Kellerbear
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Posts posted by Kellerbear
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Anyone know a source for chrome trim that runs between front and rear wheel wells, across door? Not sure the of the proper term; maybe called rub strip or door guard. Presumably they protect from door dings.
I just repainted my '78 Avanti and would like to add original-looking chrome trim on each side. My car didn't have them originally. Apparently the trim strips were an option, but I haven't seen it listed in literature or build sheets. Many photos of Altman and early Blake Avantis that have them. They look like chrome with thin strip of colored vinyl in center. It may color is keyed to interior color, or a contrasting color. My car is black, with light blue interior.
Thanks,
Tim
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What is best treatment to clean and protect wood veneer on dash and console? Mine looks dry, with some cracking. Wax? Furniture polish?
Tim
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It's a relief to hear this isn't unheard of and sounds like a relatively simple fix. Thanks, all.
Tim
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I just had new Magnum 500s (Vintique) on my '78, plus new Goodrich white raised letter radials. They look great, but now when turning the steering wheel far to right (less to the left), the inside wheel scrapes the upper steering arm (pretty sure that's what it's called). The old wire wheels (TrueSpoke) rubbed, also, but less pronounced. I did the Turner brake conversion a while back, and replaced both hogtroughs. The tire store that sourced and installed wheels and tires said it wouldn't hurt anything, just avoid sharp turns. Does that sound right? Suggestions?
Tim
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I need a new heater core on my 1978 Avanti II. Where can I order get the right heater core parts quickly? Thanks.
Tim
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Thanks, all. I notice when I depress the brake pedal first thing on start up, the RPMs jump. Doesn't seem to happen when it's warmed up. Again, many thanks.
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When I first start my '78 Avanti II, and depress the brake pedal,I hear a hissing like air escaping. The pedal won't go down very far and brakes are not grippy at all, like there's no power assist. Then after it's warmed up and touch brake pedal, no hissing and brakes work fine.
Any suggestions on what's up?
Thanks,
Tim
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Tim...
You can get reproduction Magnum 500's from Coker Tire, Summit Racing, Jeg's and probably any speed shop that sells products from Wheel Vintiques who now makes them. In fact, I believe they even make them in larger than 15" diameters in one-piece aluminum...much lighter than all steel, but it would require a new set of tires.
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Tim...
You can get reproduction Magnum 500's from Coker Tire, Summit Racing, Jeg's and probably any speed shop that sells products from Wheel Vintiques who now makes them. In fact, I believe they even make them in larger than 15" diameters in one-piece aluminum...much lighter than all steel, but it would require a new set of tires.
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Kbear,
I have modified my '81 a bit. I added the hood ornament and the side emblems, took off the ugly cow catcher bumper and bought a new full front grille, to fill in the holes from the cow catcher. I tried to use other things to fill in the hole, but they all looked bad, so I sprung for the grille. Or is it "grill"?.
I bought a new set of original size Magnum 500s, 15 x 6, with stock size tires. I believe they are 205s.
I installed the Turner front brakes with no clearance issues.
I had to have my son touch up the red paint, since I sold an original luggage rack and he had to fill the holes and paint the lid anyway, so I removed the "II" emblems front and rear.
I wanted to ID the '81 as a "II" but never liked the factory deal, since the "II"s are a little different color and are upside down, cocked, etc. often, so what to do?
As you probably know, the hood emblem consists of the main chrome thing and a squarish plastic piece sold seperately. I bought a plain black plastic center piece, not the "S" ones which were on the originals. Then, I bought a new "II" and mounted it in the center of the otherwise solid black hood piece. Looks good to me; the car has a "II" on it, but just in that one place.
If you want to remove the "II"s ever, and, if you are a real nut, to do a "perfect" job on the trunk lid, you should move the "Avanti" chrome emblem over to the right, so you don't have the gap there where the "II" was. I didn't do that, but it would have looked just a little better.
I also changed the trunk backup lights into brake lights, and mounted 2 smallish Auto Zone rectangular driving lights alongside the license place vertically for new backups. Looks good and it is a lot brighter too!
Paul G.
Paul, where did you buy your new Magnum 500 wheels? I see there are some different sources for them.
Tim
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I'm not sure, but I believe the front studs have to be pressed into the rotor hub by a machine shop equipped to do so. See what the shop manual says.
Thanks, good suggestion, will check.
Tim
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I ordered new wheel studs, front and rear, from the Studebaker Int'l catalog. The rear ones fit the lugs fine, the front studs are too large. Anyone have that issue before?
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The rubber is bonded to a metal backing plate that has a bolt extending through the bumper bar. Removing the nut behind the bumper allows you to withdraw the rubber thing easily. To cut it off so that it does not interfere with the chrome extensions means cutting through the rubber and the backing plate (fairly thin metal, so wasn't hard).
Thanks, this is helpful.
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What is under the rubber bumper things -- sounds like they are bolted to the bumper?
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Tim,
I have a '77 and mounted the chrome vertical bumper bars this way. I removed the rubber baby buggy bumpers and mounted the chrome vertical bars temporarily. Noting that the rubber bumpers were interferring with the vertical bars only about an inch or two at the bottom, I marked a line and proceeded to cut off that 2 inch section from the bottom of the rubber bumpers. Admitedly, this solution does permanently modify those rubber thingies, but as I want to eventually remove them anyway I didn't care. My rear bumper is in great shape so having the holes filled in and rechromed is a ways off.
