S2 Restoration Options.

[andy10v]

Keep posting. Even if people don't reply a lot of folk read.

You can learn lots trawling through projects, I know I have picked up a lot of little tips and ideas.

As far as your car goes if it was mine I would weld it up, make it presentable and beat on it, not worth the money to make it mint, in my opinion. The engine can be stuck in something else if the shell dies.

Whats the plan with the nos?

The borbets, you got any pictures with them on the car? And what width/ET are they?

[Twenny Benson]

Oop's my bad!

[Nuvo]

I think David was referring to to himself as "harping on" rather than yourself. He's a big boy, I'm sure he will clarify that.

[Twenny Benson]

Not one to harp, not half, but I'd say, cut your losses and let your head/pocket rule your head and drive the A4 for now and wait till you can afford a better ABY S2 that you can drive straight away and which will have a lot less niggles.

This view is only from my prospective, but the current S2 seems like a lot of preventable heartache when you can buy a much better Coupe/Avant for less outlay/time in the long run.

I'm sure this post will not help you.

Best wishes nonetheless.

Harp on? Is that not the point of a forum or more importantly the thread? I was purely updating the state of my S2 in the hope some fellow S2 owners could shed some light on the problems I've encountered and possible routes to repair, and thank you to those that have. I do apologies if this thread has come across as harping on! It is quite disheartening to find some much corrosion on a galzanised car, was alot worse than I had anticipated.

The plan is now to repair the car to the best of my ability, its more hours than cost me thinks. The turning point was finding two wings & two rear quarter panels rust free for less than £150 the lot! Result. Steel is on order as are the spot weld drill bits, This weekend I will start cutting out the rot and fabricating the patches, now I just need to find the source of the water leak into the sill section. I will continue to update if its of interest? I would hate to take the time to post pictures etc if its just waffling on!

[Fat Audi 80]

I agree with the above. I would seriously consider breaking it to cut or cover your losses. That looks like a whole world of pain to me.

Cheers,

Steve

[macspring]

Not one to harp, not half, but I'd say, cut your losses and let your head/pocket rule your head and drive the A4 for now and wait till you can afford a better ABY S2 that you can drive straight away and which will have a lot less niggles.

This view is only from my prospective, but the current S2 seems like a lot of preventable heartache when you can buy a much better Coupe/Avant for less outlay/time in the long run.

I'm sure this post will not help you.

Best wishes nonetheless.

[Twenny Benson]

Thanks dude, I will go and check them out. If I draw a blank I will do some searching.

Also anyone know what thickness steel to be ordering to fabricate these patches?

[andy10v]

Water in footwells is relatively common, search and there are a few threads that cover it fully.

Off the top of my head

Sunroof drains
bonnet cable grommet
fuse box seal
check scuttle drains (normally blocked with leaves)
cheak scuttle has no cracks
windows/window seals-frameless windows can suck

[Twenny Benson]

Its not looking great hey, it looks worse because of all the adhesive the sound deadening left behind, i have cleaned most of this off now.

I'm 100% certain this is badly assembled/sealed accident damage that has allowed the water into the sill section which has slowly eaten into the floorpan, I can only imagine the sill will be ******ed as well, Still can't think how water gets inside the sill though? theres nowt obvious.

Its not the welding that scares me, more the financial burden these projects bring. I'm going to start cutting at the weekend and see what I'm up against! I'm going to see how easy I can weld the patches in with TIG as thats all I have, if needs be I'm sure i can stretch to a cheap MIG set.

[Gompa]

christ that looks like its been through a flood or something.
i say go for it, its only welding and you can learn that along the way worst that can happen is you dont finish it and part it out. no massive loss to your pocket but if you finish it its another string to your bow

[Twenny Benson]

With the rain we've had over the passed two days up here it has managed to point out I have some leaks, one in either footwell by the arches, almost as though its coming from under the dash, Anyone got any ideas where to start looking or if there is a common cause?

I also seem to be taking on water inside the driver side sill, probably explain why the floor pan has corroded all the way along that side! Oh the joy. Again anyone got any ideas where this could be getting in?

[Twenny Benson]

Update.

Having peeled back some more layers of the S2 i have found more gremlins hiding beneath the carpet / sound deadening.



Doesn't look that bad but its rotted right through here, I can see daylight through this! The rot continues all the way along the driver side floor pan.



It looks like there are multiple skins here which will make the repairing more interesting. I have made some enquiries to see if I can cut this section out of a scrapper. It doesnt end there though, along with the various small holes that are dotted about, the underside of the rear floor pan doesn't look too healthy either, underseal has completely failed and the rot has truly set in.



Starting to think I've bitten off more than I wanted to chew with this but none the less I will continue on with it. The interior is pretty much stripped right back now, this weekend will see some of these sections cut out so I know exactly what I'm dealing with.

[Error404]

I started mine 4 years ago, if you're not in a rush the parts come to you

[Twenny Benson]

i think the thing with yours mate is that if you spend a couple grand on sorting wear & tear items and tidying the body work, you will add that to the value of the car, a tidy ABY will fetch £4k-4.5k all day, restoring is money well spent, something you can't say for mods really!

I can't argue with that, I guess i need to stop thinking & start doing. I was only joking about the getting the parts dude, just seems you've been lucky setting your hands on the bits you need thats all

[Error404]

looks like you've had alot of luck getting parts thrown at you to fix it up

i think the thing with yours mate is that if you spend a couple grand on sorting wear & tear items and tidying the body work, you will add that to the value of the car, a tidy ABY will fetch £4k-4.5k all day, restoring is money well spent, something you can't say for mods really!