My S2 coupe bit of a rebuild and repair thread.

[Tractor Dave]

Looking very smart. I might have some of those pins. How many do you need?

[Rikki Kitto]

Very thorough job bud

[B5NUT]

I need to find another 8

[Tractor Dave]

I need to find another 8

I will have a look for you tomorrow and send you a pm

[B5NUT]

Next up on the rebuild list is the drive shaft covers. They are looking a bit worse for wear to my astonishment no longer available from Audi.

1-cover.jpg

After an removing underseal, carefully cutting the foam away then degreasing and finally a bit of sanding & scraping your left with these slightly less scabby bits of plastic
2-cover.jpg

Found some neoprene foam 10mm foam from the arch & 5mm foam for the sides. Now I'm not sure how well the neoprene will hold up over time but like the old stuff it can be cut back and replaced.

To stick the foam back to the plastic I used this stuff. Zap superglue. It was the superglue of choice to glue the tyres onto the rim for 1/5 large scale petrol r/c cars. The tyres used to get a lot of abuse from performing burnouts to get heat into the tyres and they would last a 30minute of racing without any problems. I performed a quick patch test and the foam had to be cut and sanded back for it to be removed.
3-glue.jpg
So gluing the foam and fingers to the plastic (will buy the thicker Zap next time) they were finished.

3-covers.jpg

I know the cut outs look a bit rough and I would have preferred cutting them with hot wire rather than scissors, but I think they will do the job and will be better than the foam that was stuck to them. Also made it difficult get a template out of them.
foam.jpg

Did these last last night so still waiting to see if they fit on the car.

Was also hoping to get a lot further with the front-end build but my daughter was not felling well and I looked after her yesterday, so just managed to get these bits on early in the morning before the Mrs went to work

1-bitmore.jpg

For the bottom ball joint, I managed to find some of these plates (old stock febi) as the last joints were just held on with individual nut & bolts.
1-plate1.jpg
2-plate.jpg

So today it's brakes and anti-roll bar back on the car. Also going to try and get the rotten oil cooler off the car which I wanted to do yesterday.

[Tractor Dave]

Nice work. On the drivers side, the driveshaft cover originally had a heat reflective cover. I used the flexible reflective fiberglass cloth you can buy from Merlin Motorsport for a reasonable price.

[K Simmonds]

More very tidy work, I really like your attention to detail. As Dave says the drivers side would have had a heat reflective layer, fiberglass cloth is the way to go here, same on the drivers side chassis leg next to the turbo.

[B5NUT]

Nice work. On the drivers side, the driveshaft cover originally had a heat reflective cover. I used the flexible reflective fiberglass cloth you can buy from Merlin Motorsport for a reasonable price.

Yes did not put anything about that, but I did apply some stick on heat cover that I got from a local automotive store. Should do the job (I hope) as it was very similar in thicknesses to the tape Audi had applied.

[B5NUT]

So where I got to this morning. Brake lines fitted started to blead the brakes.

1-lines.jpg

Does anyone know how much brake fluid is need to completely flush the entire system including what fluid is in the reservoir. Was thinking 2 litres should do the job. At the moment I'm just letting gravity do the work, I think if I applied pressure to the 26 year old reservoir it's just going to burst apart so will be replacing that soon.
2-lines.jpg

Covers look OK, think the side pieces of foam are a bit thick, will look around for some 3mm stuff.
3-covers.jpg

Need to find a solution to this clip that goes on this nut as the cable is rubbing against the bolt. Ones on my car were both damaged
4-clip.jpg

One thing I have done is to cover all the nuts, bolts and metal brake connections in a 2k clear etch lacquer, this is the same stuff you paint diamond cut alloys with. It won't 100% stop the rust but I've found it keeps most of it away, and it far easier to cut through a thin layer of paint than thick layers of rust.
5-paint.jpg


Next up is to fit the ABR parts.

[Tractor Dave]

I think Audi still sell the bolt cap with wire clip. I got some new ones but can't remember where from. I may have one or two if you are stuck.
I spray all my bolts and lines with Bilt clear wax. Great stuff.

[Bowie69]

2 litres will be plenty, I use a pressure bleeder without concern on my 30yr old reservoir....

[Tractor Dave]

2 litres will be plenty, I use a pressure bleeder without concern on my 30yr old reservoir....

Same here but only to about 15 psi. I think the max recommended by Audi is quite low. About 20psi from memory.

[B5NUT]

I think Audi still sell the bolt cap with wire clip. I got some new ones but can't remember where from. I may have one or two if you are stuck.
I spray all my bolts and lines with Bilt clear wax. Great stuff.

They dropped them 8 years ago.
Screenshot 2021-11-20 133617.jpg

It's a pain when you hit silly problem like this due to a bit of plastic. If you have have any please let me know

The one on my 25 year old A4 was very much shot, and was at the back so you could not see it easily. It's why for the time being I'm used gravity which works fine just takes a while...
Screenshot 2021-11-20 134143.jpg

[B5NUT]

Well, had enough for the day. what a sod to remove one of the oil cooler pipes

First of all got the ARB fitted which was easy enough. Need to sort that downpipe at some point!
1-arb.jpg

So next was to remove the old cooler it's been dangling down for weeks, and it needed to be removed. So as the pipes going onto the cooler were stuck solid, the only option was to remove the top pipes, and tackle the cooler off the car. First pipe was easy enough but the second was a complete and utter pig. Got creative in the end with a pair of adjustables, that just fitted inside the engine bay.
2-adj.jpg

With the cooler now free from the car the pipes going into the cooler were removed using the following tools mapp gas torch, Self-locking pliers, adjustable spanner and a length of scaffolding pole. Oil cooler is totalled...
3-cooler.jpg

However the pipes are saved, one less thing I need to buy!
4-pipes.jpg

Tomorrow something nice and easy paint the wing.

[s2driveruk]

Yep, that cooler is looking ready for retirement! They get exposed to so much weather and crap, they dont look their best for long. Nice work, it looks like great progress!