ronmanfredi

Not at all, but one rarely does when doing a custom vehicle for their spouse/family. I usually do everything first class which is expensive but worth it in my eye. The buyer will end up with a really nice car and won't be saddled with tons of repairs like most usually do. It's time for me to realize that I need to slow down a bit too. (we will see about that :^D )

I bought this 1982 Avanti II for my wife 2 years ago and did a complete restoration to make it a solid car, we are the 3rd owner. We have now bought another Avanti and decided to sell this one. The car has spent its entire life in the south, so the main rust issues that many have is not a problem. The car has every option that was available at the time and here are the repairs/upgrades that have been done: EXTERIOR: Added front spoiler, replaced fog lights, replaced all bulbs with LEDs. TRUNK: Replaced all the carpet to match the interior, new spare tire and jack. INTERIOR: Replaced all the carpet, had some upholstery replaced and dyed to match interior. Replace front door window track guides. Replaced Sunroof weatherstripping. DASH/CONSOLE: Replaced all of the wood dash and console trim, installed all new gauges and installed new dash indicator lights with modern LED lights. New 2 spoke custom steering wheel. AUDIO: Replaced the radio with a modern style Kenwood, replaced all four speakers with JL Audio and installed an amplifier. AIR CONDITIONER: Replaced compressor, receiver dryer, and inside fan speed switch. ENGINE: 305 GM V-8, Replaced spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor. Replaced all hoses in engine compartment. Had radiator flushed, Installed electric fan with new high output alternator. Rebuilt carburetor, replaced intake manifold, replaced timing chain while replacing front seal and cover gasket, replaced water pump, replaced oil pan gasket and rear main seal. TRANSMISSION: 4 speed 200R4, Performed a full transmission service. EXHAUST: Complete new true dual exhaust system. BRAKES: New brake hoses, new rear wheel cylinders, flushed brake fluid, the master cylinder and brake pads had just been replaced by previous owner. SUSPENSION: Rebuilt the front suspension, new rubber arm bushings, new kingpins, new center pivot bushings, new front shocks, rebuilt power steering control valve, 2 new hoses. Rebuilt the rear end, new ring and pinion, all new bearings, new rear shocks. Installed new American Racing Aluminum Magnum 500 wheels and tires. This car is ready to be enjoyed by a new owner who doesn’t want to spend money and time repairing everything that these older cars need. It has been a 2-year project with over $10,000 in parts replaced, not including my labor time. (Note, front and rear seats match in color, image are off a little. Asking $25,995, cash or verified bank check only. 512-788-1136 cell.

I sat through a seminar last year and watched Dan Booth from Nostalgic do a dash pad installation on a dash. He had other dash pads from competitors and showed the differences, including how competitors' pads don't usually fit as they should. The ease of installation is about not spending a bunch of time trying to get the fitment right where it looks good. If you get a cheaper pad and it doesn't fit properly, they will tell you that you just need to make it work. One of the vendors won't take it back, another will, but you'll pay return shipping and a restock fee. With that being said, you have to decide if you just want something that will work $1000 or something that looks and feels like it came with the car when new $2200.

The sending unit provides a variable ground for the gauge action, but there is also a standard ground wire on the sending unit as well. The gauge also has a "white ground wire" on it which either connects to another gauge ground or to the dash frame. Since the car is fiberglass, the grounds are extremely important. An ohm meter can be used to check each of the grounds to see if that is the problem. Lastly, the gauge can also be failing if everything else tests good.

The sending unit is mounted from the top of the tank and the float points sideways, so starts and stops shouldn't affect the gauge reading much at all. It's possible the sender is bad, but the gauge or wiring may also be the problem. The only way to know for sure, is to remove the sending unit, hook up an ohm meter to it and move the float up and down through its range. It the readings are good, then the next place to go is the gauge and wiring connection. The wiring runs from the sending unit, under the back seat and up to the dash. The same ohm meter test could be run at the wiring where it connects to the gauge. (disconnected from the gauge). If it checks out there, then the gauge has gone bad.

