oneohtwo

It's a good question and to be honest - it's hard to say! I did the fans at the same time as I did the engine rebuild so I haven't got a direct comparison on a fresh engine. They are the same size as the stock fans (11"); you might just be able to squeeze in 12" if you wanted to go bigger. Currently my engine temp sits at about 100 C in slow moving traffic in this weather which is OK I think. To be honest I thought it would be a little bit better than that what with the engine rebuild, but I don't know what would be considered low and high temps; however, I'm sure you'd get this with a stock fans as well. When I first got the car 10 years ago I am sure it ran fairly cool in traffic, around 90-100 (memory might be playing tricks there though!). I'm sure other people could confirm but 100 doesn't seem wildly low or beyond the realms of the OEM ones, but then who knows, if I had stuck with OEM fans I might be getting temps of 110 or so. I did have issues with engine temps sitting in traffic for long periods in the couple of years before I started the rebuild, to the point where the engine would start to run badly, and be on the verge of cutting out. But that was with a tired old engine so not really a good comparison. I also need to do an engine flush as I think deposits have built up in the rad (the old pipes I took off were coated) which won't help, so the fans might be battling against that. For the moment I am a little bit sceptical about whether it was worth it: It was a bloody hassle to sort (although would be a lot easier now I've done it once and got a guide), it's not really that much lighter (if you were thinking of that - about 1kg less), and doesn't seem to be greatly cooler. Think they might be a little bit quieter.

Well, quite! I'll give one of the plastic ones ago I think.

It's not a wet lay CSM by the looks of it though - looks like some vacuum forming has taken place. I'd be confident of getting a better finish tbh, if I had the time and space, but it's not so much that, It's more the glue everywhere where the fixings have been attached that is off putting. I don't know, maybe I'm being overly picky. I probably wouldn't mind the back, if the front was perfect.

The spoonfed tuning one arrived from Heritage and I think I am going to send it back to be honest as the quality is pretty poor. It doesn't have nice flat finish, has marks here and there, and looks like odd bits of dirt or dust have settled into the gelcoat. The back is also pretty roughly finished as are some of the cut outs. OK you won't see the back and some of the marks would be hidden by the numberplate, but for that sort of money I expect the finish to be spot on.

Where does this all happen on facebook? Whenever I go onto the corrado pages there's never any activity.

That's the one. I should read the description more carefully, as it does say Spoonfed in that! Odd the description says carbon fibre, but the details say it is fibreglass. Will find out when it arrives I guess..

I'm not sure, it doesn't say exactly, but it is fibreglass and from the US so I guess so.

Ah shame, no worries chap! Did try searching myself as well, but as you say... Saw these as well. As much as I like carbon, I don't think I want it for the number plate plinth. As I need it fairly soon, I think I'll go with the Heritage one. At least I will finally have my gloss black plinth which doesn't have paint lifting on it! Thanks everyone for the help.

Ah interesting. Do you have the name of the company?

How are these lasting for the people that got one? Just found mine hanging off the car (the original factory item) ... the lugs have all broke and the number plate tape isn't holding it, so thinking it is time to replace. There's this one or the Heritage one. The Heritage one is £250 quid, but it is gloss black and having done mine in gloss black I quite like it. Plus I don't have to get a new number plate. Just checking all the options though.

This is all good advice chaps, cheers. I will definitely look for a restoration place if I go ahead with it. Certainly the couple of paint shops or body repair places I have had the misfortune of using around London have been shocking. The paint I had done on the number paint plinth is already bubbling and lifting and that's just a small bit of plastic. Might just be London though, but there seem to be a large number of cowboys operating from whatever tiny premises they can find - makes me wary. The Taunton place that repaired the rear ender I had did a top job on the other hand. The place I got the quote from certainly do full bare metal ground up restorations - he showed me the work they had done on a bare metal E-type body shell, and you couldn't see any join at all on the panel they made for the rear haunch. They had all the old panel beating and bending machinery as well. Actually turned into a really good day out! Southern Classics if anyone has something a bit more high end than a Corrado around SW London area. The chap also advised having the underside looked over to make sure there's nothing nasty hiding there. I'd love to take it there, but I don't think it is justifiable at that price. Unfortunately my capacity for taking bits off and storing them is now vastly reduced so I'd have to let the shop do it and take the windows out, but also we're now planning a house extension so I may have to knock the idea on the head for now anyway. I think I'd rather spend the money on a respray...

