Paddy75's 1300 Super Discussion

[avenga]

This is a thread to discuss Paddy75's 1300 Super

[avenga]

Welcome to the forum Paddy.

Great story about driving an Avenger at age 3, must me the youngest Avenger driver here.

I had my first drive in an Avenger when I was about 17 or so. I brought my 1980 Chrysler Avenger as my first car and learnt to drive in it. I have had it ever since, I turned it in to a race car when I was in my early 20's.

Good to see another Avenger nut.

[avengertiger]

well paddy tar isteach,were are you in n.i. i have a few contacts up there with avengers who might be able to help you out with bits,i have done the ferry trip manys a time with avengers,good times.
will reply to your pm tonight sorry about delay.

[oldschool]

Congratulations on a great low mileage car Paddy. I saw it on eBay and it was the best looking one I'd seen for a while. I know rust is more of an issue in the UK than here. A few of us would like to import an Avenger but are worried about rust (and previous rust repairs) stopping compliance. Then you have to get engineers reports and certified welding done, etc. Also copper brake pipes are legal in the UK but not here, so they'd have to be replaced with bundy tubing, making the whole process very expensive. Have seen a few restored Avengers on eBay without rust issues, but we're talking big money to buy those ones! 

[Paddy75]

Thanks folks, I'm trying to get a set of opening quarter vents for (Gran)da'venger. At

[oldschool]

We never got the drum front brake Avengers here...too many steep hills...and we didn't get the 1250 model either, just the 1500, then the 1300 and 1600 later on.
All NZ Avengers (even 1300's) had disc front brakes and alternators too.
That decision helped sales no doubt, as there was still a few all drum brake cars for sale in NZ in the 1970's and they weren't popular, except with mechanics...lol.
I remember when we got the VW Golf Mk1 in 1975 and it came with drum front brakes...what a sales disaster...they quickly upgraded it to disc front brakes!

[Paddy75]

Mine has pre-engaged starter and an alternator. The drum brakes work okay and it doesn't take that much effort to operate.
The only, pretty minor scare was approaching a yield going downhill, I was had forgot about the drums then went for the brakes, Wowww shi!!!! So just gear down a wee bit earlier. I'd need diffrent strut bottoms/hubs to fit discs, which might be a good idea as where I'm from its all steep hills. I think all the 1600s had discs and the early 1250s, no doubt the retrograde step was Chrysler being mean.

[Paddy75]

I'm thinkin' of a car recovery firm in Somerset...

[Paddy75]

Hopefully picures to come.

The preserving of a '75 Hillmans body.

In total this Avenger of mine will not, cannot rust.

The Exterior paint I don't need to worry about, bar paperglue and stick a wee bit of the lower coach stripe.
She was done in 2-pack about I'd guess 5-6 years ago. Nice job was done.

Here is a word to the orange 1300super member:

Bud' what u gotta do is scrape off the schutz/black underseal

not burn, heat off, aye mine is sorta the same.

da'venger had v.llittle rust on her.

The reasion my one is in good shape is because:

Think, in 1980 all our Avengers were cheap good 2nd or 3rd hand cars.

So the Avengers that didn't get too much drivin'
and
somebody looked after the undersides.

What you gotta do 1300super, is get the old u/seal off, acid strip the floor, chassis legs, down to pretty much the bare steel.
Any rot you kill with the acid, you dose the sills inner with this too... watch the crap the sill inner bokes out.
Then you hot waxoil, or in Ireland we call it hot finnegans it, inside sills, behind dash, acid any rust u see in the car in total.

Do the insides of the chassy legs.

So they will, the bodies, oh and get burnt oil, do the door inners, and engine bay clean out ans spray burn't oil.

Then lastly, the good grey schutz over the finnegans wax.

How you preserve an Avenger so the body will last another near 40 years.

Paddy B.

[Paddy75]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKVEgL_m4yo

dumb yanks

[avenga]

Pretty good review for a yank.

Love the power bulge, 4 headlight and tiger stripes.

Looked awesome bounding over the rough terrain.

[avengertiger]

thats an interesting cricket video along with the extras richard mentioned it also has the rear spioler,restall buckets,exacton alloys and is running twin strombergs,i presume this was a promotional model as i havent seen any other crickets with this spec.
it looks like a mix of gt and mk2 tiger with a power bulge instead of mat black bonnet.i wonder is it still alive i must send the vid to rick nossa who is new york and has 2 crickets.
he is also an avenger nut.
good find paddy

[Paddy75]

C&T, said it was noisy, ITS A F***ING COMPACT U F****S
and the Avenger is optimizeed to be RHD, they were sitting over the noise/exaust side.

When we were teenagers, the things we did to avengers, cortinas, asconas and escorts, 'rakin' about fields, lanes back roads (boreens) and forests.

''..The Crickets high speed cornering is not its suit..'' What? Thats a damn lie! Sure they even tightened up the chicane cones!

Anyhow, I believe the Cricket was sold a few years longer in Canada.

Did you guys never see those videos?

Go Easy.

[avenga]

I would agree with the Avengers being noisy my '75 makes a hell of a racket, but in a good way.

You can get them quieter by using the bonnet sound deadening they had in the later Chrysler Avengers, you can retrofit them to Hillmans like Ross did in his.

Americans see corners different than the rest of the world and owning a muscle car I fully know what he means. He isn't saying they are bad handling just that they lack power out of the corners. Which compared to an American car it is true, you do need to change down a lot more in an Avenger to get it to pull out of corners, especially a stock Avenger. Compare that to my 1972 Chyrsler Valant Charger and it has tons of power to pull you sideways out of a corner.

Remember in the 70's Americans used to think all 4 bangers were gutless. They are used to cars like the Dodge Chargers and Challengers with 440CI (7200cc) V8 engines, so of cause a little 1500cc Avenger is going to seem like a big stepdown. Even my 265CI (4300cc) Hemi Charger would leave an Avenger in the dust.

I think the review was fair given the huge tanks Americans were driving at the time. Unless you own a muscle car you have now idea how truely big they are. Americans have a different size scale than UK, Escorts and Avengers were Subcompacts. My Charger would be classed as a compact car in the 70's in America and that is huge. To be classed as a compact the car needs to be longer than 165 inches and a wheel base of over 100 inches. And because the Avenger is only 161 inches long and has a wheelbase of 98 inches then by the American standards it is a Subcompact.

[Paddy75]

Sure the Avenger is a bit noisy but it handles. Where I live its mostly bumpy roads with all sorts of crazy cambers and hump-backed bridges. That wee Avenger did them the best. I recall horsing about with school friends in a Chrysler Avenger, musta been a '78 or '79, this was around 1990. The cornering on the Avengers was the best and the handbrakes were pretty keen too!

I must get a good video cam so u all can see the 'snake tracks' of our boreens. Then the Avenger handeling them well. Would look a bit like the Path