Avenga's Avengers

[Avenga]

Hi Guys. I haven't been on the forum for about 5 years or so. I usually hang out on a MoPar forum but I have had some guys from this forum contact me about my Avengers so I thought I would share my collection of cars with you guys.

Here are some up to date shots of the Avenger

At the moment I have 2 Avengers and a Chrysler Valiant Charger. My daily driver is a 1975 Hillman Avenger which I brought earlier this year and am slowly customising to my tastes. I have just replaced the engine with a 1500 Avenger Alpine engine with dual Dellortos etc. I also have a 1972 Chrysler Valiant Charger which I have owned for 6 years and is mostly stock, I rebuilt the engine last year and put drop spindles in the front and bigger tyres but other than that it is all original. My Last car is my 1980 Chrysler Avenger race car, I have had this car for about 15 years and it was my first car. I raced it from about 2000-2006 now it is sitting in my garage taking a back seat to my other projects.

So here are some pictures of my rides.

My 1972 Chrysler Valiant Charger 770

My 1975 Hillman Avenger

My 1980 Chrysler Avenger race car

[Avenga]

Okay. I am going to start from the beginning of my 1975 Avenger projects.

As this is my daily driver I have been doing little mini projects so I don't have to use the Charger too much, I like to save the Charger for the weekends.

Before I brought this car I had been eye it up at a few car shows. I saw it for sale at Galaxy of cars and at the MoPar nationals and since I had just become self employed I was looking for a new daily driver.

Here are some pictures from the night I went to pick it up.

When I brought it it had a stock 1500 with a down draught weber and Alpine exhaust manifold on it. It went okay for stock but it was pretty gutless so I knew that had to go. But more about that later.

[Avenga]

My first project was a bit of an interior dress up. I am still not finished this as I have an Alpine dash to go in but that is on my to do list.

First thing I did was get rid of the steering wheel and gearknob.

After that I pulled up the ugly checkerboard they had on the floor. Once I pulled up the checkerboard I could see why they put it there in the first place. The carpets were completely rotted away. there was a few leaks which would have caused the carpets to get wet and rott. I guess the last owner just wanted to cover up the problem so I stripped out all the carpets and fixed all the leaks. I got a new set of carpets made for me by Autodec in Manakau and spent the weekend pulling out the old stuff and installing the new carpets.

When I first saw the state of the carpets I was really worried thinking I would have heaps of rust on the floor to deal with but as you can see it was sweet once I got the carpets out.

Drivers side front before

And after

Passengers side before

After

Passengers rear before

and after

Drivers rear before

After

Back section fully stripped

This is the only solid bit of carpet I got out of the whole car. anything touching the floor was just sludge.

Mostly clean, ready for the new carpets. I did some more scrubbing after these photos just to get it spotless before installing the carpets.

Installed some underlay to help with the road noise.

Then came the new carpets. I had to modify them a bit to fit but all the joins are hidden by the center consoles so it looks mint when everything else is in.

[Avenga]

At the same I expermented with different Avenger seats I had and after a bit of driving around I decided to go for the high back buckets because the low backs are pretty uncomfortable with the lack of shoulder support. At the same time I replaced the seatbelts and started my audio upgrade. I replaced the door cards which the old owner had cut up to put some crappy 4" speakers in. I went for some Pioneer TSD-1720 6.5" components with the woofer in the door and the tweeter in the dashboard. it has some old Pioneer 6x9" in the back which I will be replacing with some new Pioneer TSD-6902 speakers soon. I have just finished the second stage of my audio upgrade but I will post the photos of them later so it says in chronological order.

[Avenga]

After sorting out the interior a bit I turned my focus to getting more power. I found the intake manifold new on Trademe for around $100 from aussie then the Dellorto DHLA40's were 2nd hand on Trademe for abour $500. also found a new fuel pump on Trademe.

Next thing was to search for a good block to built the engine on. I was looking for a 1600 Avenger Alpine engine because they have a dual timing chain, double vavle springs and a better head to start with.

I put a wanted ad in trademe looking for an Avenger engine. I got a few replies. the first was a standard 1600 from Hamilton for $200 which I passed on because the engine was pretty rough. Next offer was a pair of 1600 Alpine engines up north for $100 but they had been sitting outside for years so I passed on those.

Finally I got the offer I wanted. It turned out to be only a 1500 but I bored it out so it is the same bore as a 1600 but just a slightly shorter stroke which can be a good thing. The engine was out of a 1973 Avenger Alpine, the only year Alpines had a 1500. It was the guys fathers car and the engine had been rebuilt in 2000 then put in a garage in 2004. I got the engine for $100 for the block and head only.

