When the weather took a cooler turn a while back, I decided to let the 74 rest for a while and repaired several defects in the fiberglass of the 83 Avanti. It was all located in the front fenders and headlight area.
So I made the repairs and decided I'd just paint the front end. Talked to the local paint folks about color and metal flake options and they were unanimous that is was not going to be an easy match. Sometimes I know when to admit I may be over my skis so I talked to a young fellow I've known for a number of years that could match the existing color.
Troy came over and said it wouldn't be easy but should work so I took the car to his shop. He called me back two days later and said that the car had been repaired and blended in several areas and another one would not look right. He said he'd rather scuff the whole car and make it all one color. The problem wasn't just the color differences but also metal flake size and concentration.
He goes ahead and shoots the whole body and suddenly!! no more 20 footer. Note the side lights are now history
The camera doesn't capture the depth and brilliance of the paint but it sure is purdy!!
One thing I have never liked about the car is the goofy rubber bumper extensions on the rear so I decided to remove them. As you all know the later bumpers have holes to mount the extensions that are not present in the earlier bumpers. So how to fix? I guess I could buy an earlier bumper but I've kinda burned my budget so I looked for a set of bumper bolts that would fill the holes. Nothing close, so I decided to make my own.
A couple of 7/16" X 3" stainless bolts and some 1/8" stainless sheet later we have these. I plug welded the formed sheet to the bolts after the heads were cut off. Then a series of Roloc discs and abrasive pads followed by buffing looks like this.
I'm no Matt but they look pretty good from 4 feet.
Here's the final result. Not as nice as the early bumper but day and night better than the OEM rubber ones.
Bob
So I made the repairs and decided I'd just paint the front end. Talked to the local paint folks about color and metal flake options and they were unanimous that is was not going to be an easy match. Sometimes I know when to admit I may be over my skis so I talked to a young fellow I've known for a number of years that could match the existing color.
Troy came over and said it wouldn't be easy but should work so I took the car to his shop. He called me back two days later and said that the car had been repaired and blended in several areas and another one would not look right. He said he'd rather scuff the whole car and make it all one color. The problem wasn't just the color differences but also metal flake size and concentration.
He goes ahead and shoots the whole body and suddenly!! no more 20 footer. Note the side lights are now history
The camera doesn't capture the depth and brilliance of the paint but it sure is purdy!!
One thing I have never liked about the car is the goofy rubber bumper extensions on the rear so I decided to remove them. As you all know the later bumpers have holes to mount the extensions that are not present in the earlier bumpers. So how to fix? I guess I could buy an earlier bumper but I've kinda burned my budget so I looked for a set of bumper bolts that would fill the holes. Nothing close, so I decided to make my own.
A couple of 7/16" X 3" stainless bolts and some 1/8" stainless sheet later we have these. I plug welded the formed sheet to the bolts after the heads were cut off. Then a series of Roloc discs and abrasive pads followed by buffing looks like this.
I'm no Matt but they look pretty good from 4 feet.
Here's the final result. Not as nice as the early bumper but day and night better than the OEM rubber ones.
Bob
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