The Rising

[Redfox 10]

Very true.

So, to test it, I drove along the coast and grabbed a sandwich in the sunset:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]58817[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]58821[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]58825[/ATTACH]

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

[Portent 0]

I don't normally like red Corrados to omuch. But wow that looks stunning. Top stuff :thumbleft:

[MattPc 0]

Wow, this is a pretty comprehenisve build thread, good to see someone taking care of a current/future classic

[Redfox 10]

Thanks guys. Actually i agree with you Portent, I usually see red cars looking quite flat and boring if it is not a bright sunny day. Especially in the evening and nighttime, they look strange. On a sunny day, they look good ;)

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

[Redfox 10]

Hmm, got an Easteregg from Germany. Wonder what's inside?:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]59193[/ATTACH]

Ah, new center hubcaps for the wheels.

I was thinking a bit about what those 177 hp's and 228 Nm comes from, as it was conservatively measured, as he said. I took a look under the bonnet, and saw that I have the "P"-cylinderhead, which have bigger inlet- and exhaust porting, like this:

inlet: 38 * 32mm (normal is 35 *30mm)

exhaust: 36 * 25mm (normal is 33 * 25mm)

and the correct inlet manifold "AD" plus specific gasket (normal is marked "N").

The exhaust manifold should also be a bigger ported one from factory, but don't know and haven't seen any data on it yet.

Anyway that explains why it's relatively nice performing. So well chuffed ;)

Think I'll make that better with some exhaust, cam and some other small tweaks, which will be rolled of course.

 

Does anyone know if there's any gains to be had from another throttlevalve or other similar things? I heard somewhere, that you can use a Mk 1 GTI inlet manifold to gain more midrange, but less topend. Don't know if it's true.

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Redfox

[joebloggsVR69 0]

How much were those centercaps? :)

I was thinking of getting a set, as my Golf's VW centers are a bit milky..

[Redfox 10]

Hi, they were 82,40 euro incl. postage. That is double the price over what the official BBS importer here wants, or rather wanted, as he can't get them any more.

That is a pretty steep price imho. fleabay makes people think they posses gold decorated with diamonds ;)

Cheers,

Redfox.

[Redfox 10]

Went for an icecream today:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60349[/ATTACH]

Got some nice comments about the Corrado from a familyguy, and after coming home, decided to put on the new set of black version BBS hubcaps today, after having cleaned the Corrado inside out, polishing, waxing, trim cleaning and protecting etc.

Not overly satisfied with the black ones, I think I'll put these on after all, as the old ones were getting milky white:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60345[/ATTACH]

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Oh, btw the mailman brought a box of secondhand parts, mostly for installing the extra clocks in the centerpanel. I then found out that ashtray etc. does not fit...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]60353[/ATTACH]

I think I'll have to work something else out. I would like it to be as oem as possible. Hmm.. thinking... more later...

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Hmm, had this new set of black on:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61193[/ATTACH]

But decided against them as they look fake (not carbon) and many people seems to fancy fake carbon, which I don't, so off they came, and a shiny new set of the correct (obsolete) crome caps went on:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61197[/ATTACH]

pretty shiny, but I then saw that there's a thin protective film on, so off it went, and they became more shiny ;)

 

Some new parts for a soon to be belt and brake service:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61201[/ATTACH]

 

Meanwhile I noted the shield on the cat began to rattle, so I'll do that tomorrow hopefully, and while thinking about that, I heard the middle silencer (all original) blowing a little bit, so I called Jetex in the UK, and spoke to a friendly guy, who told me that I did not need to buy from them (Jetex) because I could as well buy one from my own country, where they are called Simons, and are exactly the same, all produced by Ray steel in Sweden. So, I found the importer here, and drove to them. Price being somewhat 38 percent higher than in the UK though. I took a peek at the system and it seems well made all in stainless steel, long waranty and all fittings comes in the package. I bought the stuff:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61205[/ATTACH]

I like the system, but there's not enough finish on it, looking like this (Jetex/Simons/more):

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61209[/ATTACH]

and this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61213[/ATTACH]

I think I will polish it up, and add acid to take away the decolouration.