Wow, that's quite a list! Just seems some very basic stuff. I know they don't care like we do, and are trying to get it done as quickly as, but even so. Anyway, I think that's some sound advice both. I did take it to someone to have a look at to get an idea of where I stand and they quoted £15-20k, which was a bit eye watering. In fairness they are a very good place, and the level of stuff they usually do is way above Corrado levels. When I went they were stacked with E-types, XK120s, Aston's (had a DB5) etc... so 15k on the value of one of those is loose change. it was partly why I picked them out, because it's so hard to tell with bodyshops - the few I have had cause to use in the past around London have left a lot to be desired and wouldn't trust them with a full respray - but I clearly overestimated! How much did you chaps pay for yours if you don't mind me asking? Longish story but when I had the car in my garage I was able to fit the fronts, but ran out of time before a house move to fit the rears. So the second pic up there is B12 fronts, stock rears, hence why the rear looks jacked up. I got a garage to fit the rear B12s the other day, but when I picked it up it looked lower at the rear than the front (1st pic). Since driving it a bit and parking again it seems to now be sitting correctly (last pic). Not really sure why it looked lower at the back initially. Optical illusion perhaps. I made sure I had the correct springs from Eibach last year, so there was no issue there.

You make a fair point.... that'd certainly wake one up at night in a cold sweat! I didn't really have any immediate plans for the running gear to be honest. It seems OK at present so wouldn't really know where to start, other than to just strip the axles and subframes off get them cleaned up to like new, but unfortunately I no longer have any garage space and the car is on the road so I am limited. I guess I could get a garage to replace bearings and bushes all around. Although having seen your respray I just want that now!

Wow the Dasis are running out as well? Have to just hope someone else picks up the baton I guess.

That is pretty good. Mine was about the same, but that's without the big engine mods. I need to look at my agreed valuation; think mine has just been left at 2.5k for a while now. Sounds like it needs a readjustment! That respray looks fantastic by the way. Didn't realise it was Aqua Blue - looks so deep and vibrant!

Definitely got the right springs. The wrong ones came in the kit initially, but got the correct ones sent out. Got the wrongs sat downstairs in a box! Took another picture and it definitely looks better: So might have just been bedding in. Although I thought it would settle downwards, not up! On another note I am getting fed up with garages damaging interior trim bits. Each of the last three has done something now, in the space of a few weeks. The MOT place just shoved the handbrake cover on instead of getting it on the clips, so it was sticking up all over the place and now one of the clips is broken. When I got it back from the second place doing the brakes the trim around the gearstick (where they'd been accessing the VCDS) wasn't laying flat, because one of those clips was broken, and now this latest one put the drivers side rear speaker trim and seatbelt cover on incorrectly. The tab for the speaker cover was stuck out in front of the leather trim, and so when the seat was pushed back that has snapped off. It's not like these bits are easy to come by. Guess I will just have to try and fix them up, but it's just more time and effort. Anyway, rant over. Next step might be to get the bodywork sorted now. There's various bits of accident damage that have accrued over the years. Some bigger bits on the passenger side and rear bumper (other people, and a disagreement with a concrete column), plus a variety of little dings and scrapes that seem to accrue over the years. One dent on the swage line has been there since before I bought the car. The paint itself isn't great either. It's had a poor respray at some point in it's life (before I bought it) so with all of that it's looking a bit shabby. I was going to leave it a year or two having just done the engine, but I think now is the time really. If I leave it it'll just get worse and in some places the paint is cracked so it'll just start rusting. May have to just bite the bullet. Gonna take it into a body shop next week.