The original owner had perimeter sensors installed front and back to warn him of getting too close to parked cars or when backing up. There's a warning display on the steering column just below the center gauge cluster on top of the steering column. It's about the size of a column mounted PRND21 display. It works really good too.

On the ford models, they raised that part of the hood in an attempt to look more like the original car. The 01-07's are no where near close to the original designed Avanti, so I don't see anything wrong with customizing ours. In fact, some of the changes look better and at the car shows I've attended with mine, the attendees really like what I've done. So go for it!

Be different, paint it to match the car color !!!

I've always liked the look of the 2001-2003 Firebird based cars where they had painted the headlight openings black. I decided to do the same to my 2006 model by using vinyl wrap instead of paint. The openings aren't true circles on the front or back side, so I made a template using 3 sheets of paper to get a general idea of what the wrap pattern should look like, then added about 1" to all 4 sides. To me, the best way to do this was to remove the lights, so off come the front wheels, the front inner fender liners and then the lights themselves. Here are a few photos of the job starting with the stock look, we really like the new look!

I've asked but don't know at this time.

For 2002 we show 33 cars, 1 coupe in Navy Blue, 4 T-Top in Magnetic Red Metallic, Torch Red, Black, Diamond Pearl White, 28 Conv: (2)Torch Red, (3)Black, (2)Prowler Yellow, (5)Avanti Red, Avanti White, (2)Harlequin Color Flippen Green, Mineral Gray, Dove Gray, (2)Jade Poly Emerald Dark Green, (2)Topaz Metallic Champaine, Corvette Yellow, Navy Pearl, Laguna Green, Ferrari Tour de France Blue, Steel Blue Pearl, Fox Fire Red Mica and Black Pearl. We have owners info for 13 cars. We know 2 others were sold in the USA but not to whom.

I bought mine from here: Shock Absorbers & Bumpers - Avanti Parts & Restorations, Inc.

I am currently at a standstill with the project until John is able to locate his 2003-2005 records and send them to me. Then he will have to search for the 2006-2007 records which he does not have but may know who might. He is also involved with a couple of other projects that preceded this, so he will get to it when he can. In the meantime, we have identified the 3 AVX cars, fourteen 2001 cars based on production run with body type and color, thirty three 2002 cars, four 2003 cars with owners, four 2004 Firebird based cars with owners, two 2004 SN95 Mustang cars with owners, two 2005 SN95 Mustang based cars with owners, 13 2006 S197 Mustang based cars with owners (I'm one) and nine 2007 S197 Mustang based cars with owners. I have also learned that when Avanti was selling off the last few cars before shutting down the business, that they retitled those few 2007s to 2006 for some unknown reason. The last car made was a 2006 Dusty Rose Convertible. For your 2001 records, there were 4 T-Tops: Black, Diamond Pearl White, Navy Blue Metallic and Light Bronze Metallic, 4 Coupes: Turquoise, Laguna Green, Navy Blue, Navy Pearl and 6 Convertibles: (2)Torch Red, Scarlett Red, White, Red, Corvette Black made.

