VW_OwneR_85

cheers buddy, yes you do!! i cant imagine doing this stuff {car diy} without being able to atleast tack weld, idd say bite the bullet and go for it! want any tips just ask, who did your down pipe btw? well finished my down pipe today, so happy with the out come, just waiting on the heat wrap to arrive so i can get it wrapped up, i made sure that there was no bures or welding wire pokeing through any of the welded areas aswell, welds dont look amazingly neat but iv got very good penetration.

thats cool, yea kinda knew some of it, like putting the blend in the clear coat in the smallest place possible so the blend line isnt big, yea its prospray solvent base with u pol system20 2k clear, i was watching a video about blending out and the guy {yank} uses a clear basecoat to reduce the basecoat , i guess its to thin the base out {colour wise not in viscosity} do we have that in the uk? the colour match is mixed to code and is a good enough match that i cant tell the difference looking at the door and the qaurter, you probably could though. i'll probably have another go in a couple of weeks but when i do i'll get some pics up ,atleast its alot better then what it was..

why not give it a spruse up with r32 bodykit and rep wheels?

yea makes sense useing your 2.8 as you wont have to worry about the wireing and you know everything works, if i was you i would get it 4mo'd first and make sure its all good and then let your moneys build back up and enjoy a running 2.8 4mo for awhile, there might be some info in here about turbo'ing the 24v 2.8 http://forums.vwvortex.com/forumdisplay.php?42-2.8l-24v-VR6-Engine-Forum

custom down pipe almost ready peeps :)

well iv almost finished the down pipe, ran out of blady gas! damn that stuff doesnt last long! just need to make a joiner peice and weld up a hole from where i cut out a lambda boss and then reposition them where i see fit, then weld the flexy/flanges on , the main brain pita work is done so i dont have to work out which bends to use where etc etc like i said all my bends and tube have come from both downpipes so iv had to make it all work , heres two 45's think i managed to get 5 in total, took me awhile to figure it out but i got there one leg prety much ready for welding, the flanges will be welded last as you wont be able to remove the DP easily , and its been in and out around 6 times, Welded as much as i could, i ran out of gas so i had to stop , the big hole is from where i cut out a lambda boss, i will fit those at the end once everythings piped up just need to relocate them where i see fit, atleast this jobs almost done! Happy days :)

imo it sounds like you got a good car! so why change that? you owe it a service which is normal running costs for any car,sounds like your worried by how much there worth and what your loosing in appreciation but your willing to splash out 6-7k on a gti, which surely you would loose out more money if you went that route in the end? just because the 4mo's dont go for much doesnt mean you have to sell yours,

i had the exact same thing with my brake pipes the other day, luckily for me my engines out and its not in daily use, but i had to get an air cut off tool and cut the brake fitting in half, as for the copper i used this kit {or one like it} , realy easy to use http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vw-Camper-Beetle-Bay-T2-T3-T25-T4-10mm-Copper-Brake-Pipe-Repair-Kit-/220941260000?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Car+Make%3AVW&hash=item33712014e0

yep same here i cant view it, its set to private, think you have the same pedal as me swompy, the install is on my things to do list ;)

cheers guys, yea rick gutted myself that you couldnt be here, knowing you were here for tech know how and help gave me the confidence to go for this conversion in the first place, just a shame that this wireing took aslong as it did,otherwise this would of been completed months ago! but realy enjoying it so far, for some reason everythings going smoothly i guess its because up to now its just been an engine swap but now its time for the conversion!! .. started on the down pipe this afternoon, damn its a ball ache!! probably wouldnt be as bad if i had a pipe bender and fresh tube to work with , all my bends/ tube are comming from both dp's cut up! side by side chopped the top half of the 12v dp bolted it up and propped it up to exaclty where it needs to be. engine sat in place, and heres what i need to fill in, kind of figured out half of the right side, thought this part was gona be easy but its gona take time! wouldnt be bad if there was loads of room but im just gona have to work through it no matter how long it takes,

thanks, i recently did this on my audi a3 that had severe arch damage but i didnt want to re clear the whole panel i just wanted my repair area kept beneath the rear quarter trim peice so i blended the clear out i didnt use fade out thinners though but i get the idea behind, i wet sanded the blend out after and then buffed it back to gloss and its prety good, but the colour of the car is audi maya yellow LY1U dont know if thats a hard colour to match ? but looks like i should of faded out the colour further out into the rear quarter as now you can see its slightly darker then the rest, i only faded it out 3" or so , Gutted :( but my filler work turned out good, so in a few weeks i might just scotch the whole rear quarter and blend it out properly , its not realy noticable against the door which is good,

cracked on today, didnt get as much as i hoped done but still progress none the less :) renewed the front brake hard lines, thought that was going to be easy but nope! i had to cut through the brake fitting in the arch, as they were just a rusted mess! need to order another brake hose and 2 banjo bolts for them , anyone know what size they are? , got the copper hard lines fitted up to the arch's and ones capped off ready for a flexy, so i best not forget about the brakes! searching through a box of bits that iv slowly gathered over last year with the intention of fitting i came across a gearbox out put flange seal, strange why there was only 1, so i fitted that to what i thought would be the hardest side, pressed off fairly easy , although it wouldnt budge when i tryed to pry it off with a jack bar, as it happens idd say this was the worst side any way , fitted the box & thermo houseing, removed the old mk4 header tank pipes & modified the front mount, & fitted the rear mount, think tomo it should be sat in place for a look at the down pipe or i may fit new arb bushs! had a quick sneak peek at the wireing loom, its all labled up nicley and all looks fairly straight forward, think matt @ OCD has done a good job with that!

