ronmanfredi

2001 with 40K, two owners (father/son) sat outside for a couple of years with fiberglass repair needed, sun damage= top needed, seat covers, full paint. Sold for $15K 2 months ago California 2007 with 38K, one owner from Florida, excellent shape, sold for $38K 4 months ago 2007 with 99K, two owners (father/son) from Missouri, good shape for mileage, sold for 22K last month.

It's pretty irrelevant what any of the websites say about the value of the cars. They are only worth what someone is willing to pay for them at the time.

From what I was told, the schedule was determined by the availability of hotels/rooms. There are many events in that area and most hotels were already booked for 2026.

Palm Springs California, April 6-8, 2026. Attached are images of the registration form and the schedule of events. This information will be on the AOAI website soon and the next issue of the magazine BUT please know that this information was available at the Washington Penn 2025 meet and dozens of owners started signing up then.

The 2026 AOAI Palm Springs Meet will be Monday April 6 through Wednesday April 8 in Palm Springs California. The Raymond Loewry House Tour is one of the events planned. The guest hotel is the DoubleTree by Hilton Golf Resort Palm Springs, 760-322-7000. Recommended stay is: arrive Sunday 4/5, depart Thursday 4/9.

Nice looking car! If it were me, I'd contact Turner through his website.

Our 2006 Avanti like others, have had a problem with the rear corners moving/vibrating when hitting bumps. Adjusting the hood helps some, but doesn’t fix it. Some owners have added hood pins which go through the hood or installed a latch on each corner similar to the original Avanti had. As we were traveling to the AOAI meet this year as a passenger, I could see the corner bouncing around at times and it hit me; why don’t I figure out a way to have a magnetic latch to each side? The electro-magnet would turn on when the engine was running and off when parked. Once back home, I started doing research on electro magnets and found a company called APW Company who makes all kinds of permanent and electro magnets, so I ordered two EM100-12-122 1 ½” wide electro-magnets and two matching plates. The magnet have a rating of about 70 pounds which means it takes 70 pounds of pressure to remove the plates from the magnet. Next was to decide where and how to mount them. I decided to mount the magnets next to the outer hood stops using a thick aluminum bracket that attaches to the hood stop threaded shaft. The brackets will need some twisting and bending to meet the plates on the hood correctly. (the hood is not parallel to the hood stops so the bracket has to be bent so there is full contact between the magnet and plate). To wire the magnets up, I placed the ground lead on the screw that holds the magnet to the bracket, which is grounded to the metal inner fender. For power, I went to the harness close to the ignition switch and tapped into the white wire with a yellow tracer. I placed a 5 amp fuse inline with the power wire. The electro-magnets draw about .4 amps each, so 2 of them would be under a 1 amp draw. We then went to a car show, which was a 4 hour round trip and no matter what kind of bump in the road, the hood corners never moved at all. The problem was now fixed! One of the other issues with the hood latching is flex in the hood latch firewall section and as you continue to tighten down the hood, you are actually pulling the hood down in the middle. With the 2 pieces of plastic trim under the wiper arms removed, you can grab that firewall piece of metal and move it back and forth with little effort. To correct this, I took a piece of aluminum metal and added a brace, which eliminated any flexing of the latch firewall. (picture 3) Lastly, I had already placed a hood stop close to the latch to hold the hood firmly in place when latched. (picture 4). The process I would use to do this again is to install the brace, install the hood stop, adjust the hood latch and stops and then install the magnets. For our car, the latch brace, corner stop adjustments and electro magnets have eliminated all hood movement issues.

I don't think there are many purists on the 2000s cars. Even if there are, it doesn't make any difference to me. Valuation of these cars doesn't compare to the 63-64 Studebaker models. I know without a doubt that they will increase the value of the car based on comment made to me at the AOAI - SDC dual meet a couple of weeks ago. My car received a First Place award with 98.33 points out of 100. I also received the Longest Distance Traveled award for 1375 miles driven one way. Since back home, I replaced the windshield since there were tons of small paint chips in it. Final work is a new top due to wear and tear.

I'm going to see if we still have any control over the site and possibly bring it to life again.

Ok, makes sense.

The 200r4 transmission has a computer operated lock up converter as well. When removing the computer, you can retain the lock up converter by installing a kit in the valve body, which engages the lock up converter once the transmission shifts into 4th gear. I'm not sure whether or not there is a kit for your 350C but you should check just in case. Beats the manual switch in my book.

I love smart butt comments mfg! First of all, I don't expect anyone's spouse, who may drive their Avanti like ours, to have to remember to engage the lock up converter every time the transmission shifts into 4th gear. The lock up kit in the valve body has been around for decades and locks up the converter pretty much as soon as the transmission shifts into 4th gear. Almost all modern transmissions lock up the converter in top gear as soon as it is selected since it's an overdrive gear and slippage only costs you fuel mileage and some performance. With that being said, please feel free to flip your toggle switch in the console and I won't bore you with my bedtimes or amount of rest that I get each night. LOL

It would probably perform better without the ECM. The transmission lock up converter is controlled by the ECM so when you remove it, you lose the lock up converter. Some people will tell you that you can put in a manual switch and activate the converter lock up every time it goes into 4th gear. For me, that's a bunch of activity that I don't want to deal with, so I'd invest in the kit that goes into the transmission valve body which automatically locks up the converter in 4th gear. While that's being done, you can change the transmission filter also.

Looking at the Avanti parts book and service manual, it only shows 2 discs using the same part #, the center plate and 2 outer concave plates with the same part #. I'm wondering if your kit is incorrect. It also shows the 2 concave plates being installed with the dish pointing towards the discs.

They do, I bought a kit off Amazon that includes multiple sizes and the tool in a nice case. Since then, I've been using it A Lot !