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**Rubberdubber** · 11 January 2023, 19:31

I've seen this car before, underneath, nice to see the rest, deffinitley worth restoring, regardless of engine and it's your car, your job, so you can do what you want.

**B5NUT** · 11 January 2023, 19:51

Few images of the stripping process, I said to myself back then hope to never have to do this to a car again, but I'm sure I will as at some point I'm planning to buy an S2 coupe, and I'm sure it will need the same treatment.

I did get very lucky on this car, no welding was required.
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Fuel hoses on the tank were rock hard, so were all binned.
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Removing the stub axles was a bit of a pain, had to use a lot of hell of a heat & penetrating fluid to get the remainder of the bolts out.
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Stub axles had the rust removed from the base using this stuff as I did not have a basting cabinet back then, it does a far better job than any of the rust removal solutions you can buy and it's a hell of a lot cheaper. Only down side it did take about 48 hours to remove all the rust
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Rear ABS rings were also dipped in oxalic acid.
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Back then I was surprised by the amount of rust under some of the underseal, so a lot of it was cut away before the rust was removed using flap disc's, twist knot wire wheel, drill based wire brushes, air powered belt sander and DA air sanders. I was not able to removed 100% of the pitted rust so what was left I used a molecular rust converter as below.
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I also tried the "safer rust remover" that they sold and it's absolute rubbish and one to avoid, I put some rusty bolts in the solution left them for 24 hours and it barely touched the rust, left it for a further 24 hours and still the same result. You are far better off getting Oxalic Acid and mixing up your own solution.

So once the converter had done it's job on the pitted rust it was time for the seam sealer, this stuff is bloody awful to work with but it does a good job.
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Would love to have applied the spray seam sealer but the equipment to do that was just too expensive, so the only option was the brush-able stuff.

Next was to apply a coating to the car. Now years ago I would have used Por-15 but I really don't rate that stuff anymore, it's kind of like hammerite all the good chemicals were removed years ago due to various regulations. So I've moved to epoxy mastic paint. It's not cheap but it's an excellent product and does the job covering various different surfaces from metal, sealer and 2K paint.

Under the car Audi have used different products, but it's mainly sealer, some patches of primer, cavity wax and overspray from painting the body. so colour wise there were various different colour shades, but I decided to go black.

These were the results after apply a couple of coats of epoxy mastic, what I did find was useful was having a few fans available as the mastic dry's so much quicker with air movement.
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Final coat for the underside was a coating of 3M schutz.
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I was replacing all the brake lines so was not bothered about them getting covered.
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The only downside to apply the underseal is the usual comment why is there so much underseal applied to the car, what are they hiding? Also if the water gets in under the underseal again. Guess there is nothing I can do about the couple of comments and I hope that it's protected enough that it will be fine for another 20+ years.

**K Simmonds** · 12 January 2023, 01:27

Nice to see you've pulled the old girl out and have made a good start on it, you must be very attached to the car having basically owned it from new.

I'm assuming the 20V 1.8 is 150bhp? Not earth shattering powerful but enough to be nippy as it FWD.

Looks like a very tidy example, don't see many of them at all that spec these days, bet it's nice to drive normally in.

**B5NUT** · 12 January 2023, 08:12

It's the ADR model so you only get a mere 125BHP. It's not a light car so it's not going to win any drag races and 0-60 is 10.4 seconds

. It is an SE so nice soft springs & 16" wheels make for a pleasant drive. As for a spec goes err well it's got a sunroof

When I got the car from the Audi dealer it was on a set of wolf race alloys! which were leaking air, so replaced then with a set of 16" wheels, not putting steel wheels back on the car.

This is the option codes for the car
X2B = National sales program Great Britain
B0A = Component parts set without country-specific design requirement
C0V = Steel wheels 6J x 15
G0C = 5-speed manual transmission
H6S = Tires 195/65 R15 V
J1P = Battery 220 A (44 Ah)
M51 = 4-cyl. gasoline engine 1.8 L/92 kW 20V with MVEG 2 base engine is T0V/T5Z
Q1A = Standard front seats
1AC = Anti-lock brake system (ABS)
1G2 = Steel spare wheel with original equipment tires
2PG = Steering wheel
3AE = Right exterior mirror: flat, electrically adjustable and heated
3BF = Left exterior mirror: convex, electrically adjustable and heated
T5Z = 4-cylinder gasoline engine 1.8 L unit 058.B
3S0 = Without roof rails/roof load rack
4UC = Air bag for driver
0G1 = Gearshift lever
8AA = Without radio
8GM = Alternator 70 A
8RM = 8 speakers (passive)
1LH = Disc brakes, front
3FE = Electric slide/tilt sunroof with sun screen/sunblind
1BA = Standard suspension/shock absorption

**B5NUT** · 12 January 2023, 08:44

Once all the dirty & messy job was complete at the rear it was time for more "fun" jobs like putting the backend together with new and shiny components

Rear axle came back from the powder coating
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Fuel tank was drained of any remaining fuel as it's been in there for years, new fuel pump, sender and seal was fitted along with new rubber hoses and pressure release valves.

