djmac56

Cheers, yes I think Candy is whiter than Alpine White. I keep mine free from oxidising and yellowing too, so on a sunny day it's really striking. It never looks as mean as some of the darker colours, but I'm really pleased to be in what is quite a rare VR6 colour. I am only aware of 8 others, none in the UK.

Re the wheels: Cheers for the comments! Originally I had them lacquered, but it started to blister. Spit N Polish said it's because on old wheels like this they can't guarantee that they get all the oxidised metal off, so you end up with areas that dry differently and thus blister. I asked them to a try again, but they decined and instead just machined the laquer off leaving me with bare metal on the wheels. This does oxidise and pit easily, but with the autosol polish they are back to a mirror finish in a matter of minutes. I use that doctor power stuff off the telly to take the thick off, rinse them and then polish and they look the poodles doodles. The non-flat faces are painted silver, but an excellent match as you can see from the photo. Unfortunately these are blistering too. I paid 55 quid a wheel for it do be done and it was worth it as the car looks standard at first glance, but the shiny wheels lift the car a lot. Cheers, Mark

Nope I'm right handed - I just like to work left to right - I'm the same with reading and writing and with putting my socks on! :)

Lovely. I've seen that colour in the flesh and love it. Great job bringing the paintwork back.

sweet fancy moses! that is some hard graft there! Keep us up to date with the progress mate :)

Looks great - red cars go faster too! I think I may have sat behind you briefly on the M1 last year when I was driving through past Sheffield at night. I pulled alongside then behind out of respect in my white VR. Was it you? Mark

OK, I got my car back yesterday, so today I fancied trying something. Out came the wet and dry and some old emery paper. Ooh you are awful, but I like you. No not that sort of emery. I also bought some autosol, and had a go at polishing. I have a lot more to do, but it's not difficult, just takes ages. What do you think so far?

I guess it's hard for me to tell if it's still leaking or not, given the smell. I've dropped the guys at the Phirm a line via email. They're pretty brilliant there, so I'm sure they'll get it sorted - but until then I have to put up with greasy windows, which windowlene can't seem to cut through! Is there a product that wont burn my ear hair out, that I can use to clean up the carpets and windows in the meantime? Mark My wife would have other opinions on me losing my ear hair, but that's a different matter.

A few months back after my matrix went bang the Phirm replaced my matrix for me. However, still even now I have the left over smell and smoke of G12 coming through my vents when I turn the heater on which fogs the windows up. It makes my eyes sting and to be honest makes driving the car pretty unpleasant. It seems that even with all vents closed it still escapes. I'd hoped that it would all burn off but it hasnt. I wish the guys had washed out all the tubing etc, but as they didnt, does anyone have suggestions? Do you think I'll have to have it all taken apart? Is it an easy job? Would someone like Keith at Chertsey be able to sort it? This time of year, driving with the windows open is horrible. Thanks, Mark

Here you go - beigemongous! I never liked the wood in the black interior - it was like a black suit and brown shoes, or collars not matching cuffs. But I think it's good with the beige interior! I want to put some colour coded beige centred LMs on. That should stop it looking like my dad's car! BEIGE!

No it's usually the female equivalent that gets me going, lol. I also have just bought a mk4 4motion at Xmas. Very nice except it's an ex smokers car and so it smells and there is a 2 inch burn mark through the leather recaros to the sponge. Ar$ehole.

Wind noise can be the window has slipped a bit in the housing. close the window as far as you can. Now using the flat palm of your hand see if you can push the window up any futher. If you can then chances are that will close a gap that was causing wind noise. That was a problem on my mk3 golf. I never fixed it, I just put up with having to close it the last little bit by hand. If that doesnt do it, i dunno. To be honest my corrado is far from quiet and i'm just going round the car tightening things up at the moment to make it quieter. Check that the wind noise isnt from your scuttle cover on the passenger side. This can work loose and cause a bit of noise. I shoved a white duster under mine which seemed to sort it by stopping it moving , plus stopped leaved coming into the air vents.

