Mel

Call me biased but I am extremely happy with my '66. The engine, frame and body were in fairly good shape when I bought it, interior not so much. But, frame on restoration later, it came out nice. Added Turner brakes up front and a GM 700R4 transmission which holds the RPM down around 2150-2200 at 70mph. (From the factory, the early II's had the Studebaker transmission.) The 327 has good power, is easy to work on and parts are readily available. The 700R4 needs a couple of kits to control shifting by throttle only as it was originally designed for computer control. As I understand it, that transmission was made for the heavy GM sedans of that era and the 1st gear ratio is low to get the heavy cars moving. If you entertain putting in a GM transmission, there are a couple of other options available. Others on this forum could chime in on this. Concerning your car, it sounds like a good buff job on the paint might go a long way to making it presentable. As said above, these cars seem undervalued on the market. I have more in my car than I'll ever get out of it but I've never seen a Brink's armored truck in a funeral parade. Like you, I hate to see any Avanti die. Good luck.

Similar vein, with P/S. My steering wheel returns to center normally from turns to the left but from the right the steering wheel stops with about 1/4 the travel back to neutral position remaining. I had it aligned some years back and don't see any unusual treadwear. No shimmy, tracks straight with hands off the wheel. Only mildly annoying. Thanks.

The wiring up to the overhead panel carries all the load for the headlights and instrument lights. You can put relays in the wiring from the dimmer switch so that the main (headlamp) load passes through the secondary of the relays, taking a lot of the load off the overhead switches. The relays mount directly under the fuse block. I wrote up the procedure in issue 170, pg. 47 of AOAI magazine. An aside: The overhead panel and the heat/vent control panel are both lit with two 12 volt instrument lamps wired in SERIES. Wiring them in parallel would be a bit of a chore. I purchased 6 volt bulbs and replaced them all. Much brighter, but not too much. Don't mix 6 and 12 volt bulbs in the same area.

I posted a question years ago regarding something bizarre I'd found on my car and asked for thoughts/opinions. The first, of several replies I got, was from Gunslinger who started off the thread with something on the order of 'Welcome to the world of fixing things others have screwed up.' So, I was thinking, 'What's the most idiotic 'fix/patch' you've ever seen?' I'll start it off. When I first bought my '66 some 16 years ago, the car was off loaded from a semi at 2:00am in a strip mall parking lot. (The cop who floated through at that moment probably thought that, in that brightly lit setting, it was either legal or more paperwork than he wanted to deal with.) Anyway, drove it home bucking and kicking all the way. Quick compression check, all OK. Carb float levels, accelerator pump OK. Ignition, start with the easy: points, condenser, cap, rotor, plugs, all basically OK. Wiring: On each side, the plug wires for the front two cylinders was duct taped together, as was the wiring for the back two cylinders. Needless to say, the seller's report of the engine having been overhauled approx. 500 miles prior to my purchase was met with skepticism but, 15,000 miles later, it's doing OK. So, again, what's the most idiotic thing you've seen?

Is the switch possibly stuck internally? Hopefully, you can disconnect the switch, put an ohmmeter on it and work the shifter. Good luck.

Regarding the tires: Do you know how old they are? Not sure about tires sold in Europe but tires sold in the U.S. have a date code stamped on the side wall which is oriented inward -- i.e., crawl under the car to see the code. In U.S., a four digit code of 3217 will be the 32nd week of 2017, 4319 will be the 43rd week of 2019, etc. Good luck with the 'new' Avanti and come to the forums often; lots of good info and input from many longtime owners.

Some of the aftermarket gaskets are a bit thicker than the OEM's and thus the manifold sits a bit higher. Bottom line, don't put a thin bead of RTV on the front and rear 'china walls'; use a good thick bead or you'll end up with an oil leak. And, use brake cleaner to be sure all surfaces are clean of all oil and grease. How do I know? Experience.

My '66 has the 327/300 motor. The number on the intake manifold immediately behind the carburetor is 3872783; immediately under that is GM2. The number immediately in front of the distributor is J185. The carburetor is a Holley 4160. I don't believe the 327 was still manufactured in '78. GM was making the 350 by this time; perhaps Avanti Motors bought a bunch some years earlier and was still using them in '78 -- I don't know. The 327/300 had 2 'humps' on the front of the cylinder heads, one on each side; they were called 'Camel Hump' heads. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Rear brake: shoes, (original setup), hoses, wheel cylinders; U-joints; heater and radiator hose... Good luck.

An idea for you Zedman: If your interior is apart, when you put it back together, you might want to put in some heat insulation. I bought some adhesive backed insulation and put it under all the carpeting, seat bottoms, back panel, etc. Seemed to help keep the temperature down inside. Good luck.

Wide fluctuation sounds to me like a bad ground. The first thing I'd try is running a separate ground to the gauge 'casing'. There are two main wires leading to the gauge, one from the ignition and the other from the tank sending unit. Good luck.

My car is in the body shop, thank you insane driver in front of me, and I haven't stuck my head that far under the dash lately. But, as I recall, you can remove the pin which attaches the brake plunger to the pedal arm and loop a tie, of some sort, to the firewall area. This gives a bit of headroom and arm room. Good luck.

On my '66, the relay is box-shaped and has a three pronged plug which, when viewed from the top or bottom is triangular shaped. Mine was intermittent and fixed by pulling the plug, spraying some contact cleaner in the prong holes, sanding the prongs and bending them slightly so as to have a snug fit. I then put a zip tie around it to make sure it stayed in place. No problems the last 15 years. Good luck.

Make sure your emergency flasher circuit is not stuck in the 'ON' position, the switch is well grounded, etc. In these fiberglass bodied cars, bad grounds cause all kinds of problems and the more grounds you have the better. Welcome to the world of fixing things that others probably screwed up. Good luck and keep us posted.

The oil pressure gauge and speedometer hookups are the two I'd look at closely before proceeding. Keep us posted.