MoonlightVR

Relax Lee, whatever anyone's tastes/preferences about particular mods everyone, and I mean everyone appreciates and acknowledges the effort and commitment you've put into your car. I know first hand from my Mk1 how much effort and time goes into these things. So does Jay. Every single car in the show circuit gets comments about certain points that individuals may not like. That's their perogative mate. Each to their own, and everyone is entitled to that opinion. The main thing is you're happy with it. Building a show car means you have to be prepared to take all the comments that come your way. IMO there's nothing wrong with that. You can't expect to please everyone all of the time. It's your car mate, so you do what you want! Once again for the record, congrats on a monumental effort. Can't wait to see it at Ed 38.

Thought you'd pick on that Rodders. Your fav VR I seem to remember? :D

Neil, Pic of Bill Aitken's gem of a VR with 16" RXs. Might help you visualise the look? 16s are def the best compromise overall, no question. 17s look the best though! BTW tyre choice and air inflation have a significant effect too. My RS's ride alot better than the RCs I use for the winter. Both use the same size tyre, 205/40/17, only the RCs have Yokos (crap tyre) and the RS's have Contis (pure class!) and the difference is significant! Asim

Hi guys, Seems most points have been covered. I've copied and pasted the method I used from a previous post on this subject. I used 3M fineline masking tape and removed it while the paint was still soft to avoid cracking the paint when it hardens. Cheers Asim *Choose a warm sunny wind free day! *I rubbed down all the raised lettering first with 600 grade wet and dry. *Do the whole lens surface with the same grade to get a key. *Wipe surfaces with alcohol based degreasant. *Mask the stipes on the indicator lens. If you look closely on the lights they are made up of a plain plastic row and then a "crystal" effect row. I masked the crystal row (so this will stay amber). *Mask up the brake light and the black plastic suround and black middle stripe. *Spray the red lacquer (I used FoliaTec) evenly in thin layers. I between layers put the light in the sun to cure. *Keep building up the layers until you're happy it matches the brake light lens. *Remove the masking tape after an hour. *Allow to cure for the rest of the day and overnight. *Give the red lacquered surface a very fine key with 1000 wet and dry. *Wipe down all the lens surfaces, including brake light. Mask up the all the black plastic parts of the light. *Spray all the lens surfaces with clear lacquer. *After about a week rub down the lacquer with a mild car polish like AutuoGlym SuperResin to get a high gloss finish.

Looking good Neil. Great job on the RS's too.

You do get a slight drop in power, but does it really matter? Do you guys drive your cars for 100% power all the time??? In this heat air con is a must, and as said above once you've had it there's no going back!

Tom, I think they are current Audi A4 lights mate, not BMW. EDIT: check this link and scroll down to the front 1/4 pic. http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/394045 Asim

No worries. Are elephant the underwriters or just the broker? Have a look on your policy docs. I think elephant are just brokers? Underwriters like Lloyds, Norwich Union and Axa are pretty common. All you can do is collect evidence and prepare for battle! :lol:

It varies mate. On newer cars it usually comes down to a %age of the cars value as it's easier to value a newer car. On an older car it's alot more pie in the sky cos it depends on the cars "market" value, mileage, condition etc As a rough rule of thumb if it exceeds 50% of the cars value it's written off. I would start to collect ads of similar cars showing the market value dinkus, cos this will be the biggest bone of contention with your insurers. As we all know the book/market value quoted by insurance companies is alot lower than the prices we think and hope they are worth. Having documentary evidence from Autotrader ads of similar cars will help alot. A receipt of purchase from when you bought the car will also help as you bought the car recently right? (assuming it wasn't dirt cheap!) If course they could then turn around and say you should have an agreed value policy, but ignore this and build up your advert evidence! Make a big deal about the extras making your car rarer and more valuable than standard. Who are your insurance underwriters?

Isn't he going to be better off buying the (secondhand) new one?

That's fine mate. There's more than one way to skin a cat :lol: It was suggested to me so I passed it on. The main thing is you get it sorted to how it was before without financial ruin. I'm sure you'll get there. Keep us posted.