Old fuel tank seal had started to melt!
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Tank cleaned ready to refit.
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All bare metal components were painted with a 2K Clear Etch Lacquer same stuff you use on diamond cut alloy wheels, even the nuts and bolts have been painted once fitted and torqued up. Now I know the coating will be damaged when I come to remove the bolts again, but they will be soo much easier to remove, than when they have rusted solid and the head has rusted away.
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Handbrake cables were also coated
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Along with the brake flexi ends
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Once all the component parts had had a coat of epoxy new shocks, springs, dust shields and mounting brackets so then I could put the backend back together.
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Brakes were then painted again with epoxy mastic and 2k clearcoat.
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Fuel tank refitted, and have to say it was a difficult job to refit as the tank straps were soo tight. The old tank straps had just about rotted away, so new ones had to be purchased, and to protect them I sprayed them with epoxy mastic to try and stop the rot!

New heat shield, were also purchased as the old ones had all rotted away around the mounting point and were over all in poor condition
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Like the S2 parts for the A4 B5 are now mainly obsolete and can only be ordered from Tradition

**B5NUT** · 12 January 2023, 09:03

All the brake lines on the A4 were showing signs of corrosion at various section in the pipe work, they are alloy pipes with a very thin layer of protection. Looking back through the MOT history of the car the brake pipes corrosion had come up on the last two MOT's so there was no chance of the old pipe straying on the car. Also VAG no longer make made up section of brake pipe so the only option was to make your own.
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If the corrosion had been minor then I guess they could have been rubbed back and recoated but these were well passed that point.

So I needed tools, you got to love buying new tools!

Pipe benders

I stared with these but found they were stripping the coating off the pipe
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So I went an purchased the Bluepoint pipe benders, lot more cash but looked like they would do the job! However if your trying the replicate the OEM brake pipe this tool won't work the radius of the curve is far to big
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So it was back to the cheaper pipe benders, I modified them slightly by grinding the rear so it was more curved and then covered it in fabric wiring harness tape which stopped the coating being scraped away.

Next up was a pipe straightener, as the VAG brake pipe comes in a 4.7M coiled sections
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You try and straighten it by hand but one of these made the job a lot easer and quicker.
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Final required tool was the flaring tool. I started off with one of these. Sometimes it would work well other times it was poor and I was starting to waste a lot of pipe due to this. It's a one shot deal, as you cannot go back and re-flare the end you have to cut the pipe back to were the tool had gripped the section of the pipe and start again...
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So I gave up on that and got one of these it was about £50 more, but it did the job first time every time, and no more wasted pipe.
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This was my first go at making up brake pipes, there were a few mistakes with the first couple of pipes that I made
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Not one of the easiest job on the car, and it was a job that I kept getting put off... This was the first of six pipes that had to be made with the longest pipe being over 3 meters in length and had around 30 bends in it.
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Think it took me about 1/2 a day to create the two rear brake lines. Unlike the S2 where a singe pipe goes to a junction at the rear the A4 has both pipes from the ABS to the rear of the car.
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**steve briance** · 12 January 2023, 10:14

Great pipework job.

Ive been there and done that with flaring tools and yes saving a little bit on flaring kit rarely ends up saving money. Who sells or what brand is the vice mount tool you ended up with? First time flares is something i like the sound of

**Tractor Dave** · 12 January 2023, 10:23

Agree. Fantastic work. Very oe looking

The little hand held flare tool is brilliant for kunifer on car but I also struggled with steel.
I could use one of those bench mounted ones as well

**K Simmonds** · 12 January 2023, 12:23

I have to say Lee your work is really tidy, honestly you attention to detail is better than most garages, it's nice to see something being done properly.

It's not all about BHP, as I said to you when you visited it's very nice having 380 odd BHP but you can only fully employ that power safely occasionally, most the time you only use about a third of that to drive around normally. That's why I'm quite content with making my 2.8 C4 Avant my luxury daily driver, it's got 174bhp which is plenty for day to day use and it super comfortable.

The main thing is having a car you enjoy driving, I happily drove around in my B3 2.0 quattro saloon for a year with an absolutely earth shattering 112bhp, did the job perfectly well.

Honestly your prep and work is so tidy I'm actually learning about how to use certain product's from reading your thread and I work in the trade.

We have one of those bench mounted flaring tools at work, can't recall the make but it's old and British, does a great job.

I have an identical hand held one which is good but the bench mounted one is much nicer to use.

I think it might be Sykes Pickavant but I'm not a 100% on that.

**B5NUT** · 12 January 2023, 13:27

Thanks for the comments, as you will see in the next few posts my eye for detail was lacking many years ago! However that was mainly due to inexperience and knowledge. I'm glad I stopped the restoration work back then otherwise many more jobs would have been bodged, and the car would have been a mess.

