My Nugget Yellow Valver - Ongoing Restoration Project

[Sideways Steve 10]

I have always wanted one of these ever since I was right into VAG stuff after passing my test, however I ended up bitten by the Jap car bug so never did get around to owning one.

 

Shes a 1990 VW Corrado 16v in Nugget Yellow

 

Additionally this one was fitted with optional full leather interior which is a bonus !

 

I picked this car up over in Edinburgh off of a Scottish Vag member and it comes with FULL VAG history, thousands of £'s worth of receipts and has only covered 3-4k miles per year resulting in an extremely low mileage of just 100,000 miles. Unfortunately back at the end of last year the heater matrix exploded but due to a back injury he was unable to sort it so it has sat off the road for the last 7 months or so.

 

The result of this was that the car looked extremely tatty when I collected it, it didnt run right at all and the yellow was extremely faded in places. Some of his friends had tried to help out by doing some bits and bobs to the car for him but again this was not great and I have basically had to strip it inside and out and sort everything properly.

 

I have managed to get 3 full days on it and it has paid off.

 

Day one consisted of me stripping back the whole interior and dash etc to allow me to fix the blown heater matrix and properly clean up all of the leather. Whilst I had the dash in bits I removed the remains of the original alarm system as it had been disconnected and replaced with a clifford unit. I also tidied up all of the wiring loom behind the dash and under the drivers side as it was a complete dogs dinner. Lots of missing and incorrect bolts and screws were replaced and all of the interior trim panels were re fitted correctly resulting in the interior looking like new again

 

Day two was time to get the Outside looking as good as the inside, so with the loan of a machine polisher and some cracking weather I got stuck in, I genuinley thought I may have to fork out for a respray due to some of the fading but I was lucky and must have caught it just in time as about 95% of the paintwork all came up back to near perfect ! Now that the car was looking like much less of an eyesore sitting in my parents driveway I decided to turn my attention to the ride height. The car had recently had a set of new coilovers fitted before it went off the road but the previous owner had decided to sacrafice handling for looks and slammed it as low as it would go. I like my cars low but there has to be a limit and the Corrado was well past that limit ! I free'd up all of the coilover platforms and got the rideheight sorted. I gave the engine bay a good pressure washing next as I knew I was now going to have to spend some time under the hood. I charged up the flat battery throughout the day so decided before giving up for the night I would see if it would start. It spluttered to life but sounded very sick and would not rev or idle properly. I instantly thought I knew the cause from my previous VW experiences and was pleased that when I moved back the inlet pipe to the throttle body I was presented with the ripped joiner I was expecting to see. This meant removing it from the car and carrying out a repair procedure I know of but did also mean it would have to set overnight before I could refit it so that brought day 2 to an end.

 

Day 3 started off in the workshop with me checking out how the previous nights repair had worked out. As expected it was spot on so I got straight back under the bonnet and fitted the now repaired pipe. I also noticed some damaged vac pipework that was leaky and improperly connected so replaced this at the same time. After a quick check over my fluid levels and manually bleeding the cooling system it was time to go for attempt 2 at starting it up to see if it ran any better with the air leak sorted. On the second rotation of the engine it sprung stairght into life and sounded 100 times better than before but still not quite right and still felt boggy on pressing the pedal. I knew that the car had a brand new distributor fitted so instantly thought the cause was that the timing was probably not set right I let the temp come up and after ensuring that the heater matrix was now leak free I got out the timing light and adjusted that correctly. It turned out to be well out and as soon as it was set to the correct 6 degrees BTDC the revs picked up and it started to idle much more smoothly. Now that it was running well and revving freely it was time to fix the exhaust system which was leaking very badly and banging off the bottom of the car. I got underneath and removed it all from the car, a few tweaks were made to hangers etc then I cleaned it all up and got it all bolted back on properly without too much hassle.

 

I have a few more bits and bobs to do but overall she is up and running and back on the road where she belongs !

 

Here are some photos for you all, they are not the best as were taken on my phone and the car was still not fully cleaned up but I will add better pictures later.

 

 

 

 

 

[CraigOrtiz 0]

Cracking car mate, can't say no to a nugget!

[KIPVW 0]

Yeah good work there sir! :) nice to see another Nugget getting some serious tlc.

[Sideways Steve 10]

Thanks chaps,

 

Some more up to date photos for you -

 

 

 

Next up is sorting the active spoiler and the MFA as I have a faulty VSS sensor on the speedo head so have managed to get a full set of clock off someone on here. Just waiting for them to be sent out now and hopefully all will be well once again !

[kirade 0]

great work, and good to see another Corrado saved.

[Sideways Steve 10]

Well its not out of the woods yet but its running well and is looking far better than it did so I am happy for now.

 

I really need to address the paintwork as the sides have been blown over at some point to allow the rub strips to be taken off. The paint used has not been of as good a quality as teh original stuff and as a result its faded. I have machine buffed it all as above but its still not 100% and I am very picky about things like that.

