Project EUD (2001 Jaipur Red TDI AMF)

[2work]

Hello all,

Well it’s the weekend and I’ve had an hour to myself. Anyone who’s been following what I’ve been up to recently will easily guess what I completed an hour ago.

First off is to show you what was removed to make way for the A1 armrest, bracket and printed plastics:

There is nothing wrong with what was removed but I just wanted to be different since locating an A1 armrest for about as much as what the A6 C5 armrests sell for. I also think the progress of this project deserves something that little bit more special regardless of costs (which were minimal fortunately).

I was hoping that fitting the bracket was going to be quite simple as I had already drilled and tapped into the VIN plate for the A6 bracket. Unfortunately the holes were quite a way off so had to employ the drill with a 4.5mm drill bit and a 6mm tap:

A few minutes later the freshly painted Jaipur Red A1 bracket was offered up to the chassis.


You’ve seen the A1 armrest bracket in previous pictures so I’ll skip to pictures of it fitted in this brilliant A2:

Below is with the freshly painted printed plastics:

The Volico Soul paint still needs to darken over time which it will as have been here before painting a Rear Cup Holder.

Running out of room for pictures so will continue in the next post.

Kind regards.

Tom

 

[2work]

Hello again,

Continuing from the previous post…

Next up was to offer up the A1 armrest to the freshly painted bracket shown fitted above. Here it is fitted:

Looks pretty good doesn’t it!

Here’s how the printed plastics look on the front of the bracket:

It will looks absolutely factory perfect once the paint darkens over time.

To finish off the rear of the bracket required cutting down one of the factory trim panels with my favourite friend, the cut was down the area of the red line:

Once cut down it will fill the obvious void:

You know me. I don’t waste my time with a Dremel in my hand. Here’s the trim panel fitted, I might sand a little more from the. Ottoman of the cut line but it’s fit for purpose for now:

Jobs done I’d say. Cannot wait for the paint to darken but I won’t see it sat in the drivers seat so not in a rush to pmrefresh the rest of the armrests plastic in Soul Volico, if I was to do so then I’d end up having to repaint the whole interior plastics which is unnecessary (but might happen one day haha).

My thanks really need to go back to Duncan @DuncanA2 for sharing the A1 armrest idea and files all those years ago and also must extend my thanks to Neil @nee777.a2 for assist with the bracket and plastics (thanks mate).

If anyone is wondering what I’m doing with the A6 armrest and bracket then it’ll be advertised in the Market Forum this evening. No PMs please. Leave it for the sale thread. For anyone who hasn’t got access to the Market Forum should consider upgrading their account to take advantage of the countless offerings inside.

Kind regards,

Tom

 

[2work]

Hello all,

Some of you will remember from much earlier pictures that this particular A2 needed a cleaner looking coolant reservoir:

Well this was secured some months ago now front Steve but I ended up fitting it to the latest member to the driveway, cleaned up the one that was removed then sold it for pennies; only to later remember that I needed it for this A2.

Why is it that you sell the things you need and buy multiple items you don’t need as the same perfectly decent item is already exist stashed away in the garage!

Anyway, so I therefore obtained another reservoir which was in reasonable visual condition and went ahead to improve it. First off was to wash out the sediment and inspect for damage and of course understand if it was a worthy candidate for cleaning. I deemed it as much better than what was already fitted so proceeded with cleaning best I could.

The cleaning regime was to cover the 2 hose ports and fill it with boiling water and one measure of Kilrock which was left in the reservoir over night:

Next up was to fully rinse the reservoir out then add a cup of powdered bleach and slowly refill it with boiling water:

The reservoir, filled with the bleach solution was left outside for 48 hours on the bright sun to see if the UV light could assist the plastics colouring as I’ve done this in the past with fantastic results with refurbishing retro toys (original Star Wars vehicle). Here it in the elements:

Once the outdoor playtime was up it was again fully rinsed out with warm soapy water then clean cold water. It was starting to look a lot better:

Today’s lunch break see me outside with the basic tools to conduct the swap of the reservoirs. Below is a comparison of the dirty (fitted) and clean got fitted) bottles:

Quite a difference which isn’t really picked up in the picture unfortunately. Here’s the very same reservoir after the swap was complete:

The above picture really shows how unclear the dirty reservoir is. The below picture shows how improved level readability is:

It’s far from new looking but I’m very happy with the results. The swap was quite simple and I lost very little coolant as I removed the 10mm nut, upper hose and electrical connector before finally removing the lower hose; plugged the lower port with my thumb (engine was cold) and pulled the dirty reservoir away from the engine bay. I used the content of the old to fill the ‘new’. Still a little overfill but will monitor it once it next up to temperature and syphon the overfill.

Next on the cards is a quick engine bay detail and of course see how clean I can get the reservoir that was removed, tasks that will have to wait for another day!

Kind regards,

Tom