Meet Patricia

[max302]

I'm done with school now, and since 30 hours of work a week is giving me WAY too much time, I decided to open a thread on my modest vehicle, a B4 GLX Wagon that I affectionately named Patricia.

I got it back in September after snooping around for a project car for this winter (aka now), as I knew that not having any school was going to give me a lot of free time. Originally I was looking for an older diesel Benz, W201 preferably. I had visited a W124, but it was pretty rough, and getting diesel Benz parts in Canada isn't really easy, and older diesels in -40C weather are a nogo.

Unexpected finds are always the best ones... I found Patricia on VWQuebec, the week later I had a deposit down, and the week after that it was home. The original VR6 had been swapped out by the dealer because it blew up, so although the body has over 300 000 km on it, the engine is running strong with no chain noise or other serious problems. Body was rough, but in general pretty sane. I knew I was going to paint this thing anyways.

Here it is while I was fixing up some rust on the doors.



PO and his brother are both really big into VW's. There was something like 6 cars in and around this dude's driveway, including a mint Jetta Carat that was being stripped for a bay shave, an MK4 TDI with sawblades poking out like crazy, a TT, an MK3 with a 24v swap, and this Caddy/Cabby conversion!



Imagine this kind of thing with a B5.5 .

Front bumper shave was done this summer, along with fixing rust on the doors that were the most affected.



My plan with this thing is too strip is down as much as I can, and making it bulletproof. I plan on going out to military college soon, so I won't have much time to dick around with a beater. The key words for this build is DIY, and minimal. If it isn't needed and that I can take it off myself, I'm doing so. I want minimal implication from shops, and if possible I'll get all the harder work (welding, etc) done by people I know in exchange for a couple of longnecks.

I'm not necessarily looking for power, so engine mods are going to be minimal. What I'm really looking for is fuel economy and having a bulletproof sled.

Here is what I'm planning on doing:

RED = DONE

Maintenance

• Chains + MK4 HG
• Clutch and flywheel maybe
• All sorts of seals to make it like new again
• New brakes all around with MK4 rear calipers, non-ABS conversion
• Re-do headliner, it's dirty as hell
• Fix the tears on the seats
• Fix the heating seats
• Patch up the chassis plugs and minor rust holes starting to form around them.
• Fix the power windows (1 is working correctly, two are having a hard time, one is ****ed pretty hard)
• Stainless steel crack pipe
• Rebuild control arms with R32 rubber
• New fluids all around.
• Replace the windshield.

Aesthetics

• Shave front bumper
• Shave roof antenna
• Remove roof rack
• Shave left mirror
• Remove hitch
• Flat brown paint with flat black pseudo-textured molding and bumper tops
• Shave all keyholes
• BMW rimzos (got those, need to work out fitment)
• Mono-wiper?
• Murdered out stock lights
• Volvo lip
• Rear wiper delete

Mods

• ABS delete
• AC delete
• Power steering delete
• Full 2.5in exhaust with test pipe straight to a magnaflow
• Sound deadening on the entire floorpan (to make the drone of my exhaust setup more tolerable)
• 1.8t IAT
• Catch can
• SAI delete
• Wire-tuck and vacuum simplication as I delete/repair stuff. Nothing extreme, just enough to clean the bay up a bit.
• BFI stage 1 engine mounts
• O2J shifter and Dieselgeek Sigma if budget-permitting
• Mild head work if budget-permitting.
• C2 high-compression chip
• DUI Ford coilpack
• External oil cooler with stock oil-cooler delete would be awesome if I can find the parts used

I've got air-ride on my mind, but if I got there it'll be on the cheap... bag over MK3 coilovers with used gear kind of cheap. Not sure for now, focusing on getting this thing running solid first.

Other stuff may be done... I've got a general direction for this build, and I'll just go with the flow from there. Progress may be a bit slower than I anticipated, as my former daily driver has been pressed into a little cube, and Patricia is now my daily driver.

[max302]

Did some work since the last post.

