JensenHealey
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Posts posted by JensenHealey
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I got all three cars as a package deal through an employee of the Cafaro family. These two 1988 cars were stored outside behind one of the Carafo homes here in the Youngstown Ohio area for many years. The 1989 Convertible that is in much better condition was stored inside for a number of years at another Cafaro home in the Washington DC area. The two 1988 cars that were stored outside were last driven by JJ Cafaro's father inlaw and the story I was told that they are both wrecked because he was not a very good driver in his later years due to failing eyesight.
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I bought two more cans of spray penetrating fluid on the way home. I figure I am going to need them.
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Today I went back over to where the two 1988 cars are stored inside and worked on the stuck hood on the 1988 Coupe.
After a bit of work using the same methods I used to get the hood open on the 1988 Convertible, I was able to open the hood on this car as well.
The driver's side latch and the driver's side latch pin on the underside of the hood were heavily rusted (see photo below).
The spring inside the latch assembly on the driver's side is totally gone due to an extreme amount of rust in that latch.
I sprayed both latch assemblies with a lot of penetrating fluid once I got the hood open.
There is a LOT of leaves and other stuff crammed inside the nooks and crannies in the engine compartment.
It is so bad that in the front driver's corner of the engine compartment it is not possible to look down and see the ground or any suspension stuff because of the amount of crud stuffed in there (see photo below).
There is no electricity in this storage area making it difficult to take decent photos so the ones I have attached below are not very good.
I also worked on the stuck driver's door on this car but I was not able to get that open as of yet.
I was able to access the door latch assembly and confirmed that the door latch on this side is again very rusty but the inside door handle does work the rod and the release mechanism in the latch.
It seems like the lock part of the latch assembly is completely frozen.
I sprayed this down with a lot of penetrating fluid as well before I left for the day. -
The trunk lid is very hard to move. I think since the hinges are not actually rotating properly that as I am trying to lift the trunk lid the front edge of the trunk lid might be jamming on the rear edge of the body where the panel gap would normally be. I.E. the front edge of the trunk would move up as the hinges would pivot and miss this rear edge of the body line around the edge of the trunk but this is not happening with jammed hinges.
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1 hour ago, wdaly said:
Studegary mentioned, "Going in the trunk from the inside". This reminded me, I totally forgot about the giant piece (what's it called?) that fills in the space between the back of the seat and the rear of the rear window and normally has 2 speakers built-in. There may be a way to get IN this way. It would certainly be less destructive than my previous two thoughts.
Is this a separate panel that can actually be removed without breaking or destroying anything?
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On 11/22/2020 at 11:15 AM, studegary said:
The 288 and 374 are both 1988s. The 374 is near the end of 1988s, so it MAY have the change in latches. The 486 is mid-way through the 1989s.
BTW, I am looking at an online for sale ad for another 1989 Convertible with a VIN # 12AAV222XK1000420 and it still has the twin hood latch arrangement. Here is an underhood photo of that car/
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Thanks Studegary for the suggestions but if I cannot get the trunk lid open any further than what I showed in the photo, how am I supposed to get some PB Blaster or other penetrating oil spray all the way up into the front of the trunk to the hinge pivots?
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I am looking at a online for sale ad for a different 1989 Avanti convertible at:
https://www.gatewayclassiccars.com/LOU/2441/1989-Avanti-ConvertibleAnd the photos of the trunk in this car shows a smaller spare tire cover in the trunk that seems to sit further forward in the trunk actually leaving some space in the trunk for luggage and it is nowhere near as tall as the other one.
The Vin # 12AAV222XK1000420 for this car
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I am looking at a photo gallery of a 1989 Avanti Convertible that was for sale out in California in 2016. In that photo gallery there are some photos of the trunk of the car. In the middle of the trunk is this HUGE bulge. See the photos below to see the photos I am talking about.
What is this huge thing? If the spare tire sits under this thing why is it so damn tall? Does it actually hold two tires?
In looking at these photos I don't see hardly any luggage room left in the trunk where this thing is positioned. I would have thought your average Avanti buyer when these were new would have wanted to at least be able to fit a set of golf clubs in the trunk of the car.
BTW, the for sale ad for this car can be seen at:
https://www.leftcoastclassics.com/1989-avanti-convertible/And there is a video on Youtube at:
https://youtu.be/mEWOv8FYIOgThe VIN # 12AAV2223K1000551 for this car
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The 1988 convertible which has an earlier VIN number than this coupe has has standard single pivot hinges and gas struts. So I am assuming this is what this car would have as well. I have a small USB inspection camera with a long cable that plugs into a phone and gets used with an app that runs on the phone. I am going to take that over there tomorrow to see if I can use that to get a view of the hinge pivots.
