Seanl82's ringer Storm

[seanl82 23]

Well guys I made a purchase, and went against everything I've always preached about!

I was trying to wait until the beginning of summer to get myself a nice VR. Would have given me a bit of time to save a few pennies more toward it as well, but I've become impatient with so many bargains about! I'm constantly looking on here, ebay, Pistonheads, Gumtree................ the lot for one close to me, and tbh anything even remotely close has been well out of my price range so was happy to wait. One then popped up on ebay in London advertised as a Storm. It was within my price range and not too far away so decided to have a look. I did a HPI check on it and all was well. Spoke to the bloke a few times and he seemed ok, although not all that clued up.

So off I went with a pocket full of cash to view it, promising myself that if it was a dud, I'd walk away.

In good old British fashion, it was ****ing down with rain! He was out when I got there, but turned up 5 minutes later with the car obviously warm. Not a good start when viewing a vehicle I know!

There were a few obvious things that the guy had failed to mention as well, such as the fact he wanted to keep the D90s that were on it as he'd loose too much money at the price it was likely to go for, there was rust on one of the arches, the bolster was worse than described, the rocker cover gasket was leaking, and the interior had been absolutely butchered to fit a sound system!

Honestly, I should have walked then, but heart ruled the head and I desperately wanted one!

I flicked through the paperwork, and all seemed in order with a few past receipts, although not (loads!) as described.

I took a printout of the (very helpful) buyers guide in the wiki section, but stupidly left it in my bag and didn't use it! I took it for a test drive though, and I was hooked!

Anyway, after a bit more of a look round I bartered with him. It was advertised on PH for £2200, gumtree for £2500, and starting on ebay for £1500 at auction. I managed to get him down to £1250 which I thought was actually quite good for a Storm, even with a few bodywork issues and a butchered interior.

After the drive home I'd got to know the car a little better.

The suspension is dickhead low, and pretty damn harsh tbh. Its going up a bit!

I didn't notice on the test drive and forgot to check when switching on, but the ABS light doesn't illuminate. Will be investigating that shortly too. The spoiler doesn't raise at speed, but works off the button. I didn't get it up to speed on the test drive as I was in congested London traffic!

The heater directional control has had it, which I did notice but overlooked a little thinking it should be an easy fix.

I got home and had a good sit down with a cuppa and a read through everything again, and put it all in a folder in some semblance of order. On the plus side (I desperately hope) is that the "Timing Chine, replace pulleys Gide chine tensioner and bolt" were done 2k miles and 9 months ago at a cost of £970!. With literacy skills like that though, I'm really hoping that this was done correctly. I honestly don't understand why a company would let someone with such a lack of either education, or grasp of the English language to write reports on what are actually quite important documents! I'm gonna inspect it all anyway so fingers crossed.

And finally the hammer blow! :pukeright::pale: I missed it on the HPI check, and didn't check the first page in the service book, but it had a delivery date of 01/02/95, so probably not a Storm after all! :brickwall::mad::(

It was first registered to Lockyear Motors which is a VW dealership in Cranleigh, Surrey though. I'm gonna give them a bell in the week to see if they have any history on it. I'm hoping it was a test vehicle or something like that, although it may be wishful thinking.

As you can imagine I felt pretty deflated, although had to put on a brave face and not let the missus know I may have forked out on a bit of a stinker! :silent:

I took it into the car club where I'm working until May, and where there is a four post lift to have a good root around underneath today. Thankfully, apart from a fairly battered sump, its very solid under there. All bushes are in good order, so as far as MOT goes, I'm OK from that perspective. Just the other things to sort. (ABS, 2 front tyres near limit, HIDs removed and uprated loom fitted) and should be good when test time comes. Its gonna be off the road now for a few months anyway so I can sort all the issues with it. It's been raining since I went to look at it, so gave it a dry with the microfibre drying towel to see the actual state of the paintwork. Again, not good! Its seriously oxidised in a LOT of places, and although I'm pretty handy with a Rotary and have a fairly decent detailing product range, I think I'm only going to be able to "fix" a small amount of the paintwork.

 

I'm trying to look at this with a positive frame of mind though, and saying to myself, "at least that's another one saved from the scrap heap", as that was where it was surely headed! Its obviously been seriously mistreated by the last few/all previous owners, and needs a good lift.

Maybe this page should accompany the buyers guide in the wiki section, with a title of "what not to do when buying"! lol.

 

I've proper banged on here, so if you've managed to read it all, well done!

Here are some pics (lots), not great quality as only had the phone though sorry!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why oh why would someone do such a thing!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will update with a priority list of work required once I've given it a detail inside and out, and removed/cleaned up all unnecessary crap.