If you brought me your car and told be the problems that you were having, I would forget your current diagnosis and start with one problem at a time using a volt/ohm meter. First are the running/head lights. The rocker switch on the left side on the ceiling turns the power on to the headlight/running light circuit. The next switch turns on or off the headlights with the running lights on. If it isn't doing anything, then you need to pull those switches to inspect their operation and wiring. Previous owners/mechanics may have done who knows what to the switches. If everything looks good and the switches are working, then look at the wiring harness at the driver's side upper kick panel and inspect the wires with the same color codes as at the switches to see what has happened. You need to solve this problem first. (note, you need to use an ohm meter on the switches to verify that they are actually working) Grounds (white wires from Avanti), Black wires on GM supplied harnesses/components. On all park, side marker, and tail lights, remove the bulbs. Get an 8-10' length of 12 volt wire and connect one end to the negative side of the battery. Run it close to each light fixture one at a time. Take the volt/ohm meter and set it on ohms or continuity setting. Now connect one lead to the 8' wiring and the other lead to the ground wire "at the light fixture body". It should show continuity. If not, then you have a ground problem with that light. It could be the ground wire to its grounding point, or its connection at the light body. Once you have fixed or determined that all grounds are good, then you have eliminated that being a problem. Be sure to note that most bulbs ground through the bulb base body, so the inside of the socket must be clean. You can get a small wire brush made for this at an auto parts store if you don't have one. There is no need to go any further until the grounds are good. For rear lights, the harnesses run under the fuel tank, under the rear seat and up the rocker panels. I've had all of those interior parts out tracing down a ground problem before. On the upper driver's side kick panel are a couple of relays and there is a ground bar there where a few wires connect for grounding purposes, plus the gauges use the dash support frame above the steering column to ground to. Once you have all known issues with the park/head/tail lights fixed, then you can attack the turn signals. You have to remember that the turn signals/hazard flasher switch are all electronically combined, so sometimes you have to check each turn signal circuit independently of the rest to find the problem. If each circuit is good, then the turn signal/emergency flasher switch is most likely the problem. I've found that 1/2 of the time, that a lot of problems are caused by connections or poor grounds. I've also seen a lot of "previous" repairs that were the root cause of the problems too. Here are some 1980 diagrams which should be good to help you sort this out.

As I continue to customize our 2006 Conv to our liking, the next change I wanted to make was with the Audio speakers. From the factory, the car came with the Shaker 500 system, which included a 6 changer CD/AM/FM radio, along with two 6x8” co-axial speakers and two 8” subwoofers at the bottom of the door panels plus two 6x8” co-axial Speakers in the rear side panels. The subwoofers each have their own amplifier to power them as well. Research revealed that the radio only puts out about 20 watts per channel to the speakers and the amps pump up the signal for the subwoofers. So, when one looks for speakers to work with the radio, you want to get speakers that are close in range to what the radio puts out. In other words, you don’t want to buy speakers with an RMS rating of 100 watts when the radio only puts out 20 watts. The other thing that you want to look for is the sensitivity rating. With a low powered signal coming from the radio, you want the speakers to have the highest sensitivity rating possible. A rating of 93 is about the highest you’ll find. Anything in the 80’s isn’t good for a stock radio. The last thing you want if you like base sound like I do, is to get a speaker with the lowest possible frequency response “low” Hz number. The average 5x7” or 6x8” co-axial speaker runs 60-25,000Hz. 60 is base, 25,000 is the highest pitch sound the speaker can process. The speaker that I chose, has a range of 40-24,000Hz which has the best base sound possible, a sensitivity rating of 93 which is great, it is the JL Audio C1-570x. I’ve used JL Audio speakers in other vehicles with good success. The only thing that I dislike about them is the trademark yellow color but for the sound, I’ll live with it. Lastly, there is a need for a grille for the speaker and I found the Morel 210MESH57 fit the bill nicely. (everything came from Crutchfield) Now I want to take you through the installation of the door speakers and subwoofer enhancements. (I also replaced the rear panel speakers) For the subwoofers, you’ll need to get some speaker poly fill. Poly fill placed loosely in the subwoofer “box” smooths out the low base sounds a lot and is definitely worth doing. Now, the door panels need to come off and there are a lot of u-tube videos on how to do this on a 2006-7 Ford Mustang so I’ll skip that part. If you buy the speakers from Crutchfield, they will send easy to read instructions on how to replace the front and back speakers. Picture 1 below shows the new speakers and the grille. The base of the grille goes between the speaker and the factory speaker mount, then the speaker is attached with screws through the grille base. To start with, you have to remove the factory speaker mounts off the door. Each mount has a marking that says left/right and Top to help you when reinstalling. Picture 2 shows the factory speaker mount with a Dremel tool next to it and the 4 places that the “ears” need to be removed from the mount. I use the Dremel tool, you can use whatever works for you, you just have to remove the 4 ears and leave a level surface for the speaker grill base to mount. Picture 3 shows the “ears” removed and the grille base. Picture 4 shows the speaker mount reinstalled on the door. Note that the speaker lead wire is installed between the mount and the door body. You have to do it this way in order to connect it to the speaker and car wiring harness. Picture 5 shows the speaker grille base and speaker mounted to the factory speaker mount. Picture 6 shows the speaker grille installed. Picture 7 shows the back of the door panel with the subwoofer panel removed and the poly fill laid into the sound channel. The panel, which is above it, is also recessed but you don’t want to fill it. The poly fill isn’t supposed to be packed in the area, just loosely set in, so doing half of the area is sufficient. Picture 8 shows the other door panel and the red silicon adhesive that I used to seal off the subwoofer channel from the rest of the door panel. Picture 9 shows the subwoofer panel reinstalled. Picture 10 shows the ½” x ½” foam gasket that I used to fill in the area between the speaker grille and the door panel. What I didn’t show was that the door panel had an extra plastic edge there that I removed where the gasket is now. I was afraid it would hit the speaker grille so I pulled the leather back and trimmed it off and reglued the leather back around it. Picture 11 shows the door panel on and the foam gasket. Picture 12 shows the completed job and the sound is absolutely great. The subwoofer sound is much louder, smoother and the speaker sound is much better than stock. Sitting in the car, I can’t really see the yellow color because of the grille which is good also. Hope you liked this!

