All this has happened before, and it will happen again. g60racer's new Corrado project begins!

[RedYellowWhite]

....tails half smoked.

Personally I liked them better before

[g60racer]

You're one of those amber loving people, aren't you?

[RedYellowWhite]

You're one of those amber loving people, aren't you?

LOL


I'd prefer them all-red if not oe amber (or smoked/red like the InPro/FK ones) if it were mine


Wheels look good

[g60racer]

Today I got around to doing the "side marker as turn signal" mod and the "rear fogs as 4th & 5th brake lights" mod.

Am awaiting a particular set of carbon fiber side mirrors from SpoonfedTuning so I can continue Leeloo's carbonification.

Still been putting off taking out the dash to do the AC evaporator core & heater core, but it's got to be done.

[g60racer]

Added some LED trunk lights so I can see all the spare parts in my rear hatch at night

[g60racer]

So... work continues. Ripped out the dash, repaired the HVAC control box (replaced all the foam on the flapper doors, lubed & reset gears, replaced Evaporator core & heater core), repaired a LOT of really crappy wiring "repairs." For a dealer maintained car with full documentation, this thing had a lot of ghetto fixes. Lost a lot of respect for the average VW technician while I was in this. Crimp connections instead of proper solder/heatshrink, improper grounds instead of taking wiring to the proper terminals, wiring harnesses left hanging instead of in their looms. Messy.




Took the time to despaghetti and reloom all the wiring correctly, and labeled everything just in case I have to take it apart again ever. (not that I'd ever need to in a Corrado, noooooooooo.....)

While I had everything apart, decided to do some preventative maintenance on the ABS system. Cleaned all the electrical connectors, checked all fittings.
Also went through engine bay and found some broken vacuum fittings and repaired them. Replaced the original corrugated rubber main intake hose (MAF - TB) with the smooth plastic one from a Passat.

Took the opportunity to run wiring for my A/F ratio meter. Still need to install the wideband O2 sensor, but it's ready to go. Also ran a vacuum hose for my boost gauge; probably won't have FI on this car for a little while just yet, but when I do, I just saved myself some work. For now it'll just be an engine vacuum gauge instead of a boost gauge.

Added some more Spoonfed Tuning carbonification:



And some for the cluster:




Then rather than spend $120 for the factory cabin air filter that doesn't fit under my Mk2 Spoonfed Tuning carbon fiber rain tray, I modified my original mesh screen to accept an air filter insert. Sealed with clear RTV.





Repaired my Norm/Max A/C switch with some guitar picks & epoxy.





And in process of reassembling the dash now...

All in all, productive work week on the car.

[g60racer]

Finished reassembling her today, and did a shakedown cruise. Gotta pull some of the dash out again - no illumination for the HVAC control panel, & A/C still not working quite right. Compressor clicks on & off, in roughly 10 second intervals. Doesn't cycle long enough to get cold.
Am thinking either the pressure switch is faulty or the #13 relay.

ABS is still quirky, even with new accumulator. May be that I need to clean the sensors. Will tackle that this week.

[g60racer]

Turned out I overcharged the system. Had 50psi on the low side at idle. Once I let out some refrigerant & brought the pressure down to 42psi, everything worked perfectly.

FUNCTIONAL A/C! GREAT SUCCESS!!!!

Eskimo boy is happy. I shall be driving the Corrado a great deal this summer.

Also replaced a few of those grain-of-wheat bulbs, which apparently gave up the ghost at the same time when I was disassembling the dash. Illumination functional again.

[sdezego]

[g60racer]

Did a little "back on the road" photoshoot today

[petethepug]

Black / red looks good! I didn't know the new Corrado had a slushbox in it. Did HRE find the barrel for the 4th rim or did you hunt it down?

[g60racer]

HRE tracked down one last barrel. It was on their top shelf of their storage unit, far back corner.

Still missing one wheel, still down that canyon. Never made it back up there to look. Will have to do so when fall hits, after summer heat has died out.

[d-bot]

Looks great B!

[g60racer]

Thanks! Looking forward to dolling her up with some more Spoonfed Tuning parts shortly.

[g60racer]

Several months since I've done an update...

My ongoing AC system rebuild has taken precedent over buying SFT CF parts for now, but I'm still looking forward to dolling the car up.

Since removing the dash and doing extensive repairs to the HVAC control box and all the wiring, rebuilding the air control box and replacing the evaporator core and the heater core, I've also replaced all the hard AC lines in the engine bay, the compressor, expansion valve, and now it looks as though I have to replace the condenser. Something in there is blocked up - I suspect the original owner had a leak in the AC system and tried some of that stopleak stuff, and it just plugged up the condenser. I'm seeing excessive pressure on the high pressure side, and it's causing the compressor to cycle strangely.

So... new condenser going in with a new receiver drier, and I should finally have functional AC that lasts longer than 800 miles.




And then my neighbor left me a gift, a wonderful little dent on the driver side rear corner.






So I've been working on that as time permits. First I began by hammering out the metal as best I could from inside. Hard to get it perfect as there are some structural pieces in the way.





Here's as good as I could get it just massaging the metal, sprayed with primer so I could see the dent clearly.




First application of body filler:





Some sanding and second application of filler:




Some sanding and primer later, still in need of more sanding:



Am waiting on paint to arrive so I can finish it up.
It won't be perfect, but it'll be tons better than it was, and I won't have to worry about rust.

[JamesS]

Brutal... why not make the neighbour pay for it to be done by a pro?

[g60racer]

I've got other ongoing work I'm doing to the car that I don't want to interrupt (like the ABS and AC system repair) and I don't want to have to deal with body shop issues until I get the whole car repainted. Eventually she'll get prima donna treatment and a respray, but not til she's mechanically at the point I'm happy with.

Plus I'm in the middle of restoring my dad's '73 Fiat Spider, and as long as I'm in bodywork mode, I may as well knock this out too.