Finally got the rear B12s fitted: Here's how it looked before: So looking a bit more planted now. Fronts the same in both photos as already had those fitted. Although it does look like the rears are slightly lower than the fronts, might be just me? Anecdotally it feels like the car is now a little less crashy over potholes, nothing significantly, but who knows how old the old shocks were, so could have been pretty knackered.

For the rear right (drivers side) it's really slim pickings unfortunately, as I found. It's Topran or... take you pick of Mapco, Metzger or Ruville. It's flip a coin really I think. I picked up the Ruville one in the end instead of Topran. Couldn't really find out much about any of them though. The gearbox mount has a slightly better selection, again are mostly unknowns, but Meyle and Febi do one which at least is a bit more of a known entity. Engine Mounting MEYLE 100 199 0027 ORIGINAL Quality, Left Rear, Rubber-Metal Mount — Buy now! (autodoc.co.uk) Engine Mounting FEBI BILSTEIN 01109 Left Rear, Hydro Bearing — Buy now! (autodoc.co.uk) Otherwise it's a who's who of no-mark brands again: JP, Ridex, Swag, Maxgear, AutoMega, Vaico, Metzger, Mapco, Stark

Yeah, that's what I understood as well. Not really sure what they've done then. They are a VAG specialist so you'd hope they know what they are doing! That's a bit annoying about the metal crack pipe, didn't see that mentioned... I have an OE one as well, but thought I'd splash out as they're not exactly cheap. Maybe it'll bed in over time or something.

Can't help with that one I'm afraid. I didn't get up to 70 in the times it wasn't working. Got the car back from the garage and the brake pedal is much, much better, I think like it should be, and the ABS light issue seems to have resolved itself along with that, which is good news. Although not sure what was the cause of it. Apparently the garage bled it all using the diagnostics tool/PC. They didn't find the bleed nipple on the brake cylinder either but suggested it wasn't needed because the PC had done it, although I didn't think the Corrado system used a PC to bleed? Slightly annoying as now I have in the back of my mind that it hasn't been done, and could it still be better?! Fine for now anyway. The next small niggle is that I seem to have a small coolant leak, which I think I have traced to the ECS alloy crack pipe - I think where it slots into the thermostat housing. Annoying in that there's not much I can do about that as there's nothing to tighten; it just slots in. I was hoping that after having done all the rebuild I wouldn't have to be checking and topping up fluids before every journey!

I have the E38 battery as well, and it is a solid unit. Got it after getting fed up of multiple Halfords batteries going flat, and then not charging. Didn't realise it was that much larger though!

Been for another spin and light was on from cold. After engine had warmed up I turned off and on again and light went off so sounds like actually it's the dry solder joints. I saw a bit about this in the wiki section so I guess that's the fix? It's in the garage now so not sure what they'll make of it.

Haven't managed to scan as my VCDS cable is buried in a moving box somewhere! I think the light came on straight after I had been holding the brakes on for a few minutes waiting at a junction. I didn't see it come on exactly, but it was pretty soon after the junction I saw it, and it definitely wasn't on when I set off. It didn't go off after the engine had warmed up so I guess that suggests the former? It only went off (or rather didn't come on) after I switched the engine off and back on again.

Hmm, I went for a short drive yesterday and the ABS light came on mid drive. When I stopped and and started the engine again it stayed off. Something definitely not quite right... Well it's going into the garage Thursday anyway.

No problem! The biggest issue is working out where to fit the resistors, so take a bit of time on that one. You should also get some heat transfer compound to go under the resistors when you mount them. It's a bit of a pain that I'll have to redo mine so you can get the battery out, but I should be able to do it at my leisure now, rather than rushing against the clock.