Diamond Black Metallic VR6 (Stage II - in progress)

[cata 0]

This will be the progress page where I will record most of the mods that my very first Corrado will and has already suffered. I've been dreaming about these cars for many years before affording one and intend to keep the dream alive by bringing it up to standard. I picked it up a few thousand Km away from home, and drove it on the way back with my father. It was an interesting experience, to say the least, but I will never forget it.

 

It had many issues at that time. Add to that some problems that were cause by myself and the end result is a lot of work and barely any driving time (seven days in one year!). Then again, I know that I am, by far, not the only Corrado owner with this problem :lol:

Here is all the "good" that I got when the deal got sealed:

 

Engine:

-Bored to 2.9L

-Knife-edged crank

-Bottom end balanced and blueprinted to 9000 rpms

-Turn 2 / CCH Big Valve Head

-Turn 2 VR6 Crank Pulley

-Turn 2 CAI

-Turn 2 Stage IV Motor Mounts

-Red Samco Hoses

 

Transmission:

-Peloquin LSD

-Lightened Flywheel

 

Suspension:

-Bilstein Sports with H&R Sport Springs

 

Interior/ICE:

-Tan leather (7/10 condition)

-Jetta Moonroof (fitted horribly)

-Black Carpet & center console

-Boston Acoustics speakers all around, with crossovers.

-2 JL 10"

[crdo16v 0]

congratulations, certainly looks good in the photos & good spec.

will it really rev to 9000 rpm ? if it would i assume rev limiter would cut in at approaching 150 mph :angel:

[cata 0]

Thanks and it's true, although I haven't aken it that high just yet, I know that the rev limiter will do that.

That's fine because I can just redline it without worry, knowing that it can go higher anyway.

[DaveVR6 0]

Welcome to the fold...

 

Get your wallet ready!

[cata 0]

:( there are endless possibilities for money to flow in this car...

[Jim Bowen 1]

wow, can't beat a black corrado for looks :)

 

stunning

[cata 0]

Thanks, it's not quite black, think it's something like dark blue grey effect or something, anyone know what it's called for sure?

[carpoid 0]

50mm spoilers rule !!

Looks nice mate

 

Looks bloody cold there !!

 

EDIT........... Should of read your last post, you're colour must be diamond black metalliic like mine, alot of people say it looks greyish.

Your paint code will be on a sticker in your boot and in your service book.

If its LA9V its diamond black metalliic ......

[cata 0]

Thanks, I'l have a look then, I want to know for sure.

Yes it is cold especially during this time of year, that day was somewhat warm though.

 

[EDIT] Yep, LA9V it is and loving it. Always bothered me if I wanted a dark blue or a black and this seems to switch between both!

[cata 0]

So I finally started doing a few things and began preparing everything so I can work on it over the winter when it's too cold to go outside to grab what I need. A steel wrench can be your worst enemy when winter really settles in over here.

 

Mechanically I'm happy with it but the interior however is a complete mess. Everything is getting ripped out (including the headliner and leather components), cleaned/fixed individually.

 

On top of that I want to slowly throw some goodies in it and get it all done once and forget about it, so it's probably going to sit there for a long while :(

Right now I'm working on changing the lights to red.

[cata 0]

For some odd reason, I haven't been on here as much as I used to. Thought I would update this, since it has gone through many changes.

Within a week after I bought it, a lady slammed on her brakes right when I wasn't looking. I wasn't too happy when I had to end the enjoyment so suddenly.

 

 

...this followed shortly after, since I don't have a garage.

 

After that I began stockpiling parts one by one, and in the meantime doing time-consuming things that didn't require a lot of money to be spent. Here's what got done before the face lift:

 

-Converted to red interior lighting.

-Installed JSB custom shift light.

-Ripped out every interior piece aside from the dash housing and inspected/cleaned it. Backtracked many missing/broken interior pieces and used all new clips/hardware to tighten things up.

