4.2 V8 Coupe Quattro

[ajax1976]

Since I've had the wings off I realised that the doors don't actually seal on to the car without the door cards so thought I'd better get them finished up and back on, car's badly needing a wash so being water tight would be good!!

Alcantara glued on,



Unfortunately my first attempt was good but not 100%, trimmed one corner too short. As I didn't have enough cloth for another attempt I had to come up with a botch, Picked up some leather piping and popped it in the gap, turned out good and hides my over zealous trimming:-)
Fitted new corner seals that are a common source of leaks due to them wearing away to nothing over the years, hopefully another leak source sorted.




And finally fitted, not had time and not decided what my plans are for the wood yet.




New wings Gravitexed and light coat of etch primer.

[ajax1976]

Had a day off today so picked up some clear coat and set about the wings. A few wee bits of dust or something in them but nothing that isn't fixable so very happy with them.




OZs turned up, another thing added to the to do list but still love them even in the ****** condition

[ajax1976]

After a couple of set backs this week I finally started to put things back together today.

1st balls up, sheared off a replacement oil temp sensor in the block right in behind the crank pully. After a lot of head scratching managed to cut down an "easy out" to about an inch, filed some flats on it. just managed to get it started in the sensor and then a few turns with a wee spanner and it wound straight out, worked a treat. I gladly sacrificed some skin from my knuckles to get it sorted out quickly and without any grief. Lesson learned about buying cheap bits, didn't even feel it getting tight before it sheared.

2nd balls up and all my own fault, sheared a subframe bolt. I'd forgotten that the gearbox had dropped slightly on to axle stand that I was using to support it while I took the subframe off. Popped the subframe back in, bolted the gearbox to the new mounts, got the two front subframe bolts in. Got the gun on the rear two bolts and wound them home until one suddenly sheared, I'd effectively been lifting the gearbox and subframe up into position with just the bolts and over did it with the gun. Pretty stupid as I'd have noticed the extra weight on the bolts if I'd been using a ratchet but luckily no real harm done, bolt snapped half way so left enough in the car to wind out easily and no damage to the mounts on the car, lucky escape!!

A couple of silly things but it kind of knocked my confidence a bit but wanted to push on so got the finger out today, most of the suspension back on the front but then discovered I've lost a couple of bits and forgotten to order others. Painted the inside of the new wings with some silver POR15 for the final level of protection so they'll be ready to go back on soon.
To cheer me up popped on an OZ, would like to get them sorted out asap but really need to wait until the cars back on all wheels and geometry all sorted before I can decided what final widths etc I'll be able to run.

[ajax1976]

A bit more assembly today,

ARB, track rod ends and ABS sensors back on. After pricing all the bits I need to rebuild the calipers it's a no go so ordered something a bit sweeter, should be here next week.


Always liked the headlight washers that some S2s etc have, some folk hate them and admittedly there not exactly a subtle but I love them. Saw a full kit including pump, bottle, piping and the units for well below what they usually go so snapped them up. Didn't turn out to be quite as easy to retro fit as I'd hoped but after some drilling and lots of filing I got there.



And finally popped the bodywork back together, one wing is actually a fairly decent match and would pass as presentable but the others not so good, think I put on the base to heavy and it's quite peely.


The worst side,



I've also been scratching around for ball park figures for the paint job so I popped into see Stuart Moncrieff in Windygates as he's just down the road from me and was really happy with the work he did on my old anni. I'd actually been into see him only last month with my day job and he was doing a 911 targa and his work really is impressive, I'd sort of dismissed him as I thought he'd be way out of my price range but he was bang on where I wanted to be so it goes in at the end of July. I was never that keen on the idea of dropping the car off somewhere then picking it up all done, I wanted some involvement in the bodywork side of things so luckily Stuarts quite happy with that, I can learn a bit plus it will save me a bit of cash. To start with I'll strip as much of the car as I can bearing in mind it sits outside then I can take it down to Stuarts and get on with the rest. He's a top bloke and someone I can learn a lot from so really looking forward to getting a start on it.

[ajax1976]

Brakes arrived and surprisingly they're pretty clean, quick test fit then a clean up and a coat of etch. I'm going to have to run a slightly larger spacer for the futuras than I'd hoped for, not really into large amounts of poke or camber but I'm confident they'll be workable. The RS2s fit well tho with no spacers so pretty sure the RCs will too.

[ajax1976]

Finally finished up the underside, jacking points straightened out and stone chipped then painted up.

[ajax1976]

Change of plan with the brake colour so whipped the rears off and re did them too.

[ajax1976]

The wood interior was really starting to bother me so decided to play with the paint guns again. Quite liked idea of have a bit purple on the inside too but not too much so tried a fade effect again.




