S2 Restoration Options.

[Twenny Benson]

^ Yeah I know how that feels.

The plan is try and keep it on the road & weekend warrior the work required. I can always use my B5 when needs be though, not like its dull to drive lol.

[andy10v]

Good on you for keeping it.

Rear strut brace is a good idea, I did a front style one on the rear, have a read through error404s project thread for some good ideas on home modding/bracing, its pretty inspirational and is doable at home as well.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23884

I had my car like that for a while, put some carpet back in now though for noise on long journeys.



Got the weight from 14xxkg to 1270 iirc

That looks more like the inside of honda rear arches

[Twenny Benson]

Cheers dude, don't know why I feel so attached to this car really, I just feel strangely obliged to fix er up for some reason.

I like the look of your S2, thats what I'm aiming for, I was just going to weld some pads to the towers, notch some tube and weld her straight across. I like the idea of the bolt in now I've seen that. Dropping that much wait must completely change these cars, they are a tad lardy I will be sure to check out the thread you posted for some inspiration. As for the rear arches, I was a bit gutted when I saw that, didn't expect to see that at all. At first i thought the exterior rust was all just surface rust, now I'm thinking its a little more than that!

[Error404]

Looks like you've got your work cut out there. It brings back some memories for me!

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23884&page=10

You've got two options really - take some panels off another shell or make up some new sections to replace what you cut out.

If you're getting the welder out theres plenty to go at chassis wise

[Twenny Benson]

Error404 that is a stunning example you have there, can't help thinking reading your thread will just add to the confusion! I will read through this later once I've stripped this rear arch out.

Don't get me wrong the demon inside really wants to make a minter out of this car, my decisions are purely financially based right now. Who knows in the future things could change, i might continue to love the car more & more and decide to fully resto the shell and cage it. I think there are only about 400 or so S2's left in the UK, just over half of which are on the road. I can see these becoming very very rare soon especially if the continued thinning of the S2 coupe heard continues, they seem to be broken left, right & centre. I'm going to do what I can to keep the car on the road, I will patch up what I can and look to butcher yet another soon to be dead coupe shell!

[macspring]

Twenny,

Sell your A4 and this S2 and buy Jas11n's brother's car.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52408

Self financing.


"I've seen that happen to many times. I really don't know what to do with it, can't allow it snowball into a mega money build again". BTDT.


"If i want to sort the S2 out there really is only one way to do it, pay through the ****! lol". You now know the truth that others on here for a while have discovered / succumbed to.

The above won't help you a bit, as opposed to "HTH".

Kind regards.

[Error404]

Error404 that is a stunning example you have there, can't help thinking reading your thread will just add to the confusion! I will read through this later once I've stripped this rear arch out.

believe me its far from perfect but i think I've BTDT with what you re trying to do.
My budget has been tight restoring my shed, so I understand where you are coming from in that regard. Luckily doing the chassis is more hard work than hard spending, although you can easily sink £2k on suspension & brakes to modernise the car performance wise.
DIY chassis mods are free though, and refreshing all the running gear with new / poly bushes isn't massive investment and makes a huge difference to how the car drives. At this level you don't need to spend a huge amount of money to get a lot of return, you can kiss goodbye to lots of blood and sweat though.... not shed a tear just yet

[Twenny Benson]

@ David

I couldn't sell my A4, just couldn't do it, that took me 2 years to build, everything is modified, nothing untouched and built single handidly on a driveway. It holds to much sentimental value not to mention its an absolute animal those 1.8T engines are very capable motors. The link to the S2 you posted, wow that is immense but you were right it doesn't help one bit I'm fully aware how slippy the slope is, I've been off it once already lol.

Error404

I've checked your thread out a bit, you've done some great work there & looks like you've had alot of luck getting parts thrown at you to fix it up . Far from shed anyway mate. I plan to just clean up the chassis components in stages starting with the suspension / hubs etc. Next will come the subframes when the engine & gearbox get pulled there's oil spewing out of everywhere! Maybe I should take it along to the bodyshop and see what they think, might not be as bad as I've made out although yours seemed in much better condition than mine.

[Fat Audi 80]

Sell your A4 and this S2 and buy Jas11n's brother's car.

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52408

Self financing.


"I've seen that happen to many times. I really don't know what to do with it, can't allow it snowball into a mega money build again". BTDT.


"If i want to sort the S2 out there really is only one way to do it, pay through the ****! lol". You now know the truth that others on here for a while have discovered / succumbed to.

The above won't help you a bit, as opposed to "HTH".

Kind regards.

Good call regarding Jason's brothers car. Although I suspect any S2 no matter how mint will need the subframes and suspension doing at some point. I know mine has. I have done both front and back subframes and all bushes over the last 2 - 3 years...

Cheers,

Steve

[Twenny Benson]

Good call regarding Jason's brothers car. Although I suspect any S2 no matter how mint will need the subframes and suspension doing at some point. I know mine has. I have done both front and back subframes and all bushes over the last 2 - 3 years...

Cheers,

Steve

Alright Steve, I couldnt agree more with your statement, no matter how mint an S2 is its still old under the skin and WILL require some work to tidy it up. The money needed to by Jason's Bro's car while probably worth it, is far too much for me right now. With that money I could reskin the car and have it painted indigo pearl again with change for some further mods. As for selling the B5, if im honest I would take it over the S2 anyway so that will never happen, in my eyes its worth alot more than that S2 and would probably also show it clean pair of heels! My S2 is my run about car, the aim is a reasonably low budget toy, who knows the future might change that. Reading Error404's build thread is very inspirational and once again has made me think a bit harder on how to proceed but all the time im very concious this could lead to some fairly hefty expenditure so decisions aren't taken lightly. The suspension & bushes are getting a bit of a work over at the moment, followed by some refurbed B5 RS4 reps & new boots to get it through the MOT. Then before the summers out I want to pull the motor, gearbox and subframes for a clean up and reseal & cambelt with a few careful mods, I'm surprised no ones eyeballed the nitrous bottle in the pics

[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!

[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]

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

[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.

[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?