Brian,s pearl green 16v

[Brian1975 14]

Was,nt looking for another corrado(already have a G60 project car ) but I heard about this one off the guy who services my work van so I decided to go have a look , was thinking it was probably a wreck and that I might get some spares off it for the G60.

When I saw it I was more than pleasantly surprised !

Early 1990 G reg 1.8 16v kr in pearl green with grey factory leather interior. Only two previous owners and with full stamped UK service history.

I was amazed by how original and unmolested the car was inside and out , had,nt been messed about with at all like a lot of them ,nice straight bodywork and all trims ,badges ,roof rails present and in good shape. Even the front towing eye cover was intact ! Original sebrings on it with only one centre cap missing . Full original vw exhaust system too.Not lowered either ,actually the suspension looks all genuine original .

Interior also was excellent , leather in great shape overall save for a bit of wear on the drivers side bolster area but not worn through at all . The sunroof interior panel fabric was hanging off to but I wasn't too bothered about that ( ihad a spare one at home.)

Electrically all of the usual things that give trouble on corrado,s were all working for a change , spoiler working in manual and auto ,sunroof tilts and slides ,electric mirrors and windows and central locking all good .

Body was very straight with no sign of previous body repairs , a ding on rear ds arch , some bubbling on the rear arches leading edges and some minor scrapes on both bumpers was all there was to mention.

Mechanically things were not quite as good though,

Engine was starting but running rough with a wildly hunting idle ,

Front brake calipers appeared to be seized,

All four tyres flat and rotten .

 

Anyway money was discussed and at the price agreed I could,nt leave it after me no matter what the plan was,

So myself and a friend collected it and trailered it home .

Gave it a good wash as it was filthy from lying in a shed and then parked it in my garage.

Day I brought it home.

 

[Brian1975 14]

Still was,nt able to drive the car at this point so I had to sort out the engine and brake problems.

So engine got a full going over ,

Engine oil and filter,

Dropped in a k+ N panel filter,

Found a weep in the radiator so replaced with a new rad , fully flushed the system and refilled with fresh coolant .

New low and high oil pressure switches fitted.

Drained the fuel tank and blew out the fuel lines to the metering head , fitted a new fuel pump as the old one was noisy along with a new oe fuel filter.

Found several vacuum leaks due to perished or incorrecly fitted vac hoses so repaired all of them.

New plugs,distributor cap and rotor arm .

The hall sender broke into bits when I took the distributor cap off, it had been bodged together at some point, got a replacement distributor along with a wur after my own was found to be not working due to corrosion build up internally.this solved an issue with cold starting as the wur was,nt enriching the mixture for a cold engine start.

 

Thought I might have had a problem with fuel pressure at one point ,i post a post up on autostadt.ie looking for someone with a K ketronic pressure guage kit, One of the members derek brennan kindly called over to me one Sunday with his pressure guage kit to test the k jetronic system.

Happy to find that I was getting 5 bar system pressure and 3.4 bar control pressure which is pretty much as per factory spec.

Checked engine static timing Inc the cams as it's not hard to fit the timing belt a tooth out on these causing odd running issues ,all good though ,even cam timing chain had little wear.

Set the ignition timing,idle and co level .

 

So after all this I finally had a good running engine.

 

As for the seized front brakes I removed the calipers and managed to free out one of them, the other one had corrosion on the piston though so I ordered a pair of girling 54 caliper rebuild kits off bigred and repaired both calipers , cleaned up the disc,s as they looked pretty new .reassembled all together again , flushed and bled system with fresh dot4.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Brian1975

[Brian1975 14]

Tyres on the car were useless but I had another set of sebrings off the g60 with new Toyo, s so swapped these over and went on its maiden voyage.

Now given that that all the suspension components look like they haven't been replaced in 28 years I was expecting the car to handle like a dog! I was surprised to find this not the case at all , steered very nicely with no wobbling ,vibration, banging or rattling, it actually handles really nicely.

All good elsewhere , engine pulled well ,all gears dropped in nicely ,clutch felt good and brakes decent.

All in all very happy overall.

I think at this point I had made up my mind that I could,nt bring myself to break this car , I just could,nt do it ,it's too honest of a car for that , also there can't be too many of these kr, s left out there now , how many of these were broken in Ireland over the years ?..

Decided that I would keep it for a while and get it legal and enjoy driving and maintaining it as I go , the g60 wont be leaving the shed anytime soon so this will give me my corrado fix in the meantime .

[Brian1975 14]

Few more recent pictures .

Car now registered on irl plates, nct passed ( Irish mot) taxed and insured.

Also fitted a milltek stainless exhaust system after the original developed a crack in the rear box.

 

 

 

 

 

[partybish 10]

Great write up, Car looks really good, with all those jobs you should have a sweet running car for a good while to come!

[Brian1975 14]

Great write up, Car looks really good, with all those jobs you should have a sweet running car for a good while to come!

 

Thank you.

I'm enjoying driving the car atm and it's going really nicely. However I have a list of work that I want to carry out on it as I go .

The plan is keep it looking as standard as possible ,I won't be lowering it or changing wheels or anything like that ,just going to carry out work that will improve and enhance the driving experience .

