Hi Guys: Thanks for all your good comments about the mirrors. I am deciding which ones to try first since all of them had merit. One old mirror needs replating so I suppose it can wait. Now to the new trouble at hand. Both door locks on the 63 black hole here turn 360 degrees with the keys and won't lock, except from the inside. I took the handle assemblies off the car and took them to my local lock smitty. He disassebled them and found that the little pot metal tab that keeps the cylinder from turning around all the way had been broken off on both locks. Soooo - looks like I am in for replacements, at least for the lock cylinders as the rest of the handle assembly works fine. The number on the back of the cylinder housing is KBC-20455. Who was the KBC manufacturer??? Could they still be in business somewhere??? Maybe there is an interchange, as I can't believe they made this one special just for Avanti. Maybe these cylinders were used in other Studies or American Motors, Hudson or Nash??? I can call Nostaligic Motors monday morning to see if they know. I also doubt if they would want to sell just the cylinders but will try. Would appreciate your comments and info once more. You guys are a treasure of info and we appreciate you. Please help to keep the world quiet. Al - Taking acoustical engineering another step forward ---------------------------------------- Keep calling locksmiths - some of the old timers have old stock. I found one in the St. Petersburg area of Florida, though I did not save his name or address. ------------------------------- Hi Guys - and Our Mail Manager Too: Neither of my Avanti door locks would lock when I bought the car. The key wouls just twirl 360 degrees and do nothing. I took them out, which is not too big of a job, and found an old locksmith, the oldest on e in Portland, OR - been on the same corner since 1949; he managed to fix them. The pot metal pins on the rear of each cylinder were broken off. He drilled them out and replaced them with a drift key which goes all the way through the cylinder. Works fine now. Thanks, Chris. for telling me to keep looking for a good old boy whom i found. he said the locks were most likely made by the Yale Company, and the numbers on the cylinder housing are KBC20453 and 10455. Hope this info helps someone else. To Our mail manager: plese cancel my address effective Firday jan 23rd as we will be out-of-town for ten days. Will follow up to start the mail flowing again. We are visiting an old high school buddy in Bradenton, Florida, near Sarasota. We will get to attend an all Florida classic car show on Sunday Jan 25. Am looking forward to this and hope I see an Avanti there. thanks and good driving. may you all experience blue skys and green lites till my return. -------------------- Need help in locating the manufacture of Kelly cars door lock switch for the power door locks as well as windows. Anyone have any info on where I can obtain these. ----------------------- Irwin, The door lock switch is from a manufacture in Elkhart , Indiana. Send me your last 4 digits of the serial number and I can get the part number and supplier. May have switches in inventory in my shop in Indiana. I will be in the states next week. Mike Kelley -------------------------------------- Mike Kelley, Nice of you to reply in helping me out with door lock switches for my 88 LSC. The last four digits of the serial number is (0254). If you need more infor, please contact me at once. ------------------------------- Some time back somebody mentioned installing a JCWhitney remote door lock/unlock device in their Avanti... would whoever it was please send me e-mail direct, off the list? I have a question or so. Regards, Chuck ---------------------------------- Chuck: 2 or 3 years ago there was a tech article in the AOAI Magazine. If you can't find it let me know as I placed a sticky note on the page as I plan to do it to mine. Don Lindner --------------------------------------- I recently became caretaker of a 1963 Avanti with many problems.The most distressing at the moment is the fact that the drivers door is lying on the driveway with the hinges ripped out.When I took off the door panel I found there is nothing there but a pair of ragged rectangular holes.On the hinges there is what appears to be a back up plate with a piece of fiberglass sandwiched between it and the hinges. This is my first encounter with an Avanti and certainly the first time I have ran into this problem. Somebody, please, tell me there is an easy fix for this. Thanks in advance, Doug White ---------------------------------- There is a fix, and it isn't that difficult, but it takes some work. My 63 had the same problem on both doors, though it never quite got to the point where the door actually came off! Basically what I did was to put the door on a table with the inner side up,carefully cut away the inner panel that covers the spot where the missing piece was ripped out, and