The whole system:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61221[/ATTACH]

Also, the fittings package could be better, as the connecting tube from the cat to the first silencer, is mild steel and a rather thin tube:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61225[/ATTACH]

I'll start by making one in stainless steel, and later on cut off the tube on the cat, or but another cat with bigger flow tube. Then it should be at least 2,5" all the way.

The fasteners (total of 4) I'll just throw away, as they are the usual crap. I'll pop by VW and get propper ones tomorrow, I hope.

Then I opened the bonnet, and saw the earth wire for that had broken, so went to VW to get another one. plus some stainless nuts:

I'd better renew the others as well, as they are getting old.

More later.

Cheers,

Exhaustfox.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Had a little fun yesterday with installing this:

Guess what that is for!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61697[/ATTACH]

 

Yes, it's for electric Recaros in a Corrado. Bought it in Germany, and the postman brought it to me, so I spent all day ripping many things out of the Corrado:

Fusebox cover off:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61701[/ATTACH]

Footwell cover off (that hides the abs control unit):

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61705[/ATTACH]

Drivers tray off:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61709[/ATTACH]

Seats out:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61713[/ATTACH]

Center tunnel out. Note the juice and bakery stuff, these are very important, when you install electric seat movement:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61717[/ATTACH]

Add VW cotton tape on wires:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61721[/ATTACH]

I then placed the fuseholder (yellow fuse next to the green one) in the right spot for this model and year (1991 G60 not facelift), and the plus (red thick wire) clicks into place in the emppty place next to the two red ones and the yellow/black one, at the right side of the picture. So the seat plus is the fourth front wire from the right side in the picture. This is the correct placement in this car, and this gives plus, when ignition is on. So no hokus pokus:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61725[/ATTACH]

Then I measured the throughput on earth (brown) and the plus (red) that splits in two (one for each front seat), and they were good.

Then it was time to find out where they should run, and on my left hand drive car, they go fron the star earth and fuseing, along the abs control box, along the drivers sill in all the cable holders, crosses over at the raised part of the floor pan, one comes out at the sliding rubber (under seat), and the other one slips into place under the gearshift center tunnel in the already existing clapms, and likewise comes up at the passengers seat slide rubber:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61729[/ATTACH]

So sill off:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61733[/ATTACH]

Drivers cable in place:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61737[/ATTACH]

Following all the existing cableties already in the car:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61741[/ATTACH]

Here's the finished install. Then it's just to put back all the parts that I took out.

Fortunately I can say it all works a charm.

Veeeery nice to have this features ;)

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61745[/ATTACH]

 

Next is the cablenet and knobs and boxes for the seat heatment, which I am going to do later this summer, as I am going to climb some mountains soon ;)

Many more small projects under way ;)

 

Cheers,

Cablefox.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Redfox

[northG60 0]

Love the wheels mate, this has gotta be one of the nicest G60's on here for sure

 

keep it up

[Redfox 10]

Thanks NorthG60 ;)

Here's an evening picture I took recently:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61909[/ATTACH]

 

Cheers,

Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Okay guys and dolls,

Here's some info on my exhaust swap. Before I had a completely standard 1991 G60 exhaustsystem, apart from the cat being a long type that smooths the powerflow nicely. That is also used on a GTi I am told. Anyway, it's standard, and have never been touched. I looks like this and is quite shot:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62377[/ATTACH]

Actually it flows just fine as the engine is standard, and it turns out 177 Bhp and 228 Nm.

It's heavy and rusty and beginning to blow.

So in comes this Simons/Jetex/whatever name from Ray steel in Sweden, who actually makes exhausts for many different brands:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62381[/ATTACH]

As can be seen I have also bought a set of Powerflex exhaust hangers/rubbers for the system. They look somewhat like oem.