I also brought some new headers and got them HPC coated. it was about $250 for the headers and about that again for the HPC coating but they look really great so they are worth it.

When I pulled the engine apart it was mint inside, you could still see the hone marks on the bore from the last rebuild and all the bearings were mint. Because I was building this as a performance engine I decided to replace all the internals even though they were pretty good already.

Carbs and intake manifold

New fuel pump. see it's demise in later posts

Shiney headers. they look soo cool. it is a real shame they are hidden by the carbs when they are in the car because they look awesome

The new 1500 Alpine in it's old home in Wellington before it was pulled out and sent up to Auckland

The new engine stripped and ready to start the rebuild

[Avenga]

Okay now on to the fun stuff, the new engine.

It is a 1973 1500cc Avenger Alpine engine. It has all new lightened and balanced internals, polished crank etc. Heaps of work done on the head. custom ported and flowed with new valve guides and inserts. Custom cam made for the flow of the head. New GT double valve springs.

Carbs are dual DHLA40's on a modified manifold which has been port matched to the head and a set of modified headers.

It is pretty quick for a 1500, it loves the revs. pulls 7,000RPM with ease.

Any questions feel free to ask at //oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=25075

Custom Kelford cams spec sheet

Engine in the shop all ready to be swapped over

Engine fitted in the car ready for its running in. I couldn't get the K&N's in time for the running in so I did my first 300km with no filters. sounded awesome

After the running in with the K&N filters on. I have since removed that ugly cable going across the carbs and done some more engine bay clean up.

[Avenga]

Okay guys back to the project thread.

Avengers are known for breaking a few things after you increase the power of the engine. I learnt this on my race car but I thought I would be okay because I didn't think it was producing enough power to break stuff.

The funny thing is I was talking to one of my mates about how the standard fans flex and hit the radiator at high RPM and how we both had to switch to electric fans on our race cars, I told him I thought my road car would be fine without an electric fan then the next day on the way back from a mates place I heard this huge bang. Luckly I was literally at the corner of the road I live on so I coasted home and popped the bonnet water was pissing out of the radiator and I could see a missing blade. I walked back up the road and found the blade sitting in the middle of the road.

Also just before that happened I had the other weak link in the Avenger fail. The fuel pump. The shots below are it cracked after my 300KM running in. I replaced it with an electric fuel pump. I had the same thing happen on my race car but again I didn't think the little 1500 had enough power to do that to the fuel pump, it was brand new when I put it in, you can see pictures of it new further up the thread.

okay now for some pictures

Broken fuel pump

Damaged radiator

Broken fan

Spare radiator

Electric fan

Thermostat control box

Fan "on" light and manual override switch

My speedo has never been very acurite and with replacing the dashboard soon I didn't want to fix it so I decided to get a fancy GPS speedo. It is really acurite and it has a programmable overspeed warning which is cool.

Next I got the bonnet repainted, It got some paint stripper or brake fuild dropped on it by my mechanic which ate through some of the paint so he resprayed the whole bonnet for me for free!! it is sort of a satin black, not quite a matt black but not a gloss black.

After that I was taking it down to a car show so I thought I would give it a good clean, when I was finished it looked soo good I figured I should go take some nice pictures of it.

Here is a quick sneak peek at my next project, an Alpine dash and instrument cluster.

Next I went on to stage 2 of my audio upgrade. A kicker amp and sub with a new Pioneer head deck. I have also brought my rear speakers but they will go in over Xmas. I got really good deals all my audio gear from JB HiFi. for example I got the rear 6x9 Pioneer TSD-6902 speakers for $101.

[Avenga]

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of updates. here is a catch up of all the stuff I have been doing on the Avenger.

I started off by doing my Sierra 5 speed gearbox conversion and installing an MSD 6AL.

Here are some pictures of my latest purchases.

MSD 6AL and MSD Blaster 2 coil.

Sierra 5 speed gearbox with homemade quickshift.

Got my MSD and coil fitted. Still running on points at the moment because my electronic dizzy was no good.

After much playing around trying to get the electronic dizzy going I have decided to give up on it and have gone back to running points which triggers the MSD 6AL and MSD Blaster 2 coil as pictures above. We did a lot of playing around on the electronic dizzy with the springs and weights and finally got it to looking right with a static timing of 8 degrees and a total of 32 degrees but there was a noticable drop in power so we gave up on it and went back to points.

