GrahamU

more great work

All coming together nicely

Looks great 👌

Sure I remember the TVR dash up for sale some time ago

5 hours ago, oneohtwo said:

Thanks everyone!

I did make it yep! I found a company called Easy Composites who do some very good tutorial videos and supply everything, which made it all look quite straightforward (because they're experts! 🤔) so thought I could give it ago. Turns out it's extremely unforgiving and mistakes were made. 

 When I initially budgeted things I thought it was reasonably affordable (not cheap by any means but not unattainable), but that didn't factor in the mistakes and having to buy extra materials, and a lot of consumables, so I don't think it's something to do on a budget. This one was my third attempt, and my second mould so it did rack up a bit. Fortunately I am lucky enough to have the resources so that I could carry on, but for a while I did wonder if I was just throwing good money after bad. 

Thanks! I don't think you need any particular skills or talent to do it, just a lot of patience and perseverance, plus a bit of technical knowledge. I started doing this last Feb... and as mentioned had to do two moulds, and three attempts at the final part so it was extremely trying at times.

I do now have a mould and when I started I partly had in mind that I could make some for others if it went well. However, given how stressful the whole thing was I am less keen 😂. I'm also in the process of moving house as well as trying to finish my rebuild so certainly not for a while. It's not just making the part, but positioning all the holes that is difficult, I've already missed a few a bit and had to enlarge them, tweak them here and there to get to fit - properly you'd make a template/jig, but I don't really have the facilities to do this. So I don't know. I may revisit this in future.

I did give this a lot of thought before setting out, and I came to the conclusion that it's not really part of the crash structure - as Sean says it's quite lightweight and only really supports the rad. The bumper member is I believe the main crash structure. It is a large rectangular section so will carry far more load than the rad support and spans between the chassis legs - that will be taking the majority of load in a crash and transferring it to the monocoque. The actual engine cross member supporting the engine is much beefier as well, so will do more, although I have a feeling that in a major accident the bolts securing onto the chassis legs may well shear so that it drops down. The bumper is locked into the chassis if this happens, so again seems to be doing most of the work - that said having looked at my bumper, it's pretty rotten, with some sizable holes in it... 😬

The carbon fibre piece should be about equivalent in strength and stiffness to the steel original, as they two materials have similar properties, give or take, and the recommendation is to make the carbon piece a similar thickness to the original part. It is actually possible to flex the steel piece by hand in places even though it feels weighty. 

Only area of concern is when the bumper bolts are removed and the crossmember is fixed to the rad support only via the single middle M8 bolt - I have done a rough calc based on the weight of the engine and some known properties of carbon fibre at the more conservative end of the scale (structural engineer by trade), and I see no reason why it shouldn't do the job like the steel one. However, that doesn't account for the vagaries of the production process, and I can't really test it to destruction to make sure - so just to be on the safe side I have had a couple of steel brackets fabricated to sit under the carbon fibre which should provide some additional support. Will always prop the engine anyway so should be fine.

 

 

 

At work we have a carbon shop that was fully certified to make aero parts and I have suggested we make some panels many times but its always been rejected by management (they know best 🤦‍♂️) they have now sold the huge autoclave we had and bought a couple of small ones the size of an domestic oven because we only make steering wheels now (check out the Aston Vulcan, Valkyrie, BMW GT4, Porsche GT3, 4, AML GT3 to name a few 😉 And yes, I do have a Porsche wheel that I keep thinking about fitting)

I wish we still had the big autoclave so I could get the guys to make a few bits and pieces like this

You have chosen to go with the speedlines then ?

OMG, thats brilliant, Great job 

Do you have a mould for it now?

Couple of purchases this week, got one driveshaft from Epytec, has the spline for the dsg CV one end and the Corrado outer CV spline on the other end 🙂 this is from their 02M box setup

They dont have the short shaft because its shorter than the 02M version so I have a guy that can sort that, either that cut and weld 2 together or hopefully he will take the mk5 short shaft and machine the corrado spline on that

Also got these  from eBay

With the change to the Passat stalks I need to have an alternative for the hazard switch and this from a T4 is just a touch smaller than the Corrado dash switches but will fit in one of the blank spaces, thought I'd use the single rear screen heater switch that came with it as it uses the same connector 🙂 

21 hours ago, Cressa said:

. Did you not fancy using the estate version?  