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Late this afternoon I was able to go over to the storage building where I have the two 1988 cars stashed. If you might recall earlier last week I was able to get the hood and trunk lid open on the 1988 convertible. I have not yet been able to work on the hood of the 1988 coupe but today I worked on getting the trunk lid on that car open. I was able to get the latch released on the trunk lid but it will not actually move on the hinges. After confirming that the latch was actually released I was only able to get the trunk lid barely open by an inch or so. I can just barely shine a flashlight into the opening but I don't know how I would reach further into the trunk to try to get some lubrication sprayed onto the hinges that are located at the other end of the lid far up into the trunk opening.
It was dark in the building (no electricity) where this car is stored but I took this crappy photo with my phone and a flashlight to show how far I currently have the lib cracked open. I will try to get some better photos when I go back over tomorrow.
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So is the original GM VIN recorded anywhere on the chassis?
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Any idea what the "police package" is? Is this just a larger output alternator?
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When I got the 1989 Avanti convertible it did not have a belt installed to drive the various accessories.
It is supposed to have a single serpentine belt with a spring loaded tensioner to drive all of the accessories.
I think someone previously cut the belt off because the AC compressor and the air pump are both frozen so I have to know more about the engine to order the correct air pump and AC compressor.
I was told that the 1989 cars were built around Chevy Caprice chassis and mechanical components but when I go to rockauto to look up a serpentine belt for a 1989 Chevy Caprice I see a LOT of different belts listed there. So as a result I am having difficulty determining which one to order.
I was told that there are codes on the emissions sticker on the firewall that can be used to determine what the exact engine and emissions components were for that car. I have recorded those codes down but so far I have not found anywhere via google searching to use those codes to narrow down the engine specifications for this car so I can order the correct parts.
The codes on the emissions sticker on the firewall are:
DCT
5.0 Liter
KIG5.7V5NEA4
KB0-1PI am not certain if the last line is KB0-1p or KBO-1p (zero versus capital "O")
Can anyone here tell me more about the engine installed in this car from these codes so I can make sure I am ordering the correct parts? Or maybe clue me in where I can use these codes to look up exact specifications and parts for this engine?
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Actually the 1989 convertible was stored indoors so it much cleaner than the wrecked blue convertible.
The strange thing is so far all of the electrical items I have checked on the wrecked blue car all work, lights, trunk release and power seats, so it seems like electrically the wrecked car that was stored outdoors is in better condition than the unwrecked white 1989 convertible that was stored indoors.
Later today I will go back over to that other shop and take some photos of that Tec-M headlight delay module and all of the vampire taps in the wiring harness around it. I am tempted to try removing this thing to see if it makes any difference with the non-working items in the electrical system.
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Took a battery over to the shop where the 1989 Convertible is located and tried various things to see what condition the electrical system is in.
Things that work:
- starter
- gauges
- hazard lights & turnsignals
- brake lights
- power windows
- power top motor (I can hear when working the switch but I don't know if it actually raises or lowers the top)
Things that don't work
- headlights
- taillights
- gauge lights
- trunk release
- gas lid release
- power seats
When I checked the fuse box I found three missing 20A fuses, one of which was marked as taillights. I replaced these three fuses and I checked to see if the electrical contacts behind the fuses each had power. The only one that did not have power to the contacts inside the fuse block was the taillight fuse.
I went over there hoping to get the trunk open on the car but pressing the trunk release button or the gas lid release button inside the center console did nothing. No click noises or anything.
I did notice that wired into the harness around the fuse block was a "Tec-M headlight delay module" so I suppose that could be the cause of the lack of power to the headlights & taillights. It uses a lot of those awful vampire taps to hook onto the harness so I never been wild about that type of wiring "solution"
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This silver blue 1988 convertible has a carb rather than TBI
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Today I swapped a battery into this 1988 convertible so I could try to get the trunk lid open.
After trying the button many times but after I would walk to the back and try lifting up on the trunk lid, only to find it still locked. I finally called Bob at Avanti Parts and Restorations, Inc and he clued me in that I probably have to have a second person lifting up on the trunk lid while I press the release button inside the interior. He told me that he has had this problem in the past and used a handy "sky hook" and some bungie straps to put upwards pressure on the trunk lid while pressing the button inside the center console. Since I didn't have a nice handy "sky hook" in stock here I instead strung a couple sets of bungie straps to a couple of tree branches that were arching over the car. Then I went and tried the release button again. I didn't see any change in the looks of the trunk lid but when I went back and actually tried lifting it, the trunk lid came up in my hand. At this point I discovered how damn heavy this little trunk lid is when the gas struts are shot. Unfortunately there was nothing of great interest in the trunk other than an old used mechanical fuel pump.
