Caddy side project

[Tractor Dave]

Noted.

[Tractor Dave]

I had some more welding to finish off the brackets. Mostly made up as I went along.







Somehow everything came together and it works.



It's a little top heavy so I haven't tried to flip it completely yet. Guess that will be a two person job. Axle stands still there just in case. Worried grin.


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[Tractor Dave]

My mechanic friend came over to give me a hand. It was quite top heavy so I'm glad there was two of us. Locked in position now so I can crack on.


Condition underneath is remarkable for a 36 year old vehicle. However, the rubber underseal is hiding a few secrets.








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[sal_s2]

The way to counter the "top heavy" issue would be to have the pivot point higher up but it doesnt really matter if you have assistance I guess

I think it needs to be painted, either lhasa green or oak green metallic

[Tractor Dave]

Yes! I do love oak green mk11 16v
I gave it my best guess re pivot point. I should have made an adjustable bracket for up and down like i did side to side. Never mind, it works and i don't need to rotate all the way around.
Nothing much happening over Christmas. Having some time off now

[Tractor Dave]

Very little progress to report.
I did pick up a 5 speed tdi gearbox from my local breakers. The code is EGR which makes it ideal for the caddy with a long top ratio and a manual speedo drive so I can hook up the original speedo. The driveshaft cups are also the correct 100mm size which means it's much cheaper to source the correct drive shafts that fits the original hubs.
It's too cold in the barn to paint anything atm so there is little point in starting the underside right now.




I can make a start on the fuel tank renovation in the heated garage until it warms up a bit.

Now, I'm after a nice pair of seats for this project. Anyone have something suitable?
A pair of Recaros would be lovely or maybe Mk1 Scirocco or GTi?


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[Tractor Dave]

Made a start on the tank.



Huston we have a problem


Fortunately the only hole I found. I can fix.
The rest is not bad at all. Lucky because new tanks are nla.



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[Tractor Dave]

This is the stuff I use to fix pin holes in fuel tanks. I was thinking of welding it up but the metal is very thin and the hole would probably get bigger.


The area was given a really good clean and de grease


When the mix was hard, everything got two coats of my favourite epoxy.


And heated up.



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[K Simmonds]

Nice project Dave, you were lucky finding a MK1 Caddy that rust free, they tend to have been abused and are renowned for rotting. I can see it's going to take a fair amount of time to sort out the underside but you've got about as good a base car as you'll find for sensible money.

I've got a few random MK1 parts left over from my Scirroco days, stuff like gear linkage parts and front end poly bushes somewhere in my parts mountain, if they're of any use you can have them.

Oak Green would be my choice of VAG colour or you could do it in grey raptor paint if you're feeling daring.

[Rikki Kitto]

I Can't believe you're calling this a side project Dave

[Jaswan]

Hi Dave

I'm not sure what drive shafts you will be starting with but I remember when I did a 1.8t swap (using a MK4 golf GTI gearbox... O2J possibly) in my Scirocco, I only needed to fit the 100mm cups from a TDI box and the stock (Scirocco GT2) shafts bolted up.

Jase.

[K Simmonds]

Hi Dave

I'm not sure what drive shafts you will be starting with but I remember when I did a 1.8t swap (using a MK4 golf GTI gearbox... O2J possibly) in my Scirocco, I only needed to fit the 100mm cups from a TDI box and the stock (Scirocco GT2) shafts bolted up.

Jase.

Good point Jase, if the cups on the EGR box already fit your Caddy's 100mm inner CV joint's it should simply fit, though how much Torque the 1.6 NA diesel drive shafts will take I don't know. I guess it's very lightweight and only FWD so should just light a wheel up like that crazy base model B4 I borrowed with a chipped PD 150 engine in, damn thing would spin in third if I really pushed hard.

I think I ended up with an EGR box in a chipped G60 Corrado after I broke two G60 boxes and was skint, literally pulled it out of the scrap from another garage, I know it came from a B3 TDI Passat. I had to swap the flanges to make it fit but it worked fine and basically made fifth an overdrive gear plus it didn't break.

I have a pair of C5 S6 Recaro's in my B3 I could part ways with, I haven't welded in mounting points yet and I have the B5 TQS front's in my way I could fit for free instead. The C5 seats are kinda ideal for a Caddy as they sit about as low as possible and are very easy to make fit just about anything, plus they're super adjustable and heated

[Tractor Dave]

Thanks Kit re seats. I will keep that in mind.
Re the driveshafts, there is a great UK Company who sell all the necessary parts for conversions at reasonable prices. I've purchased almost everything from them. The shafts they sell are plug and play to 100mm cups but are made stronger to cope with the extra power.

https://www.retrofication.co.uk/

The loom is being converted by someone i met in the Caddy community. He also de immobilized the golf ecu for me.
Not done anything on the car since before Christmas. Its been very cold and damp in the barn. Get back to it soon hopefully

[K Simmonds]

No problem re the seats, they're here if you want any dimensions or photo's, the sports seats out of more modern Audi's are generally very low mounted with a simple to install runner system. They all just need four level, strong mounting points so you've got a lot of choice, S3/RS3 seats seem quite popular with the VW crowd.

What are you doing for bearing carriers and outer CV joint's? I'd be more worried about them breaking than the shafts themselves... Personally I'd go for some MK1 GTI or Scirroco carriers with joint's from the same car which are much more substantial than the tiny 1.6D one's and pretty easy to find. I have a set of 280mm Corrado G60 front brakes but I suspect you're going to go for some four pots with custom carriers, I guess you have to decide what wheels you're using first anyway.

I know what you mean about the cold and damp, it's not really conducive to doing much outside apart from exercise or chopping firewood, doing stuff with just your're hands simply isn't fun especially if you can't wear gloves. Still we're halfway through Jan so hopefully we'll have a fairly early spring like last year, at least the evenings have drawn out a little.

Glad to see you're able to weld again, bet you're happy about that with the nice kit you've got.

[Tractor Dave]

The shafts the guys above sell come custom made with inner and outer cv joints designed to fit the original hub carriers. They look very beefy and well made. I haven't found wheels yet but will be sticking 4x100 and nothing too big or bling. I will probably go for larger front brakes. Mk2 Gti are apparently plug and play. You can convert the rear brakes to discs but its more complex so I'm sticking with drums. Apparently they work well.
Don't tell anyone I'm still welding. My cardiologist might find out and i will be in trouble