 

-Cleaned up the headliner including the sunroof trims as well as the seat belts.

-Refreshed the leather and re-glued a lot of it, as it was coming apart from the board.

-Fixed rust around the fuel hatch, rear hatch, door handles, a big chunk of rotted metal covered by the door seal and around sunroof edge, then covered it all up with Por15 rust inhibitor paint.

-Stripped down the replacement rad-support and repainted it with trusty Por15.

 

-Refreshed the sunroof mechanism and used the VW grease, then switched the poor-fitting Jetta glass over to a Passat one, because the PO had already swapped over the whole assembly.

 

-Switched over to Passat handles. The driver's side broke on the long journey home and was quite embarrassing to ask passengers if they could open my door for me :lol: .

-Re-keyed the hatch and glove box.

-Fitted a leather cover to the handbrake and made it fit perfectly, by modifying the old plastic cover at my work.

 

-Tinted a new set of E-Codes.

-Installed the blue DDI mirrors.

-Switched over to braided brake hoses and 11.3" DE front calipers.

 

That covers the bulk of the time consuming things. Things got more involved when summer finally came and began installing everything that got stocked up. Since the car was parked in an alley-way, someone eventually called to get it towed away. It got towed with one wheel on as it was still on jack stands while waiting for the tires to arrive. It looked like a complete wreck in the tow yard without any wheels and appeared to be close to a shell. That's because most of the stuff to go in it, was in my room.

 

Got her back, and with some wheels on. I remember that when I first bought it, it had no working horns and reverse didn't light up :? . Check out the rats nest of wiring that the PO left behind. That was his poor attempt at making an "uprated" headlight loom. It was also a lot of fun to trace many disconnected plugs.

 

Surprise surprise, the new hood would have gotten torn at some point, because of this. The front engine mount bracket turned out to be cracked.

 

With the front clip off, I used the opportunity to tidy up more wiring from the PO as well as replace the:

-Thermostat housing + thermostat

-Coolant distribution pipe (crak-pipe)

-Backup-light switch, the old one was missing the sensor for some reason :?

-Starter

 

Another wonderful surprise from the P.O. This is one of the brackets that held the sub-frame into place. It turned out that I drove the car through the middle of nowhere, with both of the left bumper bolts missing :shock:

 

Rad support and rad in. Since it looked brand new and shiny, I remember wishing that it was an inter-cooler :)

Louder Hella horns on the bottom right. A useful tool against future threats!

 

Engine after new plugs, wires, oil, fuel rail hoses (one was slowly leaking for who knows how long)

 

When the CF hood had finally arrived, it was missing the holes for the windshield washer nozzles. I had to incorporate them somehow, so instead of cutting the hood up, I molded them into the scuttle panel cover. They work great in that position and they splash everywhere when the wipers get to the neutral position. Handy if I want to get back at a cyclist :lol: VW supposedly updated the wiper arm springs so those got replaced this time around too.

 

The car had a brand new windshield fitted before I bought it...but unfortunately, it was fitted poorly and it leaked in heavy rain. After digging into the seals, it turned out that the windshield frame was rusted to bits. Knowing the unpredictable weather that we get, I had to get a glass fitter to come at sunrise the next day to take the glass out for me, then I had until lunchtime to clean up all the stubborn urethane (it's a rubber compound used for sealing), then the rust, then treat the cleaned metal. Not to mention it also needed to be painted. I didn't want to leave the car like that overnight so I had to have it all ready by 12PM, or else it wouldn't have had enough time to cure until 4pm which is when the glass guy could come back at the latest and put the glass back in. It was intense but managed to pull it off somehow.

 

urethane out,

 

rust cleaned,

 

metal treated,

 

Por15 paint on.

