Storm Warning

The forum is http://www.lincstorque.com/ and they have a weekly mini meet then loads throughout the year with various drives and events. They are a friendly bunch covering all marks but not chavvy boy racers, anything from hardcore rice to retro US stuff and even a white corrado there. I've not made it to a meet yet, which is bad as they meet 5mins walk from me. There is also Fl4tlanders, they meet last sunday every month, I've never been either. That is VAG, particually air cooled. http://www.fl4tlanders.com/ pretty sure the volkskraft guys attend. Now my car is working and more complete I am going to try and get to some meets.

Slim. I'm certainly impressed by the job, i don't think you'll better Volkskraft for service and quality work, not without going to the ends of the earth :-) They are passionate about what they do and that really matters to me and it shows in their work. Your welcome to see the final job in the flesh, I'm going to try and get to some of those local lincstorque meetings too, don't know if you've heard of it? Philuk, cheers! my post whore'ing in the chat room work then ;-)

Just Little update: They say things come in three's, well, I had a wheel bearing fail, Crank sensor die and the rad crack. now I'm £440 lighter. Installed the Pioneer Bluetooth kit, doesn't seem to want to talk to my phone at the moment :-( Wash and Wax, and some pics that arn't just on my drive!, Think I'll put one on the calender thread for feedback - competition too tough on there to stand a chance. Next Jobs install new speakers front and rear and put dash back together... climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfDSC02446 30p.jpg[/attachment:3nzimaui] 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfDSC02451 30p.jpg[/attachment:3nzimaui] DSC02464 30p.jpg[/attachment:3nzimaui]

Since my respray and had the few mods done I'm getting a lot more attention on my commute than I used to, I tend to drive at sensible speeds a lot of the time and get a lot of cars pulling along side for a better look :D 8) But... if anyone else says "I saw a new one of these the other day at the dealers!" :( I might have to start printing off Corrado fact sheets to hand out...

Slowly making my way up the table, was down in the bottom 1/4 now up to 7th. Luck more than judgment tho I set my selections over a month ago after drinking :drinking: give it a go!

Wash n Waxed, bit clean inside and under bonnet. Installed Pioneer BlueTooth adapter, pondered why it doesn't want to talk to my mobile or walkman. Added roundels to german plates. Put on a new VR6 rear badge. Took some pictures thinking of the calendar, realised I am not a photographer and will stick to day job.

No so bad then, annoyingly my rad was off a few weeks ago during my rebuild. I'm wondering if that disturbance has caused the crack or its simply a sign of its age.... cam sensor went pretty much on same day.

It would appear I now have a cracked rad too in the same area :( . Two questions I have is a) what causes them to crack b) how much for a new rad? can anyone help? thanks in advance..

Perhaps I've always been lucky as I've never had any problems. Last used them about 10 days ago, got through first time, great prices and delivered 2 days later. 8)

Yep on the outside 8)

Do you mind me asking if your door/window rubber seals were expensive? Im not deperate for new ones but would be nice to replace them. Matt :) £33 +vat a side from GPC. When I had my respray I thought they would clean up ok, but by the time they were back on they were badly mis-shapened.

I've used the search but I could do with some further clarifcation. I have a Pioneer Bluetooth kit which works with the head unit but requires its own power feed (both a constant and an igntion). I was thinking about just splicing into the harness cables between the ISO and the head unit so that its neat and tidy - I can solder it up off the car that way. Can anyone invisage that this would be too much load through the ISO part of the loom? would I be better getting power from elsewhere? Thanks in advance :D

What I had done today: Replaced rear N/S wheel bearing, fitted new door/window outter rubber seal trim thingys, sorted out the fit of a couple of bits of internal trim.

