2006 Avanti GT Engine Compartment final appearance upgrade.

[ronmanfredi]

With the 2026 AOAI meet coming up in just a couple of months, I knew it was time to do one last engine compartment upgrade to our 2006 Avanti GT before we take it to Palm Springs.  I’ve done a lot of appearance work under the hood yet there was one area around the top of the radiator that just didn’t look finished and that needed to be corrected. After opening and closing the hood a dozen times, I knew that I wanted a waterproof panel that was strong, that wouldn’t show in the front hood edge to front body nose gap when opened or closed.  It also couldn’t go past the hood struts either.  I wanted it to wrap around the individual parts mounted in the engine compartment, while not rubbing up against any part mounted to the engine.

After measuring for the basic size, I cut two 12” x 22” pieces of 1/4” Luan plywood to create templates since I knew there would be several hours trimming, test fitting until everything looked right.  Wanting them to be uniform in shape when joined together and being able to remove it if needed was another consideration. The Avanti front nose cap in front of the radiator has a lot of curves up and down, left and right that affected how level the piece would sit so test fitting and trimming was mandatory.  And of course, the finished piece had to look good.

While I was working on the final template layout, I order a sheet of 12” x 48”, 1/8” thick, epoxy based marine fiberglass off of eBay. The seller is a boat company who sells 1/8” – 1/2” thick panels cut to the buyers’ specs who I’ve used several times for flat panels. Here are a few photos of the process and the results. 

[mfg]

I still like the Gillig bus magnetic hood locks….. Very crafty!!!