Unpacking the Simons system, I discovered several problems, that I will discuss onwards.

 

1': Kit contains a set of fittings, rubbers, hangers, tubes and clamps, that have to be scraped or heavily modified to fit at all.

It's a cat back system, and it contains 3 silencers as it is a ressonance system type.

The diameter from the cat is way smaller than the 2½" tubing that Simons uses. Therefore the kit contains a conical shaped tube to connect them. The first problem is, that this is not stainless steel, but a very very thin crappy type mild steel.

 

2': the welding is not stainless, and is not treated with acid to make them more resistant and look better. So this will not hold in the long run, and is ugly as ...

 

3': the system contains three silencers to dampen it enough to be somewhat like oem, at least under 3000 rpm's, which is okay.

 

4': the kit contains two hooks to hang it up in, instead of the original hooks. This means that the system was never designed for the Corrado, and moreover not for the 1991 G60 framenr. "M", but instead is a boxed up collection of parts bin system. The system may fit a Golf II G60 better. This I cannot testify at the time.

 

5': the first silencer is a long thin tube like one, and is way too long to ever fit between the cat and the middle silencer. The middle silencer is suspended in two hooks, and two rubbers. It cannot be moved as such without cutting and welding hooks etc. So it being fixed, the first silencer the gas see, is the long thin one. The longest connecting tube part of this, is meant to point towards the cat. This is not possible in any way, no matter how you cut it:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62405[/ATTACH]

Here it can be seen turned around like I did for fitment and flow.

 

6': the same first silencer is bad made inside. Outside it looks fine, but inside, the gasflow see these three high edges:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62385[/ATTACH]

That is very bad for flow, especially on a pressurized engine like the G60 motor or a turbo motor.

The thing I did was turn it around, so it fit's better between the cat outlet, and the middle silencer. By cutting a long piece in both ends, I could make it fit exactly.

This demands the conical shaped mild steel tube to be cut also in bot ends, and new fitting slicings being made. That would normally not be a problem, but the thing is that there are limits to how much you can cut this device, before it looses structural strength, and becomes floppy and soft, loosing it's shape and becoming deformed. NOT the thing you want to blow a few houndred horsepowers through. Fortunately (or not) I only have 177 (for now), so I cut it, with respect to the two different diameter ends being as long as the diameter plus 1-2 cm. more.

This will be on the edge of what I just explained, but once tied up, it hopefullt can hold for a month or so, until I make up a better soloution. Or rather my friend does. He is enourmously experienced in making special charged builds, both in G motors, turboes and kompressors in general, as well as completely homemade special bi cat flappy doored twin sports cat stainless exhausts, made for flowing up to 2 bars pressure on a 700 Bhp R32 engine etc, so hopefullt he'll cut up the system and reweld it or something to fit.

So I cut it in both ends, making slices to clamp.

 

7': That is exactly the next problem. The clamps delivered in the fitting kit is 4 u-bend bolt types, that if fitted will clamp very badly indeed, make dings and bends in your system tubing, and thirdly make the tube ends split open like a flower. This makes it short lived, not tight, and holds badly.

These clamps should be throwed out imidiately, and never used on you car or any other car. They are utterly crap. Here's a picture where I use one of the crap clamps because I did not have something else and it was almost midninght. It's in the left side of the conical shaped tupe, which I have cut down in length to fit. To the right is a super quality type clamp, that actually does what it is supposed to - clamp the exhaust parts to sit where you want them endlessly (almost), and is oiginal VW part no. 8L9-253-139A. This is an audi number, but it also sits on a R32 Golf. It's a very good quality and it will not destroy your tubing, making bends, dents etc. Note the position of the clamps, which is not pointing downwards to avoid road inflicted damage, but turned slightly upwards to the side where there's most space, without hitting anything:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62389[/ATTACH]

This is a temporary soloution as it is an evening compromise, and I needed it to be back on the Corrado before I travel to the other end of Europe to climb mountains in a few days.