Since my respray and drop I seem to get quite a few people pulling up along side on my commute for a better look or to give a thumbs up :D There is a new local forum where I live and I just saw this post in a car discussion thread I was in.. "Nearly drove onto someone's garden the first time I saw your Storm, it's a beautiful car." well chuffed :grin:

I've answered rear 1/4 question in last post - I'm not sure on what thinking there is behind leaving it in.. I waxed about 3 weeks after getting it back, but to be honest I could have done it straight away. I don't think there is this wait to wax issue anymore with modern paint and techniques, the laquer I have is supposed to be scratch resistant and is leaves the work shop like that so I can't see why its not hardenough to wax. I recall having a mini resprayed on the cheap about 11 years ago in 2 pack and not baked - first time I waxed it the cloth went exactly the same colour as the car :-)

Some screws and fixings were replaced, but others not - depended on their condition, but yes, you don't really want to be putting rusty bits back on a nice freash slam panel etc. Rear 1/4 windows were removed - I don't see how you could possibly spray it properly with them in. They are bonded and can be cut out from the inside keeping the seal intact. Oh, you don't need autoglass for them. Regarding the front and rear they used a local screen company - you need the big sucker tools for a start and its important its done right. You can get away without removing the front screen as once the out seal is removed it leave enough hidden space to make a good finish on the paint edge - its personal preference I guess. For the whole job they had my car for about 3 1/2 months - not forgetting it will probably be back for a couple of days. At the place I went it was not possible for them to do all the paintwork in one go, simply not the spare for a shell and all the panels and bits. So I guessing there was probably 3 sessions or more and with each was the whole preparing, priming, flatting etc, and they had a small window of opportunity to polish the finished panels before the laquer was simply too hard. If you find someone that was going to be dedicated to it exclusivly I would imagine a month is enough to do the job. If you look around on this forum you'll see evidence of car being at garages for more than a year! - as I said before - I would keep checking on them, make a rough plan of events and see how they are doing. My whole shell was stipped, prepared, primed and about a day off its first coat of mystic blue in the first week - then the slippage creeped in!

I get around 400 miles per tank from mine, that works out at 30MPG - yet the MAF will show anything up to 35. I do mainly steady motor miles so think I should get better!

Not strictly today, but the weekend. Put my german plates on to see what it was like. Washed and applied my first wax since the respray, came up a treat.... then rained :-( but got some good beading pics :grin: Pics here if interested: http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=43642&p=805727

Foxster PM'd about parts used, but I thought best to post up here for reference... I got most of the VAG parts from GPC - they are they cheapest and reliable too. I am pretty sure the part numbers are correct but if you use someone like GPC you don't need to worry about them as they know what they are talking about. Sorry about the layout, no time for HTMLing - let me know if you want in excel. last figure is rough price in £ Roof strips Left 535 853 705 01C 33 Right 535 853 706 01C 33 Rear caps for roof strips 535 853 719 01C 1.5 Right 535 853 720 01C 1.5 Sunroof outer seal 321 877 209 A 30 Rear chrome 'Corrado' badge 535 853 687 B GX2 9 Rear chrome 'VW' emblem 357 853 601 WM7 7 Rear chrome 'VR6' badge 3A0 853 675 Z10 7 Grommets for rear badges 191 853 615 A 6 Number Plate Trim Panel 535813989 35 Drivers Mirror Glass 37 Passenger Mirror Glass 32 Top Mounts Also, I nearly bought these parts...(no prices) Door protection strips side for 535 853 503A 3 mouldings 535 853 515A 535 853 537A Right Door Protectors 535 853 504A 535 853 516A 535 853 538A Window slot seal Left 535 837 473 A 01C Right 535 837 474 A 01C Window guide Left 535 837 439 A Right 535 837 440 A Window guide, protective edging Left 535 837 431 Right 535 837 432 Door Sill, rubber mouldings 535 853 813 01C Bonnet stay 535 823 361 B Grommet for bonnet stay 171 823 395 Front Grille 535 853 653 A 01C Rear number plate light cover 535 943 127 Screws for above item Headlight retaining screws N 013 969 4 Screws for plastic fan cover (the thing on the slam panel) N 13 969 4 Lock pins for door 357 837 034 Screws for number plate light cover N 013 961 2 Screws for licence plate holder N 013 966 26 Expanding nut for above item 535 853 694 Now I will say that I am probably going to end up buying the above as I didn't think I needed them but now the door parts look shite upto the new paint. (not putting on the side strips though) In addition to this I bought a few other parts. Aerial repair kit - from VAGPARTS Whip Aerial - Ebay Mocal (19 Row) good price from gwerks KW V1s - again gwerks Head light protectors (Corrado Forum GB) Aero Wipers (Corrado Forum GB) Head Light loom upgrade (Corrado Forum User) Car also was MOT'ed about a month before work began and fully serviced once work was complete. The work at Volkskraft consisted of being stipped down: Interior out Wings, doors, boot, bonnet Off Glass out Sunroof out Bumpers off Lights out Filler cap and tank out wheels off All exterior trim off. Car was prepared, all rust removed primed and flattened. Painted in Factory colour Finished with a extra hard scratch proof laquer Then it was put back together - Pretty much all my niggles were introduced at this stage, a lot being down to old trim not wanting to go back like in the factory. To sort it will be a mix of buggering about and new bits. Patience required. Wheels also let it down (they need a referb) and the tiny weeny discs need making bigger (I have stock of 312s & 280s) The combination of the KWs and the clean paint (more the later!) make you arrive at corners much much faster! Major lessons learned: Keep a regular check on progress - more than anything its part of the fun. Be very patient Be prepared to get feature creep - once you see the nice new paint you want to bin the rest of the car for new bits! Cost: I went in with a budget of 2-3K, I spent £3k at the Garage (Respray, Service, Fitting of Mocal & KWs) plus the cost of those upgrades and trim I was at about £4k. So I was about on budget with the rebuild itself. I since bought new ICE and have got the wheels to sort and a little bit more trim. Oh, and because of the forum I bought the 264 cams, 312 & 280 brakes 8) but I promised my self I would never add up the corrado expenditure so I can't give you a total :lol: If I now write "I am nearly done now" this post will come back to haunt me.... :ignore: Sorry its a brief and rushed summary let me know Foxster, or anyone else if you need to know anything. :salute:

