Alpine White Imperial Trooper 16v

[Dubversive 0]

The reason

10/09 - My wife has a shoulder injury at work and can no longer drive her (non PAS) Mk1 Golf Cabriolet as a result. I give her my '2000 Golf estate (oceanic green, slammed on '18" Audi Q5 rims) to use as it has PAS and heated seats.

 

11/09 - I'm driving a Golf cab in winter, feeling stupid and somewhat gay. Not feeling the car at all so I put it up for sale.

 

01/10 - I have a new toy (VW Syncro T3) so the Golf cab is sold.

 

02/10 - My Syncro needs to come off the road for a suspension lift so I have to sort out another car. Prime candidate is the wife's old Mk3 Cabriolet. Being a purple, girly Golf I can't do it to myself so start to look for a new daily.

 

The inspiration

 

Dubfreeze '10 - Mooching round the show hall I am taken in by Victoria Richards Twilight Rado. I love the car, not the colour.

 

 

I've admired them from afar but never really looked at one until now. Sporty, VW and lots of scope. I go home impressed and get looking on Ebay for a budget 'Rado. I also research converting one to AWD as I have a dead Golf Syncro to break too :cuckoo:

 

The project base

Fast forward to last week and I win the bidding on an '89 1.8l 16v in white that needs love. The car owes me £520 at this point and comes with a damaged spare Rieger style bumper, 17" rims and a few bits missing. It runs but it needs attention. Bodywork needs paint and the front bumper and grille need the bin. The rad leaks a little also.

 

 

 

 

 

The interior seems good with clean carpets, just some minor trim to replace. It has electric mirrors, electric sunroof (working - I checked) and remote locking with delocked doors (Polo 6n handles).

 

The work begins....

Saturday I went round to my mates and set to cleaning it up. He has collared the tyres (and rims and suspension I have spare) already for his Mk3 Colour Concept project. This guy is going to owe me some serious labour :lol:

 

A quick wash revealed its pretty straight with some old paint that has been applied poorly. A full respray will be needed to make it right but I have a friend collared for that job ;) As the bumper and grille are toilet anyway I shall replace them, removing the front wings to make sure all is perfect before fresh colour. Close inspection revealed minor accident damage to the OSF inner wing. That wing and the bonnet have been swapped also. The inner wing has been repaired, but I will replace those 3" of panel properly before it gets painted.

 

Underbonnet desperately needs a steam clean. No major rust evident, just mould and dirt!

 

A charged battery and the fitting of new ignition parts saw the old girl starting first time with a nice steady purring from the fuel pump. An oil change will be carried out once it's home and the air/fuel/oil filters are in the boot ready.

 

The active spoiler works from the button. Can't wait to see it on the move :D

I've ordered a replacement radiator and headlights (broken clips everywhere).

 

Last thought for the day:

 

My mate (who collected the car) called this morning to say he jump started his truck today. Unfortunately the 'rado was on the back at the time and not strapped down so I definitely needed to get a new bumper now! Thankfully there was no other damage.

 

10 minutes searching on the 'bay and I have done a deal on a bodykit. Half Rieger/half Oettinger but at least I get a replacement bumper. Need new headlights (cracked before) and slam panel (accident damaged by PO).

 

The kit landed in Ilkeston with my mate. The grille is new and apart from some minor damage to the front bumper things are looking very good. I'm selling the rear skirt (Oettinger repro), Rieger copy front bumper and skirts and an original front grille to raise funds. I'm keeping the new Rieger bumper (slightly more aggressive) and the grille though.

 

Front bumper:

Needs tidying and a couple of brackets securing but its a good moulding and pretty sturdy.#

 

New grille/eyebrow:

 

I started looking at 90's wheels to carry on the period style. Initially I was checking out the Azevs, Anteras (remember them?) Ronals and Borbets that are so 'scene' now but being a true creature of contradiction I got bored of fashionable rims and dug out a few old Fast Cars and Max Powers from the loft.

 

This feature reminded me of the semi-smooth style rims we fitted back then and I got to thinking how well the Corrado would be suited to them. It also reminded me how much I like long legged redheads with riding crops. This page was on the back of my garage door for ages ;-)

 

 

Dirty TSW Venoms rock on this car in my opinion. They would have to be 17"s to do it justice though - I remember seeing Novas on 15"s in '95 and thinking how gash they looked with all that tyrespace around them.

 

Anyway, I found a set on the Retro Rides forum in 4x100, 17"x7.5J with decent offsets for not a lot:

 

These will be rocking some 40 series tyres and spacers to get some poke and flush out the archlines.