Just like the ones I did for the A4 depending on what angle you look at it you see more or less purple which is kind of cool. Bizarrely though just as I'd finished them I get an email from someone wanting a buy a set of wheels I'd forgotten I was even selling so carbon trims might happen.

Picked up a set of 964 mirrors as RS2 ones are way out of my budget for a set of mirrors, just need to fathom out how to fit them now.

[ajax1976]

Also found a set of new BBS/Audi centre caps so before I packed away the paint guns I gave them a wee bit of the purple treatment too,




Had a bash at fitting a mirror tonight, trickier than I thought but I'm sure it's doable. Managed to shape the aluminium base to the door whilst keeping the lines right without too much grief, the rubber gaskets still to go on but I need to figure out a better way to actually secure them. At the moment it's not actually secured to the internal mount but more so to the supports for the door skin so I think I'll try and make a wee bracket up to get it rock solid.

[ajax1976]

Treated myself to an arch roller to try and gain as much clearance as possible to hopefully avoid future issues. A bit of heat with the gun and the lip actually rolled quite easily, hard to measure as the geometry's all over the place but think I managed to get a slight pull on it too.







Still waiting on the custom lines to get the front brakes finished and get it back on it's wheels, hopefully sometime this week then I can get a rough ride height sorted and get all the suspension geometry sorted out.

[ajax1976]

Car is now officially and legally on the road, taxed and insured today. I'm not sure if I would call it a success but from the few wee journeys I did managed to make it home in one piece!!
As expected the geometry's all over the place but it's booked in on Thursday to get that sorted out. The performance is pretty poor, subtle hesitation at low revs which is more noticeable in the low gears, fuel pump is whining badly so hopefully related. The autocheck system is playing up, bulb warning but all bulbs are fine, oil pressure warning when I rev over 2.5k yet the gauge shows good pressure. I'd already wasted two days checking out the lights and wiring etc for the bulb warning and found nothing wrong. I'd had oil pressure warning issues previously but had changed all the sensors and the problem vanished but now it's back. I've reached the point where I'm thinking it's an issue with the actual autocheck, googled it and others have had the same. So now I need to pull the clocks and check the soldering on a circuit board, fingers crossed its that.
On the plus side the suspension has settled quickly, had to wind it half way up to get out my drive so will need to do some driveway works before I can lower it more. Here's how it's sitting now with only about 5mm of clearance before scraping,

[ajax1976]

A few of the issues sorted out and the love is growing!!

Wheel alignment went well, went from having 2 out of the 14 adjustments in the green to 13 out of 14, car now drives so much nicer.

Oil pressure warning issue is down to the switch I fitted being for the wrong pressure range, cheap and easy fix.

Made some adjustments to my seat subframes so the Recaros feel like Recaros should.

Once up to temp it is running better, still not great but it is feeling better although still pretty poor when cold. Popped some injector cleaner in with some super unleaded, still waiting on the new fuel pump.

Did a final check that everything was tight underneath and greased up the coilovers. I couldn't resist dropping another 20mm so it now slightly scrapes on the lip of the drive but hopefully raking some chips up will help until I can time to get some slabs down, drives braw everywhere else tho.

Decided it was finally time to wash it, due to various leaks I'd been avoiding it with the pressure washer but more confident it's dry now or at least drier.

[ajax1976]

Not really done much with the car of late, really just been running about in it.

Finally got a result with the carbon fibre trims I'd orderd for the A4 18 months ago. A total fiasco but I came out out of it not too bad, I'm still one piece short but managed to get a full refund so blew it on some Radinox lips for the Futuras. Picked up some new bolts as the plating was flaking on the originals, painted up the centres and caps with a wee touch of purple in the logo, just waiting on a set of rings to arrive for the caps.

First test fit, over the moon with them!!

[ajax1976]

Futuras built and ready for sealant.



Car was due in paint shop so stripped the car as much as I could whilst keeping it water tight,




Then a last minute change with the mirrors. I really struggled to mount the Porsche mirrors using just the inner mount without relying on the door skin and it was niggling away at me. Whilst looking for inspiration I came across some A3 8V carbon mirror caps for a stupidly cheap price so snapped them up and bought a set of cheap mirrors as they looked like they could fit. For once luck was on my side and after a bit trimming and drilling to the door I got them to fit and importantly they're bolted to the original mounts inside the door without stressing the door skin, happy days!! Car is now with Stuart so I'll sort the wiring and hopefully the indicators when I get it back.

[ajax1976]

Tackled probably the worst job I've done on the entire car today, the headliner!!
I never thought it would be so hard and messy to remove the fabric. The foam was shot and glue was so sticky and gooey, it was like scraping syrup sponge off the thing, horrific job to do.



All cleaned up and ready for new fabric