In one first garage session, I ripped up the entire front end to replace the mother-loving high temp oil sensor, which had me going nuts on half of my highway trips by tripping off the oil buzzer.



Deleted the AC while I was in there, lines and condensor are gone, with all the associated brackets and whatnot. Does anybody know how much AC stuff there is in the dash? I'd probably want to take it out while doing a preventive heater core job.

Second session was paint. Got both passenger side doors, fender, upper door sill and rear bumper done.



Rear bumper was a real bitch because of the hitch... removed that and found it a nice place in the pile'o'scrap. There goes another 20 pounds.



For some reason the passenger side had very little rust compared to driver's side. DS doors had taken heavy damage near the bottom, only one slightly bigger rust bubble on the other side. Finished product (for now).



Put the bumper on crooked out of haste (bolting the god-damned doors back one alone absolutely killed my back), and while tapping it I busted open a crack on my fog shave... meh, putty work had to be touched up anyways.

The end of the fiscal year is coming pretty soon, and if I want to put some $$$ in my RRSPs I might have to postpone my order of 42dd goodies.

I'll probably be concentrating on the time-intensive but inexpensive work: shaving the passenger side mirror, getting the paint done, getting the Wolfsburg badges filled in by my body-guy cousin, prepping the non-abs booster and lines for installation, etc.

PS loops are out of stock until the end of the month, so that'll have to wait aswell.

Updates will come as they happen!

[max302]

My flippy-fob from Rightclick got here around a week ago. I rocked it the minute I got it, but just got to wire the module in.
Since I don't like splicing directly in a harness, I wanted the blinkers to work and that I had already bypassed the factory alarm, I decided to not wire in the alarm directly on the vac pump, and use the stock alarm connectors instead, the ones behind the headlight switch.

Izzo's and DJR's content was really useful, although in the end I did it my own way. Apart from the wiring directly on the connectors, my method of installing the Rightclick module only needs 1 wire spliced.

I removed the module from my car. This sucker right here. Pry it open, remove the board.



I sacrificed the original module to get the connectors. This is probably the most cost effective way of getting the Rightclick module to mate with the stock alarm harness. Who needs this finicky POS anyways. Go at it with some metal shears or a cutter. Don't Dremel that stuff... breathing in PCB will give you cancer and make your babies grow a third leg.



Here is the connectors with the pins straightened out.



Here is how I wired it. Power, ground and flashers are the easy ones, because unless you can't read a diagram to save your life you really can't mix them up. The

[6 pin connector]
1---> Flasher trigger (Brown on RCLICK)
2---> Flasher trigger (Brown/white on RCLICK)
3---> Always on +12V (Red with fuse on RCLICK)
4---> Not used
5--| Loop pins 5 and 6 to bypass factory alarm.
6--| Get a good connection, lots of current goes through there.

[10 pin connector]
1--> Always on +12V (Both Yellow wires on RCLICK)
2--> Negative trigger for alarm system indicator. Not wired in mine. Might need a relay to work.
3--> Ground aka -12V (Black on RCLICK)
4--> Not used
5--> Not used
6--> Unlock signal (White black on RCLICK)
7--> Lock signal (White on RCLICK)
8--> Not used
9--> Not used
10-> Not used

Set the jumpers on the module as to have two pulses, 0.5 seconds. One pulse will not unlock, at least it didn't on my car.

Once that's done, you're gonna have to splice wire 7 directly on the harness, just behind the connector and extend it to the driver's side door connector.



On mine, gray was the lock wire. Hook up your extend wire with the gray wire as to have a 3 way connection. Theoretically, from the diagrams that I have read on DJR's site, you should just be able to tap directly on PIN 7 (yellow/red in the diagram) and the unlock signal should work... in practice, this is not the case, hence why we need to splice at the door connector. The Rightclick module then becomes a "second keyswitch" that sends 12v on the unlock wire as if it were sent by the contacts in the keyhole.