The problem is this:

 

8': Looking at the picture above it is clear, that even though this cat is a good flowing type while being a standard VW type, it still contains some unattractive points, being the strict downsizing to a thin narrowing tube on the exhaust side of the cat. Therefore it is very beneficial for the flow of the complete system, that this is either cut off, and a bigger tube is welded on, or better, a sportscat with a much more free flow is put on instead. I will do the later soloution this summer, when I am back and have time.

I will though also credit VW for this exact type of cat, because it have a very long conical shape at in inlet side of itself, and secondly it in not the ordinary ceramical type which is very restrictive, but have the better flowing net like type on heating element to burn the exhaust by-products:

 

See picture down.

 

9': The placing of the hooks on the rear silencer represents another problem. That is placed too rearward, and should be cut off and rewelded ½-1" more forward, to avoid putting stress on the suspending rubber. I did not have time to solve this too, and it will be remade later on.

 

10': the next problem is the hook delivered to suspend the rear silencer in. upon using this, it becomes clear, that the rear silencer will hang too low, and look silly. It will therefore also bang and hit the rear axle on the Corrado. This is quite annoying, and will most probably turn a lot of potential buyers off. I will make another hook later on.

 

11: If you run your Corrado with many upgrade quality parts, like for example KW, or Eibach etc, especially a rear arb in oversize to supplement the front one, the left seam of the rear silencer will have 2 mm space between it and the bolt that holds the rear arb to the rear frame/axle/rear suspention mounting. This shows aain that Simons/Jetex/Ray/whatever did not make this for the Corrado, as they would know that it should have space to accomodate this particular good upgrade. I therefore had to take a sledgehammer and other tools and make a ding in the rear silencer. I won't be seen when mounted, and barely noticable when underneath, but that is truly a nasty thing to do on your new stainless system. Nasty but needed if you want to drive at all. Very bad made by Ray/Jetex/Simons etc.

 

Another thing is that the Powerflex rubbers I bought, lowered the whole system 2,5cm, or 1". Enough to make it impossible to use them. So off they came, and is now for sale if anyone wants them. Never used, but unpacked and only trial fitted.

 

And I also had to adjust the shape of the heat shields a bit here and there to make them not hit the Simons system. I know for a fact, that mine were perfect in shape before.

 

So, the conclusion is this: Think twice before buying. It's a nice made system, though I seriously doubt that any flowing tests have been made. It's stainless, but not fittings and welding that rusts as usual.

Putting it on is a more than average joe challenge, and demands cutting, welding and special made tubing before it sits and performs. Having that made, I must say it suits the Corrado and I will eventually make the better flow and fit happen. More later on this.

Price is way better in the UK by for example Demons, and almost double the price here in Scandinavia.

To make it flow well, a lot of tubing have to be made, incl a modified cat, or a sportscat. Ray steel could make it better in welding and better flow by carefully making a gig that make decent welds, not creating walls inside.

That you have to hammer a dent in the rear silencer is also a major dissapointing point as it should be prepared for a propper suspension upgrade, and not hitting anything. A lot of trial and error went into fitting this tonight, plus years of ecperience, so things are tried first, before hitting it with a hammer. Very dissapointing Simons! This hammering is not needed if you do not have an upgrade rear arb!

Alternatives are make it yourself from scratch, or buy standard oem VW or another brand.

Verdict: That a major downer Simons! And you should admit it and make it better, which I am sure you can. Or sell it for free, to use up stock, and then make a propper one!

Will NOT EVER buy Simons/Jetex/Ray/whatever again!

Think twice before spending your hard earned money!

 

After:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62401[/ATTACH]

As can be seen the rear silencer shall have another hook which places it more nicely, and because it also would be hanging higher, not banging on the rear axle. Soon to come ;)

 

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Hi all,

Small things count too, and these I have bought soem 12 years ago, thinking I may someday use them. They are the little covers that hide the screw heads holding the doorcards. 3 were missing, so I put new ones on ;)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62529[/ATTACH]

 

So now all 6 are in place.

