[64 Avanti Red - Need formula?]

Don't know if this is what you need, but check a site called www.theavanti.com. Among other stuff theyseem to have a full list of paint swatches and paint codes for the 1963-64 Avantis.

[5.0 Redline?]

It's probably the same one that originally came with your car. The "1983" on mine is rubber-stamped on the cover, not printed. Not much useful info. The usual emissions boilerplate, fluid change intervals, grease points listed, fluid specs, that sort of thing.

[5.0 Redline?]

The 1983 Avanti Owners Manual does not specify max safe rpm, nor does the tach have a redline marker. I've never had a car with a GM 5.0 (though their 5.0 boat tngine of that vintage redlines at about 4,400).

I know the old Studebaker R-2 redlined at 6,000 but I doubt this 5.0 goes that high.

[64 Avanti Red - Need formula?]

Look until you find it. That's the most gorgeous color ever sprayed onto an Avanti. (I'm talking about the 1963-64 almost metallic red that I used to call "burnt red", not the later opaque red reds)

[1983 Avanti Specifics]

About a month ago I bought an 83 Avanti. Way back in 1964, with some inherited money I had special-ordered a (burnt red is the way I remember its color) R-2. Loved the car but had to sell it less than two years later to get enough money in hand to finish college. Just never could emotionally let go of that car, so I recently "replaced" it.

The 83 has a Chevy 305 for power, and it's a dog - like the original R-1. Mine has a Paxton blower which was off the car needing overhaul when I bought it. With the blower back on, this is like a different car. Very responsive. The old R-2 blower wouldn't do much of anything until the engine made 3,000 rpm. This one seems to start coming in almost as soon as I touch the throttle.

Was the Paxton blower an available option in 1983, or is it an aftermarket addition?

In the new car's dashboard, there's no clock. Instead, on the dash's left wing is a voltmeter (this in addition to the ammeter on the left lower part of the main panel. On the dash's right wing is a vacuum gauge. Not boost-vacuum, just vacuum. This gauge doesn't work. For that matter, the oil pressure gauge next to it doesn't work either. Is there any "easy" way of pulling the brushed aluminum dash panel to get to the gauge wiring?

And a curious item. This car has both the normal Avanti driver's side hood hump, plus a matching one on the passenger side. To me it neither looks better or worse than the normal hood, but I'd never seen this before. Anybody have the story on it?

And another "oddity": where the normal pre-84 Avanti had the radio's speaker cover on top of the dash, this car has a factory-molded indentation which looks to be someone's primitive idea of cup holders. It doesn't look too bad now that I'm used to it, but I think the radio grill would look better. The indentation is a separate molded piece which can be removed.

Thanks for any light any of you can shine on any of this.