 

Can't wait to get some pics of the parts going on over the coming week.

[Dubversive 0]

1st full day on the Corrado as my mate dropped it home on the Saturday. Sunday was spent cleaning and fault finding.

 

First of all the front panel was inspected. In 2003 the car had a bump after the owner hit black ice. The front panel had been banged out badly and filler bodged on to make it halfway decent. The clips on the headlights were replaced with random bits of metal sheet and a used wing, bumper and bonnet fitted.

 

It's still the same and looking worse for the wear.

 

I've got a new slam panel on the way and as soon as it arrives it will be painted satin black. I have late headlights (with clips :) ) to fit, the new Rieger grille and bumper and a rad to fix the leak.

 

I gave the engine a quick blast with a pressure washer so it's halfway recognisable. A trip up the road and a steam cleam once the rad is in will make a huge difference.

 

The classic sunroof fault is there too. It tilts, but doesn't slide. The motor and switch seem fine so it's likely the mechanism that is screwed. TBH I can't be arsed trying to fix a steel sunroof so it will be replaced with a glass Passat one and while it's out I am going to trim the headlining in something funky.

 

With the interior lights sorted (bulb gone, door switch stuck) I turned my attention to the door handles. The car has remote locking and the door handles have been swapped for what looks to be Polo rears. I undid the handles to find blocks of wood Duck Tape'd to the actuators. A proper Passat delock kit has been ordered.

 

Lastly the rear spoiler doesn't work correctly. The manual activation switch works fine but the automatic system doesn't so I guess it's the relay/actuation system - a job for later I think.

 

Parts needed include:

 

Black parcel shelf

3 switch blanks

2x instrument panel lower screw covers

'Recaro' trim door panels (to match the seats)

Centre console (from the gearstick panel back) inner and outer

[staffs_til_i_die 0]

Sounds like you've got a bit of work to do!

 

Carpentry in you door handles?!! Let's hope whoever did this didn't continue this style into your engine bay...

 

Whoever had my C before me had done a lot of bad DIY electrics (the fuel pump was wired though the indicators), and it took ages to work out the problems and fix them. Very frustrating!

 

Good luck with the project. Keep the pictures coming!

[Dubversive 0]

Despite the rain I managed to grab an hour on the car. Much bashing and pulling resulted in the twisted and botched (welded to inner wings, bolted in other random places) slam panel being removed.

 

 

Getting the homemade fixings from the valance off the bumper was the hardest part. Once that was off I could inspect the damage. The central spar is very twisted - obviously why the rad is leaking.

 

 

With it all removed I got the dollies out and dressed the inner wings back to the correct profiles (thankfully the damage to these and the chassis legs was cosmetic only). I finished off today by mounting the replacement panel and dressing the lower valance back to match.

 

 

Next job is to clean the crappy welding off the inner wings and smooth/prime them up. Might buy a pair of fresh wings just to make things 100% again :)

[syncronerd 0]

Bit slack on the updates lately due to a duff laptop.

 

Progress has been slow due to problems with parts mainly.

 

 

The sunroof has arrived along with the Venoms which were on a slow boat from Bristol (Retro Rides forum free delivery - yay!).

 

I'm still going with a motorsport theme but tailoring the car for trackdays/sprints as it seems this is where the Corrado chassis excels.

 

I ripped out the cheapo remote central locking which had been fitted by a monkey. The door handles had been bodged with lumps of wood and duct tape on the actuators - no wonder they didn't work. I discovered the PO had already fitted Passat door mechs so new handles are on order to match from TPS in Bulwell. I'm using B3 Passat rear handles which are supposedly a direct fit and get rid of the door locks. Better remote locking needs to be sorted.

 

The boot area has had the parcel shelf brackets and all carpet/trim removed as part of the weightloss program. Under dash trims/pockets have been binned too and they cut down the legroom too much for my liking. I think the rear seat has to stay though as occasional trips of 2 or more may occur (sadly). I'm on the lookout for some buckets to get the seat weight down a bit.

 

Bodywise I have removed the side trims from the doors and the front wings which were both rusty and damaged along the front edge. VR6 wide wings are going on in their place but ideally I would like wide 'Berg Cup' arches to get some serious width of tyre under the body.

 

 

 

I found an awesome RC car which has a Rieger bumper and serious wide arches on. Looks great in my opinion with the black details and raised black rear spoiler.

 

 

 

I'm looking at binning the indicator/fog setup in favour of simple indicators and functional air ducts, smoothing the bumper completely and DTM style splitters to the bottom edge with a rear diffuser on the back bumper/undertray.