Then it was time for cleaning up some small edges around sills and doors:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]62533[/ATTACH]

This is from before I cleaned it up. Unfortunately it got dark before finishing, so no pics of that ;(

Yeah yeah, I know, it's going a bit anal... ;)

 

Cheers,

Capfox.

Edited May 13, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

All right, so back after some holiday.

I've bought a new plastic trim that sit's between the doorglass and the doorcard, so should eliminate a little crack in the old one.

I've shelled out for a set of my dream wheels, the BBS RS 3 piece split wheels in 7*16" and 4*100mm holes. I will work on them over summer or maybe next winter to make them look how I like them.

More later.

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

[DriverVR6 11]

Good to have you back mate. Look forward to the updates of your progress.

[Redfox 10]

Thanks ;)

Put on a new loudspeaker grille on the drivers door today. Old style model. Nice and black with no breaks.

Washed and vacuumed the Corrado and testfitted the BBS RS's to see how they sit. Nice and easy both on the inside and the outside, without offending anything.

Now I need to take the BBS RS's apart and polish them, bolts etc. Will take a while.

Had trunk carpet off and cleaned up a few specs of dust after having transported a few things the other day. Lubed the rubbers that the rearshelf hang in. One sound less ;)

I think I am in dire need for a shortshift, and the changed parts at the gearbox end took some slop, but not all. And the throw is very long indeed. So time to look around for a soloution for that. In my former Golf II I made up some brackets, but not able to on this one. The mech is the old style before facelifting, so no added weight at the gearbox end.

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Okay, here's a few pics of the bmw seats I bought:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64953[/ATTACH]

 

They have much bigger backrest side bolsters, and not only that, but they are much more fat than the Corrado Recaro ditto:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64957[/ATTACH]

 

Furthermore, there's a nice extra function, which is an inflatable backrest lumbar support, on both seats, to give perfect support:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64961[/ATTACH]

 

I've sat in them, and the bigger bolsters give a much better side support, and the fact that they are thicker as well, makes it much more tight.

 

 

I guess that story of the Corrado being made for bigger sized americans (no offence) is true... ;) I can understand that in the Corrado there's less space to enter to the backseats, and therefore the seat bolsters need to be smaller, to allow the backrest to fold more flat against the seatbase, to allow the person to enter into the backseats. I couldn't care less. I absoloutely don't want passengers in my car, other than my wife in the other front seat. And that's fine for spirited driving, let's say ;)

Certainly the bmw ones support a lot more and is more narrow in the bolsters. I've measured all over, and other than that, they have the same dimensions. My Corrado Recaro bolsters are in good condition, and not deformed.

Like with the Golf 3 Recaro seats, the supports are also differently shaped to allow bigger persons, but in the same time loose support over the Golf 2 Edition 1 Recaro seats, which I had.

 

The idea is now to take them apart, and move the backrest side support, to be covered in black leather, over to the Corrado Recaro seats, and the inflatable lumbar support as well. The idea is also to keep a strict oem look of the seats, and retain all electric funtions, namely the heated function and the two movement functions, and naturally the sewings and pillows of the Corrado Recaro's.

Hmm, I guess it'll take a while.

More later.

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Redfox

[24V Renshaw 0]

Look forward to seeing this. Nice ideas

[Redfox 10]

Finally an update, while watching LeMans:

The travel and the quality of the gearshift in the Corrado's leaves something to be desired. So time for a shortshift. I chose the one from Dave from this forum, and it works nicely, precise and... short travel.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66101[/ATTACH]

 

First I took off the gearknob and leather surround:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66125[/ATTACH]

 

Unscrewed the obd connectors and put them aside:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66129[/ATTACH]

 

Took off the front horizontal bolt that holds the rod and spring:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66133[/ATTACH]

 

Then loosened the two console bolts:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66137[/ATTACH]

 

Then loosened the rod itself:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66149[/ATTACH]

 