I also took the time to lubricate all door handles and catchs with this stuff my local locksmith sells. It's called Biolube, similar to spray-can white grease, except biodegradable and bio-sourced. The stuff is gold, my handle woes are a thing of the past.

Both front handles were replaced with rears to delete keyholes that are no longer need. Because they are generally much less used than front handles, most of the junkyard rear handles are in MUCH better shape, and they're a bolt-on fit. Passenger side needs a reverse thread screw, but that's pretty much it really.



If the Rightclick module fails, then there's always the trunk.

Got my PS delete kit this week, I'm probably going to get that done over the weekend.

[sin bar]

putting in work!

[aelath]

Man, all this time messing with my front handles and I could totally just replace them with rears, go keyless, and buy a key fob. When I was parting out my '98 GTI I pulled the alarm/security box and swapped it into my B4 and then spliced that one wire in the ds door. Everything works fine, just never bought a $70 key fob 'cause it was expensive. Hadn't ever thought of shaving the key-holes like that.
Great build... I like your DIY drive, definitely motivating!

[514rabbit]

Great thread!

Any hints on where to get B4 parts in our province?

[max302]

Today, finally got around to install the PS loop and deleting all the related doodads. Didn't have time to take any pictures because my buddy and I were too busy freezing to ****ing death. I drive to his place, 6C and sunny. 2 hours later, negatives and windy as hell. Ugh.

There are other how-to's on how to do this (and besides, it's really just unbolting 2 lines and screwing in a loop), but here are some additional considerations.

• You'll need a stubby 18mm. We cut down an open ended wrench and used it at half length, probably around 3-4 inchs, to undo the PS line that's hardest to reach. Slide underneath your car from the front and reach for it between k-frame and sway bar.
• The easiest line is the one frontmost, facing the driver's side wheel. You can spot it from inside the engine bay, but it's too cramped to get to it. Undoing it from underneath your car is your best bet.
• Have a good hacksaw ready and be patient when removing the long AC compressor bolt. As Izzo tells us, it hits the frame every time, and two cuts are required to get it out. Don't try to pry/bend it.. trust me, it doesn't work. Just keep hacking away at it. Take beer breaks if needed.
• You'll need to have the front end undone if you want to take the AC compressor out the easy way once you have the two mounting bolts out. Or you can do it the stupid way and cut bits and pieces of the bracket until you get to persuade it out.

I was shooting for a 3 hour job. With a short break it turned out to be a 5 hour job. But then again, I had little to no idea what I was doing, we were outside on jackstands and we were freezing.

I wouldn't say it's immensely hard to steer. Let's just say that from now on I'll be holding both hands on the wheel in the twisties, and parking with coffee is going to be a hell of a lot harder. I didn't notice that the engine is quicker to rev, however I did seem to need a TINY bit less gas off the stop to get rolling. The ON3WHLS kit gets the job done as advertised, the dude is a great seller.

Great thread!

Any hints on where to get B4 parts in our province?

There's this guy in Laval who has quite a bit of parts and often buys B3s and B4's as VR donors... he usually scraps the body afterwards. As of now he has very little actual metal parts although he does have quite a collection of trim pieces. PM me if you want his contact info. I'm warning you though, I've got dibs .

[max302]

Got very little done due to **** weather and absence of vacant garage space. This is probably gonna change this week, the weather is starting to get much better.

First off I washed the BMW rims that I have been stashing for just over 2 years. Bought them off a dude for a handful of change, and the plan was initially to get the redrilled for 4x100. Crashed and sold my Mk3 2.slow, so I'll be reusing them on this car. 7.5" et21. Minimum of et6 with adaptors.



Got some tires mounted. Nankang NS2 in 195/45R16. Just a slight stretch, enough to make the rim protectors useless, probably not enough to clear the fenders properly once I get some coil-overs. I should have gotten 185's or 175's. A 7.5" wheel is nothing exotic, so minimal rolling should be required, even with the crazy offset.



Fixed my front window... only to snap the track adjustment bolt once it was totally fixed. Patched it up real ghetto with a stack of pennies and some tape. To my surprise, it works perfectly. When it's stops doing so, I'll get an extractor and fix it properly.