While I had the battery hooked up I tried the headlight switch and found that all of the lights front and rear actually seem to function. I was surprised.
Attached below are some photos of the accident damage to this car. I am wondering if this car is worth fixing.
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The same city where they were made. Youngstown Ohio
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Today I was able to make more progress on my plan for how to get the hood open on the 1988 Silver Blue convertible.
I found the small hole in the bottom of the moveable latch plate that silverstude told me about and I decided my plan of attack would be to stick a drill up in there to enlarge this hole so I could use a larger diameter shaft of a phillips screwdriver to pry on the part of the latch assembly that should be moving. After much screwing around this afternoon I was successful with this plan and I was able to get the latches disengaged. I was so happy to get the hood open. I found that various wires under the hood look like they have been gnawed at by critters. The latch assemblies are very rusty and on the driver's side the cable that is supposed to pull on the latch was actually disconnected. I sprayed a bunch of penetrating fluid on them and I reconnected the cable to the driver's side latch and then I closed up for the day.
Thanks to everyone who made suggestions on how to solve this problem. My next job is to try the same method on the stuck hood on the 1988 long chassis two door coupe.
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I looked at the titles for the various cars and the convertible with the single latch is 486 and I was mistaken since that title that says it is a 1989 car.
The long chassis coupe with the stuck hood and driver's door is listed as a 1988 and the last three digits of that car is 374
The 1988 convertible with the stuck hood is 286
So maybe the long chassis 1988 coupe also has the twin latches. I won't know until I pull that car out of storage.
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I worked on this again today with some help from a friend and while we did not make any progress on getting the latches to actually pop, I do understand more about how the latches actually work.
My friend knows someone else who actually owns another car and we went over there to look closer at that car. It too is a 1988 Convertible but it must be a slightly later one since it has the single latch system. The owner of the car let us remove the two bolts that hold the latch assembly down to the firewall so we could flip the latch over to understand what the underside of the latch actually looks like. This really helped me understand how the latch parts work.
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I live in the area around Youngstown and I have met two guys now who used to work at the Avanti plant here in Youngstown.
One guy now has his own body shop behind his house. He says he only worked there a few months and decided to leave when he felt the way they were building these cars was not up to very good standards. He specifically tells me about loading up the rear quarter panels with huge amounts of bondo to make the body lines look good. He says he was working on the part of the live where these rear quarter pieces were bonded to the main tub of the car. He says they way they taught him to do this job caused the fiberglass panels to buckle and deform and that this caused bad fit around the rear of the doors. This was then "fixed" further down the line with huge amounts of bondo. He also says he tried to make slight alterations to improve the fit but the foreman on that part of the line told him to just keep doing it the original way.
The one 1988 convertible car I am working on is wrecked in the passenger's rear quarter ahead of the rear wheel and I can definitely see the REALLY thick filler that is present in that panel. This guy came over to my shop today to see if we could make any progress on getting the hood open on the 1988 convertible. While he was here he looked at the wrecked rear quarter and the thick layers of filler and said that was normal for these cars.
BTW, this excessive filler in this area of the rear quarter is almost a half inch thick.
The other guy lives in a small town on the river on a different side of Youngstown. I don't know what he did at the plant during the production but he now owns an Avanti coupe of his own. I met him while I was riding my bicycle through that town and saw the Avanti in his garage. So I stopped to talk to him for a little while.
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2 hours ago, studegary said:
Could you see the two latches? If not, since your 1988 was one of the last handful of 1988 models, perhaps it has the single latch 1989 system.
I took pictures up in the holes of the 1988 Convert and I thought you had identified the sight of the rusty latches.
I'm fairly certain the 1988 convert has the twin latches at the corners of the hood.
BTW, I did not get a chance to look at the car further today because it has been raining and very windy here.
So since the car is sitting outside covered by a tarp, I decided to try to work on it another day.
1989 Convertible - Chevy radiator or not?
in 1984-91 Avanti
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The radiator in the 1989 convertible looks pretty bad so I got to wondering if it would be a simple to source Chevy radiator.
I looked on rockauto and it seems that the radiators shown there for a 1989 Chevy Caprice are different than the radiator in this car.
Anyone know what rad was used in a 1989 convertible Avanti?