 

When I can get back on Photoshop I will do a rendering to mix the smooth/DTM/Berg ideas into one image.

 

The door handle issues have set me back, along with sourcing the front wings but hopefully I will have both sorted next week. In the meantime I will be getting the Venom's tyred up and fitted, working on the bumpers and checking out the heavy steering.

[syncronerd 0]

I haven't managed to source a Berg Cup kit but while skanking around on the web looking for 'wide arches' I happened across some universal arches which were intended for a BMW 3 Series.

 

 

They come supplied as a 270 degree curve so you can cut them down to suit each arches unique length. So long as they will clear the 17" rims and meet the face on the Corrado wings they look a winner. They have the curve I am looking for to replicate the look of the RC car in the last post but whether they are the right diameter I don't know.

 

Had a response from the supplier and although they don't supply the arches via retail I have persuaded them to let me buy a set in return for pictures of the finished car. They're not cheap (believe me) but will transform the car IMO. I love DTM/Berg cup style bodywork and these will really make the Corrado a bit wild. Just worried about filling the arches now. The Venoms might not man up enough for these fatboys!

 

Finally managed to source the other VR6 wing, will be a shame to cut them but they have a great shape for bonding the wide arches to.

 

Rear 50/50 tinted lights have arrived - they look so much better than the orangey faded originals. Looks like they are spray tinted but the finish is good. Certainly they look better than the £189 'crystal smoked' rear lights on Ebay that look 200% chav and as well made as a Blue Peter set.

[Jim 2]

Certainly looks like an interesting project. I know generally folks on here are a bit touchy regarding body modifications (myself included) but if your car turned out like the RC car, I personally think it'd look the mutts nuts. Keep us posted :)

[syncronerd 0]

At the end of the day I have never owned any standard car. I paid £500 for an accident damaged Corrado that would probably got broken if I hadnt stepped in.

 

Doing a Syncro conversion and the crazy (ish, they're not that mad) body mods will give it a new life.

 

If the haters want to moan then let them, it's my ride and I pay the bills. The haters can have a say when they start buying parts for me :lol:

[BadMeatPies 0]

I say do it, and post any info on anything corrado berg cup related if you find any. i've only ever seen silhouette (SP?) corrados in berg?

 

what engine are you thinking of? a nice mental ITB fed 16v?

[mort1414 0]

i look of the rc car so if its close to that it will be great, guess your from notts then might see it about when its finished.

 

mort

[syncronerd 0]

Yes Mort, you might - if I can ever sort out the power steering, screwed up door locks and front end jigsaw :?

 

Previous owners have a lot to answer for.

[syncronerd 0]

I say do it, and post any info on anything corrado berg cup related if you find any. i've only ever seen silhouette (SP?) corrados in berg?

 

what engine are you thinking of? a nice mental ITB fed 16v?

 

I'll start a new thread this weekend. Haven't really seen much motorsport related Corrado stuff at all TBH but I have a few pics on file.

 

Thinking of sorting the Syncro gear out and then going with a 16vt conversion.

[BadMeatPies 0]

I say do it, and post any info on anything corrado berg cup related if you find any. i've only ever seen silhouette (SP?) corrados in berg?

 

what engine are you thinking of? a nice mental ITB fed 16v?

 

I'll start a new thread this weekend. Haven't really seen much motorsport related Corrado stuff at all TBH but I have a few pics on file.

 

Thinking of sorting the Syncro gear out and then going with a 16vt conversion.

 

very nice! 16vt as in T(F)SI? or tubro your valver?

 

there is a VR6 in the UK that is competative apparantly, don't know much about it, it sounds like many years of chassis/suspension development has made for a very quick car.

 

bj_super_silhouette_corrado.jpg[/attachment:3qm6aijl]

[syncronerd 0]

That looks mental, maybe a touch crazy for road/occasional track use but still v.cool.

 

i thinl a 2.0l AGG/ABF bottom end and a 16v head (KR) with turbo is the way I will go. I already have some 2.0l donor engines :)

[syncronerd 0]

I spent today gutting the rotten Golf Syncro of it's boot floor, fuel tank and rear subframe today. The poor thing now has a 1/5th of it's bodywork cut out and laid to one side. I'll be stripping it back to the basics and sending the main parts off to be blasted soon.

 

Next jobn is to remove the prop, intermediate bearing and the freewheel relay loom.

 

Time to put together a jobs and parts list I think :-)

[voo51 0]

No way is my car your inspiration??!!

 

Wow, you are working hard, look forward to seeing the finished project.