Spent yesterday making up and fitting the other brake line that needed replacing - it's in kunifer this time as VW couldn't get me the OE pipe quick enough. Not a bad compromise, 90% Nickel and 10% copper - I still think it's too soft and I found a patent for the original stuff when looking for a supplier on the web, it's a very interesting design with all sorts of different metals in it and with a selection of layers to ensure durability and corrsion resistance.

 

Anyway moving on, bumped into the VW parts bloke while picking up the brake line in Partco, he confirmed that the seat bolster I had ordered was no longer available. After getting annoyed with myself for not ordering any beforehand I set about ripping the Mk 2 Golf seat I had in the roof apart.

 

A comparison of the seat cusion confirms that there is no way it is ever going to fit a Corrado seat even if you trim various bits. Next plan was to try one of the Recaro seat bolster covers I have spare onto a standard 'rado bolster - again the results were not promising (You can get new Recaro Mk 2 bolsters off ebay for £35). Finally I looked into what other items in the VW range might work, no luck. So it's going to be either canabilise a good passenger seat or buy a block of foam and cut it to shape - going to try the block of foam first. I was going to ring Newton Commercial today but failed miserably, they may well be able to produce some as they are making Mk 1 items.

 

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This morning the priority job was to get the front wishbones off so I could get the bushes replaced, cue various amounts of swearing at the stupid plus suspension and 'what idiot put that sump there' issues that are only associated with VR6 ownership. The use of a 22mm spanner as a lever locked onto the 18mm spanner gave me enough room to get the damn bolt undone; when the car is built the engine is bolted directly onto the subframe assembly which already has wishbones etc on it.

 

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It was then into unbolting the front and rear engine mount so I could jack the engine to get the bolt out, front one is easiest and I can recommend the use of a very very long extension bar! For the rear one you need to remove the nut that retains the lambda and rear knock sensor connections prior to getting at the mounting stud underneath - again the long bar is handy. You can see just how much you need to jack the engine to get at the bolt, beware that the gearbox mounting bolt will restrict your movement so it is also worth backing that off a few turns.

 

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I then had a go at splitting the lower ball joints and track rod ends, my balljoint splitter won't fit on the bottom ball joint and is slightly bent so keeps falling off the track rod end one. So that was one item on the shopping list when I dropped the wishbones in. Finally I bagged it all up around lunchtime to give me enough time to get the wishbones into town and back today.

 

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Dropped the wishbones off complete with new bushes, rear ones are the R32 items obviously, went to Halfords and bought myself a new ball joint splitter and a new airbrush as my old one broke. Got back and started preping the old coil springs that I got (thanks Mark!) for a couple of coats of Hammerite. That soon went wrong as the new airbrush uses a can of propellant, I didn't have an adaptor so I could use my compressor. This problem was swiftly followed by finding my tin of black Hammerite had gone rock hard :(.

 

Went back into town to collect my wishbones and pick up a new tin of Hammerite, got some smooth stuff in Satin black so it should be the same finish as the Sachs dampers I have. Wishbones were collected but they had not done the front bushes as they were not sure if they were the right ones, normally most garages have the complete car to check :)

 

Prepped the coil springs and the first coat is on one of them however, the tin of propellant is icing up causing the airbrush to have reduced airflow :(. Not too bad overall and I have an airline adaptor on order so I can use my compressor. For a set of well used springs they are coming up quite nicely, no idea on the durability of the finish but it is being applied very thinly so should be ok.

 

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I then checked to confirm that my new wishbone bushes were the correct item, they were so it was into the garage to improvise a bush fitting tool. A long bolt, a load of washers, a 36mm socket and some Fairy liquid soon saw me armed with all the bits I needed to push in the front bushes. Quite pleased with the result and very easy to do, shame I would need a huge socket for the rear bush to do the same.

 

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Collected more shinny new bits from VW today and 100ml of blackberry paint arrived in the post, so the plan tomorrow is to rip out the heater matrix, refurbish the heater box and rebuild that. Then move onto tackling the rear inner arch corrosion and prep that and the number plate panel for painting.