 

I think I will keep it waxed up for now but aim to sort the light rust bubbles around the windscreen and touch up any other bits then see about getting the whole car flatted back and blown over.

 

One of my friends is very good with a spray gun and has a heated garage where hes painted a few cars now so It could be a plan for some time in the winter I think.

 

I am now on the hunt for some helper springs for a set of TA Technix Coilovers as when they were fitted the last owner had the car set super low and did not fit the rear helper springs. Now that I have raised it again the adjustment is right on its limit so I need the helper springs to sort it out properly.

[Sideways Steve 10]

Swapped over the speedo hall sender on my lunch break just there and I now have a fully working MFA again and more importantly the spoiler works automatically again :) RESULT !

[Sideways Steve 10]

Well I was over at my parents in Fife for the weekend with my fiancee and our Husky as it was the Inverkeithing highland games so the plan was to fix a small coolant leak on Friday morning then enjoy some cold beers for the rest of the weekend at the games.

 

On Friday morning we jumped in the Corrado and headed to see Ex VW Motorsport Tech Ralph Payne down at the HMS Caledonia as he has a small workshop there where he does the odd tune up and tinkers with nice cars.

 

Due to the nature of the location of his workshop you must call in advance and book in so that he can ensure you get security clearance at the gate and that the nice man with the gun wont shoot you :)

 

Once we got in Ralph was waiting, I had not seen him in years but used to use him for tune ups when I had my Mk2 Golf's. He is a true specialist unlike some of the ones out there who claim to be these days, Raplh was part of the original VW Motorsport team back in the days when they used to rally Mk2 Golfs and Audi Quattros. Not many people realise but he actually wrote most of the VW tech manuals for K-jet and such like so he certainly knows his stuff.

 

Although I do all my car related work myself I dont have the emmisions machine hence needed to use a garage for that which is where Ralph comes into it :) First thing he said was "god this is a blast from the past, its been years since I have seen a Corrado" and with that he was straight in and had the bonnet up to start looking about and getting ready to sort out the timing and fuelling.

 

He carried out the tune up and commented that she was running sweeter than hes seen in a long time with an HC level of just 130. Not bad for a 21 year old car ! The CO2 level was sitting solid once he adjusted it and again he commented that its good to see a car that doesnt have fluctuating values especially of this age.

 

After he had finished the tune up and ajusted the idle and timing etc we had a general chat about all sorts of VW related stuff at which point his curiosity got the better of him and he asked " do you mind if I stick it on the ramp for a look at it properly ?"

 

I was more than happy to let him so up she went, he popped underneath and stood in amazement pointing and saying how it was amazing to see one in such good condition and that it had clearly been very well looked after.

 

By this point my head was swelling up and I was chuffed to bits with his comments as I know how picky he is when it comes to VW's of this era. He dropped it back down and thanked me for bringing it in to see him at which point it was time to pay him for his services. A total price of ......... £10 !

 

I have to say the drive home was fantastic, it pulled so much better and was sounding sweet. Best £10 I have ever spent !

 

---------- Post added at 09:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 AM ----------

 

When I got home I got stuck in and sorted the leak I had from the coolant flange on the side of the head, I then popped down to uPullit as I heard they had a tidy mk3 GTI that had just come in and I wanted to get a set of stalks to retro fit to the C.

 

Sure enough there was a very clean black GTI sitting there and I got stuck in, managed to get a near enough brand new coolant header tank, stalks including MFA, Leather VW manual cover and a full set of Genuine VW black car mats for a mere £12 !

 

Nipped back to my parents and fitted the new parts then flushed and bled the cooling system with some nice new coolant. Took the car for a quick spin with all its new bits and all was well so decided that was enough for the day and that I would sort the clunking exhaust in the morning before going to the highland games which meant we could enjoy the sunny afternoon and get started on the beers !

 

After a night of consuming alchohol I woke up fairly fresh so headed out to get in about the exhaust.

 

It was clunking on the rear hanger mainly due to worn rubbers and the hanger being twisted. I removed the crap rubbers and drilled out the bolt holding the rear hanger in place. This allowed me to straighten it and re fit using a nice new bolt which would allow any future removeal with ease !

 

Once the new hanger was on I fitted the brand new OE rubbers I had bought, they were super tight to get on but once fitted the exhaust sat perfectly and was nicely tucked up with very little movement resulting in no more banging !

 

At that point we decided we fancied an ice cream so jumped in and headed up to Dunfermline, the drive up was brilliant with no more nasty knocking noises. As we pulled up outside the ice cream place I got a whiff of coolant and noticed the water temp had crept up a bit. Next thing I know theres steam coming from the drivers side of the bonnet ...... oh dear

 

As soon as I jumped out I could see coolant pouring from the water pump area so instantly knew it had decided to fail.

 

We jumped back in and managed to get it home without it overheating and luckily the local motor factors happened to have a QH pump in stock for £21. I jumped in my dads car and went for the pump but by this time we were due to be heading out to the games so when I returned I managed to get the old pump out fairly quickly then left it in bits so we could go out.