Edited March 10, 2017 by seanl82

[Portent 0]

Welcome back to the fold. If I'm honest I would have walked away from that one but looking forward to seeing your plans.

[Alan h 10]

I feel for you mate I saw this on eBay I was watching it but that deffinetly looks nothing like them photos they put on eBay as I have just looked back at them now I would have been very upset if I had travelled to buy that from where I live with such a dishonest advert

[clumpy1 11]

We have all done it mate at some point in our lives Heart ruling head.If your carpet is knackered i have a black carpet i have just removed from mine the carpet is in really good nick but the plastic heel protector has a couple of gashes in it i would gladly give you it to help you as feel you have been badly stitched up let me know if your interested.

 

James.

[Jim 2]

I think that was, possibly, a bit too much money for something that seems to have had a bit of a hard life - but on the plus side, I'm glad it's been saved and going to get a bit of TLC now! Look forward to seeing progress on this one!

[seanl82 23]

Thing is, I'm handy with a spanner, but not with a paint gun, so what I was thinking I don't know! I've got the means to do anything mechanical wise at work as well so I've massively seen myself off with this. I've bought and walked away from a fair few cars in the past as well so I know what I'm looking at but just couldn't help myself!

Oh well, you live and learn! Pointless getting all upset and bitter about it, what's done is done. We all spend more on our Corrados than they're worth at the end of it, and I think with two or three grand chucked at it, it'll be a minter! :lol:

James, thanks for the offer mate! I've got some good products and a George wet n dry, so hopefully the carpets will come up ok. They don't look tooooooo bad tbh. The leather is actually all there on the bolster, so it may be able to be repaired. The rear cards may have to be supported from behind, filled in, then have a leather/suede type covering over the top to neaten them up, and the parcel shelves come up occasionally on here or ebay. Its not beyond saving by any means, but body and paint are going to take some sorting with will be the major expense.

[clumpy1 11]

No problem Sean the cream carpet i put in mine needed a good clean but came up really well i can see why you would want to keep the cream carpet as it goes so well with green bodywork and in my opinion brightens the interior you will get there mate :thumbleft:

[Portent 0]

Well if you can learn some bodywork stuff then it will be a really good learning project. Even if you end up paying a bodyshop you should end up with a great car when it's all done :)

[seanl82 23]

Yeah I have already thought about trying it myself tbh! I can cordon off a section of the workshop, its heated, and has a good industrial air system throughout. A decent filter, water trap, air fed mask and a couple of spray guns, you never know! May be able to do it to a reasonable standard, and to a decent budget too. Obviously its not gonna be to a paintshop standard, but its worth thinking about imo. Only thing I'd have to pay someone else to do is knock out a couple of dings, and remove the glass. Hmmmmm :study:

[delfinis38 1]

Yeah I have already thought about trying it myself tbh! I can cordon off a section of the workshop, its heated, and has a good industrial air system throughout. A decent filter, water trap, air fed mask and a couple of spray guns, you never know! May be able to do it to a reasonable standard, and to a decent budget too. Obviously its not gonna be to a paintshop standard, but its worth thinking about imo. Only thing I'd have to pay someone else to do is knock out a couple of dings, and remove the glass. Hmmmmm :study:

 

best of luck with the new toy..... hope to see it around sometime.....

 

you say may / maybe not a storm.... is it badged up as a storm ??? was looking at the picture of the front end and could not work out if it's a plain black front grill or painted. the rims are certainly correct for a storm

[seanl82 23]

Yeah its badged a Storm, but they were only registered from April 95 onwards. This was registered in February 95. The front grille is an aftermarket badgeless affair, which I'm not all that keen on tbh. It'll be changed back eventually, but its pretty low down on the list of priorities for now.

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

Do you have the paint code on the sticker in the boot? That should at least confirm if you have a Storm colour or not. Seeing as Storms only came in 2 colours which were exclusive to them.

[ChrisL 18]

Do you have the paint code on the sticker in the boot? That should at least confirm if you have a Storm colour or not. Seeing as Storms only came in 2 colours which were exclusive to them.

 

Unfortunately Classic green wasnt exclusive to the storm

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

I could of sworn that the storms had exclusive colours?

[Supercharged 2]

Only Mystic Blue but VW obviously ordered so much paint they decided to paint every 96 MK3 Golf in the same colour... looks better on a Corrado though!

[MarkFoster 0]

The image of the tweeter in the footwell panel might tell a tale on what's wrong with your ABS. That's where the controller sits and if it was still there, there wouldn't be space for that tweeter....

