andrew's blackberry vr6

[little andrew 0]

Hello all, my name is Andrew and this is my Corrado. Bought it back in April this year, done a few bits to it in that time so feel I now qualify to put a post in here. Bought it from a previous corrado forum member, few pics below how it looked when I got it home -

 

 

Bought as a project, little rough round the edges but mechanically sound. known faults were abs light permanently on, sunroof tilts but doesn't slide, central locking not working, heater not working on position 1 and the bodywork wasn't great. few scratches here and there and finished in various shades of blackberry in varying quality. Also had the remains of a gearbox lock fitted i.e. just the metal bracket that attached to the transmission tunnel.

My plans for the car are just to restore it and keep it original.

All excited first thing I did was give it a good wash and hover. Then I found my first problem, carpet in front and back on drivers side was very very wet (little puddle in back). Not a problem I thought I’ve had old Volkswagens before that have leaked after heavy rain, must be the membrane/plastic on the back of the door card not stuck to the door properly. After further investigations found it to be three things, plastic on back of door card not stuck properly, weather/rubber seal that sits on top of door against glass (huge gap between the two) and lastly the door itself had a crack were the frame from the window meets the door bottom = door knackered. Wasn't too bothered as door was very rusty along the bottom and was going to give the car a full re-spray at some point anyway. Later sourced myself a blue door off of e-bay. In the mean time decided to take interior out to give it all a good shampoo, the smell that greeted me when I took the carpets and sound proofing out was NOT pleasant!! Must have been leaking years as it smelt real bad, the foam bit under the rubber sound proofing had started to decompose. The rubber was alright so used a scrapper to scrap the foam off (have put carpet under lay under rubber now)

Next I booked the car in for full re-spray ahead of schedule, as the car wasn't waterproof I couldn't use it or put the interior back in till it was water tight. In the mean time started sourcing few bits that needing replacing or were just missing. Mended the heater not working on position 1 and petrol leak when cold (replaced an old clip with new jubilee clip - silly but simple) thanks to posts in this forum. Removed remainder of gearbox lock. Sourced some original speedlines locally, few scratches on them but there like new. Given it a full service and after reading posts in here elected for a k&n panel filter. Bought new bumper grill as mine was badly damaged £48.18 + vat from vw and not many left.

Picked car up couple of weeks ago after re-spray - looks pretty amazing to be fair especially after its techno colour blackberry paint job. And most importantly its now water tight! Gave the car inside a good wash before I put the freshly shampooed carpets back in, put some carpet underlay down under my sound proofing first. Also managed to source a black leather interior for it, gave it a good clean and leather care at the weekend and put that in (after I replaced the started motor). unfortunately it came with early door cards, put the rears cards in but stuck with my cloth front door cards for the time being. Also fitted new badges all round from arz tuning in Germany not cheap but worth it.

That’s it so far, very pleased with it and myself at the minute, took some pics of it this morning

 

Edited March 19, 2011 by little andrew

[big ben 10]

new paint 8)

 

good work!!

[tandino 0]

Looks great Andrew, my favourite corrado colour too 8)

 

Cheers Pete.

[Purgatori 1]

Very nice car mate, Blackberry is the best colour :wink: The new paint looks awesome. Hope mine will look that spingly when it's done.

[wy906 0]

Good work!

[little andrew 0]

Thank you people. One little mod I forgot to mention which was very worth while and one every corrado should have done, courtesy of 'daves16v' is a bracket that helps secure the plastic handbrake tunnel trim to the floor, stops it moving and creeking as soon as look at it. link- viewtopic.php?f=19&t=67809#p787314.

Bit unsure whether to put the side rubbing strips back on, I prefer the original look with them on but as i may sell the car at some point ( i know of a audi ur quattro coming up for sale which i'd very much like :luvlove: ) i may leave them off for the next owner. cos if I put them on and they prefer them off they may not come off very easily or take paint off

[little andrew 0]

Good day today, the corrado has awakened from hibernation! First time it's moved out of the garage since the mot ran out in november.

And I feel I have now joined an elite group in the corrado world, as of today I now have a sunroof that tilts and SLIDES!!! Roll on summer!

Finally fitted sunroof repair kit (sunroofs bin out of the car since january). As one of the little feet had broken off the rear guide on the passenger side, so the guide itself then would not sit level so when you tried to slide the sunroof back the front guide could not clip into rear guide to push it backwards and it jammed. Also while the headlining was out of the car I gave it a damn good clean, so much easier when its on the floor in the garage than laying on your back in the car giving yourself arm ache. Just a few more jobs left to do and its ready to go for its mot.

I think tomorrow I'll give it a good wash to get rid of all the dust from hibernation followed by a good polishing session - happy days

[CazzaVR 0]

Nice- gotta love blackberry 8)

[Yandards 0]

Looking good, always nice to bring them back out of winter storage and clean all the dust off.