All cars were built to order based on the buyers request unless the car was for inventory. The Kuwait purchaser ordered it in this color for his car collection, which makes some sense since he lived in a desert atmosphere of influence. J Hull remembers the car when it was being shipped.

Sold today for $44,000 on Mecum Kissemmee Auction

He originally started at $50K months ago with no action, so he lowered it to $40K on eBay and put it on Hemmings, Classic Cars and ran it through the GCC auction with poor results. He has an upcoming Mecham auction this Sunday, so he relisted the eBay at $50K, most likely thinking it would get potential buyers to bid higher, we will see.

The glue they used back then to glue the leather to the plastic panels must have had some problems since I've seen the same problem on a couple of other 04-05 cars. There is an area on the right side of the dash where the leather is also coming loose. Door panels would be an easy fix, the dash would be another story. The car was stored in a climate controlled car dealership building so I don't think it wasn't abused.

How could that be MFG? The car was shipped to Kuwait Oct 2004 and never left the owners dealership showroom until early 2024.

Yes, that is the car.

The main thing that I have seen in the photos of this car is the leather on the passenger side of the dash and both door panels coming loose. I'm sure the glue has given out, which wouldn't be a problem to fix on the door panels, but the dash would be a different story. Supposedly it was kept in a climate controlled building, which would help keep the condition better. The concerns would be the seals on the engine and transmission. I was interested in the car before I bought my 2006, but the seller wouldn't budge off the $40K price, so I moved on. The first thing I would have done beside all fluid and tire changes was to repaint the entire car.

The seller is into the car for right at $40K. He's been offered as much as $36K and turned it down. It's been listed in 4 places for $50K and $40K. It's been on GCC Auction where the high bid was $25K with a reserve of $40K, and on Hemmings where the current high bid is $33K. Next Sunday, 1/19, it's up on Mecum Kissimmee auction with a reserve, I'm betting is $40K. It was the #3 car made/shipped on the SN95 Mustang chassis in Desert Coral color. Mr J Hull from Avanti motors at the time remembered shipping it to Kuwait to a car collector back in 2004. Late 2004-2005s car were built on the SN95 Mustang chassis and then Ford discontinued the car and introduced the S197 model, which Avanti used until it closed in 2007. The SN95 car is the smallest Avanti ever made, has a nose heavy look, which the donor car has. It had a unique front end look due to that as well.

The production run for 2002 included 29 known convertibles. There were 2 Jade Poly Green (Emerald Dark Green) car #30 and #47.