but does have a sight glass

Of course now you will need to completely evacuate and clean the system before a recharge

For right now, I just want to put something in there for the hoses to screw into.  Did you have to use adaptors with yours or did the stock fittings on the hoses just screw on fine?

[From the "What Goes Here" file]

7 hours ago, Jim78 said:

That would be the location for the drier.  These are available from several sources.  I found mine on Amazon.

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003R3VKI8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

If your system uses a binary pressure switch in the compressor clutch circuit, the switch would be ordered separately.  My '78 did not have one, but I added it to protect the compressor. 

Do both these and the Summit that R2W55 recommended have fittings that match the stock Avanti fittings?  I would rather that than fool around with a bunch of adapters....every joint has another potential leaking point!!!!

[From the "What Goes Here" file]

4 hours ago, pantera928 said:

I vote for the expensive A/C guy taking it. No idea why though.

I have no idea either.  I remember the place had one of those yelp ratings that were either four stars or 1 star, with people complaining about his grumpiness but that he was highly knowlegeable.

I don't know if it's because I've gotten to the age I am, or my brain chemistry had changed, or both, but next time I come across one of those guys who is kind of a jerk but "you just put up with it because he's great" I am just going to leave.  I didn't like his "everything has to be replaced" BS, and I didn't like him.

But I agree....a guy who is odd inspecting your system and giving you a $4k quote vs. the chance of someone getting into my backyard without me or my dogs noticing, popping the hood, and removing the unit is beyond believability.

Perhaps he liked the originality of the thing.....

[From the "What Goes Here" file]

Thanks guys.  I even saw one on Amazon that has an angle bracket that looks like it will bolt in where the old one was.

Still a mystery to me how something like that could completely disappear...

[From the "What Goes Here" file]

Hi there folks, long time since I have been here.  I have a frustrating mystery that I could use other sets of eyes on.

I have a 1980 Avanti II, have had it since 1998.  It had been off the road for a while due to totally shot brakes and mufflers.  About 2 years ago I replaced the cat and all the pipes and mufflers, then I did the brakes, and I replaced every single component to get the brakes working decently.

This past year the car has again gone into my garage until I can get to a major power steering issue, but that is not my problem.  I had to move the car and do a few things with it, and I suddenly noticed what you see in the picture below.  Not only is something missing, I don't know how I missed that it was missing.

I believe the AC dryer is complete gone.  This picture is the passenger side, near the front.  The upper hose is coming from the firewall, the other appears to go into the body and then go into the AC condenser in front of the radiator.

 

What are the thoughts here?  I cannot believe that someone climbed into my backyard over the fence, got into my car, and unbolted an old, likely leaking AC drier and bracket from my car.  All I can think of is right before I took the car off the road again, I took it to an AC shop to get an evaluation.  This guy wanted to change everything and charge me thousands.  I turned his offer down, and paid the $75 inspection fee.  Could that guy have swiped it because he needed it?  Or is there test equipment that some shops use to bolt in place to run tests, and he forgot to put it back?

Regardless, I would love any ideas of what is supposed to truly be there, and if that "floating wire connector" has any relationship to what is missing.  Once determined, my follow up of course is whether anyone has one to sell to replace whatever it is....

I am stumped and steamed about this one folks!

 

 

[Hood Pad Fun]

Hey folks,

Thought I would share my experience.

Just got our 1980 Avanti II back on the road.  Not registered since 2011 due to brakes getting gradually so bad that the car was unsafe.  So I replaced EVERY brake component in the car, cleaned the wires the best I could, had a whole new exhaust put in to replace the "swiss cheese" pipes and mufflers (all original, I saved the chrome tips) and now working on a lot of misc. stuff.

Years back I was taken for a ride for a 134A AC conversion.  Guy didn't know what he was doing.  He replaced a hose without a fitting on one end of the high pressure side and when it blew off it tore my original hood pad.  Glad my face wasn't there.  Anyways, I wasn't real broke up about it as the old hood pad was very weathered.  So for the past 10 years I just had no pad and ugly remnants and old glue on my hood underside.  Just today I replaced it.  I had kept the old pad in the event of eventually getting a new one so I could verify fit before putting it on.

Fortunately, the pad from Studebaker International was quite nice.  Here is a key--the listing said that it was for 63 to early Avanti II.  Mine is not early, but it fits exactly.  I was able to retain the original foam part in the center.  Made for a great orientation point during fitting.

 

Old pad...

 

New installed pad

[First Avanti I Ever Saw!]

I remember the day.  It was Denver, Colorado.  1970.  It was a white Avanti, you know the white, like a cloud color but this was like no cloud I ever saw.

There it was, parked alongside a radiator shop, or maybe an auto electric place or an alignment business, it was always that kind of place that seemed to attract this kind of a car;  they would be on the side or in the back, patiently waiting for someone or something.  Sometimes they never moved, and years later the place goes away along with the cars, and  you wonder, what happened....

A DAF, or Simca, or ancient Renault, an Arnolt-Bristol under a torn tarp,  a Bradley GT with a Porsche motor that never ran, the kind of place that maybe had a "Muffler Man" standing tall outside;  those places always had these cars

Of course, it was in better shape than the rest, someone loved it--maybe the owner got it for a song--transmission blowout--financial blowout.  I asked my dad as my stare went from the tail to the amazing front end--Dad what is that?  And his reply, that is an Avanti son!

It was no bubblegum baseball cards, or Eldon slot car racing, or GI Joe adventures for me after school the next day, it was library time and a book called World Cars or something--Every make had an entry, and of course, there was the famous slanted picture of another white Avanti, and I was more amazed than when I found out that Checker made regular cars, or that Porsche and Volkswagen were related, or that there was a GTO Ferrari and not just a Pontiac.  It needed no explanation for what it was, it was simply that, an Avanti.

My mind flashed back to that for years, the grey sky day, the white building with the whiter Avanti, it sitting there, passerby's not knowing what was right there, that car that looked like nothing else and I got to see it and I knew where it was, and what it was.

That's the first time I saw one.