On a less positive note, I had an electrical fire related to my alarm bypass. Turns out that the contact on the alarm connector pins wasn't perfect, and apparently resistance between the contacts was enough to heat up and cause a little dashboard fire. Luckily I caught on quickly. Roadside repair was easy enough, but cleanup is going to be a bitch. I'm probably going to drop the fusebox and remove some ABS / airbag / misc usesless wiring while I'm at it.



Passenger's side mirror has been deleted for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to finishing it up yet, so no pictures.

[max302]

Last week I got mostly cleanup done, due to my dash fire incident.

Stripped it down completely, dash out.



Decided to remove some wiring while I was at it, so I dropped the fuse box and whipped out the electrical tape and cutters. Turns out that there is a much safer way of doing a bypass. Check this out.



The two loose wires coming to me are the ones that you would normally short out to bypass the factory alarm. Notice the two connectors. If you disconnect both of them, you are left with about 4-5 feet of heavy gauge wiring that comes out as a whole, and a connector like this one.



This connector is in fact a loop cap. Plug it in the connector that remained in the car after you removed the wiring... there you good, a factory alarm bypass like VW would have done it.

While the fusebox was dropped I got rid of all sorts of useless crap: hood sensor, alarm horn, all sorts of alarm BS, ABS wiring including the wheel sensors, right up to the connector on the module. I heard there was 20 pounds of wiring on the ABS system... not exactly what I took out. Gonna get rid of all the bracketery and sensor rings once I get to do the brakes.

Next up is more body work, headliner, and non-ABS swap. I've had my non-ABS booster and master for a like 6 months and they're still not prepped. Maybe a Ford coilpack too if I can get a trip to the junk done.

[514rabbit]

great thread! Glad you are keeping it updated.

[max302]

Another paint session went down. My primary focus was to get everything done in brown at first, but while stripping I figured out how the roof trim clips in, so I decided to get it done at the same time. Turns out that the roof rack mounts are sealed... no need to drop the headliner to delete the roof rails.



Here are the rail mounts before.



With some gentle angle grinder work, I cut and ground down the mounts to the base. I went real slow... a long flat surface like a roof is a pain in the ass to fix up.



Put the finishing touches to my mirror delete, looks much better than it did. Here is the final product.



After packing up everything, I realized that I STILL hadn't painted my non-ABS booster. Next time. Gas tank door is probably gonna get a special treatment, but I need it as smooth as possible for it to work so no paint for now.

As for the rails, because they have metal in them I won't be able to plastic-weld material inside the holes for the roof rack. Once I get more Dremel cutout wheels, I'll get a fiberglass job done on them.

I have also cleaned, dyed, and retrofitted the B3 glovebox I found. Izzo's DIY is right on the money, except for the fact that there's nothing easy about one of the steps. I should have removed the airbag brackets before putting my dash back together, however I managed to get them out by leaving all the trim in the dash, and lifting it just enough to get to the top bolts on the brackets.

The dye was done with some Duplicolor Vinyl Dye I had laying around, flat black. I didn't expect such good results.



The only visible difference is that texture on the glovebox is less pronounced than on the B4's dash. The color is right on. Also fitted the bottom tray while I was at it, it looks just as good.

The driver's side is gonna need to modification to fit properly... working on that, more pictures to come.

[514rabbit]

I've done a few scrap yards and finally found a b3 glove box last week... I still don;t understand why VW built a car without one...

[max302]

Little update. Didn't get much done mechanically, but progress is coming along.

I finally managed to finish up my roof rack delete. I'll spare you the work in progress pics, basically I filled the underside of the plastic roof trim with fiberglass, and smoothed the top with Polyflex. The end results weren't super... even Polyflex, which is relatively thin and very flexible, had trouble blending in with the plastic. I paint it over with textured paint to hide most imperfections. Here is the result.



I'm going to have to source the euro trims to get this job done correctly... but for now it's ok.

