I thought I'd start a thread for this since I'm planning on doing a fair bit of work to it.
I bought the car a few weeks ago at a good price and im really pleased with it. The car has had 2 owners from new with the last onew owning it for 13 years. It came with a huge folder of receipts totalling over £11k!! All old mots and even the original bill of sale back in 1990 for £18k! It's in good shape for being 23 years old but it needs a fair bit of work to get it looking the way I want it to.
I apologise in advance for crappy iphone pics I'll add better ones later.
Under the bonnet was just a tad grubby... (I dont have any after pics yet because im planning on cleaning the hell out of everything and polishing and painting a few bits)
Got rid of the sagging/crumbling sound deadening from under the bonnet but im now left with the strongest glue ever!
That night I was tinkering around under the bonnet cleaning various bits and bobs and checking for rust etc of which there is none! Anyway, came out to start the car the next morning and ...nothing! Ignition lights and nothing else not even a click from the starter. Checked the battery which is relatively new and voltage was just under 12V so I was convinced I had unplugged something or broken a wire. I did a continuity test on the wiring to the battery and bridged out the starter and it fired so I thought there must be a break to the fusebox.
The car had an aftermarket alarm fitted years ago and it hadnt worked in a while so I thought it might have something to do with the possible wiring fault... I checked under the dash and what a mess! surprised the car hadn't caught fire or broken down earlier. The wiring was chopped and joined everywhere and the main live wire to the starter was joined in 3 places and one part with 2 very thin wires held together by a crimped connector. So I set about repairing it all...
Put it back together and did another continuity test, turned out to be the ignition switch which are awkward to get out...
Replaced that and it started first time! Then I ripped out the extra wiring to the stereo and repaired what was left. I've never seen more bullet connectors on a loom. Just some of the wiring:
So once all that was sorted I gave the car a full service including plugs and gear oil. (started a light polish on the inlet manifold and swapped the oil cap for the newer style one too)
Also picked up a 4 branch manifold from Kev_mk2gti which will be getting fitted when Ive worked out what I'm doing with the rest of the system.
Plans are to get under the bonnet cleaned up, replace cam cover gasket, clutch flexi and throttle cable. Then get it lowered and a set of decent wheels, g60 brakes, new brake pipes/hoses and start on the interior which desperatley needs a freshen up (knowing me a total replacement).
Ive since then ordered a few more bits for the Rado. Hoping to get coilovers sorted in the next week or two which should make a big improvement.
Bought a staggered set of Borbet A's, always liked the look of these wheels especially on Corrados so cant wait to get them delivered and fitted.
Also planning on replacing the rocket cover gasket, throttle cable and get the cam cover painted and inlet manifold cleaned and polished a bit.
Hopefully get some decent pics of the car at the weekend too.
Comments welcome, Michael.