Including,

Full suspension refresh ,new dampers, top mounts and dust covers,TT rear wishbone bushes ,std front bushes,new ball joints/ track rod ends etc.

Engine mounts ,

280mm front brakes ,

Powdercoat all suspension components ,subframe and front cross member.rear axle etc.

Refurbish the sebrings,new 185/55/15 Tyres.

Repaint bumpers ,fix ding in rear arch and possibly get roof repainted.

 

Interior .

Treat leather with a dye restoration kit.

New sunroof inner lining .

Fit period correct radio stereo .

Fit a short shifter on the rear lever.

[seanl82 23]

Sounds like a good list of jobs to keep you busy!

 

Just a side note, the Tyres are 205/50/15, or you can go down to 195/50/15 as some do and were as standard on the later cars I believe. A 55 profile tyre will put your speedo out slighty, and 185 width is a too narrow for 6.5" wide wheels I reckon

[Brian1975 14]

Sounds like a good list of jobs to keep you busy!

 

Just a side note, the Tyres are 205/50/15, or you can go down to 195/50/15 as some do and were as standard on the later cars I believe. A 55 profile tyre will put your speedo out slighty, and 185 width is a too narrow for 6.5" wide wheels I reckon

I'm open to correction on this but I believe the early 16v,s like mine came with a 185.55.15 tyre.

The original early sales brochure indicates this as does the owners manual. The spare wheel in my car which I don't doubt is the original has a pirelli p6000 tyre in a 185/55/15 on it too.it looks more square on the rim imo as the 195,s on the car look slightly bulbous on the rim.

The sebrings are 6" wide not 6.5" btw.

[spen 0]

Great example Brian, reminds me of my first rado exact same colour and model except for interior I only had cloth, one of the best car's I've ever owned.

[seanl82 23]

Maybe I got it mixed up then and the 195 width were on the early....

 

 

I'm positive the profile is 50 though.

[Brian1975 14]

Few more jobs off the list in the last while.

While the interior seat leather overall was in good condition there were a couple of area,s that were annoying me,

There was wear and scuffing on the drivers seat bolsters and a weird Mark on one of the rear seats !

 

 

 

To attempt to rectify these area,s I contacted gliptone in the UK about one of their leather dye kits.

I sent a sample patch of leather over to them and they made up a bottle of their scuffmaster dye and I ordered a liquid leather car care kit .

 

Went at it today and removed the drivers seat and rear seat lower section .

Found the kit very easy to use and the results speak for them selves .

 

 

 

 

 

[Brian1975 14]

The kit was pretty easy to use once a little research was done and the instructions were followed .

Prep of the leather before applying the dye is key to a good result .

I ended up dyeing the full driver seat , both rear lower seats raised section and the gearshift gaitor .

The rest was fully cleaned and conditioned also.

 

The sunroof inner movable panel material had come off and was looking unsightly . I had a good spare panel from the other car as I had fitted a b4 passat to it.

Finally got around to fitting it ,not a difficult job but a time consuming one, the full headliner has to come off to gain access to the sunroof cassette which also has to be removed to enable the panel to be removed and new one fitted .

I've no pictures of the strip down but here it is completed .

 

[Brian1975 14]

hated the modern head unit that came in the car so was on the look out for something more oem.

Found an original blauptunkt altanta head unit that would have come in my car from the factory on ebay.

Better still it has been fitted with fully integrated Bluetooth module so that I can stream music to it via phone or whatever !

 

[GrahamU 6]

great job

[odub 0]

I like the head unit, especially with the bluetooth

[Brian1975 14]

The Bluetooth works very well actually ,press the "MET" button to select Bluetooth, hold 6 to estlabish a connection to your device. 6 also works as a play/ stop button when bt is in use.

 

There must be a decent output from these old blauptunkt,s ,the sound is really good even on the factory speakers !

[Crimson82 10]

The interior looks nicely maintained.

[Brian1975 14]

'm fitting a set of 280 mm g60 brakes to the corrado in the near future along with a full suspension overhaul.

I had g60 brakes here but they needed a refurb so I stripped them down and got the calipers and carriers blasted and powdercoated in red .when I got them back I lacquered them to retain the finish.

I ordered a caliper rebuild kit from bigredd and reassembled all this evening.

 

 

 

 

[Tjninny 10]

Just reread this post and realised I’d not asked where you got your head unit from - is it refurbished when the BT is added?

[Brian1975 14]

Just reread this post and realised I’d not asked where you got your head unit from - is it refurbished when the BT is added?

 

Hi ,

I bought it off this seller on eBay. He does the Bluetooth conversions also.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F302852268215

[Tjninny 10]

That’s great, thanks.

[Brian1975 14]

Been gathering more parts for the suspension rebuild .

 

Hubs stripped , blasted and powdercoated .

Antiroll bar, rear clamps and front droplinks as above.

Superpro antiroll bar bushing kit.

New genuine wishbones.

New top mounts , lower wishbone joints, track rod ends ,rear axle bushes.

Bilstein B4 dampers.

Selection of genuine bolts and fasteners.

 

 

Still have a few parts on order so as soon as I have everything I need I'll start to strip the front end down .

[lawyer6 10]

Lovely!