Other big mod / repair was the coilpack. Mine was getting tired (idle wasn't as stable, hesitation on acceleration), so I decided to replace it preventively. The DUI Ford coil was on sale at Summit, so I jumped right on it.

In pieces...



DUI coilpack assembled and installed.



Very straightforward mod. 15$ harness / connector from the junk yard (took 45 mins to find it, hence the price) ripped off a V6 Taurus, 90$ coilpack, and a couple of hours of grinding test-fitting the spacer with the new coilpack was all it took. Revs are rock solid, they seem to climb faster too. I'm running 0.040 gap, which is by no means enormous, but even with such a conventional gap there is some gain to be seen. Get the info on this thread.

Upon pulling the plugs, I found out that cyl 6 has oil consumption... this now makes the HG + chain job inevitable. Still trying to find a 2.slo to get around while I'm doing it.

Parts are starting to pile up. Got an inline rad filler, coolant catch can and brake line tools from Summit, my wheel adaptors are on order, found some MK4 calipers and a spare grill locally. Coolant ball delete / aux pump bypass will go down at the same time as my chains, and hopefully I can get some flex lines in for the ABS delete.

I'll keep you guys posted.

[max302]

With the hot weather coming back my brakes started squealing again... and you know, while the wheels are off why not delete the ABS? What a ****ty idea that was.

Luckily, I knew what I was in for thanks to OG members who did this procedure before (thread & thread).

Procedure is simple.

1. Flush fluid, unbolt brake and clutch MC braket from the firewall, on the inside. This is the hardest part, you'll need nearly 2 feet of ratchet extensions to get this done. There are 5 13mm bolts. Get spares, chances are you'll loose some.
2. Unmount ABS booster / control module from bracket, 4 bolts in the back.
3. Bolt in new booster and master and put everything back together.
4. Reflare the two driver's side brakes lines, they used bigger hardware that will not fit your new MC. M10x1 is what you should use. DS Front line is a different diameter for some reason... it's simpler just to rework the entire line in that case.
5. Plug everything so it looks nice, bleed and go.

Booster is smaller, that'll probably play on pedal feel.

Where it gets much less simple is if you want to tamper with the rest of your brakes like I did. I swapped out all the flex lines for SS braided hose I bought off ECS, and many flex lines had rotted together with the original lines to the point where I had to cut them off. Reworking brake lines on jack stands = not fun. Hacking away at all the rust and rot took almost a full work day for my inexperienced self. Glad I did it though.... got rid of plenty of sketchy PO patch jobs.

Everything went well until final bleeding... when my DS front hose took a dump. I ordered the wrong front hoses (ECS listed compatibility wrong, and their customer service rep never emailed me back the post-vin break part ), so I'm still waiting on a replacement to actually drive the thing.

LATE B4 PASSAT VR6 (95+ as per dealer) USES FEMALE->BANJO-STLYE FITTINGS ON CALIPERS! FEMALE->FEMALE LINES WILL NOT WORK!

Bay pic with new booster.



Did MK4 calipers too, complete with paint.

Old grimey break-yard caliper (50$ for the pair lol)



Cleaned 'em in my new ultrasonic bath, that did wonders. Bores were nice, e-brake works (!).



Since it's been stalled for nearly 2 weeks now, put in work on a home-made badgeless grill.

Cut up a spare busted grill (free) to fit my current grill, glued it in place with quick-set epoxy.



Did a couple of coats of standard epoxy to the front to smooth it, with fiberglass backing to strengthen it. Finished it off with polyflex. End result:



Not half bad for a freebie.

Right now, suspension bushings for all 4 corners are in, but coilovers are backorder. 42DD crack pipe and catch can are in the mail, but adaptors will have to wait (still on my first CC, stupidly low limit).

If I can finally find a MIG somewhere, I'll probably get working on shaving wolfsburg badges / antenna, and a monowiper. Updates will be posted as they happen.