I finally got the jets and chokes I have been waiting for so I could do my final tune. The engine is running so much better now. Tons more low end power with the smaller chokes installed. Pulls well from down low now. Before it would bog down at low RPM due to the chokes being too large and not enough airflow. Now they are perfect.

Here are the dyno figures after the final tune. You will see 2 lines. The top line is with the points dizzy and the bottom line is with the electronic dizzy. It got 78.1HP at the wheels which is would be a touch over 100HP at the flywheel. This is awesome because 100HP at the flywheel was my goal when I started this engine build and I am bloody stoked we got there.

My goal was to produce as much power as an Avenger Tiger. The Avenger Tiger was 107HP gross at the flywheel but only 92.5HP net at the flywheel. And with my car being about 100BHP at the flywheel I am beating the Tiger by about 7HP at the flywheel!!!

Gross horsepower was measured at the crank with none of the accessories like alternator, water pump and air cleaners etc hooked up so they look much higher then the real horsepower. Net is still measured at the crank but with all the factory equipment installed. Then finally you have the rear wheel horsepower which is lower again because of transmission and tyre losses. They used to advertise the gross horsepower on cars to make them look more powerful but in real world numbers the Avenger Tiger would be about 71HP at the wheels. The bottom line in my HP graph was 70.1HP so that would be about what an Avenger Tiger would be compared to my final results which are the top line.

More progress on my 5 speed gearbox conversion.

I dropped my Avenger off on monday for the start of it's 5 speed conversion.

Here are some pictures of the bellhousing and gearbox all cleaned up.

Went down the Bygone Autos to check on the progress this yesterday. I must say they are doing an awesome job and I am really impressed with the work so far. The adapter plate looks amazing, it is a pity it will be hidden under the car because it is a pretty cool bit of engineering and shiny also.

I have got the Avenger back for the weekend with the 4 speed gearbox and it will be going back down on monday to finish off the rest of the 5 speed conversion.

So far the bellhousing has been fitted and the gearbox mount made. They have had the 5 speed in the car to check the shifter placement.

All that is left is sorting out the clutch pivot point, finish off the shifter and a few other bits and pieces.

Here are some photos of the work to date.

Adapter plate. Bygone Autos has done a great job fabricating this, it locates centrally against the gearbox and bellhousing so we won't have any problems with alignment.

Relocated shifter waiting to be welded

Bellhousing with the window cut for the clutch

New gearbox mount

[Avenga]

Went down to pick up my Avenger today with the new 5 speed gearbox.

Bygone Autos has done a really great job on the conversion, even finishing a day ahead of schedule so I can have it ready for my trip down to Palmerston North on Thursday.

I haven't driven it on the motorway yet because there was big tornados on the north shore so traffic was crazy with all the trees knocked over etc but at 50KM in 5th gear it seats at about 1,500RPM. After my trip away I will do an update to let you know how it goes on the motorway.

Shifter fits perfectly and I kept the original 4 speed gearknob so it still looks stock. Reverse is in the same place as it was on the 4 speed so it is just an extra overdrive gear on the upper right. That is good so I don't get mixed up with the position of the gears, they all feel pretty much in the same location as the old 4 speed.

Ratios all feel good, 1st is lower but not stupidly low. There is a bit of a jump between 1st and 2nd then 2nd, 3rd and 4th are pretty much the same as the old 4 speed.

Here is some pictures of it all installed.

[Avenga]

Here are some photos of my front seats repaired.

[Avenga]

Okay guys. Sorry for the lack of updates.

Been doing heaps of work on the Avenger. It has been down in the shop since October but it should be pretty awesome when it is done. Pretty much finished most the mechanical stuff and it is booked in for a full respray in the next few weeks (pulling the engine out next week)

So here is some of the stuff I have been up to.

First up was the brake upgrade & suspension upgrade. These are Volvo 4 pot calipers and BMW E30 rotors. I also swapped my race car suspension over to this car so I have adjustable Koni's all round and adjustable ride height and camber plates at the front.

This is the caliper all rebuilt and restored. All new pistons and seals etc.

Here they are bolted up to the E30 rotors. You can see some of the plumbing is done and you can see my custom struts along with the camber plate in the background.

[Avenga]

Next up was the wheels and tyre upgrade.

Got some custom Diamond Racing Wheels made for me. Took me 6 months to get them here after they took like 4 months to make them. They had trouble with the 4x108 stud pattern because it is not very common over there and because they are a pressed wheel they had to wait till they could get a press to do the centres.

They are 15x8 with a 4" backspace on the rear with 225/50/R15 Toyo Proxies T1R tyres, and 15x7 with a 4" backspace on the front with 205/50/R15 Toyo Proxies T1R tyres.

