ABV-VR6

Today while tidying up I noticed that the connector for the fans was kind of melted... Part number on it is 1H0 973 304. For some reason I can't find any link to that part? Any idea how I can fix this? Also I have another question... I noticed this pieces on top of my strut mounts, there's one on each side. Can someone educate me on what it is please? I noticed one of them is cracked and will need replacing. Cheers!

Alright minor update! Right now I'm prepping the engine for the deep wash. It's not going to be like a respray but should be good enough when I'm finished with it. Yesterday I scrubbed for a couple of hours the radiator support, looks pristine! I also cleaned up the front bumper and waxed it for the long storage. I also tackled my driver edition brake. Got the bearing out of the knuckle which was a little painful without a press. They are ready for powder coat now. Next will be the calipers, I dissembled them already just need a cleanup before the powder coat. Next I'm rolling the car outside for the engine bay clean up.

Nice! Let us know how it goes! I feel like I've seen an old post on this forum explaining how to do the MK4 e-brake swap? But yeah, that plastic e-brake cover looks pretty cheap. Back in the days (about 16/20 years ago) I had created a genuine leather e-brake cover for Corrados that could be installed over the plastic cover. After a lot of tweaking and time I got it just right and started selling them on eBay. I sold over 500 of my kits world wide! I should check to see if I still have the pattern to make one for my car! Anyways, keep us posted!

OMG mate, these are so nice! Good for you! And that GTI 16V so nice in black, mine was white. It's always at that time, first day and someone obnoxious almost ruins the whole thing... You were lucky back then. I have to say that scares me too. I'm already stressing out about getting a rock in my windshield and the car won't be on the road for years lol. Can't find a windshield here anymore... I'll take non Corrado updates anytime! Cheers

Oh absolutely, I lived on the East cost for 30 years with 5 months winter and very salted roads... Never seen a VW without any rust until I moved to the West coast!

I seriously can't believe how little rust is on it. Only a few tiny dots here and there created from a flying rock on the road kind of thing. I've had no problem removing any bolts from it. At first I was thinking of getting all the lower frames powder coated but they look brand new once washed. It certainly passed it's life in a garage under cover and I doubt it was ever driven in the rain. The fact that it is left hand drive in a right hand drive country probably stressed the previous owner/owners so that would explain the low km and probably why it never seen the rain as well...

Yep, not only I never seen a right hand drive Corrado but I also never seen a VR6 with a manual transmission. I've seen 2 G60 manual and that was it.

Yeah I have a friend with a G60 imported from Japan, he has a CAT switch on it. Only Japan got these. Are you aware of any other major differences?

Thanks mate, should be nice and I'm pretty excited! Happy to save one as well... The car is left hand drive for some reason. I think that may explain the low mileage on it as it was in Japan. I think Japanese Corrados were sent from Germany. I never seen a right hand Corrado on the Japanese auction and I've looked at it daily for over two years. That said, I prefer driving on the right hand side, for some reasons it makes more sense to me. I bought a Japanese truck for my business, right hand drive and manual transmission. It took me 2 hours to break 25 years of left hand driving and I just love it! Cheers

Maybe? I though it has something to do with letting air in to cool down something maybe? Don't know!

Oh I totally agree with you, I'll get the longer version. It sure looks odd that way!

And yes, the Corrado is from Japan, that would explain it. It looks oem the way it is but made no sense to me to make it shorter that's why I got confused. How did you know that?? There must be a reasoning behind this, usually Japanese people don't do things for no reason...

Oh that's a good idea the steamer! That's what I'll do thanks keyo

I may have a few questions while I'm looking at it... The rubber seal underneath the bonnet, looking at it on my first picture, you can see there's like a foot missing on the right side. Is it made this way. Close look at the left piece it seems to be cut off perfectly like if it was made this way? Also I bought a new set of insulation foams to go under the bonnet, what do you guys do with the previous glue left? Do you remove it or just stick the one ones over it?

Thanks Keyo, that's kind of you. It's satin silver, may be the lighting in my garage? I'm pretty excited about this project and I have to say you've been a great inspiration to me. Cheers!

Yes they are very expensive new but barely used on Yahoo Japan they are affordable! I've seen a nice set "9/10" a couple of months ago going for $800 Canadian, 520 British Pounds