 

The next thing on the list was an uprated headlight loom. Since nobody seemed to bother with them at that time, I ended up making my own and also incorporated the relays to make the bumper side-markers blink. In N/A we have them on the side of the bumper and they just stay lit up, no matter if the car is signaling or not. Here's an image of the harness itself and then a couple with it installed.

 

I also ended up wiring up headlight levelers but I didn't pay this much attention to it.

 

With all the extra wiring supplies left over, I re-did the battery connectors and cleaned up all the grounds. The PO installed some cheap connectors from an audio shop that just locked all the wires in place with a common screw :roll: . In the near future, I will most likely make a grounding kit for it. After all of this, it looks easy enough to do.

 

Canada was the only country that never got fog lights. In order to have this feature, the switch itself along with the interior harness from the switch to the fusebox needed to be sourced. Not to mention the fog lights themselves, we got a pair of dummy fogs instead of real ones. After all of that, the bumper support needed to be cut up, in order for the fogs to fit through. Funny how much trouble we have to go through, just to have these :)

 

Before all of this, I was clueless about bodywork but I'm pretty sure that what I did will hold up against rust until a proper respray will be next on the list. This is also the first car that I'm modifying, so even though many can do these in their sleep, I'm pretty happy that these mods made it through. This is what it looked like towards the end. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to wash it ever since I bought it, one year ago.

 

 

Well...if you're wondering what in the world happened next, then the simple answer to that is...a mis-shift. The very first night I took it out, after all of that work, I decided to see how it stacks up against my mates 07 Scooby WRX. On the third run, I shifted from red-line in third...into second. That was driver error, due to the fact that I never got the chance to get used to the car. The fun suddenly ended (once again) with a bunch of bent valves and an engine that refused to start. Lucky me.

If you look closely, you can see that the paint of the car doesn't match the paint around the front fender edges. That's just a temporary fix, until the replacement fenders go in for a respray, along with the rest of the car. However, it's not a top priority at the moment, but it looks a hundred times better than warped edges with rusting, exposed metal. That was also my first attempt at filler work. It was fun but definitely a job for the professionals.

 

 

...and now it's back to this! :lol:

 

Not to worry though, this just means that a thorough "all motor" build up will follow shortly. I guess I can call it "Stage2" ? :?

[Goldie 2]

Youve not had much luck there but all credit to you for getting on with it and doing the work yourself, far more satisfying and a lot more freindly on the pocket...

[cata 0]

Hahahah luck was DEFINITELY not my strong point...to say the least. It would be silly money, thrown away, to pay someone to do all the stuff that I did. It's straight-forward but just time-consuming.

 

The problem though is that one needs to draw a line between what's doable at home and what isn't. Now I'm forced to throw away a good amount of money for the mechanical build, because I have zero engine tear-down experience. As much as I hate to do it, it's insurance so that all the new parts won't go to waste. It sucks. I hope to learn how to do that, soon enough.

[JMC 0]

OMG what a story :shock: . Is good to see that you brought it back rather than break it which is what happens to so many here. My hat goes off to you, sir.

[John-M 0]

Well done - looks pretty damn good.

 

Keep us up-to-date with progress !

[M15 VW 0]

Good to see you sorted your rado out :)

 

So thats where all our parts went then :)

 

Well done.

[cata 0]

Thanks for the kind words guys/gal, it would indeed be a shame to break another one of these, it's the same as killing a rare animal. In my book at least. Technically, when it will be back on the road, it will be the perfect Corrado that I've always wanted. Considering how much driving I've done since I bought it, it's almost like waiting to go out and buy a nice car, but not really.

 

M15 VW, now you know why I kept inquiring about the most random stuff :lol: . With your help, that interior won't be so embarrassing anymore, when a passenger comes along.