 

Mark

[seanl82 23]

Oh dear.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up Mark, will have a check at some point this coming week.

[sankysvr6 0]

Good luck with it, will be nice to see this been turned around.

 

I know its a bit late now, but if any newbie is reading this. Dont go buy the pictures in a add only, always ask for some fresh pictures of the car and how it is today. Not when it was at its best.

[VW_OwneR_85 2]

Yeah I have already thought about trying it myself tbh! I can cordon off a section of the workshop, its heated, and has a good industrial air system throughout. A decent filter, water trap, air fed mask and a couple of spray guns, you never know! May be able to do it to a reasonable standard, and to a decent budget too. Obviously its not gonna be to a paintshop standard, but its worth thinking about imo. Only thing I'd have to pay someone else to do is knock out a couple of dings, and remove the glass. Hmmmmm :study:

 

you can do it to a very good standard if you give the time it requires + the extra time to correct skool boy errors, if your serious about wanting to do it , learn as much as you can before hand, on ebay theres cheap carpaint how to dvd's £5.00 ,buy them as the advice given on them can save you time which = money, also youtube has videos for car body repair take a looksy, good luck with it , end of the day you can just fix up the mechanical side and use it as a care free runner and enjoy it for that

[seanl82 23]

Yeah I'm gonna look into it, but need to give it a good detail first to get a true indication of where it is. Checking it out today and I think I wrote it off a bit early before. Stripped out some of the interior today. Can't wait to get started cleaning it all up! Again I think I may have written it off too early. I honestly think it can be bought up to a pretty good standard with a bit of effort. I think the rear card inserts/B pillar trim that has been hacked to death can be made as good as new. It's just leatherette at the end of the day. A bit of support and leveling of the main plastic, then a retrim in the leatherette and I'll think it'll come up really well. I'm gonna hunt out a supplier that can colour match the original so at least it'll look standard. Good new too is that the ABS controller is in place, so just need to get VCDS on it and see what it throws up..............now where did I put that lead?....................

There are about half a dozen OE plugs that have been removed behind the lower glove panel, so need to find out where they're all from.

Anyway, some pics from today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And under the rear seats from the owner before last I think! Goes to show how long its been (at least) since its had a good clean!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come this week.v:o

[GrahamU 6]

Looks like a good project, keep all the updates coming

[clumpy1 11]

Glad to see you are getting stuck in mate that carpet will come up well it's not too bad keep going you will have it done in no time :wave:

[delfinis38 1]

keep us updated... luv post with pictures..... :)

[seanl82 23]

Yeah I'm a bit of a pic whore at the moment! More to come the next couple of weeks but it'll probably slow down after that a little bit. I'm trying to get as much cracked as I can, as I'm on Easter leave from next Thursday for two weeks, but the missus is due with our second on the 6th April, so I'll have my hands full from there for a while! Begin my course on May 16th as well and its pretty hardcore with exam after exam for the next 18 months or so!

Anyway, this afternoon I got busy stripping out the rest of the interior, and started cleaning it up. I'm gonna give the carpet another go over with the wet n dry but I'm pretty happy with how its coming along! I noticed whilst pulling the carpet out though, that there are a load of weld splatter burns around the sides of the tunnel. You'll see in the pics, but some knob head has welded round the handbrake lever and cable, and obviously couldn't be arsed to cover things up! Anyway, I pre-soaked the carpet with Bilt Hamber Surfex (APC/Degreaser) at 3:1 through a spray bottle, then went round it with the spray bottle again and an interior upholstery brush scrubbing like mad! This removed the majority of major marks on its own! I was really pleased with how this worked, the Surfex is awsome stuff! It obviously didn't remove the dirt though, so after that I went round with a George Wet n Dry with just warm water sucking it all up.

 

 

 

 

The weld splatter burn marks

 

 

 

 

Thanks to this!

 

 

 

 

 

Before

 

 

 

 

 

Everything together in the workshop

 

 

 

 

 

Carpets after the first go over

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interior plastics are all done as well with a bucket of diluted Surfex at an unknown ratio (good glug from a 5 litre tub then half filled with water), and I'm really please with the outcome. The below pic shows where they have been butchered to fit the speakers, with the one on the left having been cleaned and the one on the right how the rest of the plastics looked! :gag:. I've spoken to a couple of suppliers and have some samples of leatherette on the way. I'm going to try and colour match the original, to refinish them once the holes have been supported and filled in. :cheers:

 

 

 

 

More to come in the next couple of days hopefully. :thumbleft:

[GrahamU 6]

Wow, nice repair to the handbrake, its shocking what some people do !!!