Fat Audi 80's Project Concours

[Fat Audi 80]

Well as there are so many Project threads being started I thought I would join the club.

Although I am stuggling to make both Billing and Inters this year, for some reason I still want to try and improve the standard of my S2.

My Project list is something like this:

Pass MOT and get it back on the road. This will involve the following:

Replace CATs
Replace Front Wishbone bushes
Replace Front NS Outer CV Gaiter
Replace Bottom Ball joints.

While the car is up in the air in the garage - pics to follow, I am going to give the underside a thorough clean and polish. I am still in two minds as to whether try and clean up the structural components underneath or not. I am not intending to strip the sub frames etc a la Andy Casey but just a clean and tidy while I am there.

Exterior:

The exterior (once I have practised on the daily drivers) will be getting a full detail including swirl and scratch removal with my new PC - (Porter Cable Random orbital for those of you that refuse to come into the detailing forum! )

Any questions or comments please feel free to post any, this is an interactive project

Cheers

Fatty.

[Fat Audi 80]

Day 1 - Squeeze the car into the garage and get it up on Axle stands. Now whilst this may seem like a simple job, working on a car in a single garage takes some organisation. I have put away everything that is not essential and tried to make all the parts and tools available.

After about an hour I have managed to get the car up on axle stands, the front wheels off and the undertray.

This is going to a slow process but will save a fair bit of money in garage bills and allow me to check and clean the underside while I go.

Am I mad?



[IMG]

[IMG]

[S2central.net]

Clean the underside you say.............

But when you take it out for a drive won't it get all dirty again. Why not just get the car really shiny, take lots of photos to post round your house, and sell the car to save you the stress of cleaning it every time it gets dirty ?


Heheheheheh - thats too cruel of me - I'm in a cheeky / stressed out mood 2nite. Fill your boots big man - life is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too short for all that 'underside cleaning' in my opinion. BUt then maybe I'm just jealous of all that free time you have to get under the car


Paul

[T2Andy]

That garage would drive me bonkers ,by the way did under my archers on sun
,TFR on every thing and jet washed it all this removed all the salt and grit ect.painted
the struts and inner plastics then coated with WD40 ,i found this makes cleaning
next time round easy.After jet washing regreased all the mountings and bushes
with spray grease which gets in all the cracks then then turns to a firm grease.
sad yes i know.

[T2Andy]

while you are replacing wishbone bushes i would get new wishbones too ,these already
have the bushes in them and arnt to expensive ,plus you have nice black wishbones.
Do you have cast ones though

[Skull]

Swirls and scratches are OEM, so dont remove them!!

[s2driveruk]

am i the only one amazed at the dirt and state of Steve's car on the underside

Feel for u trying to work in a single garage, thats no fun, can't even get mine in ours lol

Good luck, sure it will look OEM bling by the time u finish

[Corey]

Steve,

I rebuilt my ur in a garage smaller than that. The underside was as clean as on top so it is possible.
To all those saying don't bother cleaning it, do it and make it as clean as you can as it helps show if things leak etc.

[Jas11n]

Steve, make sure you wear some sort of eye protection when laid under there, BTDT with eyes full of dirt and rust

Jas..

[Ross]

Heh fatty's feeling a little left out

Will be cool to see how this turns out, let me know if you need practice with the PC as my roof is crap and needs to be brought in line with the rest of the car's lovely new coat of paint

[terrybullwon]

Ross: Heh fatty's feeling a little left out

Steve looks like you need to knock that pin in a little more on your axle stand

Can your car be any cleaner???????

Keep it up

[Fat Audi 80]

Steve looks like you need to knock that pin in a little more on your axle stand

Can your car be any cleaner???????

Keep it up

It does *look* bad in the photo! They have a split pin on the otherside so it fine. I have both axle stands AND the jack on it! You can't be too careful.

Thanks for noticing though

Cheers,

Steve.

[Fat Audi 80]

Heh fatty's feeling a little left out

Will be cool to see how this turns out, let me know if you need practice with the PC as my roof is crap and needs to be brought in line with the rest of the car's lovely new coat of paint

Yes I was feeling left out!

I will be taking some more shots as the work gets completed. Don't get too excited, I having looked at the state of it under there i don't think it is going to look amazing, I haven't really go time to do it properly!

I will happily come and have a look at your car with the PC at some point!

Cheers.

Steve.

[Fat Audi 80]

Steve, make sure you wear some sort of eye protection when laid under there, BTDT with eyes full of dirt and rust

Jas..

Cheers Jas, good idea, Rust in your eyes is bloody annoying!

[Fat Audi 80]

@ Paul, I guess we are different! I quite like having a totally clean car (or at least trying), mine is now really only getting summer use as we have 2 other cars and it lives in a garage so once it is clean it tends to stay clean. I would definitely not bother if I was driving it all year.

@ Andy, yes the wishbones are cast, but I might give them a coat of hammerite while they are off

@ Skull, OEM my ****. Its Mr Concours now

@ Corey, thanks for the encouragement It has actually already got a small oil leak but I have no idea from where. It looks like it is coming from the back of the engine as it drips off where the gearbox meets the engine. It is so tight back there you cant see a thing. I am going to clean the bottom of the engine bay as best I can and see if I can find it....

Cheers,

Steve