I cannot find the link to the vice flare tool I purchased but this is identical to the one I purchased https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185328844330

Here are a few pictures of when I removed the engine and started the restoration work back then. Excuse the image quality I have no idea what camera I used to take them. I also never took enough photos and never labelled anything! So to get around all these issues I had to look and parts listing in etka and information from Elsawin, I even setup a PC in the garage so I could figure how the hell the engine bay went back together.

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Engine bay after 216K miles
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Engine covered in rust, oil & dirt.
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Gearbox was the same seals & bearing not in the best of condition
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Subframe was in good condition this was manly due to the amount of oil it was covered in.
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So after the engine was removed, I had load of work done to it, bearings and top end was all rebuilt (Not by me thankfully). The engine & gearbox was then refitted along with the front suspension and at that point the restoration stopped thankfully. The car was then left in the garage for many years along with a workshop full of car parts, nuts & bolts. Made of a good jigsaw puzzle many years later.

**Tractor Dave** · 12 January 2023, 14:00

Thanks for the link. I ordered the kit that includes the 8mm dies so I can do fuel pipes as well

**B5NUT** · 12 January 2023, 14:17

My kit never came with the 8mm die so purchased the die set separately when I needed to replace the fuel pipes on the coupe, tool worked just as well on the fuel pipes as it did on the brake pipes.

**B5NUT** · 13 January 2023, 10:45

So it was time to rip the engine out again! I was not happy with all the work done on the engine and I wanted to fit a new clutch and DMF, as I had just refitted the old clutch & DMF they looked Ok, but as they were out it was not that much to fit replacements.

With the engine out the subframe was also removed, it was shot basted and powder coated years ago but the company I used back then did a rubbish job and it had to be redone. I also wanted to rebuild all the front suspension and fix a lot of mistakes I'd made years ago, mainly with the choice of paint.

First mistake was the the transmission tunnel, I did a bad job of removing the rust as it was coming through again. I also just over painted with schutz, so it all had to be scrapped away and cleaned of with plenty of solvent a god awful job I never make that mistake again.

From this

Went back to this

Then the same process as the rear strip back the rust, converter on the pitting and then epoxy and 3M schutz.

Next up new rack time, not sure why I refitted the old rack it was in a bad state, corroded pipes, and leaking fluid. Got lucky with a replacement on ebay, old stock new VAG/ZF rack for £60 delivered.

All the metal on the PAS pipe work was also stripped back, as for mad reason I had used plasti dip to paint them with! May as well coved them in chocolate... so stripped back to bare metal and epoxy coated.

With the subframe out the suspension came out. yet again I'd done a poor job in the prep work on the uprights also the choice of paint (hammarite) was also bad idea.

So all suspension components and drive shafts stripped and rust converted applied to the pitting

While the above the was being stripped and repainted the subframe came back and was aligned and reinstalled. New engine mounts were also purchased.

Purchased a section of pipe the correct diameter, a good few quid cheaper then that VAG alignment tool.

I'm having to fit the front brakes from the 1.8T setup. The original setup on the car was just about scrap, the calliper mounts were very warn and as much as I tried I could not buy replacement parts for that setup. They were made by Girling and were only used on the A4 for just over a year. Girling had long made the parts obsolete and there were no other companies making replacement parts, so they were chucked in the bin and were then replaced by the ATE vented setup used on the 1.8T and all later A4 B5 models with 4 pot engines. Parts for the ATE setup were very easy to get hold of.

Other than the above parts and the spring were stripped and repainted everything else was replaced, all new Lemforder arms, upper & lower rubber spring mounts, shocks, CV joints, disc shields, disc's, pads, calliper mounts and wheel bearing. I did fit all new suspension arms Melye HD kit, however I wanted to fit the OEM Lemforder arms so they were all replaced and the HD kit put up in the loft.

**B5NUT** · 13 January 2023, 10:53

When I had the engine worked on years ago I stripped the rust away and give it a coat of hammerite, which was a bad mistake as the rust was coming back again! So decided to strip the engine back remove and treat and rust and repaint with epoxy as it's good for up to 300deg so will easy handle the engine temperatures.

Top tip, if you want to remove hammerite use Oven Pride does a great job.
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Block stripped next up rust converter for the remaining rust.
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Once painted new Sachs DMF & clutch
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Gearbox was cleaned up and refitted, I used the clamps while I sort and cleaned up all the bolts.
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Once the bolts were refitted the engine went back in, and some of the ancillaries were bolted on. For the ancillaries I just purchased new items, starter, alternator, viscous fan, water pump etc. After 200K mile they were not in the best of condition and some of them were missing, as I guess I chucked them as they must have been past best.
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before any further work was started I setup a PC running a few programs like elsawin & Etka, there was no way I could rebuild this car without these sort of programs. I'd started ripping this car apart may years ago, and I'd not taken enough pictures of the strip down. So it's like putting together a jigsaw with no picture and pieces missing, damaged, dirty or in need of fixing. So if your going to do this take plenty of photo's and label stuff, because I know I did not.

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