[Avenga]

after that I did a little interior upgrade. Going from the old strip speedo to the round gauges of the Avenger Alpine. This cluster is actually out of an english Avenger GT so it uses Smiths gauges which are tons better than the NZ AC Delco ones.

I also swapped over to the Avenger Alpine dashboard and got it recovered.

Here are some photos of the new cluster. This was before I get it restored so now it looks like new. I replaced the glass on the temp gauge and repainted the damage to the rev counter

Here are some shots of my new dash.

And here are some shots of the difference between AC Delco and Smiths.

The cluster on top is the NZ one and the one on the bottom is the UK Smiths ones.

[Avenga]

And then the final bit is the exterior.

I brought some mould for a fiberglass bonnet, boot with spoiler and chin spoiler.

I also did a quad headlight conversion.

Here is a shot of it with the quad headlights and fiberglass bits. I haven't got the flares or big wheels on in this picture because they will require the body to be cut to make them fit

Here is a photoshop one of my mates did to show what the finished car may look like.

Here are some more shots of the fiberglass bits and some of the flares we tried. The front ones will stay but we are using some Capri ones for the rear.

[Avenga]

Hey guys.

Mega panelbeating photo dump!!!

So I went down to GT Refinishers to check out the progress on the Avenger. It is looking good, heaps less rust that I thought there would be, heaps of dodgey repairs by previous owners but the body is really good otherwise. Grant said the body looks really good.

The back wheels look huge now they are fitted and they will fill up the flares nicely. The fronts are a different story, they don't stick out past the factory guards so I have some spacers which I will use to mock up the wheels then I will get the offset changed from a 4" backspace to a 3" back space.

So let the flood of photos begin.

This is the rear wheel how it sits at the moment, they need to cut a bit more out, probably up to the blue line. I also need some harder springs but the ride height is looking really good.

This is how the flares will sit in the end

This is how much they have cut so far, you can see the blue line which will be where the final cut will be.

Here are some little patches etc they have done

This one is by the back window

This one is on the other side of the back window

Top of the back window

Front guard

Around the front window

Engine bay all stripped and all the holes welded up.

Battery is moved to the boot

Bonnet latch is removed because I don't need it with the fibreglass bonnet

Fancy pants adjustible front suspension, Ex-my rally car

tail lights

rear quarter, you can see a few rust holes that will be patched

They also did patches on the other rear quarter plus most the doors and the front guard.

[Avenga]

Latest progress shot, via the GT Refinishers facebook page http://www.facebook.com/Gtref

They are doing an awesome job. Can't wait to see it finished.

[Avenga]

I went down to GT Refinishers yesterday to see the progress in person.

It is looking very cool. The rear wheel look so wide now with the factory guards cut back. They are having to extend the rear flares a bit to get them to fit over the wheels.

Here are some more photos.

I love this shot looking down the side of the car, shows how wide the rear wheels are.

Passengers rear

Drivers rear

Rear guards cut ready for the flares. We cut all the way up to the bottom of the doors.

Rear passengers door

Rear drivers door

Still got the front to strip and paint.

[Avenga]

Latest progress shot from GT Refinishers.

[Avenga]

Went down to the panelbeaters to check on the progress. These will probably be the last shots before in gets painted. It is scheduled to be painted on Thursday. Just got some final blocking to do and the front flares.

Also went and brought all the rubbers for the Avenger.

I think the rear flare look great, they make it look really aggressive.

http://i871.photobucket.com/albums/ab274/avenga76/1975%20avenger/IMG_6637.jpg[/img]

They made the lower section of the flare out of steel so it won't break if people kick it getting in and out of the car.

Here are some more shots of the rear spoiler now that it is in primer. I think it really suits the car now.

Engine bay is looking super tidy now. I am going to hide all the wires so it should look very clean when it is done.

Lots of rubbers, I got the door rubbers, boot seal, window chanel, inner and outer bottom window seals plus some rubbers for the tail lights for just under $400 all up from Reid and Twiname. Plus the front quarter lights from the UK.

[Avenga]

I spent the night prepping and polishing my tail lights. I managed to find some NOS lenses awhile ago so I gave them a good polish also.

They came up really well. I polished the crap out of the refectors so they should be pretty bright.

My next job is to find some screws as they were all rusted and find a signwriter who can put a little black vinyl strip in the groove around the outside.

Then I can put them all back together and fit my new seals.

New Old Stock lenses. they have never been fitted to a car but they had lost their luster over the years of sitting, so I gave the a good polish.