My long term VR6 Project

[ABV-VR6 12]

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!


 

[Cressa 43]

That is definitely going to keep you busy. Good luck with it. 

[Keyo 47]

Good luck mate sounds like you do have a good base there. Is that Saturn Silver, great color for a Rado. If you ever get really stuck for a part I'm sure we can help you out. 

[ABV-VR6 12]

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! 

 

[ABV-VR6 12]

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? 

[Keyo 47]

47 minutes ago, ABV-VR6 said:

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? 

Some folks use chemicals to get it off, but I think that might not be too good for the paint in the long term. I used a wall paper steamer and a plastic spatula , worked an absolute treat to be honest, put a sheet over your engine bay to catch all the debris. 

[Keyo 47]

Yes that should go all the way across / 

VW heritage have them but have been out of stock for a  few months and are on backorder- you also need the plastic clips to house them which are relatively cheap off ebay. 

Part number 34 and 36 on diagram, if your car is from Japan then it is meant to be shortened to 904 mm for some bizarre  reason. 

 

 

http://www.oemepc.com/vw/part_single/catalog/vw/markt/RDW/modell/COR/year/1995/drive_standart/76/hg_ug/823/subcategory/151000/part_id/3688966/lang/e#sec_36

[ABV-VR6 12]

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

[ABV-VR6 12]

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... 

[Keyo 47]

6 hours ago, ABV-VR6 said:

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... 

If you look on the diagram,  the part number for the seal- there are two part numbers the same and one has (J) for Japan and shorten to ,,,,,mm. I have absolute no idea why it is shorter buy a new seal is about £12,00 from memory so I would just get one as it looks odd shorter. 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Keyo

[Dox 22]

Something to do with the battery maybe?

[1xshaunx1 27]

Good luck with your project and parts mate.

I’ve got to ask though. I’m tipping that’s a right hand drive car, don’t they have left hand drive cars in Canada ?

[ABV-VR6 12]

10 hours ago, Keyo said:

If you look on the diagram,  the part number for the seal- there are two part numbers the same and one has (J) for Japan and shorten to ,,,,,mm. I have absolute no idea why it is shorter buy a new seal is about £12,00 from memory so I would just get one as it looks odd shorter. 

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

[ABV-VR6 12]

9 hours ago, Dox said:

Something to do with the battery maybe?

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

[ABV-VR6 12]

6 hours ago, 1xshaunx1 said:

Good luck with your project and parts mate.

I’ve got to ask though. I’m tipping that’s a right hand drive car, don’t they have left hand drive cars in Canada ?

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

[Keyo 47]

Some of these Jap imports have some really odd mods and options .

[1xshaunx1 27]

They luv them autos too

[1xshaunx1 27]

The more I look at them photos the more I notice how little rust is on it. That radiator support looks a couple of years old, good start, if the rest is like that you’ll only need ancillary parts and they are easy to get👍

[ABV-VR6 12]

19 minutes ago, Keyo said:

Some of these Jap imports have some really odd mods and options .

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?

[ABV-VR6 12]

13 minutes ago, 1xshaunx1 said:

They luv them autos too

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.

[ABV-VR6 12]

9 minutes ago, 1xshaunx1 said:

The more I look at them photos the more I notice how little rust is on it. That radiator support looks a couple of years old, good start, if the rest is like that you’ll only need ancillary parts and they are easy to get👍

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...

[1xshaunx1 27]

It’s like California in Japan for weather I believe, so lots of sun and no salt on the roads in winter, which is a real problem for British car owners and Canadians too I suppose 

[ABV-VR6 12]

13 minutes ago, 1xshaunx1 said:

It’s like California in Japan for weather I believe, so lots of sun and no salt on the roads in winter, which is a real problem for British car owners and Canadians too I suppose 

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!

[ABV-VR6 12]

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.

[ABV-VR6 12]

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!