Saturday a friend of mine called and asked me if I would help him pick up an
'83 Avanti he had just bought in NY state (about 50 miles North of NYC).  I
agreed to.  He said 320 miles, MapQuest said 287 (odometer came to 290).  I
told him hooking up my trailer and being ready to go was a five-minute job.
Since it was getting pretty cold (5:30 pm), I decided to hook up to leave
the next morning.  Five minute hookup- yes.  Ready to go- no.  My wife had
driven the truck Wednesday night.  When she thought she was pushing down the
parking brake she was in fact crunching my brake controller (about one inch
from the brake pedal).  I spent the next two hours trying to fix it (upper
30's, 20 mph wind, on my sore knee trying to reach the attaching screws).
The case was broken where one of the two screws fastened to the bracket and
the soft aluminum cover was buckled (pulled off one plastic rivet and broke
another one of four).  I couldn't disconnect the wires so I had to work on
it dangling under the dash.  I took off the cover and springs went flying.
Got them back and flattened the cover then drilled out the plastic rivets
and installed short #6 sheet metal screws.  Then I had to find a long, thin
bolt to go through the bracket and the case so I dug through my massive box
of bolts.  I did find one to work then I had to dig through my massive box
of nuts...  Anyhow I got the controller hung again and I could work it
manually (the momentum pendulum was stuck and wouldn't work).  So, my friend
showed up at 6:30 am yesterday and he start out.  First time I touched the
truck brakes (brake lights came on) the trailer brakes locked (can you say
smoking tires?).  So, I turned around and went home and just cut the wires
to the controller.
The trip to the destination was uneventful (except for a very hard snow
flurry near Indiantown Gap, PA and severe head winds all the way).
Pennsylvania and NJ have some VERY BAD, VERY ROUGH roads when you are in an
empty HD 3/4-ton truck pulling an empty trailer.  Got 11 mpg going up
(98,000-mile Dodge Ram V-10).  We got the car loaded ok and started back.
The wind was mostly behind us so it was quieter and the ride was smoother
with a load, but the roads are still VERY BAD, VERY ROUGH.  Otherwise the
trip was completely uneventful (weird in NJ- they pump the gas for you-
$2.149 at an out-of-the-way Exxon station).  Got 11 mpg coming home too and
I was having trouble keeping the speed down (always seemed to creep up to
75).
The car- a real deal.  I know, there is nothing more expensive than a cheap
Avanti.  This was a high miles car, but appeared to have a pretty new
engine.  Paint ok for a 21-year-old car as a daily driver.  It had been
sitting outside for four years.  My friend had even checked the frame or
rear cross member so I figured he got took (NY car).  But, when we were
loading it I looked and the cross member and frame looked very good.  It
started and ran well on four-year-old gasoline and most everything worked
just fine (power windows zipped up and down, brakes were good, etc.).  It
had a couple strange problems though (reason it had to be trailered).  The
hood skin was completely delaminated from its frame and the moon roof
assembly was also delaminated from its mounting was hanging down an inch or
so.  However, the price- $1500.
Paul Johnson