[cata 0]

Hey everyone, a lot of time has passed and the C is finally alive again so this thread is about due for an update. A local shop called Calgary Autoworks got chosen to do the work this time around. Learning how to work on a VR6 should definitely not be done in a parking lot, so it will have to wait until next time (hopefully not for the very same reason). The head was completely rebuilt but since the bottom-end is still fresh, it was the only thing left untouched. This was the final spec for the rebuild:

 

-GIAC 268* cam chip

-DRC 268* cams

-New stock lifters and guides

-Manley valves, stock retainers, Manley HD valve springs

-New spark-plugs (they were just replaced too)

-ARP head studs

-Autotech stainless exhaust studs

-Fiber (stock) head-gasket

-Updated timing chain kit

-Sachs stage I clutch

-New slave and master clutch cylinders

-New oil pump

-New water pump

-Gruven tensioner, power steering and water pump pulleys

-MKIV VR6 crank pulley (was told that it's lighter, and since I want to keep the harmonic balancer, I'm ditching my Turn2 aluminum pulley)

-Ditching the A/C (for now)

-Passat VR6 intake hose

-2.9L throttle-body

-Ported and ceramic coated exhaust collectors

-Gasket matched everything

 

 

My little buddy here decided to help me do the final inventory:

 

This is what my ported and ceramic coated exhaust collectors looked like when they finally got in from the States. This was the first time this year that I went outside and did some work. Got the exhaust manifold gaskets gasket matched, which took about three hours.

 

I was pretty happy with the porting that was done. A slightly bigger exhaust manifold port should help against reversion and the smoothness on the inside will greatly aid exhaust flow. I couldn't believe how bad the stock one was in comparison. Very rough on the inside and clogged with deposits.

 

Calgary Autoworks did some awesome work on my engine, I racked up about 1000 Km's over one week and I couldn't have been happier. The feeling to finally have it ready starting with a Friday night was priceless. Unfortunately, with so many upgrades being done at once, there were a few bugs to work out but it was still a blast to drive around. Lawrence got out of his way to iron them out as soon as they were found. The car did feel faster than before but nowhere near as fast as I predicted it to be.

 

As it turned out, my CAT is completely shot and now it's so bad that it kills the engine at idle sometimes. It's no surprise really, as the PO sent me out on the drive home on 5cyls with a bad spark plug wire. The CAT was old but the massive amount of unburnt fuel that must have passed through it didn't even give it a fighting chance. Anyways, enough talking for now...we all love seeing pictures.

 

While waiting on getting the car back, I was busy sourcing tons of random missing parts as well as some interior upgrades.

 

When I first got to see this, all I saw was a bunch of smiley faces from the coolant passages. Here come the cell-phone pics.

 

Since it was out of my reach for so many months, there was a whole ton of work waiting to be done. It really needed an allignment and the CF hood needed its hood pins. One morning, half of it popped up while doing 90 on my way back home. Needless to say, I gave the new brakes a run for their money and pulled over. It was still very rough around the edges, so this is what it looked before being taken off the road again...hopefully for the last time until winter arrives.

 

Now that I finally have a garage to work in, I started phase II with a two-way alarm install, wiring cleanup and bringing the interior to a satisfactory state. This is a very familiar picture.

 

Here's how the E-brake gaiter was made to fit properly :lol: .

 

Some crappy night pictures of the red interior light conversion. The gauges will remain green for now, I can't find or afford the setup I want yet. Some chrome cluster rings are on their way. Other than that, the green and red has really grown on me. It actually looks 1000x better in person but I have a crappy camera and no skillz.

 

For the first time ever since ownership, clean and complete rear interior.

 

And now some daytime pics.

 

Now I can finally move onto mechanical, I have tons of stuff planned before it's ready to take me to school. It will vary from more body work to mechanical, suspension and exhaust. I'll take a few pictures along the way for the next project update. I'm really enjoying this, I can look back and remember all of the stuff that got done over time.

 

A special thanks goes over to Lawrence and his crew for letting me store the C in their yard for so long. If that didn't happen, it would have probably gotten towed again about a dozen times.

[the delta force 0]

10 out of 10 to you....

 

Amazing job