I have deleted the rear wiper so the saloon works better for what I need, there isn't the option to push the stalk back as you would with one that has the rear wiper 🙂

Thanks for the kind words, I just hope it all works in the end 😁

This weeks update

Not much done lately 😞

But have modified the steering column to allow me to fit the stalks from a Passat B6 saloon (no rear wiper on the saloon 😉 ) basically welded on a couple of plates that the stalks bolt onto

and tried is in the car

Next stage is to wire in the steering control module

And one final update today, because I have the BCM from the mk5 I am also fitting the stalks so I am now looking at the wiper motor which means I can also look at auto wipers with this little sensor 

And in other news

So much of what I am fitting needs the ABS, my first thought was to use an Arduino to replicate the CAN messages but decided that I could use a real one, well at least most of it as I dont want the full ABS fitted.

The EPB, DSG, ECM, gateway and cluster all need the CAN data from the ABS, and hopefully with the front wheel speed sensors fitted the milage will work for the cluster so I can feed that into the MoTeC display.

A little trip to my local breakers and I picked up the ECU from the ABS of a Passat that has the electric park brake. Stripped it from the hydraulic and grabbed the cable as well

Stripped it down to remove all the coils, put it back into its housing and put a back onto it.

Checked to make sure I have the data and its working 🙂

Got hold of the cup holder for the dash

Quite happy with how it looks

Sold

Made a start on my dash insert.

This was my first attempt some time ago, the climate is too big and needed the ask tray trimming which was never gonna look right

My plan is to use the radio aperture of the Corrado and add a cup holder and the climate control mount then with whats left use for a couple of USB ports, 1 that goes directly into the rado and another for charging

this is what I started with

First stage was to cut the mk4 part into pieces

I then stitched together the cup holder to the top of the climate using a soldering iron to plastic weld them

Cut out the old ashtray and lighter and trimmed the edges to allow the mk4 plastic to fit onto it

Then stitched it all together

and finished up with this

10 minutes ago, tonedef said:

Thanks, I like that, it looks like a decent fit, I’m just not sure about losing the ashtray/lighter even though one’s not used and the other has been replaced with a usb socket. Plus there’s the second din slot I don’t need...I see this is going to need thinking about?

I know what you mean, I don't need the double din either but with mine being an early dash, my thinking is that the vents are larger, and with the climate in place I already have to modify the ashtray and the lighter surround so with the added space for the cup holder the height wont be far off with maybe enough room for a small panel with the USB chargers in it

Nice work on the airbag, how you connecting the horn plate?

I had to make up a panel that bolted to the back of the wheel so it used the same slip ring as the corrado, problem was it then covered the holes to pop the airbag panel off, so dont forget before you pop the airbag on 😉

7 hours ago, tonedef said:

I was looking at one of these the other day with a view to doing something the same. My Climatronic panel doesn’t always stay put in the console. How well does this fit into the Corrado dash?

I'll get some pics of mine up as I do it but these are some pics that have given me the inspiration, they are from Tam on here but taken from Facebook

Of course these pics are for a late dash whereas mine will be an early

36 minutes ago, Cressa said:

A very sad looking windscreen less Corrado,  awaiting  painting and sealing. 

2nd time lucky for this windscreen. 

Was it you I saw had a rattle from the screen then a crack appeared?

Not great to have it out after all your work

And after seeing some good work on ebay, I copied their idea 😊 and will use this to modify the center trim and fit my radio, climate control and a cup holder better

Latest purchased from ebay, had been quoted £100 each when I asked at a breakers, there were some cheaper on ebay then these came up and I got them for £28.50.

Will check them over and maybe give them a service before fitting.

Just need to progress this now so I can get some pictures up of them fitted 😁

On 11/2/2020 at 11:08 PM, fla said:

Graham? Any advice on how to remove the airbag module completely from the frame without it blowing up in my face? It also weighs a fair bit! Thanks. Hasan

 

Edit:  Found this link on how to remove.  I'll try and use something else to hold the tabs in place to remove the cage though as opposed to cutting them off.

https://www.golfmkv.com/forums/index.php?threads/diy-replace-and-remove-airbag-cover.125838/

That link pretty much shows what I did, 

Mine had not blown, from memory, the plastic cover is clipped on, once that was removed I took out the bag then unbolted the explosive.

I still have the explosive in the garage, have been thinking about a controlled experiment 😁

1 hour ago, fla said:

I've got the same wheel, yet to be fitted but replaced the gti badge with a plain insert. 

I am looking to change the badge with either a plain one or maybe speak to renewert on facebook and see if he can make a Corrado badge to fit it 🙂

The wheel from the mk7 golf / caddy / polo etc is not longer any good for what I need because it does not have the shift paddles

This had been modified to use the Corrado horn plate and is up in the for sale section if anyone is interested

So picked up this from a mk5 GTI, has the paddles and slightly better grips 😁

Sold

Before I put this on ebay, anyone interested in a steering wheel from a Golf / caddy

Been modified to work with the Corrado / Golf 2 / 3 horn. Airbag cage only inside to make horn work, no bag or explosive

Looking for £90 posted