That's your opinion mate and that's fine. I'm basing my comments on my own experiences of getting quotes for a similar repair. And I wasn't going to back street garages either! The rear quarter on a Corrado costs over double that of a Mk2 Golf. The quarter panel is a VW only item. No aftermarket panels are available. The work is more involved on a Corrado, which pushes the labour time up considerably. Add these together and you end up with an expensive job. At the end of the day this is why the chances of write off are so high with this sort of repair. With regard to considering the Corrado as a rare expensive car to repair, well it is exactly that! Just look at the insurance grouping and compare it with similar cars and the Corrado is high for what it is. Being a high performance coupe they are never going to be in a low grouping, but clearly the high chances of them being pranged, together with the high cost of putting them right means a high group is the only place for them.

Dream on!

Shell Diesel Extra is also very good. Makes my oil burner clatter a bit more quietly too :D

Ah that's good to know. Have you got any idea how much it would have cost to get one 'done by the book' and how much it is to have it done your way? Sorry mate, I don't have a figure to quote, but suffice to say if it's all cut out and replaced with a new panel it's alot! Hence the write off concerns. Sounds like you're getting somewhere locally. If you're still looking for a good bodyshop let me know as there's a good one I can recommend, but it won't be local for you. Good luck with it all.

I'd say the mpg drops by about 2-3mpg. If you do alot of city driving it may be a little more. The biggest difference is to operating temps, both oil and water go up a notch or two. The cooling fan often goes into mental mode in stop start traffic with air con on!

Nope you need a 5mm spacer with the RS's. The RC's I had previously fitted fine. I have a couple of rs sets in germany if you're interested....as in dozens of them that can be made to individual spec. niko Cheers Niko. I have RS's on my VR and really want to sort the brakes without changing the wheels. 5mm is not too bad, but will probably upset the looks? Oh well, the search continues!

Mate, the only reason I know is that I bought a damaged and written off Corrado VR for salvage last year that needed a quarter and it was worth alot more than 5k. It's the labour involved in doing a quarter "by the book" that causes alot of C's to be written off. The "full" new quarter panel is welded into the strip above the rear quarter glass. If the damage in this case is below the swage line, one way to reduce costs would be to cut the original quarter panel on the swage line directly under the quarter glass and then weld the new panel onto this point. This route is not by the book (as that involves doing the whole panel) but if done by a proper skilled bodyshop would be a ok, especially when considering cost. It may be an option, as long as the bodyshop know what they're doing. HTH and good luck dinkus

Gutted for you mate, that really is bad luck. I hate to sound a pessimist but that rear quarter is gonna be the pricey part. Alot of Corrados get written off due to the cost involved in replacing a quarter panel :( Might be worth not going thru the insurance to protect your car from being classed a Cat D? Sorry mate.

Nah mate, other than efficency there's no reason why Climate should outperform standard air con. All climate control does is maintain a preset temperature you dial in eg. 20 deg C. So it will heat the interior or cool it depending on the ambient temp. It will also take care of the air flow by adjusting the fan speed as necessary. Air con is all manual so if you want it warmer you have to turn the dial! As long as the air con system fitted to your Corrado VR6 is correctly installed with a good quality system you should have an efficent and reliable set up. When new the air con fitted to RHD Corrados was typically a Diavia, through the dealerships. Factory air con was only availble on lhd cars. Unfortunately the Diavia kit is now no longer available, but a competent air con engineer will be able to make a custom kit for around 1000ukp. When I bought my car the air con was not working. It took alot of effort to sort as the original kit had been porrly fitted and so need a solid overhaul. 2 years on it's still running 100%, thanks to the air con engineer doing a spot on job. The air con on my car is able to get the air temp out of the vents down to 1 deg C, which is bloody cold! So it can be done.

Niko, Do the RS's clear the AP brakes ok??

Yeah, full size spare was a option rarely taken up. Another very rare option was Connolly leather on the standard sport seats. I've only ever seen one C VR with Connolly and it was beige. The only reason I knew it was Connolly was the steering wheel was in beige leather and the leather itself was much softer than the hard shiny leather VW insisted on using thru the 90s. My car is similar spec to dinkus' car in that it also has headlamp wash, air con and electric Recaros, except mine are in beige leather, which meanbs it also came with the bum warmers ;-) Full size spare and auto box were the only options my car didn't come with, thank goodness! :D

Still building it then Niko? Looking mighty fine on the LMs mate. Asim

Quite a rare option to find on C's too. And can be a b!tch to maintain if it's been thrown in when originally fitted.

Shame, as I have a NS quarter glass you could have had for very little :roll: