Break, Bale or Bounce back?

Rusty911

Rusty911

A2OC Donor
As advertised on here and requiring a trip to deepest Devon as per this:

' ... it needs to be disposed of, as it is now taking up unnecessary and unavailable space on my drive!
Reg CW51NYV. 172000 miles. Mechanically it is good. Cobalt Blue (almost Black) exterior is decent, and interior not too bad at all. 15" Wheels somewhat scabby! Panoramic sunroof is inoperative.
It was last MoT'd 24 months ago, when all systems were go and it was a pretty reasonable machine. About a year ago I drove it for the best part of 200 miles bringing it down here and it was faultless.....apart from an immobiliser issue!
The issues with the immobiliser were sorted out by disabling both the alarm and the immobiliser (thanks Sarge).
I've been offered £250 for it by a scrap yard / breaker, but at that price I'd prefer to make it available to a fellow enthusiast who may be in need.
So, if anyone is looking for either a project or a source of spares, please get in touch soon, otherwise it's probably going to go through one cycle on eBay before disappearing into the metal trade. '

No pictures, so I was going by the above description and a couple of calls. We agreed an additional deal on a set of 16" SE's with set of new tyres. We revisited the £150 paid for these when it turned out there were 'issues' and agreed to revise the price on the wheels to £100. This left me the set of 15"'s in hand to refurb and use as winters later on.

Therefore, so far we're at £350. No pics remember: throw the dice, will it be a six or a one? 550 mile round trip so a bit of a gamble.

A chilly 01.50 start on a Sunday morning saw co-pilot and I in the old 4x4 / trusty trailer, passport and phrasebook heading off to Devon.

One co-pilot:

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Note the sports stance at the rear. This wasn't because there was a new set of Eibachs with B6's as we'll see later.

I didn't get pics of the inside I'm afraid but it was similar in feel to the outside.

I'll show a picture of the ignition key later..

I'll be asking how to reattach a fallen headliner later.

I'll be requesting a replacement front sunroof blind later.

I'll be mending the failed glovebox lid later.

BUT ... the reason I decided to risk the trip was it came with a modicum of history, assurance it had had whatever it needed mechanically and there was a bit of spec:

SE with climate.
Cobalt Blue (after silver, just about my favourite).
OSS (Brokenroof)
Symphony I double din.
Rear electric windows.
Handbrake cubby.
Self dip rear view.
It retains its parcel blind which was good.
It retains its under shield and engine cover: both good.
It's lost the hand pack, warning triangle, compressor and jollop, but retains the tools and has a very recent / new Bosch blue 4yr battery.

What works / is good:

The Webasto! Didn't expect that.
It starts really well.
Despite standing for a long time in a hostile environment the brakes worked perfectly and released perfectly: amazing! Things might be turning a corner.
Three of the electric windows (the last one works but the glass falls down: it's on the list).
The OSS panels are unmarked and the front screen is very good.
It's got Bilsteins of some sort (B4's?), but are very rusty. However, they do seem to be working fine.
Rusty front discs turned out to be virtually new underneath the iron oxide.
Coolant nice and clean.

What doesn't work:

Climate.
The declared immobilised immobiliser which leaves the glow-plug light and immobiliser lights flashing. Also, no remote locking, although central locking fine.
OSS
Climate: have gassed to 30 odd psi so far, might give it one more little squeeze before going further.

Anyway, that's a quick sit-rep on day I collected it.
 
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On the Monday I went outside and had that familiar 'what have I done' feeling.

We're on £350 plus £110 for fuel in the truck, plus a long day driving and a new bottle of Meguiares Ultimate Compound, not that I'll use the whole bottle. Hopefully.

It was, however, a bright day and I needed to be at home anyway so time for my favourite bit: the valet.

I hit all of the shuts, arches, door backs, engine bay, under the bonnet and all around the hatch with truck wash. Whilst that was biting, also hit the wheels with a colour-marking cleaner.

That was followed with a conventional PH neutral shampoo and a clay all over.

I then did the unthinkable in polite circles: hit the door trims and false floor with truck wash, then shampoo and then the jet wash.

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This is what you end up after all the slurry (literally) has been blasted out. Works a treat on floor mats as well. Just don't turn on the stereo for a few days in case the speakers are damp! I'm careful to avoid actually blasting the speakers or switches but the odd drop is fine: after all, a car is designed to have a door opened briefly in a rain storm:

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I had noticed that the car had been painted around the front and up through the doors. The colour match was perfect, as was the metallic flake: really good. The orange peel though? Oh my word.

It had to go and of course now the lacquer was rock hard. Nevertheless after a few hours I got it flatted back with 2000 grit ...

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That's all very well: it looks better, but there's a terrible, terrible secret to these pictures. That sporting stance at the back? There may be a problem with the rear springs, so the back of the car is being assisted by a couple of scissor jacks in the above pics. I was keen to rattle some photo's off while is was really clean.

With the outside (and easy bit) done and the inside rough cleaned but still smelling like a lay-by sofa dragged into a warm room, I wanted to get the underside cleaned.

The whole suspension was heavily coated in flaking paint and rust but I was able to blast a lot off using the jet-wash at virtually zero range.

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Whilst it was up at the rear I found that one spring was very, very broken and the other had sagged right down as a result of carrying the whole rear end:

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These were replaced with a pair of KYB's of the correct sort to take the additional weight of the OSS.

Whilst there I also noticed the rear bump stops had disintegrated, so these were replaced. This gave the opportunity to clean up the suspension further ...
 
Forgot to mention, whilst I was cleaning I took out all of the tool-holders etc and jet-washed the black polystyrene and painted the (rusty) tools.

I have now replaced the compressor with the one from the now departed Lasi plus a new bottle of Audi Tyre jollop. I also moved across the better first aid kit, one rear light unit and the warning triangle. Oh, and the hand-pack. The only bit I was missing was the Symphony hand book and that has just been secured via this very club :)

Anyway, not very exciting but all helps to lift a car ...

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Rusty911 said:
Forgot to mention, whilst I was cleaning I took out all of the tool-holders etc and jet-washed the black polystyrene and painted the (rusty) tools.

I have now replaced the compressor with the one from the now departed Lasi plus a new bottle of Audi Tyre jollop. I also moved across the better first aid kit, one rear light and the warning triangle. Oh, and the hand-pack. The only bit I was missing was the Symphony hand book and that has just been secured via this very club :)

Anyway, not very exciting but all helps to lift a car ...

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You have worked hard my friend a grand job on low budget and looking really good ...?
 
Now, I only had one key and the dolts at the local main dealer tried to tell me that what I had wasn't 100% correct.

As it happens ages ago I bought a couple of blanks for the Passat and never got around to using them.

O.K. they're not Audi ones, but we're dodging scrapyards here: they'll do and then the pincers can go back to doing what they do best: pulling teeth.

Not too far away from me is a good locksmith and he did an excellent job of the cutting. He used a new cutter so they were spot on. Of course being brand new in 174K mile locks, they're a bit stiff, but they work fine and save having a rusty pair of pincers in the pocket. £25 was more than I expected for the cutting but I'll take it.

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Time for the accounts so far:

Car £250
Wheels: £100
Fuel: £110
Valeting materials: £10
Rear springs: £33
Key cutting (no chips, manual locking only): £25
Rear bump stops (pair) £14
Various paints / abrasives from stock: £10.

Total at this point: £552.
 
The brake pad warning light was up: this didn't worry me unduly as I suspected pad loom. Sure enough it was so I removed the pads, snipped off the wire, snipped the loom back, soldered the wires up and double heat-shrunk them. I'm going on the logic that my V70 which was £37,500 many years before I got it does without any form of pad sensing (thanks Ford!), so what's good enough for that is good enough for my A2.

Also, the alternator light was coming up at random points but I took the view that it would probably settle down, which it did.

As I'd worked around it, I'd been viewing anything that could be an issue at MOT time. Springs and bumps obviously. Also noticed one brake hose at the front was perished so replaced that. Two of the tyres weren't usable (one nail, one run flat for a period and also deep cut to side-wall) but I swapped those with two from Lasi (which was heading off into the trade with someone with a far more flexible morale compass than me). This gave me a set of practically unworn tyres.

Be nice if it went through an MOT ...

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