Just wanted to give you another option. BTW - cutting the rubber bumpers with a hack saw was not that difficult and it's nearly impossible to tell when they are remounted on the car.
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I live in Dallas area and just had the left side hog trough replaced. I bought the five piece kit from Classic. Our local National Collision auto center franchise is owned by two "car guys" and they did a great job in getting my sagging '78 back in fine shape. Wonder if other body shops in your area might also welcome a challenge? Good luck, having this done will make a big difference in the car!
Tim
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The buildsheet for my '78 says adjustable seatback for both front seats, but neither seat adjusts. I think these are original seats, so don't know what happened. The front seatback leans too far back for comfort. Tim
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Thanks, hadn't thought of that!
Instead of painting them silver, try having the plastic chromed...it's really not chrome plated but some kind of plating that simulates chrome....I believe it's called vacuum metallizing. There's a number of companies that do that for car restorations but the only one I can remember the name of is Mr. G. They have a website at <http://www.mrgusa.com/>. Contact them and ask if what you want is a workable solution to your problem. It's probably the same process exterior plastic emblems go through that are chromed.I would do a web search for other companies as well.
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Yes, that's what is causing it not to fit. Thanks!
When the chrome vertical rear bumper pieces were used, the "square" plastic or rubber pieces were not used on the rear bumper. That may be your problem. -
My '78 Avanti II has black plastic vertical bumper guards and I think the car looks better with chrome, as on older models. I bought chrome guards but find they won't fit due to the two square bumper guards at the top. Now I'm thinking about painting the black plastic silver (not ideal). Anyone else tried to switch from black to chrome verticals? Thanks. Tim
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I had four new tires put on my '78 Avanti. It has True Spoke wire wheels with knockoffs. The garage called to say that they could put three lugs back on three of the wheels (one per wheel) because they were crossthreaded, maybe from over torque.
They say I need three lugs and three studs. I don't think True Spoke is in business anymore.
Suggestions welcome!
Tim
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Yes, I believe it was 6 small holes. I got the exact front to back location by measuring an Avanti at a car show. If you ever need this info, let me know and I'll check to see how far back from the front of the hood it is to the front of the emblem. Be careful when you drill the holes so the emblem isn't crooked.
The grille is easy to change; there are (I forget exactly) about 8 screws holding it on, easily removed by just laying down in front of the car. I too had the original grill with the 2 cutouts....I tried different ways to "patch" the holes, but they all looked bad, so I sprung for the $225 new one. It really makes a difference with the new "shiny" grille in there....was the biggest single improvement, believe it or not. (I didn't think it would make much difference)
When I installed the new one I went to the hardware store and bought some new stainless steel mounting screws and stuff. Also, you will have to drill a few new holes in the area where the cutouts are, because the original grille mounted right over the cutout. Most of the holes line up with the new grille though.
Removing etc. is no big deal, since the grilles are just screwed into holes in the fibreglass. I am a little on the big side at 6'2" with big hands, and even I had no problems doing this. While you have the old grille off it's a good time to poke around and see if everything in that area is in good shape.
If you don't want to change grilles you can add fog or driving lights to obscure the cutouts.
Paul
Thanks, Paul. Yes, can you give me the hood dimension for the hood ornament? Also, where did you buy the grille and hood ornament? I've seen them a couple of places. My car has fog lights already, but alas are placed outboard of the two gaping holes in the grille.
Sure appreciate you tips. I'm new to this Avanti world and not especially handy. This forum has such a helpful group of folks.
Tim
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Kbear,
I have modified my '81 a bit. I added the hood ornament and the side emblems, took off the ugly cow catcher bumper and bought a new full front grille, to fill in the holes from the cow catcher. I tried to use other things to fill in the hole, but they all looked bad, so I sprung for the grille. Or is it "grill"?.
I bought a new set of original size Magnum 500s, 15 x 6, with stock size tires. I believe they are 205s.
I installed the Turner front brakes with no clearance issues.
I had to have my son touch up the red paint, since I sold an original luggage rack and he had to fill the holes and paint the lid anyway, so I removed the "II" emblems front and rear.
I wanted to ID the '81 as a "II" but never liked the factory deal, since the "II"s are a little different color and are upside down, cocked, etc. often, so what to do?
As you probably know, the hood emblem consists of the main chrome thing and a squarish plastic piece sold seperately. I bought a plain black plastic center piece, not the "S" ones which were on the originals. Then, I bought a new "II" and mounted it in the center of the otherwise solid black hood piece. Looks good to me; the car has a "II" on it, but just in that one place.
If you want to remove the "II"s ever, and, if you are a real nut, to do a "perfect" job on the trunk lid, you should move the "Avanti" chrome emblem over to the right, so you don't have the gap there where the "II" was. I didn't do that, but it would have looked just a little better.
I also changed the trunk backup lights into brake lights, and mounted 2 smallish Auto Zone rectangular driving lights alongside the license place vertically for new backups. Looks good and it is a lot brighter too!
Paul G.
Paul, when you added the hood ornament, you had to drill holes in your hood?
Tim
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Was the grille/grill hard to change? Previous owner of mine removed the cattle catcher and now grille has two square openings that look odd.
My car has wire wheels with knockoffs. I really like the Magnum wheels, but am getting used to the wires.
The car is black and can use a little trim to bring out the lines, I think. I'm thinking about adding the door guard strips along the side (many cars have them) and help break up the blackness.
Tim
Exterior chrome door trim
in 1965-83 Avanti
Posted
Thanks, all.