davebirl

August 2008 I got those fantastic Gotti Rims from Diesel Dave and just started the refurb process last night Heres how they look prior to refurb. No serious damage just general laquer yellowing and oxidation. Some minor enough curbage Thanks to Dave for spliting them for me too! I know I'd have made a balls of them. First I picked out 1 wheel and gave it a quick power wash to get off any dirt etc Then a good coating of Nitromors, which is powerful stuff. Once the nitromors starts to do its thing I dosed the rim with the power washer again to peel off the loose paint and laquer. Centre came out like this. Theres a few nice chips and scratches but I can easily sand/polish them out.

Myself and Paul aka TIL2143 with the sweet storm on here got ourselves a few Porter cables a few months back and I've been waiting to try out mine for some time. Finally got my garage/shed sorted out so this past week I completed a major wash job on the Corrado. Dont have much time in the evening so havin the shed it was possible to do a few hours most evenings. I got a whole kit from Andy "Detailer.ie" and started with the super slick suds wash, removed tar and then clay barred the entire car. The difference in the feel of the paint was unreal after proper use of the clay bar. It went from almost sand paper like to glass. This first pic is of the bonnet after washing and clay bar but prior to any polishing. I then used SS3 twice and the a shot of SS2 and SS1. Followed by poorboys polish and then a shot of Poorboys sealant Carnuba wax. I only cut the paint on the bonnet, there was lots of swirls and also some blind bastid had painted it previously in the UK and there are still inperfections that I can see under the lacquer. I polished the whole car and used the sealant too. There wasn't many swirls on the body but the bonnet was the pits. The bonnet and rest of the car is a much deeper, kinda wetter blue now. Then I drove it out of the shed and said fuck this it could rain and put it back again! lol Thanks to Andy for the info and the great products. I'm a newbie to polishing and never used a PC before but I enjoyed it and theres plenty of vids on how to use them right on You Tube. I plan to attack the folks car next weekend and try and jazz it up a little. Might even try out the high speeds on their Fiesta! lol

Sept 2008 Got the Recaros fitted over the weekend. New clips on the rear panels really make a different, much tigher fit than using the old ones. I also packed the rear quarter panels with 3 inch foam, cuts down on the road noise from the rear wheels. No squeaks or rattles either! yay! :) I have to say Michael Pinnock aka MJ Interiors done a great job on the interior. The only problem now is I don't want anyone sitting in them! lol

I went to the UK April 2007 with a mate Paul aka TIL2143 and we spent 2 whole days driving miles around Bermingham to Wigan and then on to Newcastle.........we looked at no less than 13......yes 13 different Corrados. Yeah I know its the same colour as my old one but it wasn't my intention. 2 reasons I sold my old one...... No.1 I drove the mental 345 BHP MTM S3 of Fahys and was mad for power and bought it and No. 2........... I'm a knob. The S3 has no soul like a Corrado :) I had gone over to see a supposed mint Storm and a 50k mile mint BlackBerry VR6 to find they were very much abused and probably had alot more miles on them than the clock showed. The rest were just rough in general and I wanted one as good as my old one so I was been quite fussy..... its my money so its precious to me! lol Drove to see almost every VR6 advertised on both Autotrader and Pistonheads and in the end we found this one in Newcastle. Car has been garaged all the time and hasn't been driven during the Winter periods and it does show. None of the usual under body corrosion as found on most UK cars. All MOT's and service history plus receipts to back up genuine milage of 79k. Brand new original VW suspension and boy am I impressed with the ride quality. I honestly don't plan to lower it or put back on 17's. The ride is just too good and handles extemely well in the corners. It does have a nice new Miltek CAT-back exhaust too. Needs a few small things done to tidy her up. First thing she needs is a nice induction roar........

that Corrado is sooo cool! If I win the euromillions tonight I will be offering you a large sum of cash!

I know the owner of the campaign. Next time I see him I will mention it to him. No harm PM me your mobile phone number so I can pass it onto him.

There are quite a few, Just in Sligo where I live there are maybe 8, a mix of VR's, G60's and Valvers

thanks Bill, I followed that guide and also added my own little bit too! lol

finished

Finally finished. Put them back together with the help of a mate over the weekend. Its actually very easy. Just plan everything in advance and have what you need close by. I think the photos explain everything about how we done it. :) I placed the spanner inside a latex glove to protect the rim from any damage when holding the Bolt in place. Torqued the inside Nuts to 23Lbs

Gonna make a start at resembling my Gotti Splits on Saturday. I've had all the new bolts, nuts and valves for some time but I get side tracked building a mame cabinet until now. The 2 piece is alot similar to the 3 piece but wondered what your views are on where to put the silicone sealer. I've seen some with a layer between each split and I've seen some with just a track around the inside of the wheel where they all meet. The single track of sealer on the inside seems to be alot tidier a job with less chance of the sealer getting exposed. Opinions welcome on the best way forward.