[claud95]

Your roof racks. Do you know of any systems that can fit on a 95 passat sedan? I need a rack system and I don't know where to look or what to look for.. Any help? How did the roof rack on this work because my passat has weather stripping/metal stuff in the grooves on the roof so idk where a rack system would be placed.. Thanks!

[koolkevin43]

Your roof racks. Do you know of any systems that can fit on a 95 passat sedan? I need a rack system and I don't know where to look or what to look for.. Any help? How did the roof rack on this work because my passat has weather stripping/metal stuff in the grooves on the roof so idk where a rack system would be placed.. Thanks!

A wagon has rails on the roof that crossbars clamp onto. A sedan does not have these, so the crossbars would clamp in between where your roofline and the top of your doors meet. Find a rack setup on any sedan, ever, by any make, and it most likely bolts up like that.

[514rabbit]

Are the mk4 calipers plug and play or do you need new carriers and other parts?

- merci

[max302]

Are the mk4 calipers plug and play or do you need new carriers and other parts?

- merci

There was a small hump of alum on mine which had to be ground down in order to not contact the beam. Otherwise, they bolt right up to the original carriers, no need to change pads either.

All you need really is just the lines with a banjo termination (readily available as this is a very popular mod with the MK3 crowd) and new banjo bolts and washers if you so desire. I bought the ECS lines, they came with everything I needed.

[514rabbit]

There was a small hump of alum on mine which had to be ground down in order to not contact the beam. Otherwise, they bolt right up to the original carriers, no need to change pads either.

All you need really is just the lines with a banjo termination (readily available as this is a very popular mod with the MK3 crowd) and new banjo bolts and washers if you so desire. I bought the ECS lines, they came with everything I needed.

Thanks, buddy.
I am changing my lines, discs, pads in a few weeks so trying to find the best way of doing it, I guess mk4 calipers is the right thing to do, if I find some

[max302]

Plumbed in my 42DD stealth catch can. My PCV was holding together with bits of tape, so that was long overdue.



After exploring many ways of installing it, I ended using an existing AC bracket that I cut up, drill and tapped to receive the catch can. Plumbing is all 3/4 heater hose and plastic 90" fittings. The hole on the intake boot is slight larger than 3/4, so that was shimmed with some duct tape.

EVAP vacuum line was plugged in with a screw temporarily, I'll figure out if I do it correctly or just delete the EVAP system as a whole later.




It's really incredible the amount of gunk that gets vented through your intake by the PCV, seeing all the crud that I had to clean up in the intake elbow. I think that for any engine using a similar setup a catch can is a very smart thing to upgrade to.

[max302]

Detrimmed and full stripped for floor pan repairs...



That's the biggest damage, passenger rear, right over the fuel lines. On this picture most of the rot has been punched out, surrounding metal appears to be rusted on the surface but sane.

I'll be ordering some Brown-Bread sound deadening stuff once it's all patched up.

Any advice for welding close to fuel lines? I've thought about unclipping and moving them as far away as I can, wrapped in aluminium foil, without disconnecting anything.

[max302]

Patched the passenger side with the fuel lines wrapped in foil and pulled to the side and I didn't die, for that.



Patch job on the back looks fine.

Also did a bit of ghetto body work. This is my first time doing anything apparent, I think I did a pretty good job considering I only had an angle grinder, tin snips, a gasless mig and I was working outside. Bondo is getting done later, as is paint.



Next up is this:



Considering just cutting the whole thing and putting in new sheet metal, doesn't look there is much to save here.

Considering the rust, I don't think this thing is going to do much more than 4 or 5 more years after my patch jobs... I'll start looking for a Cabby next summer to swap in the VR eventually .

[izzo]

Deja vu...

[ellocolindo]

its a quebec car....

my new syncro seems to have spent alot of time in the winter roads of ontario;quebec area...

[Samsquam]

its a quebec car....

ontario;quebec area...

ha haaa. saskabush ftfw!

[Rares_CRM]

Hello!
I have a question,
How did you loosen glass of the position light? Are they painted on inside? Or outside?



