Dave's '91 Corrodo G60

[Thursdave 10]

Hi folks, figured I best start a build thread considering I'm hoping to have my rust bucket up and running by the end of the month.

 

She's become known (somewhat affectionately) at work as the Corrodo, due to a certain amount of rust that was on there when I bought it.

 

I've always liked the styling of the Corrado, and while I was looking for a reasonably fun second car, a friend at work mentioned one of his friends had one for sale.

 

One visit to see it and I'd caught the bug! left after bartering a bloody excellent deal, and then just had to work out how to justify it to the wife!

 

Here she is as she was when I got her: http://imgur.com/a/cbLi6

 

She's clearly been loved by the previous owner - loads of history, some spares in the boot (including a full spare spare BBS alloy wheel (the normal 'spare' is a full BBS alloy too, so that makes 6 total!) good tyres all around and a lovely little notebook which the guy had written down the mileage dates and quantities of all his petrol to work out the MPG. It's this stuff that clued me in it'd be worth a punt at making it road legal again.

 

Once I got my grubby mits on it, I took it to see a mechanic friend and put it up in the air to see what it might need.

 

front subframe was knackered, heater matrix had gone, rear axle had seen much better days brakes on all four corners were either seized or generally poor.

 

There's a bit of rust on the OS sill near the A pillar, and both wings needed changing, ideally.

 

Oh, and it had a massive battery drain (most likely due to the aftermarket alarm system on it) - so bad it had a battery isolation switch in the engine bay).

 

I managed to find a good condition front subframe on ebay and managed to get that fitted (with the help of aforementioned mechanic friend) and then set about trying to change the heater matrix.

 

People who have done it without removing the dash, I salute you. you must be bloody contortionists to be able to do that.

 

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (and a helpfull phonecall from the brilliant John Mitchell of JMR) I decided to bite the bullet and remove the dash.

 

"At least then I can take the crappy alarm system out while I'm there!" Thinks I.

 

The horror of the rats nest of wiring awaited me.

 

http://imgur.com/a/cbLi6

 

I was very lucky - the alarm had already been deactivated, so it didn't 'work', however the battery drain was still there.

 

After a nerve wracking weekend - where I found out that if the dash panel isn't connected, the car wont start, it's not that you've cut the wrong wire - I managed to get the old alarm system removed, the heater matrix changed, and everything back together.

 

Once that was done (and while the dash was out) I removed the floor carpets in preparation for welding on the sill, and to give them a bloody good wash.

 

If you've not washed your carpets before, please, do it. I managed to borrow the industrial pressure washer from work, and using a very low heat (30 degrees for synthetics, just like the washing machine) I started work. Two rinses with water only to remove the 20 years of accumulated dirt and grime, then copious amounts of fabric cleaner, scrub that in, then rinse out, wet vac to get the worst of the water out, and leave it somewhere warm until its dry.

 

I've not put the carpets back in yet as I'm waiting on someone to weld the sill for me, but they're easy enough to remove.

 

As it stands at the moment, I've started changing the brake components - the rear brake discs and pads have been changed for new, and the calipers have been changed for the Mk4 golf ones.

 

The front brakes are sat in the boot, as I tried to change them the other weekend and found the caliper carrier was fused to the hub carrier on the nearside.

 

Fortunately, the nearside hub carrier/knuckle is available still from VW, and that's arrived safe and sound now.

 

I've also got new front wheel hubs, bearings, shock absorbers and top mounts ready to fit this weekend - While cosmetically it may be wanting, mechanically it'll be as good as new.

 

Remaining jobs - Change the fuel tank staps (rusty!)

Change the rear axle and fit new bushes into the new(er) axle.

Finish painting the OS front wing

Weld a patch onto the OS sill

Replace the bonnet cable

replace the front carpets and fit new underlay (andele andele ariba ariba!) which VW Heritage happily release just as I needed it.

Drill out centre headlight screws to change a few bulbs (and properly fit uprated headlight loom)

Save up money for a charger rebuild (just to be on the safe side)

 

I'm debating changing the rear shock absorbers too, just to be thorough, but I'm still undecided on that.

 

I'm taking it on a trip to the Nurburgring later this year with a group of friends, one of whom has a Peugeot 405 Mi16, which will be interesting to see how they both fair!

 

I'll try and keep this thread updated as I go, but I didn't think to take pictures of most of the work as I was doing it.

 

cheers all,

Dave

[Thursdave 10]

Time for an update, as things are progressing! So since my last post in this thread a lot of things happened, firstly, I got it up and running and commuted in it for a few months before the fuel bills became unmanageable and had to get a diesel snotter for the daily commute. Then, off to the nurburgring!

 

 

The eagle eyed among you will notice some fresh looking oil spots under my engine bay, sadly none of the four is us on the trip did, which resulted in this just into Belgium (after using ALL the spare oil waiting for the ferry, then some more at the petrol station in France as well...)

 

 

The oil pressure sensor failed and leaked all my oil away. Managed to get it fixed at a vw garage just outside Bruges (ADAC cover was amazing, no hassles whatsoever getting it recovered to there) and picked it up on the way back, where I used it occasionally over the weekends etc, and a trip to Silverstone for the British GP as well.

 

Didn't do much to it over last winter apart from get the rear axle bushes changed, and did the cambelt and water pump (and 4 new yoko parada tyres after a nasty few miles in the wet one night!)

 

All too soon it was time for a second attempt to the green hell. I was feeling confident, it'd not given me any issues for months (apart from some wayward steering).

 

 

First stop and alls well. Fluids checked each and every time we stopped on the journey, I wasn't taking any risks.

Then, after a stay on Ghent (whose cobbled streets turned out to be the death knell for my top strut mounts :( ) it was time.

 

 

I did it. 13.16 bridge to gantry. Not bad for a 25 year old car did given by a 'ring virgin who was terrified of crashing.

 

Then home and an uneventful couple of months while I tried to ignore my mates complaints about a lot of crap coming out the exhaust and a lack of power (and lack of mpg which lead to my friends red mx5 being been bumped into in hull on the way back from to ring) I managed to blag the use of a friends lockup after he moved to a new house with a garage, which left it at the end of October looking like this:

 

Then once a compression tester had been borrowed and time made to do the test and check up on the lockup just before Christmas, my fears were confirmed.

 

Cylinder 1: 105 psi.

Cylinder 2: 110 psi.

Cylinder 3: 105 psi.

Cylinder 4....

Well, the picture speaks for itself.

 

 

The reading jumped up to 240ish psi when a bit of oil was dribbled into the cylinder, so the piston rings have gone.

 

Reading up, 'normal' compression is around 160psi, so all of the piston rings are kaput. Looks like that brief stint without enough oil has seriously damaged the engine. Shame.

 

It does, however, make my time of 13:16 around the 'ring slightly more impressive....

 

 

I've now decided to make a proper project of it - It's out of the weather and safe, so now it's time to make it as good as it can be. I'll be sorting the engine out, either rebuild, replace with a refurbished G60 engine, or maybe transplanting it for something else, not sure yet, fixing all the little niggles on the body - a few patches of rust, bad condition paint, etc etc and generally tidying it up, probably with a few choice performance tweaks, pending a long chat to John and Troy at JMR.

 

At the moment, she's locked up in the dark while I save for a new engine for it though, but I'll try and remember to take pictures as things happen to it, Watch this space!

Edited December 29, 2016 by Thursdave