I took the rod off with out taking the exhaust off, by grinding this bit away to make space for taking the rod off. tilted the mech downwards towards myself, and levered it a bit to the left. Then the rod came out quite easy:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66157[/ATTACH]

 

The I took off the gearstick, and took away the little lower clip:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66161[/ATTACH]

 

I took the lever out the gearstick and inspected for old lost clips etc, and greased up everything incl. the lower ramp where the ball is sliding:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66165[/ATTACH]

 

I greased up where things connect, and slided in the new modified shortshift:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66169[/ATTACH]

 

Place the remaining parts in reverse order, and it's done. I spent 1½ hour. I gave the grided a bit of rustprotection and Flash red:

Edited June 16, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Hmm, the page went nuts, so a last comment;

I did not have to adjust any cable, I have the old version, where both are adjusted above the gearbox. Just loosen one nut at a time, and centralize them. But as I said, I didn't have to.

Gearshift is surely shorter, and just perfect.

 

I just want to strengthen the spring that centralizes the gearstick left-right. Mine was faster and stronger. Will report back on that if I find out.

I took a spin, and it surely handles shifts better and quicker ;) All Corrado's should have one.

 

Thanks to Dave16v from this site, for making my shortshift. Give him a shout, as this is a must have for all Corrado's.

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited June 17, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Okay, so today I took a drive in the sunshine around some nice country roads. The birds were singing, the sun shining etc. etc. But I couldn't hear the birds because of all the terrible squeaking and rattleing inside the Corrado...

 

Upon reaching home, I took the upper black plastic cover on the luggage compartment door off, as here was clearly a squeaking sound on both sides.

I repositioned the original felt as here, as tehy had clearly slided far away from their original position:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66621[/ATTACH]

Then I looked at the clips that hold the plastic trim, and bent them a bit to squeeze harder as here:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66625[/ATTACH]

Thinking that this is not enough, I cut some pieces of black felt and double taped them on, as here:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66629[/ATTACH]

Then these two nasty little pieces of trim was tested and felted too, and put back like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]66633[/ATTACH]

 

Then I felted the two little areas on the rear speaker shelves, that the parcel shelf slides into.

 

Then off for a test drive, which turned out to be SUCCESSFULL ;)

Two irritating sounds less! Now I can hear some less noisy sounds from the c-pillar trim pieces, so that is the next area to look into.

Argh! My new cigarette lighter is rattleing when clipped into place (not when I hold it in the hand).

More later,

Redfox.

Edited June 19, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Hmm, a small update:

 

I finally got around to install the VR6 extra gauges in my G60 pre-facelift.

 

Here's the original wireing that I bought together with the gauges:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68134[/ATTACH]

 

So I spliced out the needed wires from the original wireing and it look like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68135[/ATTACH]

 

Then I measure up the size of the extra gauges housing and the compartment in the center-console, and it does not fit, as the compartment is way too narrow to have room for the gauges. Therefore tools and bits and bobs are needed to cut and sand the housing to be adapted to the compartment:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68136[/ATTACH]

 

Then basically I testcut and measured the upper edge of the front face black frame. One the rear of that frame is stamped some numbers. It's about right to cut it with a hacksaw there. I just used a piece of masking tape to have a guideline to saw it straight. A bit of sanding and more testfitting, and it works fine together with the ashtray, which on my pre-facelift 1991 G60 model, have bigger ashtray and cigarettelighter fitment.

 

Then it was time to do some measurement in my cars wireing.

I looked around, and behind the fusebox was a blue/white single wire, that happens to lead to the oilpressure feeler in front of the engine. And guess what: it's not connected. So it's just what is needed to give the resistance needed for the oil pressure gauge.

The sensor have to be bought. And guess what: VW don't give a rat about spareparts for Corrado's, so it's not available any more. I know, I asked. So get a second hand one, or work wonders.... Come on VW, MAKE THE SPAREPARTS!!! :

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68137[/ATTACH]

 

I have now determined what wire is needed for the oilpressure measureing.