This is after its first wax, I must get more inventive with location! Still don't think camera is setup right though. I've tried to capture the sparkles of the paint coming through and the amazing finish to the top coat. Corrado conversion V2 (3).pdfDSC01553_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] Book1.pdfDSC01554_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] stromlaufplan_gamma4.pdfDSC01564_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] ETKA Corrado.pdfDSC01571_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] stromlaufplan_gamma4.pdfDSC01575_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] Corrado92.pdfDSC01584_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] passat climatronic wiring diags.pdfDSC01587_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfDSC01588_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] Oh then it rained! must finish sorting my garage, but was loving watching the rain trying to get away from the paintwork! 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfDSC01592_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z] DSC01595_40p.jpg[/attachment:2febrj3z]

Thanks for all the kind comments guys. From the moment I had this car back in 2001 there were exterior blemishes that I should have dealt with there and then but didn't. After a couple of years I then started to look at the winter respray job - never had money nor the inclination to make it happen. This last year or so I came very close to selling her for something more tidy and modern but drew a blank at anything less than £30K :D This work (continuing work) has been expensive, but no more than I would have lost in a single year with a new £20k motor - and for me my car is worth far more than that... 8) I've got a good list of niggles, and I'll not be using it much while on paternity leave shortly so hopefully I can get them all sorted.

They do in those pics, but they are just new - and the shape they should be. I took some more photos at the weekend, just sorting them out then I'll post them up. I need to change my location as there is only so many variations of the "just washed car on drive way" look.

The EVO team did think very highly of it, more so than the Corrado IIRC. I'm not at all surprise of the comments, it is a VAG orientated Forum. A great drivers car it maybe, that cannot be denied, but I personally would stuggle to over come the image. I consider myself to be a 'car' enthusiast and I like all sorts of cars, some which perhaps don't have a great image. If you think about it most cars have an image, and the image often is different things to different people, sometimes positive, sometimes neagtive. For example some people think BMWs mean quality and classy, others see them as Uber Rep motors for C**ks... or perhaps Passats are just Taxi's? Eitherway its a matter of opinion. So, the question was asked what the common problem is with a Puma and I think its been answered... its image, get over that and its a great car 8)

There was a Puma in the same Evo Mag group test as the VR6. They said it was ghay and needed Fixing Or Repairing Daily... but serioulsy if I get chance I'll take a look at what they said. If I recall correctly it was eliminated in the first round as was the VR6.. and they said it was great... (for girls)

I'd like to raise it a little at the back, but will experiment with height over comfort - there is not much adjustment left in them. It is amazing how much more speed you carry around corners without really noticing it, you arrive at the next corner so much quicker so I'm glad to have the 312s & 280s ready to go on.