[little andrew 0]

Nice- gotta love blackberry 8)

 

I feel its the best colour, but then am biased

[1xshaunx1 27]

no you are so right

[little andrew 0]

New pic's. Spent the past three days washing, claying, polishing, polishing and polishing the corrado. Quite pleased with it although the light was fading when i took the pictures. It's as smooth as silk to touch now

 

Edited March 18, 2013 by little andrew
put pictures back in post

[little andrew 0]

Its been a busy and expensive few months gathering parts for the corrado and then booking my mechanic brother in law to fit it all for me (I watched and kept moral up) But it was worth it as it fly through its mot with no advisory’s:dance:

 

The parts list included:-

radiator top hose connector (black plastic thing the hose go's into that then mounts onto the radiator)

rear brake hoses both sides

rear disc's and pads

a couple of brake pipes

splash shields - drivers side and both rear ones

wheel bearing kit drivers side

wheel hub drivers side

drivers side ball joint

callipers - drivers side and rear drivers side

ball joint drivers side

wiper blades all round

drivers headlight lens

bulb for heater dials

black corrado mats

 

And once it passed its mot took it to get the tracking done only for it to need a new track rod end and rack end. But now its all sorted its great, had a few drives in it, loving the tilt and sliding sunroof. Never get bored of watching the spoiler going up and down either. Just the central locking to sort next, it occasional works, mostly when locking the car especially when its time to fill up!! Then the old wax oil wants replacing for lovely fresh wax oil and it'll be just about there:cheers:

Edited June 19, 2011 by little andrew

[little andrew 0]

Sorted a few more of the little niggles out on her. Finally got round to fitting the window rollers that I bought through the forum via a group buy - must have been months ago if not last year! They were a quite easy job to do really, don't no why I put it off for so long. And boy do they make a difference, doors shut so nicely now, good job done. Had the front bumper off to fit that front grille properly, just no access to it when its on the car. Managed to snap one of the bumper bolts along the way so the job probably took 3 times as long as it should have :onfire:. On the plus side me outside temperature gauge is working now its all clipped in properly.

Brother in law mended the central locking, it would very rarely work if at all. After a couple of hours of searching it was the solider in the drivers door were the wire from the door handle meets the wire from the pump and are joined together to the wiring harness. The solider had just degraded with age and broke at both ends so the power rarely got through. Tis very nice having central again, stops the misses getting wet waiting for me to get in and unlock her door. Not that it goes out often in the rain or at all, done a massive 1100 miles in 17 months. And it didn't cost anything to fix!!!!

 

Also been busy painting and tidying the garage out, getting it ready for winter! Nice and bright in there now, ideal for polishing the corrado up - which I have. Only problem now is it looks immaculate I don't wana get it dirty!

 

Edited March 18, 2013 by little andrew
put pictures back in post

[Portent 0]

That's looking very nice :)

[little andrew 0]

That's looking very nice :)

 

Cheers bud. Garage or the car tho??

[little andrew 0]

Think its about time I updated this really as a lots happened since my last entry. Where to start....

 

Finally repaired my drivers heated seat, its never worked since I acquired them. Turned out the pad in the seat base was at fault, inquired at VW and NLA, try VW heritage and £110!! so decided to take the seat apart and investigate further. Was an easy fix in the end, opened the pad up to find a wire broken as it joined the resister,soldered back together plug the seat in and you can hear the rely clicking again as its turned on and off.

Bought a new bulb for the cigarette lighter, I no not essential but helps with my ocd and it slightly helps to illuminate the heater dials a bit which lets face it need all the help they can get.

New sunroof seal fitted as my old one had a slight tire in one corner, new plug leads, new tyre pressure sticker from ebay thanks to someone posting a link from this forum, speedo screw covers fitted again off ebay a link from this forum. New trim clips for rear door cards.

Front wheels re-balanced and new weights on the inside of the alloys, four wheel alignment.

Gearbox mount, front and rear engine mounts replaced - made a huge difference, gear changes now are so nice and the engines a lot smoother when you take your foot off the accelerator not jerky boarding on violently jerky like it was before. A lot better now, taken years off the car to drive and feels a lot tighter up front.

 

Car failed its MOT the other week :onfire: . Rear brake pressure regulator leaking and nearside rear wheel bearing. Plus four advisories, offside rear wheel bearing, nearside front track rod end, nearside and offside front anti-roll bar linkage. All now replaced and ready to go back for a retest on monday....

[little andrew 0]

MOT passed, second time lucky.

 

The car certainly seems to be in its sweet spot, with the sun out sunroof open and some v-power in the tank driving was a joy today :thumbleft:

[Portent 0]

Congrats.

[mookie 0]

Looks lovely there mate. Paint looks terrific.

[little andrew 0]

Car back on the road now after its winter hibernation, still feels like winter out though. Have achieved a little progress over the winter months, it's all wax oiled now, changed the thermostat and put some coolant flush in it to clean it all out ready for fresh coolant and I now have a slight leak - new water pump and belt ordered.

Polished it all up so it looks its best, even the missus said it looked good!! The car does actually get a lot of attention, lots of looks from passers by.

 

Now for the sad news, am going to have to sell it. A house move and baby on the way means its going to have to go, it is a second car and with a future lack of funds and time means I have to really sell it

 

[little andrew 0]

Now for sale.... http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?t=81579

[little andrew 0]

Apologies to anyone that's tried to get in contact with me in the past few weeks about the car but baby arrived four weeks early so spent nearly two weeks in hospital as he had a few problems and my phone battery only lasts two days and there quiet strict on no phone chargers. Still all home now, all good and have decided to put the corrado on ebay to see what happens. Thanks Andrew

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171075814424?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Edited July 15, 2013 by little andrew

[carrots 1]

looks a very nice car

[dj b 10]

Hi Andrew im glad the babys ok mate, it must have been a stressful time. Ive been in the same boat myself for the last 5 weeks with our new baby daughter. She's out now too.Thinking of selling my rado too (boo) but gonna get another as soon as I see a nice one (yey). yours is very nice mate if mine had gone id have been tempted. I had a viewing tonight but they didn't turn up. Good luck with the sale mate.

 

 

Apologies to anyone that's tried to get in contact with me in the past few weeks about the car but baby arrived four weeks early so spent nearly two weeks in hospital as he had a few problems and my phone battery only lasts two days and there quiet strict on no phone chargers. Still all home now, all good and have decided to put the corrado on ebay to see what happens. Thanks Andrew

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171075814424?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

 

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