Well with all that world craziness we experiment right now, I find myself with free time to finally present to you mates my project. A bit on myself: I'm a general contractor and I like to undertake projects (obviously) lol. The Corrado has been a dream for me to own for 19 years, finally realized that dream about 6 months ago or so. Where I grew up on the East cost of Canada, owning a Corrado meant you needed two cars and I could never afford that. So I've compromised with a GTI 16V back in the days. This was my first experience working on a car and pretty much the only one. I've done nothing remotely close to what I'm about to undertake with this Corrado. Back in the days I basically bought parts and the mechanic would do the job for me so I got an understanding of what parts was doing what in the car but that's about it. And after is was completed, I moved to the West coast and sold the car after driving it for a couple of months only... I've had the itch ever since (15 years passed under the bridge)... Growing up on the East cost means that I'm French Canadian so you'll have to bare with me with my English! Fun stuff now, about the car: It's a 1995 VR6 which is very rare here, I think about 200 of them were sent to Canada 25 years ago. I wanted a pristine example for my project, something solid, rust free and low km. Hard to find these days. I could not find anything locally after years so I took a different approach and imported one. It took me about two years to score the one that checked all the boxes. So it's silver on black, pretty much stock other than the airbox, headers, stereo and front lights. It has only 105km (65 miles) on a 2.9L with absolutely no rust on the frame. Everything works on it to my surprise. A solid base to start. So I live in a " project" house and I have a young son plus my work takes a lot of my time... That's where the "long term project" is coming from. I don't know how long it will take and how much time I will have for it so updates may be not that frequent. Also I'm doing all the work myself so it's going to be an adventure for me. My plan is to remove the engine to start and continue with a deep scrub of the engine bay and slowly put everything back with new almost "everything" OEM+. I've removed the engine last week hence my first post since I have materials to show now. I've watch Charles "humblemechanic" on youtube with his MK3 VR6 project and pretty much figured out how to do the engine removal from there. Only disappointment for me is the car is automatic. I've bough a manual Passat VR6 parts car and got all the parts needed for the conversion. So that will be done as well. What I'm thinking of doing after the cleanup is paint the block and transmission, get the head refurbished, installed a Polo/02J shifter. new chains, motor mounts, Samco coolant hose, all new sensors, all new bushings, all new brakes (got the DE edition from the Passat) and MK4 rears with stainless lines. I'm also planning on converting to non-abs and deleting the A/C. It will also need a new exhaust line. I'll slowly buy parts and go from there. It's hard to get parts here, there's no vwheritage and Canadian dollar is worth .65 pounds right now plus crazy expensive shipping and duty makes this project very costly. Another reason for me to do the job myself to save on labor but also because like I said, I like project lol. Anyways, I want to thank this community, few guys here were awesome at responding to my questions and felt a real sense of community and I very much enjoy. Cheers! Few pictures of the car. I hope you enjoy!

Looking good and nice project as usual! I sure do like the Japan Racing wheels and the black Schrick that easypops posted gets my vote! If I may suggest another wheel option, I think you may like the BBS RG-F, model RG383. They're like the LM's but in one piece and 16" ET35 https://bbs-japan.co.jp/en/products/1241/ Cheers and keep up to good work!

I learn so much by reading you guys posts, thank you! I'll be checking my drains as well just for maintenance and I sure didn't know about the intermittent wipers either. I hope you get your leak sorted out! Share a picture once you get it re-sprayed too! Cheers

Oh man, I just read your last update. That kind of made me sad to see you were considering selling the car. Why?? You've done so much work and a huge investment to get it to this point. It's one of the nicest car out there and I though you were going to keep it forever! Anyways, good luck with your next steps. Cheers

Okay so a picture is worth a thousand words they say... That's a staggered setup 16x9 ET21 rear and 16x7.5 ET10, this to me looks perfect: https://forums.fourtitude.com/showthread.php?7470505-Schmidt-modern-line-wheels-5x100-16x9-et-21-and-16x7-5-et-10-with-205-40-16-tires-all-around-2900-obo Then there's a square setup all 16x9 ET25 front and ET15 rear just like shiftkid's setup and that looks perfect too. Although I'm kind of skeptical with a 9" rim in the front but it seems to work: https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?6997330-FS-Highly-Modified-Multiple-Award-Winning-1992-VW-Corrado-SLC-Turbo&highlight=French+European+SLC And then there's a discussion about mounting a 205 tyre on a 9" rim. And the picture that shows it, the stretch on the tyre is WAY to much for my liking. https://rennlist.com/forums/wheel-and-tire-forum/291556-205-wide-tire-on-a-9-rim.html This is what I don't understand. Why does the tyres on the first 2 links mounted on a 9" wheels looks fine but on the third link it's way to much stretch? Just the tyre structure? Even the guy a Schmidt told me not to install a 205 on their 9" wheel, he said minimum 215 and even so it will be very stretched. Also wondering how much work is involved on the fenders to make it happen? That's why I'm confused, there's so much mixed reviews/thinking on this... If the wheels were cheap to buy I guess I would not care as much but at the price they are I can't afford to mess this up...

One more thing, so I did found someone who has your setup, 9" front and rear, same ET and this is just what I'm looking for. He has the schmidt modern line like I want too. What I find weird is 9" seems way to wide, with that calculator, it's over 2" pass the fenders. But looking at the pictures, it doesn't. And also a 205 tyre on a 9" seems so stretched but on is pictures, it doesn't look too crazy. Even the schmidt guy told me 205 was not wide enough for a 9". So with your setup, did you do lots of work on your fenders to make it happen?

Amen to that! Yeah, it's a love/hate relationship. I hope you find your problem soon, I wish I could guide you toward a solution but I'm afraid you know more than me. I'll cross my fingers on the coming full moon while touching wood, hopefully that does something! :) Cheers mate

Thank you for getting back to me, much appreciated. I know, why is there measurements in inch and mm?? Your explanation make sense and made me understand a bit more how it works. I feel like its pretty much guess work to a certain extend... Because you're right on another point, threads on a tyre can vary greatly and yes no two tyres are the same... It's giving me a headache ;) For now I'm thinking about 16x7.5 ET20 all around. I'll try do find more pictures of Corrados with wheels specs to help me out. There was a nice thread on Vortex but 80% of the pictures are long gone... Cheers!