Recently purchased 1963 r2 avanti

[larryyano]

Having some work done on an Avanti I recently purchased. Rebuilding the engine and I need a chromed valley cover. Are these available from anyone already chromed?
Also, dash cover is in good shape but color is off. Anyone have experience with painting or dyeing an Avanti dash?
I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future.

[PackardV8]

Welcome, Larry,

Because of the construction of the valley cover, some chrome didn't last well. The good news, IIRC, some Avanti had black painted valley covers, so that's an option.

jack vines

[sweetolbob]

Looks nice. I'm not sure if your dash is leather or vinyl. If leather, Leatherique.com has everything you need to dye the dash including great advice. They will even mix custom colors to match the original interior color if you can send them a sample. I dyed my 83 leather seats with a custom color from them and it worked great.

Vinyl needs to be sprayed with a "dye" I just finished changing my 74 interior from crap-brindle brown and tan to a combination of satin and gloss black. If you chose to do the dash by spraying, I'd suggest removing it from the car because the vinyl spray dyes are very sensitive to application temperature and spray thickness. It takes a bit of practice but eventually it will look great. I used both Duplicolor and SEM vinyl dyes and both were touchy.

I don't believe anyone currently is reproducing the dash pads.

My choice if you are not a stickler for originality, find a local upholster and have the dash redone. I paid $300 to have a modified 89 dash I used in my 74 recovered in vinyl. I also think Just Dashes does them but they are in the $1000 range IIRC.

The locals can do a nice job and then it's done for as long as you'll own it without the worry of the old one peeling or splitting after you've had it on the road for a while.



Bob

[sals54]

Gorgeous car and good find. Auto or 4 speed? More pix would be really koool.
Just an aside, but we have been doing several removals of our Avantis dash due to wiring, pedals, gages, radio, heater/AC controls... etc. So I separated the fiberglass dash from the metal cross member by drilling out the rivets. Now when I need to remove the dash, its just 4 nuts from the windshield side, and 6 screws from the bottom of the glass to cross member. I'm installing a quick disconnect on the dash wiring so all the dash wires go through 2 snap connectors. It has made the work on and under the dash soooooo much easier. And I can reistall the dash and drive the car between projects.

[creegster]

Gorgeous car and good find. Auto or 4 speed? More pix would be really koool.
Just an aside, but we have been doing several removals of our Avantis dash due to wiring, pedals, gages, radio, heater/AC controls... etc. So I separated the fiberglass dash from the metal cross member by drilling out the rivets. Now when I need to remove the dash, its just 4 nuts from the windshield side, and 6 screws from the bottom of the glass to cross member. I'm installing a quick disconnect on the dash wiring so all the dash wires go through 2 snap connectors. It has made the work on and under the dash soooooo much easier. And I can reistall the dash and drive the car between projects.

That has to be just about the best idea Ive ever seen on this forum. Love it.

[larryyano]

Sounds like a good idea.

[john Mitchell]

Gorgeous car and good find. Auto or 4 speed? More pix would be really koool.
Just an aside, but we have been doing several removals of our Avantis dash due to wiring, pedals, gages, radio, heater/AC controls... etc. So I separated the fiberglass dash from the metal cross member by drilling out the rivets. Now when I need to remove the dash, its just 4 nuts from the windshield side, and 6 screws from the bottom of the glass to cross member. I'm installing a quick disconnect on the dash wiring so all the dash wires go through 2 snap connectors. It has made the work on and under the dash soooooo much easier. And I can reistall the dash and drive the car between projects.

Wow,great idea. You should be doing a workshop in Tacoma,you could even bring the dash.
John

[Guido]

I can take an Avant I cash out in about 30 minutes. Complete. No need to go to all that trouble.

Proving there is no substitute for hands on experience...

[sals54]

Proving there is no substitute for hands on experience...

But that's sorta the point. If you don't want to wait for 25 years of experience and remove and replace your Avanti dash 20 or 30 times until you've gained enough experience to know how to do the removal in 30 minutes..... then this may be of some help.
Otherwise, you could just pull out your dash every month or so just for the exercise.
I thought someone might want to know there was some other way to do it, thats all.

[kurtruk]

Sal, I think that was a compliment from Guido.

[larryyano]

Welcome, Larry,

Because of the construction of the valley cover, some chrome didn't last well. The good news, IIRC, some Avanti had black painted valley covers, so that's an option.

jack vines

I may go the painted route.
Thanks!

[bezhawk]

My other tablet wouldn't let me edit for some reason and my quote got deleted in the process of trying to correct it. (in case anyone was wondering)!
There are rivets, as well as screws that would have to be drilled out in order to seperate the fiberglass from the lower dash brace. There isn't a whole lot more to take off to get the bar as well as the dash off in one piece. Once you lower the steering column, there are two bolts to the brake pedal support, two bolts for the hand brake, two nuts for the heater valve bracket,(which would have to come off anyways because it's into the fiberglass.), and 4 bolts, two on each end of the dash to the jambs brackets.The other 4 along the windshield header are the most difficult, and are needed to be removed in either case. Once free of all fasteners, the whole dash can be lifted free of the top 4 studs, and tilted back wiring intact, and rested on padding on the console. Then you can buy my custom gauges and replace yours!. Or put led bulbs in your old ones.

[sals54]

Sal, I think that was a compliment from Guido.

My comment was a response to bezhawk. Not a criticism. Just comment.