The window rattle is something that was annoying me a huge amount a couple of weeks ago. Initially earlier this year I found if I put the window down half a cm it changed the angle of the mechanism and stopped the rattle. I always assumed that this was a window rubbers problem as I had an old fiat with this symptom. But a few weeks ago this stopped solving the problem and was driving me nuts. I tracked the problem down not to the rubbers but to the white rollers at the bottom of the window lifter mechanism. they were moving horizontally and therefore the metal bit with holes in (thats the technical name for the lifting arms) was twatting (the technical term for resonating) off the inside of the door. As everything was rivetted the only option is a whole new mechanism really - a cool 180 notes to stop the rattle. So instead I bought a 4.99 pot of grease from halfords which i smothered the roller wheels and arm bits with to dampen the effect of the rattle. This worked a treat. Now I can hear the passenger side doing it which will be next weekend's task! Perhaps this is what caused your problem too. Have you ever removed the door cards? PM me if you want to chat about this. Mark

This had been a problem with my car - a slight problem with the coolent smell. Then after I got a new water pump it all went pop - coolant everywhere and i couldnt see a thing. the windcreen went sort of greasy too. I had the bypass thing done then took it to the Phirm where Paul worked his magic and put in a new matrix for me. It cost about 700 quid IIRC, due to the labour involved (dash off due to my dealer fitted air con). I still have a slight coolant smell which Paul assures me will burn off as I use the heater over the winter and the vents clear. I was kicking myself as I had taken the car into a VW stealers 2 months earlier due to low coolant levels and they couldnt find a leak, so I had in my mind ruled out any problems. If it's the matrix, prepare yourelf for a big bill! Mark

Thanks Dinkus, Cheesewire, Double 6s and Corozin for your wise words (plus anyone else I've missed) It's definitely given me food for thought :)

Yes, it ws the nasty appearance of the Mk5 R32 that put me off it. The Mk4 looks a lot better to me - the stance is spot on. However, rumours of the R36 (also known as the RS)- see photo below - mean that there could finally be a Mk5 'R' car I'd buy. However, given that it's going to be a while until it is released, and even longer before I can afford a second hand one, I think the Mk4 is the way to go for me. It sounds from the various suggestions that I am looking at 3-4 grand to get the power I need, and that is without the better brakes, airbags etc. So for now I think I'll get the Mk4 on the 'never never' and save up separately for the turbo kit for the Corrado!

At the weekend I test drove a 2003 mk4 golf r32 which had received an AMD remap and I think stage 3 upgrade to deliver 285 brake and loads of torque. It was on at 15 grand (which I think is pretty good given the cost of the work at AMD) and drove superbly with only 30,000 miles. I wondered what sort of money would be required to get similar levels of power and torque from my unmodified VR6. I have uprated the engine mounts to vibratechnics to handle any potential power hikes I feel like doing, but right now don't know what I'm looking at paying the likes of the Phirm to do this work. How's best to do this? turbo? supercharger?

Yeah mine was hacked to bits too on my dealer fit diavia kit. In the hot 2006 summer I left my car in the sun and it got so hot that all the mastic / glue fell off and the plastic plate then stuck to my carpet. To this day I am still missing a back to my shelf, which makes it pretty useless really.

Hi CM, I'm pretty sure that's a no - you need to use thinners to take it off if you FUBAR it!

I Love these wheels! - The Keskin KT4s I mean. What size are they? I want to get my cheque book out and buy some now! Should I get them in 16" or 17"? What offset etc?!!!!

shiessenhauser! I can't believe you've had such bad luck. Keep us posted of your progress with the repairs - I always like to see a rado restored to its former glory.

Very tidy looking motor. If you did get it for £1500 quid u've bagged a bargain with tht mileage.

Thanks matey - praise indeed from another white Corrado owner :)

I got them done by spit n polish - the way they catch the light is superb - especially at night. I've just added a close up of them in daylight as well. I live in Surrey - not too far from Guildford - a place called 'Weybridge'. Hoping there'll be some more meets down here in the not to distant future :)

Here's mine on 15" polished speedies: