Daves Vr6

[Otto 10]

Well folks it's been a long time coming but finally I have got myself a toy, a project, a Corrado Vr6 and the fun starts here.

 

Now this is my first ever thread in this fashion, so bear with me if I end up typing a load of rubbish.

 

For those who know me, firstly a big thanks for listening to me over the past number of years, as you know this was a long time coming. And now you get to read about it as well, am all about the sharing

 

For those of you who don't know me Hello and welcome to my thread. The names Dave, I've been into Golfs and cars since I learnt to drive, but the past number of years I have just been able to support my daily driver,

never mind a something for the weekend.

 

You may also have meet me with my brothers gorgeous Mk2 Gti below.

 

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A car I have loved since since he brought it home, sourced by me, and what must be one of the bargains of a life time, I am lucky I didn't buy it ahead of him, simply because I wouldn't of been able to

look after it as well as him and lavish the time on it as he has. So I have had the best of both worlds, a mint standard Mk2 to drive when I wanted, but none of the expense.

 

But with that not having you own car can also lead to that itch of wanting to take something and make it your own.

My car philosophy is simple, if you want a car to play with but it's clean enough, or rare enough to keep standard, then keep it standard, as there is always a rougher alternatives that you can play with, without diluting

the increasing rare minters that have been keep factory fresh for a reason.

Now that isn't everyone's view and i appreciate that, and with that a few subtle modifications, suspension, rims etc. I have no problem with as they are easy to reverse. But it's the mad stuff that means the car will

never be what it was that can make me choke when it's revealed the minter that was sacrificed for the sake of a scene. Anyway i know it's not everyone's view so I can only do my bit, and since I knew from the offset

that I did want to modify the car beyond what was traversable, the hunt began for my project.

 

Now I had in mind what I wanted, I was even tempted by an Audi S2, but they are mega money, for what they are, and even more money for where you want to go, and to be honest I just felt they didn't give me quiet

want I was looking for and the one I wanted was a mint kingfisher blue, untouched and unmodified, and i know I couldn't bring myself to change that.

 

So Corrado it was , in fact Corrado Vr6 in blackberry to be precise, and I knew there was one I wanted to track down, and track it down I did.

 

But the owner rightly decided he wanted it as much as me and decided he just couldn't part with it, understandable if a little disappointing. "But I do have a parts car in the same colour" was what came next!

Long story short, that parts car is now my car, and with that a Big thank you to Shane (Thumper on gtini.com) for giving it up and for all the help with the purchase, top guy.

And after seeing his own car already has given me a few ideas to think about.

 

So here it is in all it's glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see it's already been lowered and has a pipe on it, oh yeah and there are one or two bits of trim that are missing.

 

To fill in what history I have on the car, it's also had a small heater blower fire, so erm it will need a bit of work.

 

But to be fair I knew all this when I went to buy the car, in fact originally I was just going to buy the shell, the engine, gear box, suspension etc was going to stay behind. Oh and those wheels are mine, the wheels on it stayed

behind which was fair enough as they where really nice bbs's, in fact the exact bb's that i would of been looking for myself, so picked up some standard ones with tyres for a bargain.

 

 

In fact I picked up a couple of extra bits as well, in a bout of ebay fever, combined with years of seeing bits I already knew I wanted, lets just say I now have one or two packages marked "Future plans!"

 

 

 

 

But you know it's good, when you have a sticker like this hidden away.

 

 

So here it is, the beginning of a new adventure. I know many of you have been there before, I have ready many stories and already have a good idea of what to expect. No money, no knuckles and no life!

But then that's half the fun, the other half is on a glorious day, with your car running as you always hoped, a bunch of like minded mates and the road ahead.

Here's to those days, as it will be a while before am there yet.

 

Job number one, fire up the raddo!

[diarmaid16 1]

Good write up! Best of luck with the build. You've got a few nice bits to go on!

[Otto 10]

Cheers Diarmiad, hopefully more to come, but it will take a while just to get it running, the interior will be a challenge, not for the big bits, got an interior coming from a nice guy down at devon dubshack (am in belfast northern ireland) but it's the little bits of trim that am worried about, those bits you don't know you need until you realise "oh wonder what goes there?!"

[diarmaid16 1]

ah, you'll manage! the help from guys on here is fantastic if you get stuck.

[Goldie 2]

You have some work coming up there, fair play..

 

Plenty of cars being broken on here to help with all the bits you need..

[Otto 10]

So first thing to do was to get the dash board off and see what the damage was underneath the dash board.

 

 

I had some idea as you can see through the glove box compartment.

 

 

So this was my starting point

 

And thanks to some trawling through the internet (and there will be a lot of this going with this project, as well as forum asking so thank you to everyone in advance) I found a very handy guide to Corrado dash board removal here.

