plwindish

The body shop repainting my '76 in 2015 uncovered a rusty passenger side windshield pillar on the car, treated and repaired it. Several years later, I had the same shop install a new windshield in my '89 Avanti convertible and found the same amount of rust and rot in the same place on it. That also was repaired before installing the new windshield.

Dan is a valuable resource and a wealth of information on anything Avanti related.

I had a 200R4 rebuilt and installed in my '76 in 2011 after having the 400 motor also rebuilt. Dan Booth had the rear trans mount needed along with the TV cable, shift rods and the plastic AOD gear indicator plate for the console shifter. The combination has worked well over the years. The 3:31 rear gear "born" with the car is still intact, interstate cruising at 75 mph is right at 2000 rpms. The first three speed gearing of the 200R4 is the same as the Turbo-hydramatic 400 the car originally had and also the same length as the THM 400 trans, needing no driveshaft alterations.

I had thought there were 100 built, but I may be wrong. I very recently sold my 89 convertible, # 481. The transmissions the 89’s would have had would be the 700R4 AOD. My 89 had been resto-modded before I had bought it and it had a crate 383 with a 4L60E AOD trans in it.