glass the missing piece back into place with lots of reinforcement. Much of the work is done reaching up through the large opening near the bottom of the door where you access the window mechanism, so the glass, vent window and window regulator has to come out. A description of the whole process would take pages, but you can figure it out- the idea is to tack the missing piece back in its place, and then build up a sandwich of fabric and resin on both the front and back that laps well onto the surrounding panel. This'll take lots of fabric- plan on 12 - 15 layers of cloth on each side. The sandwich has to be compressed in place as it cures, both to provide smooth, flat surfaces for the hinge and the backing plate to clamp to, and to improve strength by maximizing the fiber density in the sandwich. I made shaped molds of the area inside and out from a Bondo-like glass strand reinforced filler, and used temporary drilled holes and all-thread rods to put pressure on the sandwich when in place. I used carbon fiber cloth instead of glass (because it's a little stronger and a lot lighter, but mostly because I had it on hand) and an epoxy (rather than a polyester) resin. After the resin cured I had a hinge mounting surface that had been built up about 1/8"; I had a machinist mill that much off the face of the hinge to prevent the door from being offset to the outside. If you have power windows, you might also look at the area around the window regulator pivot- it's typically cracked since when the window hits the top of its travel this area gets seriously flexed and the glass cracks. Reinforce as necessary. Once reinforced, the door is much stronger than a replacement door, which is, of course, made of the same age-embrittled too-thin plastic as the one that broke! If I can help, give me a call- e-mail me direct and I'll give yo my phone number. Regards, Chuck -------------------------------- Doug: I too had to fix the door hinges on my 63 Avanti last year, in much the same way that Chuck Lampman described. I really can't add much to his description, as that is pretty much how I did the job. Just take your time and it should work out ok..... I too used an epoxy-based resin to bond the pieces back together. Where are you located? If I can help further, email me direct and I'll give you a phone number where we can talk about it.... I'm located in St. Louis area. Hope to see you at our AOAI national meet, June 1-6 Lew ---------------------------------------- Thanks to all of you that gave me advice on repairing the door on my 63 "project car". With you encouragement I now have the door on and working well ,needing only a small adjustment.In fact I think I may repair the other door that seems to be a little weak and sagging. On other cars I have worked on I hve been able to find Dash Caps or other similar products to repair a badly damaged dash.My Avanti looks like someone let the air out of it,but I have not been able to find anything to repair it.Does anyone know of asource for a similar product or a source of a good used dash cover at a reasonable price. --------------------------------------- Vince , I too have an Avanti that had the same problem.In fact when I brought the car home the driver's door was in the back of the truck with two large holes where the hinges should be. The job looked absolutely impossible but after some of the guys on the news page encouraged me with their suggestions I attempted the repair and found it to be quite "doable". I would encourage you to do the same .I made pictures of my progress and the metal plates that I fabricated and I would be happy to send a set to you if I can find the negatives.I was able to get a very good fit after only two tries of shimming the door after the repair.Since I had access to some scrap steel plate [3/16] the total cost of the repair was less than $20.00. Let me know if I can be of any help or if you would like the pictures. Doug White -------------------------------- Fiberglass seems to be an arcane art that is practiced behind closed doors at pricey repair shops. In truth, it's a lot like making lazagna. A layer of this, a layer of that. By the time you get to the top of the pan you're good enough to make it worth putting on the table. Take a look at what's involved before you abandon your door. A good first step would be to call SystemThree at 800-333-5514. They're one of the largest FRP suppliers on the planet. They will sell you a trial kit containing 12 oz of epoxy resin, hardener, fiberglass cloth, brushes, measuring cups, fillers, roller cover, squeegee and gloves for ten bucks. Included is "The Epoxy Book" that will make you feel like an Italian chef. It's that good. You can also find them at www.systemthree.com Why haven't you heard of them before? Have you ever heard of the Whitbread Race? Most of the FRP in this country goes into boats. It works on sailplanes too. Enjoy, Peter C. King -------------------------------------