Then I know that the brown and blue/grey is used generally in the dash to give power to lilght. Theis is exactly the same in the case of the extra gauges lighting. This can be taken from for example the cigarettelighter lighting.

 

I only need one more wire, and there's a total of four wires. That is the black/yellow one. And that is for the voltage measurement gauge. The black/yellow one goes together with the common brown earth, so as mentioned aboce, the blue/grey for lighting up the extra gauges is the only one that you'll need to take from the cigarette lighter wireing.

That wire just happens to be hidden in an unused loop behind the centerconsole, so I just freed it up, and connected it:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68138[/ATTACH]

 

I tested the connection at the engine compartment to be sure of it's function, and viola, it works ;) It jsut gives a full reading on the oil pressure gauge, until you have changed to the correct feeler (or rather sender):

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68139[/ATTACH]

 

Then I connected it all up, except for fixating the gauges, and it works.

Then I had to take a cup of tea and work out a method to fixate the gauges without drilling in the face. I don't like the old style gauges, as it does not look like a original Corrado fitment, even though it is. So I did not want to drill.

 

I came up with the idea to make two small holes in each side on the white rear of the gauges housing, and fasten a small strip. inside that tightened strip, I leaded another one in each side and let the thin ends thorugh a small drilled hole in the rear of the centerconsole storage room. Then I just cut off two stripheads and ziptied one on each end of the strip I just put thorugh, and viola, it sits tight and does NOT rattle ;) And no drilling and ugly screws.

 

The thing is, that the facelifted gauges have a sole 4 pin connector, and the pre-facelift have a few plugs. So I needed to mix that as close to oem as possible. Mission accomplished. No problem at all.

 

It finally came out to look like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68140[/ATTACH]

 

I think it looks oem, the lighting is green as the instrumentation and the Blaupunkt cd/radio ;) , and I am very satisfied with the look over the pre-facelift model's look.

I hope this can inspire others to make the same simple mod on their car, as I think it's very usefull to have the voltage and oilpressure readable while driving.It's a real sportscar after all! ;)

 

The final look with the Corrado writing:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68141[/ATTACH]

 

ps: sorry for the extremely dirty interrior and the cigarette lighter turned a bit. I just didn't have time to clean it before the picture. Now both corrected ;)

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Redfox

[Redfox 10]

Okay, time for a small update:

I finally got around to insert the inflatable backrest supports in the Recaro front seats. It went like this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68588[/ATTACH]

Here's the seats before and after the installing of the pillow. Right, there's nothing to see ;)

 

Then here's one of the pillows before inserting them:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68589[/ATTACH]

 

Here I stick it in behind the backrest leather. Real easy, no fuss:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68590[/ATTACH]

 

Didn't want to shorten the airtube, so just placed it nicely behind the leather, and place the blower where it's most out of sight, AND easy to use while driving:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68591[/ATTACH]

 

Finally, a shot of the inflated backrest support. Can be varied infinetely and it really does a magnificent job on old backs (like mine). It help exactly where many people tend to "fall down" with their back, as it supports the back so it does not get a negatively shape which equalt pain.

For the more weightminded of us, these pillows are really light, so they do not slow down your Corrado's performance. Worth taking into considderation :)

So get a pair and do it on your Corrado:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]68592[/ATTACH]

 

I read on other threads that some people want to sell their Corrado because of bad sitting comfort. I can recommend the Recaro seats for superior sitting support, position and less fatigue. In the same time they are heated, multi adjustable, electric adjustable, and now with air backrest support. ;) That surely must be a good soloution for drivers with back problems.

I think this is a great mod, as it's in line of my idea with the Corrado. It needs to be a real driving machine, and many small mods makes it exactly that. Therefore it's worth for me to make sure I have a really good working place/driving position/no hintrance Corrado = more speed in corners ;)

Anyway, more will follow later on, as I am not finished with my Corrado seat project. Much later...

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Redfox