The Quattro gets it's long overdue restoration.

[Sepp]

.....still riding the fence as to what the outcome will be.

Nothing exciting going on...
The welder is down for repairs, and it will be a bit of time before it's ready, so I have been going at the paint.
Almost all of the red is gone, mostly down to either a repair job, or down to the color coat/factory primer.

The red scraped off in chips quite quickly, and 100 grit is burning through my primer job rather easily.
I'm going to bump up to 80 grit, down to the skin quite soon.

[Quattro Krant]

Looks good. What happened in the past, was it hit in the left rear 1/4 panel?

[Sepp]

From working on the car, and seeing what parts have been replaced from urQ's of different years, and given the amount of body work I have seen in the past/during this project, it looks like;

The front end had seen impact
The rear end had seen impact
The drivers door had a rather large dent
The passenger door has a smaller dent
The lower flare taper on the passenger side rear fender was crumpled

The whole back end was done rather poorly, and re-sprayed right over the remainder of the factory paint.

The whole front end was tack welded in place including the bumper mount plates, radiator support, and all of the plastic parts were replaced with an '83 car.
The hood is from a 4 cylinder car

Major hail damage was present on the hood, and roof when I originally went over the car years ago, and seen a bit of hail damage on my drive across country last year.

And it looks like a jack slipped off the mounting place, as the floor in the passenger foot well was dented up, and the rubberised coating is missing in that area.

But, carfax is clean on the car!!!!

[PerL]

Quote, originally posted by Sepp »

The hood is from a 4 cylinder car

How can you tell? All hoods are identical, or at least I thought they were...

[NJRoadfan]

Quote, originally posted by PerL »

How can you tell? All hoods are identical, or at least I thought they were...

Maybe the EPA emissions sticker and vacuum hose diagrams are from a 4 cylinder.

[Sepp]

Quote, originally posted by NJRoadfan »

Maybe the EPA emissions sticker and vacuum hose diagrams are from a 4 cylinder.

Correct you are sir!!!

you win an ale!

[NJRoadfan]

Quote, originally posted by Sepp »

Correct you are sir!!! you win an ale!

Eh, getting this one bolt out of the thermostat housing on my 4kq would be nice right about now (no I haven't broken or stripped the bolt, just won't easily budge). Then I can think about the ale. Scary because I don't drink...... gosh darn Audis...

[Sepp]

Quote, originally posted by NJRoadfan »

Scary because I don't drink...... gosh darn Audis...

That's why non-alcoholic beer was invented..

By an Audi owner that was trying not to become a drunkard like the rest of us.
Yet was able to throw down a sixer of something other than soda.

[NJRoadfan]

Quote, originally posted by Sepp »

That's why non-alcoholic beer was invented.. By an Audi owner that was trying not to become a drunkard like the rest of us. Yet was able to throw down a sixer of something other than soda.

Well I got the housing off, now I just have to figure out the Rube Goldberg inspired A/C compressor bracket to get the belt off. Gotta love how Audi used 3 completely different ways to adjust the v-belts on each of the accessories. So no . At this rate taking off the crank pulley might actually be the easiest part of the job. This engine bay is a pain to work in, I can only imagine what its like in an Urq with A/C installed still.

[Sepp]

It's not always easy.
Some owners cut away the radiator support, (and weld it back in later) and pull the radiators as well..
Extra work, but at least you can get yer paws in there.

With the Quatty, I have the left side rear pretty much bare metal, besides some bondo caressed areas.

A close up of the worst place on the car, the rear left wheel well. The bondo is up to 1/4" thick here. The lip was rolled in pretty bad, and it's not going to be easy to get it back out again as it's a tight area to work behind the well in the area between the trunk, and rear seat outside arm rest storage compartment void.

This area had a little filler in it, as it looks like the rear side impact might have broken the seal between the rocker sill, and the tub. Oh yeah, more rust I had no idea that was there lurking under all the paint.

[Quattro Krant]

People that cut the core support piss me off to no ends

[Sepp]

Yeah it looks rough.

The alternative is to pull both front fenders off...and off comes the top support...