guys, how do you polish the centre caps? I tried nitromors on them last night but it made no difference to them.

lol he he he :)

I got those fantastic Gotti Rims from Diesel Dave and just started the refurb process. Heres how they look prior to refurb. No serious damage just general laquer yellowing and oxidation. Some minor enough curbage Thanks to Dave for spliting them for me too! I know I'd have made a balls of them. First I picked out 1 wheel and gave it a quick power wash to get off any dirt etc Then a good coating of Nitromors, which is powerful stuff. Once the nitromors starts to do its thing I dosed the rim with the power washer again to peel off the loose paint and laquer. Centre came out like this. Theres a few nice chips and scratches but I can easily sand/polish them out. Once the laquer was off the lip I started on it with 1200 sand paper and some steel wool to remove any curbing. To get the shine back I used some Poor Boys SSR3 and final shine thanks to Brasso. Forgot to take a photo of this process but this is what I ended up with. Outer lip looks perfect now and I'm real happy with it. Corrosion / oxidation and curbage has more or less disappeared. Side by side of the outer lips Now the really nasty part of polishing the hard to reach places. After an hour with 1200 sand paper I was just starting to see the shine but I abandoned for tonight and will get some 400/800 paper tomorrow. I also have a few fancy drill attachments I want to try out too. Hopefully it will speed up the process. Basically laquer removal and outer lip refurb will be easy but polishing the centres will be more of a bitch than I expected. I have sourced new centre caps and I have to order some new bolts yet. I've been on to Gotti in France and I've been told the wheel model is G1001 and the bolts should be Titanium with Aluminium Nuts. Seems these rims have been refurbed sometime in the past before as there are BBS style bolts in there already. I am gonna stick with the BBS Bolts cos I dont fancy the black Titanium look on the outside. anyway ahem :) after 6 weeks my fingers are f*#ked! :) but it was well worth it :) super high res photo here http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a368/ ... 000290.jpg lol, dont get too excited lads, fingers were goosed and I wasn't getting the finish I wanted. Checked a few of the forums and the Porsche guys swear by Mr Cecil Lane of Rainbow Polishing in the UK. Gave Cecil a phone call and after telling him how I wanted them to look he said to send them over to him and that he'd do a top job and have them finished in a few weeks. Theres no way on earth you'd get the mirror finish without the proper equipment. All praise goes to Cecil Lane. He is very very reasonably priced so if anyone is interested please drop me a line and I'll send on his contact details. Now my problem with valves. They appear to be too wide to fit through the holes in the outer rims. The original valve is a different design and is a smaller diameter at the end which enters the rims. Gotti sent me new valves, which are in fact new BBS valves. Anyone ever see one like my original one on the left, I think some motorcycles and or jap import cars use them?

3 weeks ago JJ He told me he was going on holidays in 1 weeks time. so hes been away for at least the last 2 weeks. He did send my wheels out before he went and they are on my Corrado now.

thanks guys, that was great! All the IT dept here at work just sat around to watch it! How cool are Corrados! lol :)

Just in case you dont know mate. I too have been after JJ for the last few months for some wheels. He mailed me last week to say they just came in. I offered to pay via paypal that very day and he said if I paid right away he would get them out with the courier the next day as he was going on holidays that same day for 2 weeks. I got my LM Reps in size 16" 5X100 last thursday and happy days. I've never met JJ but he has always answered my mails within 48hours. I gave up using those mobile numbers cos I never got a reply either. I reckon he is trust worthy just hes on holidays.

Its a Corrado your talking about? I live in Sligo and my local VW garage is a very good friend of mine. I wouldn't take my VR6 anywhere else. PM me if you want his number.

Folks, Can anyone tell me where to get the BBS logo centre caps for my LM reps? thanks Dave

any one here have the koni kit SSK27. Its listed on quite a few websites such as awesome and motorsportworld I am wondering about the quality and ride height. I want to lower the car as little as possible. ie about 35mm Thanks guys

Pity I missed you guys. I didn't even notice your UK reg Corrados sneak in. I would have loved a good chat.

shes a real gem! Paul is chuffed with his purchase. :)

i dunno about the value of storms, i dont think i could pay out that much for one but i'd sell my soul for a blackberry Corrado. @Walesy, what suspension are you running there? Those BBS look great too.

anyone have a set of 301's for sale? Original and unmolested? ie not widened? I got the shaft from the German and he sent me a buckled one that is 9inches wide!

If one rim is 6.5 inches wide and ET43 and another is 6 inches wide and ET 35.......will the outside of the rim be in the same place? I ask because I am after a set of Brands Hatch alloys and the passat version is ET35 and the Corrado version is ET43 but the rim width is different by .5 of an inch. What difference does it make if any?, would the difference in width and offset cancel each other out? Cheers Dave