 

http://www.corrado-club.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8848

 

Although it was for a left hand drive model you get the drift.

In summary it goes a little something like this.

 

Remove vents, switches and any visible screws on the under trays, and in the vents.

 

Two 8mm bolts on each side under covers.

One 10mm nut at the bottom behind this.

 

 

And two 10 mm nuts under the scuttle panel.

 

These were a bit fiddly and so here is an idea what you’re looking for, I found removing the wiper mechanism gave me more room to work with, weather this is necessary, am not sure but anything it made my life easier.

 

 

Now there is probably a lot more I have missed, but my dash already had bits missing or damaged, and to be honest the other guide is a lot better than what I could reproduce.

 

If you want a tip, work methodically, think about where you took what from (record/take pics as necessary), try to do it some where nice to work and make sure you have your tools organise so your not running about like a edjit (me!). The last bit especially helps so you don’t lose your temper and rip something out, breaking it in the process and find it incredibly rare and expensive to replace…. I erm lost my temper with this particular screw, as nothing I had fitted into the vent to give allow me to get to it, luckily I didn’t do to much damage to the front panel, but I have plans for that any ways.

 

 

And here is the cause of all the problems.

 

Edited December 2, 2012 by Otto

[Otto 10]

Now me and wiring are not best buds, it’s nothing personal, we have met before, been civil to each other, occasionally have even had to work together to solve a problem, but it’s more a case of I just don’t know him that well.

 

After looking at what I’m going to be playing with, I think it’s time to really sit down and get acquainted.

 

Especially as I have barbequed heater and abs on the left.

 

 

Alarm in the middle

 

 

And (seemingly) random mass of wires on the right.

 

 

Also some of the alarm wires go scooting off into the bulks head, and yes ended up getting burnt. 

 

 

So time to start organising this mess, by the only way I know how, tracing everything back to the fuse box and unplugging it, taking lots of photos on the way, then figuring out what needs repaired, replaced or plugged back it to get the car fired up and running, to allow me to manoeuvre it under it’s own power, which is the first big stage I have set myself.

 

 

And after cutting the alarm wires that headed into the bulk head I ended up with the alarm and loom from the ignition.

 

 

And as you can see the workmanship of the installer looked fantastic…

 

 

Unfortunately this made my life a wee bit harder, although what would be the point of having an alarm that was easy to remove!

 

But eventually I got to this….

 

 

The plan from here is to effect a temporary repair, tidy up and remove all unnecessary wiring from the fuse box (encase I cause any fires) and then move on to the engine bay, which already has definite signs of needing work.

 

Edited December 2, 2012 by Otto

[Jon_vr6 1]

Youve got a hell of a job on your hands there mate

[Otto 10]

Cheers Jon, I feel I may be bitting off more than I can chew, so just trying to keep calm and that it one bit at a time.

[Jim 1]

Great effort - that is one Corrado that would have been destined for the scrappers yard. Fantastic to see it's been saved.

 

Good luck with the rewiring! You're a brave guy! :)

[robrado974 1]

Well done on the hard work , is the colour dbp ? think thats what i saw on the handbrake tunnel.

[Otto 10]

Cheers Jim, hopefully I can save it.

 

Not sure robrado, thought it was blackberry, which was the colour i wanted, but this looks darker than some other ones i've seen, will have to hunt for the paint code and see, and was wondering what that writing on the tunnel was for. will have to investigative.

[VR6Pete 0]

Good luck with this mate.

[Redfox 10]

Great work so far.

 

Cheers,

Redfox.

[captainredeye 0]

well done for saving this one, the wiring aint so bad when you have got your head round it all and life is made a little easier that all the plugs going into the fuse box are slightly different shapes and sizes so cant be plugged in incorrectly.

[Hofmiester 10]

Man, that is some work but at least you are staring with a blank canvas and so you'll be able to build the car up spot on. You see many guys on here buy a "minter" and then end up stripping it, powder coating everything and then putting all back together again! You can do that as you go.

 

Colour is an odd one, I have a blackberry car and the exterior of yours is not BB but some of you interior pics of the scuttle tray and behind the dash look like BB. Your car may have been repainted in Burgundy pearl?

[robrado974 1]

Man, that is some work but at least you are staring with a blank canvas and so you'll be able to build the car up spot on. You see many guys on here buy a "minter" and then end up stripping it, powder coating everything and then putting all back together again! You can do that as you go.

 

Colour is an odd one, I have a blackberry car and the exterior of yours is not BB but some of you interior pics of the scuttle tray and behind the dash look like BB. Your car may have been repainted in Burgundy pearl?

Nope whats writen on the tunnel is what she is

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

you got your work cut out there, looks like a scary mess of wireing! this might help if you print this off,

http://www.a2resource.com/electrical/CE2.html