[Sepp]

So I hadn't driven the car in a long time. I was really having withdrawl symptoms, and it's a bad idea to le the car sit too long. They tend to get rather antsy.
So, I mounted the front fenders again, installed the battery, check the oil ,and it fired rith up.
As I was backing it out of the garage, a German tourist, with his wife stopped, and just kinda looked at the car in disbelief..
He was like, is that an original Quattro? I said sure was. He questioned the parts to get it back together, and I mentioned I had the complete car.
So I bid him farewell, and set off with the car running a bit cold, but still rather smooth.
On the drive, I took a 10 mile loop road, and on the homeward stretch it was getting dark. I passes by a parked police car, and thought ****, I'm going to get pulled over!
Sure enough, he pulled me over for the exhaust being too loud

But stupid me, I had no papers on the car with me, not even my liscence...
After while of trying to find out my ID through the radio, which wasn't succesfull,
He was nice to let me go, the short distance to my house...
"this......car...I can see that you're working on it.....but....it....shouldn't be on the road...."
I was very grateful, and set off with minimal throttle into the night.

He wasn't impressed with the bumpers that were missing, and the blinker lights that were not mounted, and had no lenses on them....

[Quattro Krant]

I hear what you say about missing driving the Ur-Q. I just recently actually started to take my Ur-Q out and drive it and it really is fun to drive. It reminds me of a 16V, where you have to wring each gear out if you want to get moving with it, you can't just be in 4th and decide you want to get going. Plus, the sound, so nice.

[Sepp]

You'd be interested in driving mine.
A totally different experience. Lots of low end, and not much lag.
A lot more responsive than my AAN S4.
Not much of the original WX is left up there...mostly MC...

[Quattro Krant]

That definitely sounds nice. I think I'm just getting used to 400hp that comes on like a punch to the head I was kicking around the idea of dropping in a 20VT and going the 034efi route with some headwork, heat coating, balanced and blue printed, yadda yadda yadda. But, then I keep coming back to do I really want to do that to a nice original example. Then i get pissed about the 83 I sold with a blown headgasket but a southern body with no rust on it and get

[Sepp]

Yeah, I was thinking about that car the other day....

[Quattro Krant]

Well, my power fix is going to be satisfied. Scored a 200 20VT that will be the donor car for my 20VT swap into the clean 4kq I bought from VA

[Sepp]

Yep, that'll do it.

[Entwerfer des Audis]

Updates??

[Sepp]

no........

Major car issues for the past 3 weeks...
My wifes Subaru has major cooling issues, and my S4 is in real bad shape.

But we bought her a sweet Saab, I'll drive the Subaru till it dies.
The S4 is off the road for a while.

There's has been soo much going on, that the Quattro is surrounded by crap in the garage.
I have all this week off, so I'll be getting things back into order in the garage, and get some more work done on the car.
I have to scrape down the left side front fender. That, and the trunk are all that's left.

[Quattro Krant]

Quote, originally posted by Sepp »

no........ Major car issues for the past 3 weeks... My wifes Subaru has major cooling issues, and my S4 is in real bad shape. But we bought her a sweet Saab, I'll drive the Subaru till it dies. The S4 is off the road for a while. There's has been soo much going on, that the Quattro is surrounded by crap in the garage. I have all this week off, so I'll be getting things back into order in the garage, and get some more work done on the car. I have to scrape down the left side front fender. That, and the trunk are all that's left.

Sounds like my house minus the project Ur-Q I have the head pulled on the beater 4kq, the GF's Golf GL neededs rear shocks as the ones I put on a few months ago are SHOT , it also has a wheel bearing that is getting rumbly. Her Jetta needs some BS "catalyst operating below efficiency level" that needs to get fixed in order to inspect the car , the brakes on the A4 are shaking something fierce from the back, I have to go to Boston MA to pick up my 200 that will be my 20VT donor car. And with all this going on, I still work 2 jobs for 60 hours a week and just hit 3,000 miles year to date on my Cannondale

[NJRoadfan]

Quote, originally posted by Quattro Krant »

Sounds like my house minus the project Ur-Q I have the head pulled on the beater 4kq, the GF's Golf GL neededs rear shocks as the ones I put on a few months ago are SHOT , it also has a wheel bearing that is getting rumbly. Her Jetta needs some BS "catalyst operating below efficiency level" that needs to get fixed in order to inspect the car

Time for a new cat... heck, sounds like it might be time to find a nicer Golf if that stuff keeps up. Then again I was in the same position when the GLI was in the body shop, and the Audi's radiator decided to take a vacation.