 

After the games had finished I decided I wanted to get the new pump fitted (never a great plan once you have had some beer but it needed done) so back out to teh car I went and got stuck in again. Managed to eventually get it all back together and once again bled the cooling system with yet more new coolant. This time it seemed to bleed faster so I wonder if the old pump was always a bit iffy.

 

Obviously at this point it was time for a road test but as I had had a few that would have to wait for the following day.

 

When sunday came, so did the rain and when I went out to the car to take it for a spin I was faced with an indoor swimming pool in my drivers footwell !

 

The windscreen has been replaced at some point and someone had damaged the rubber seal and tried to bodge it with silicon. I managed to scrape that all out and get it cleaned up which then allowed me to use some proper sealant to sort it. I then had to use the wet hover to suck up about 3 litres of water from my carpet followed by carefully using the heat gun to dry the remainder out.

 

A quick test with the hose revealed the re seal had worked just fine.

 

So yet another handfull of jobs completed, but just goes to show you cant always plan ahead when you own a Corrado !!!

[dogger 10]

Very clean! Seems more rare to see yellow Corrados in good condition and unmolested.

[Sideways Steve 10]

What a weekend !

 

Well I have had the suspicion over the last couple of weeks that something was still not quite right with the Raddo as it was very lumpy on cold start and I suspected that the HG was starting to go and that it had also been the root cause of all the cooling system issues I was having.

 

I had a journey up to Aberdeen last week for work and as I passed Dundee my coolant level light came on for the second time since sorting out the water pump etc.

 

What with having no visible leaks anymore I topped it up and continued on my journey. When I arrived at my hotel I decided to let the car cool then nipped back out and popped out the plugs to have a wee peek down the bores and see if I could see anything.

 

The 4 plugs were all pretty similar in colour however plugs 2 & 3 were a bit damper looking than the rest. When I peered into the bores of cylinders 2 & 3 I could see fluid sitting on top of the pistons.

 

With being away and not having any proper tools with me I found a long thin stick and poked it into the fluid so I could try and determine if it was oil or water. Sure enough it was nice fresh coolant which confirmed my suspicions were correct !

 

What has actually been happening is that when the engine cools the coolant seeps through the HG into the two bores mentioned but when the engine warms up and the heat causes the components to expand it seals the leak again hence why I was only loosing small amounts of fluid at a time and nothing was majorly overheating or over pressurising !

 

I had planned to be doing my clutch on Saturday anyway so decided it would be the best solution to just pull the whole engine out and do the HG and the clutch and give all the parts a damn good clean including the bits in the engine bay you can’t normally get to easily.

 

I drove home the next day from Aberdeen and left the car at my parents in Inverkeithing. My dad was off on Friday afternoon so he got started and pulled off the front end in preparation for removing the engine and box when I came over on Saturday.

 

As planned on Sat morning I got stuck in and had the engine and box removed and stripped down within a couple of hours. The HG was completely pumped and was actually showing signs of leaking not only into the bores but also out of the back of the block as well !

 

With the head off I cleaned everything up ensuring the faces on both the block and the head were nice and clean with no old gasket residue still attached. I checked the head for flatness to ensure it hadn’t warped and then reassembled it to the block with the nice new gasket and bolts I had bought during the week in preparation. At this point I also had the gearbox off and discovered that I was extremely lucky to have decided to stop driving the car !

 

The clutch was right down to the rivets but more worryingly when the clutch wears down that much the fingers of the pressure plate begin to protrude further out than normal and contact the gearbox bell housing which takes big chunks of metal out of it !!! I reckon if the car had been driven much further it would have actually broken through the gearbox casing and destroyed the gearbox !

 

There was a load of oily residue all over parts of the engine and box so I took this opportunity to blast it all with degreaser and pressure wash it all. The whole lot came up a treat and made putting it all back together a far cleaner job than removal !

 

Once it was all reassembled I also decided to fit my polished 50mm inlet manifold which had been lying about in the garage since I collected the car.

 

All the new parts fitted and with the front back together it was time to fill with fresh fluids then go for a start up.

 

As I had the fuel system in bits to swap over the injectors to the new manifold I had to crank it over a bit before it finally fired and sprung into life, but the best bit was that when it did fire up there was no more misfiring and lumpy idle ! RESULT !

 

After letting it all come up to temp and checking the fan cut in I took it round the block for a quick test drive. It now runs sooooo much smoother and the new clutch is awesome, I’m still trying to get used to it biting so well now though as the pedal feel has changed completely!

 

For now once again I have a healthy happy Corrado :)

[Sideways Steve 10]

Well here's some photos my dad took whilst I was refitting the pulleys. I'll remember to take more next time for you all If I'm doing anything to it as I know folk like pics !! :)

 

 

 

[Toohottotrot 10]

Looking good, I love yellow cars and the Corrado looks great with the black leather.