I want to make them black on inside. Like yours.


Thank you for your help!

[max302]

I just cracked them open... cycles of hot and cold had already loosened up the adhesive I guess. Take a heat gun or hair dryer to your just for safety, but the lenses come off quick easily.

[max302]

So it turns out that there was so little sane metal on my driver's floorpans that I just removed as much rust as I could (tons), treated the whole thing with rust converter and zinc primer and laid down a giant mat of fiberglass to fill it up. No way I'm gonna source a full floorpan. I'll smear it in seam sealer and hope it works. Looks like I'll be looking for that Cabby sooner than I though. **** Quebec weather.

In other news, I've started drafting my custom-ish intake manifold: 2.9 clone with added plenum volume (more than regular clones), shaved spark plug wire holes, and provisions for mounting QX45 throttle body. Found a set of wires that will fit under the shaved manifold, just need to find a spare mani now.

Pulled the dash again, everything cruise control related is out, as is the complete heated seat harness. Both are for sale. Re-assembled the dash, MFA is magically working again .

[514rabbit]

any chance you got a brake master cylinder for sale? (with ABS)


thanks

[max302]

Bumping this for development.

First things first: pics for clicks. Here she is, Quebec winter status.



I'll be digging her up on the March break. A couple of items have been added to the list of things I want to do. Most are pretty ghetto, and won't be very expensive, at least I hope.

First, 70a alt retrofit from an MK3 1.8 8v mono with lowered bracket inspired by this. I want to take this a step further though and have the bracket modified for the alt to swivel, enabling me to delete the tensioner pulley. Apparently this alt is supposed to be a euro-only part? Guess what, junk yards are filled with them over here.

Second, more front end shaving. Repeaters are going, flashers relocated to city-light style bulb in the high beams. I'm doing this the correct way, so the metal portion of the grill will be modified to fit too.

Third, more bay shaving. Full windshield washer delete and shave. In-dash AC stuff will probably go if I can find the courage to rip the dash apart (again), holes plugged. Cooling system rework with inline filler and TB line delete, aux pump delete (was planned) and a hidden overflow. I already have all the parts for this.

Engine mods will probably be delayed in favor of a MS install and intake manifold tomfoolery. At this point, chains look like they are going to go another couple dozen thousand clicks, so I'm not going in just for fun. Probably gonna regasket to get rid of the leaky valve cover, but not much more. I have almost all the parts for a custom 3" exhaust... gonna try something original with that, more later.

Also have something else planned... but that's a secret for now.

[CerealKiler]

I enjoyed reading what you've done so far!

[max302]

The head is what I'll concentrate on for now, still need to find an engine stand on the cheap.

Cylinders still crosshatched, late version single chain with black tensionners, little corrosion on head, rod bearings damn near new. This block hasn't seen much running time I reckon, looks like a very good starting point.

[oopseyesharted]

Nice work so far.
Did you happen to have working cruise control when you removed it?
If so, could I buy the module?

[max302]

Went to a meet thinking I'd change my alt for a 70A while yapping with some buddies. 15 minutes later...



It was then that I realized that you can't change the alt on a VR without jacking the motor, which I hadn't done. Needless to say, the 120A stayed in there.

The car is running good now that I've blocked off the intake tract properly (in my own questionable redneck fashion), and apart from an maladjusted TB, it's good to go for a while. Short term todo:

-Fix rust on bottom of fenders, extend mounting tabs to get rid of washers (Dano's stancebro fender clearence trick)
-Shave fender wolfy emblems
-Shave repeaters
-Find flashers for the front (thinking citylight-style LED in highs)
-Shave lower bumpers grills like this.
-Homemade convex DS stubby mirror
-Exhaust... lost a piece and now it's WAYYY too loud.
-Commencing the top secret phase 2 stuff.

The new/old engine needs stuff before I can send it to the machine shop, namely ARP mains and rod bolts, piston rings, bearings... so that might take a while.

All while struggling to poney up for another car. Should be fun.