Jim Bowen Corrado VR6 - New engine build

[Jim Bowen 1]

Yeah, i poked the screwdriver through it, The seam has really swollen up, i will have to cut it out and get it welded. (my mate will do the welding for free).

 

I might even have a go with the welder as his previous repairs weren't great and will need redoing at some point.

[robrado974 1]

Difficult to tell , but is the last picture showing where the light cluster fits Jim ?

[Jim Bowen 1]

yeah, just below it

[robrado974 1]

This must be caused by the light cluster leaking then .

[Jim Bowen 1]

I will take them off, didn't really think it could be that, but would make sense. I seem to have quite a few bits of rust appearing on or around the tailgate. (i treated the inside of it a couple of years back) But also the box section bit where badges clip to seems to be developing little spots of rust all over.

[robrado974 1]

The part of the body where the rear badges are will become a weak spot if the plastic lugs that hold the badges on are broken . Water will penetrate there .

[Jim Bowen 1]

Think this is as clean as it will get, i've gotten really bored of cleaning it now, had to do it all with a toothbrush and rags :lol:

 

 

Going to repaint the battery tray area, was a little bit rusty so sanded it back.

 

Am now thinking i might leave the rear beam on this time and do it at some point in the future. Otherwise i can't roll the car back and forth and not got enough money now to do it properly..

[robrado974 1]

Looks very nice Jim . I need to do my battery tray too . I'm in a similar situation , I've got most of the parts to do the underside and now skint . The beam is sat in the garden . Hopefully Aprils tax rebate should see me finish it .

[Jim Bowen 1]

I use eastwood rust encapsulator, its £20 a can though, but seems to work quite well as a primer too.

 

Fitted something! (only the ABS pump for the Teves20 system, also got the loom in place, and tidied up the existing wiring, found a wire that had totally rotted through and also affected two others in the loom, was all for lights (probably explains why i had issues with the upgraded loom), sorted it now though.

 

Front cross member cleaned up

 

Battery tray

 

Decided to buy the plastic ducting for some of the wiring, re wrapping any dodgy old stuff and leaving the stuff thats alright alone.

 

Got battery tray painted up, although i'm waiting for a rubbery bed liner paint to turn up before i put all the wiring back properly.

[Jim Bowen 1]

Started on the rear end now, i needed to make the brake lines up for the new ABS, Now i've looked i may as well drop the beam off and refurb everything.

 

Very messy

 

Last time i painted the brakes i must of done a crap job as the paint just flaked off, cleaned the calipers up with a stanley blade :lol:

 

 

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

Nice one Jim, Luckily you have a nice big garage to work in, I had to make do with a gravel driveway, never again!

 

It's a bit of job to change over the ABS system but worth it I feel. Are you changing over the master cylinder and servo as well?

[Jim Bowen 1]

Yeah, changing the whole lot, Got the whole setup out of P3RKS corrado. I seem to be buying loads of parts i don't need but may as well change while i'm there.

Just got a new heater matrix and sent the clutch master off to be refurbed, got a new clutch slave as well, and the clutch plates etc. Just ordered new dust shields for the rear.

 

Wasn't planning to do the rear brakes etc but they were in such a mess i thought its only polite :lol: Most the work i've done over the years has been up front, never really touched the rear, think i did the axle bushes once and thats it. Oh and about 5 different suspensions :lol:

[Mk3highline 10]

Looking well

You getting the vt rear beam bushes etc?

How about the stuff from TT you ordered?

[Jim Bowen 1]

I have some standard VW bushes to go in, getting rid of the powerflex ones.

 

Still not got anything from TT, starting to wonder about that, i've not even had the letter to ask me to pay the import tax etc

[Jim Bowen 1]

Thought I'd chase the TT bits today. Found out they have been waiting for me to pay the import fees since the 9th. Never got a letter. Drove over to the depot today and collected.

[Jim Bowen 1]

[fla 9]

this will be a cracking car when finished!

[Jim Bowen 1]

I hope so. Mechanically I think I've covered most things. It really could do with a respray but I can't afford it right now so concentrating on everything else.

 

Might wrap or plastidip it when finished. Will see when I get there.

 

It's never going to be a show car. Just a reliable looked after example.

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

What's the story with the down pipes then? Are they for noise purposes or is there power to be had?

[swiftkid 1]

Where did you get the downpipe from? Looks a nice bit of kit

[seanl82 23]

Cracking work as usual Jim! This amount of work on so many areas of the car would be very daunting for me, hats of to you mate!

[Jim Bowen 1]

Downpipe was from Techtonics Tuning in the US, they had a black friday deal on so ordered it a while back. I was looking into a 6 branch manifold and from research i would of gone for the supersprint, but was about £700. Spoke to techtonics and they have found with the slightly larger downpipe and standard manifolds is just as good. I only wanted to replace the standard one as its been on the car for 20yrs.

 

Been doing random bits here and they, not really finished any jobs yet but started loads :lol:

 

Took heater controls apart and fixed them, one of the arms was slightly bent and a spring had jumped out of place

 

Then took heater box apart and cleared out all the old crusty foam, stripped it all off the flaps, thats what the metal bits are.

 

Looked for foam to recover the flaps and after deciding not to spend more money i thought duct tape and some foam tape would do the job just as well.

 

The two halves of heater box, i undid the clips with a hammer and screwdriver so had to bond it all back together

 

All back together with a bungee cord to help while the glue dries.

 

Then got rear beam off, wasn't so bad on my own, did it with a friend last time round

 

COuldn't figure out how the bolts holding the stub axles could be undone, the little lip was in the way, so bent that up to get to bolts

 

 

^^^^what i do with that lip now? cut it off? i couldn't work it out but definitely gets in the way of the bolts.

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

I don't have that lip on mine?

[Jim Bowen 1]

Just looking on vagcat and it looks like a part show on the rear axle diagram, part of the bearing prehaps, but maybe it been installed wrong in the past.

[Mk3highline 10]

Will this be ready for New Years day??