[Quattro Krant]

Nah, the golf is a pure beater. I did the front struts, ball joints, tie rod ends, strut bearings, and rear struts this summer and the rear struts I got from Autozone must have leaked all the gas out after 3 months The MK3 is about the easiest car to work on, no biggie.

[Entwerfer des Audis]

Quote, originally posted by Quattro Krant »

...and just hit 3,000 miles year to date on my Cannondale

Damn! That's quite a bit of riding. I'd do that if I had the time... on my 1986 Centurion LeMans RS.

[Sepp]

Yeh, that is some serious mileage!

So, I cleaned all the crap outta the way, and got a few hours in on the car.
I swapped out the ronal R8's, for the spare wheels from my S4, they have some baldass Pirellis, so I don't mind if they get flat spots from sitting soo long.
The R8's have rather new Dunlops on them, so at least they will be ready to roll next spring.
I pulled off the rear spoiler.
I finished up scraping down the remainder of the red paint on the exterior of the car. Just under the hood, and the door/trunk jambs.

It appears that the whole car was originally galvinised..as the rear section, which has been bare metal for a month hasn't flash rusted..just small sections where body work has been performed....
This is great news.

[NJRoadfan]

Quote, originally posted by Sepp »

It appears that the whole car was originally galvinised..as the rear section, which has been bare metal for a month hasn't flash rusted..just small sections where body work has been performed.... This is great news.

I thought Type 85s didn't have bodies made from galvanized sheet metals, only tack on parts (fenders and such).

[Sepp]

There was varying amounts of galvinising on the urQ's over the years, and no one can say for sure when they started doing the whole cars..
Like you said, most I know of are the bolt on parts....
I'm stumped...
The whole rear divers side panel is all bare, and clean except a bondo patch..all still shiny.
Except a small patch of the fender that was ground down. This has flashed.

[Sepp]

I fit in quite a few hours this week, which is great.
The car still has a bunch of prep work to be done before I get some sheet metal, and have my friend fire up the welder.

I am nearly done cleaning out a goober of a bondo job from a long time ago on the "C" pillar.
This should be a very easy weld job.

This is my biggest challenge.
The area behind the arch is really tight, as the wheel well is right behind it, and space is severely limited back there.
I'm throwing around a few different ideas as to what to do with it, to permenantly fix it. I'm tired of going back to this area of the car every 3 years.
but no matter how I go about it, it'll be better than before.
I'm considering the following options.
I want to keep the arch, that is still intact, but has been a bitch to clean up.
Do I fabricate a whole new arch section, cut out the old arch completely, and weld in a new one?
Do I scrap the whole fender, and go with a kevlar repro?
Do I clean up the arch the best I can, and tack in a cut to match sheet in from behind?
Do I source a cut steel piece from a parted Quattro? It would have to be one that was factory rolled, as my Ronals would rub...

[Mr.RS4]

Ill make you a deal - seeing as its the left side of your car, and whats left of mine is still in good condition, IF i get the car back after the write off ill part it, and you can have the rear panel.

And just think - its already in great condition with the right colour! Might give you a good guide as to how the rest of your car comes up when matching the paint

[Sepp]

Thanks for that.

[Sepp]

Finally getting some tools to work with.
Wire brushing the front section ensured that the metal was solid underneath the rubberised coating.

It cleaned up well.

More surprises in store with the drivers rear fender...

Nice amount of holes that let the daylight in...

With the lights on, it's a bit scary.

[Quattro Krant]

I was JUST thinking about this thread. Nice to see you are back at it Since I last posted up I have finished some things and other things have decided to pop up

[skota]

yikes man, keep up the good work.

[Entwerfer des Audis]

Quote, originally posted by Sepp »

Holy crap, what have you been doing to those tyres?