My wireing harness was finnaly posted out on weds and got here this morning! so stoked! also sold my borbet A's to fund banded steels , which is what i wanted in the first place ,so hopefully the next time this car touch's tarmac its going to be exactly how i want it!, posty dropped this off this morning :) , been a long time comming! everythings going to plan, going to re new the arb bush's and a brake pipe now the bay is empty, im not spraying or tideying the bay what so ever, just gona clean out all the old gunk in the corners and wax oil it where it needs it, useing my old clutch, its a sachs clutch and still has quite abit of life left in it, going into retirement ;) got new fly wheel and pressure plate bolts to go in along with a new clutch release bearing for the box, made a clutch centering tool by wrapping electrical tape around the socket extension, gearbox is filthy!! so going to clean that up tomo and get it fitted and test fit to see what the crack is with this down pipe, i thought idd be abit nervous as iv never done a conversion before but im not , im actually more concerned with how rusty the front cross member is! {the section with the pas pipe goes through}

yo, i recentley brought a new sump for my 24v 2.8 BDE conversion thinking it was cracked but it turns out there just casting marks! as the new sump has the exact same markings on the inside of the sump, {gutted!!!} it has the level senor hole btw, seeing as it cost me £90 with discount im guessing genuine vw sump must be around £120, and theres no second hand ones on ebay either , i think £50 posted is good..

yea my passenger side door had that problem, the wireing from the door handle was butchered in half!! prety sure it was due to the movement of the window chopping it in half! so make sure all wires are clear of the window when in operation and tied back ..

yea been into air guns for years , nothing serious just messing around shooting cans and targets, iv got a bsa xl lightening with a theoben gas strut that replaces the spring , makes it smoother and changes the sound abit, havnet been shooting since last year though...

heres the episode i remember seeing this episode, and yea it wasnt simple,

you will have to wetsand with 1500-2000 then cut n buff that dull rough finish, btw the way you have done this you will allways see the patchs where the clear coat peeled off, the only way to make it an invisible repair is to feather the edges back like you did but then you would re base and blend out with basecoat {the cars colour} and then re clear the whole panel/ bonnet in one go so it seals it all in, basecoat {the cars colour coat } doesnt get sanded at all, if you sand an area of basecoat it looks different when the clears put on top and basicaly that area sticks out, and thats the reason them patchs where the clear peeled off will allways look different, even if you had a bodyshop spray the clearcoat them areas would still look different, also another factor to take into consideration is UV breakdown , modern clearcoats stop fadeing and with the clearcoat being gone in that area it would of been affected to some extent by UV ..

lol yep iv also learnt the hard way!! i use my left hand to keep the tip steady, its prety prone to getting sun burnt , so i now wear a glove when i weld,

looking good dude! , check this thread out, http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?205887-OEM-management-wiring-1-8T-gt-Mk2-harness-install-FAQ its for the 1.8t into mk2 but its still mk4 platform into ce2, i was also told awhile back that the wireing mods needed are prety much the same for the 24v,

iv sourced a spare 12v dp and a 24v dp total cost of aorund £30.00 , hopefully gona chop them both up to form a hybrid, basicaly i think ill cut the 12v one down and bolt it up to the exhaust, and then roughly chop the top half of the 24v untill it fits in with out to much of a gap between the 12v and then merge the 4 pipes together, i also have an exhaust pipe flareing kit, unfotunatley dont have a pipe bender, im rather looking forward to this part :) and yea buy argon co2 mix, it welds alot cleaner and your notice it straight away,

i guess my brake pads are to cheap to include this backing, iv never seen it lol

edit: im assumeing you mean from an electrical pov?. i would also like to know this, i think it all depends on what 2.8 you have to whch 3.2 you want in, i guess it all comes down to wether the 3.2 ecu will plug into and align up correctly with the cabin side 2.8 loom you already have fitted,

hi guys ,finnaly in the process of getting banded steels made up, im haveing the rears made up to my current setup + 5mm on the ET so they stick in abit, so thats 9jx16 with et 20 and the fronts i want are abit unknown as my current ones are 7.5 but im haveing the steels made to 8J and i want them sitting the same so there flush with the edge of the arch, think 8j x16" with et30 should be right? any one got that up front? cheers

tbh iv never had to do it but if i had to do it by myself with no help i could imagine how daunting it might feel, but they have the whole process step by step in a haynes manual {not corrado specific but mk2-mk3 golf}for the average joe so i cant imagine it to be that hard, i started out learning to diy to save money and to have fun + learn at the same time as i knew next to nothing about cars and i needed to change that, its a slow proccess even if your keen to learn but once your confidence gets built up you wont even concider takeing your car to a garage! i agree with ej taylors comment, i would also get a second opinion from another garage about the head gasket being gone for what its worth. also the best way to look at this is, you cannot realy make it any worse and its allways fixable! even if you have to source another engine , there cheap enough, good luck and get stuck in! if your into rados learning to diy will pay for itself in the first month!! just think of the ££££££ saved!