I mean I knew this thing was battered, but my god, I had to get a hacksaw on this puppy to get it apart!  Yes, I bloody hacksaw!

Every screw on this car has been OVERLY TIGHTENED to the extreme.  I’ve pretty much rounded the head off every screw getting them out and that’s with an overly careful hand too.  One of the screws that held the front gearbox on though was set, totally, and I even think it’d be glued in place as nothing on this planet was going to move it.  Luckily, my handy hacksaw came into play to saw through the offending blighter and get it apart.

Now, as this was totally trashed before I’d gone all Friday 13th on it, I’d got all excited about the re-release of the original Avante due mainly to the fact that these two cars shared a lot the same components.  What this meant was that this gearbox was going to be replaceable very soon, and probably for a small price tag. Result!  Needless to say, 1 week later, the parts started appearing on eBay and boom, I got all my new plastic replacement parts for about £15, bloody bargain!  That coupled with my already new gear set, meant that I had an almost brand new front gearbox in my hands, niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

Hooooooold on, yes, I do believe I have an Avante 2001 here, not an egress, as while the rear diff was the all metal Egress ball diff, this one is the geared plastic diff from the Avante 2001.  Hmmmmm.  Bugger.  Oh well, she’s turning out to be a hybrid.  If I can source a cheap ball diff for the front I’ll have it, but if not, she’s staying as is.

This is the first exciting part! Staring to stick the chassis together.  Its only the main two plates, but what the heck, its nice to see some actual progress!

Well, that dastardly spur gear led me on an interesting path of discovery.  It turns out that this spur gear is the one from the Avante 2001! Hmmmmm, seems strange.  My initial thought was that maybe the previous owner had upgraded the Egress to have some of the improved Avante 2001 features, but I’m now thinking that maybe this car is actually an Avante 2001 with Egress bits on it, rather than the other way around.  Hmmmm.  Luckily, in one of the other parts auctions I won, it included the original Egress set up, including the ‘one way’ spur gear bits, so that’s been dropped in instead…and in a total moment of madness, I picked up a full NIP Egress plastic gear set, so the whole caboodle is being replaced with new parts…nice :)