Geo's Flash Red Corrado VR6

[geo7087 11]

Ok so firstly I apologize for the lengthy post! But I've been putting this off for a fair while so It's going to be a big chunk in one hit and then hopefully keep it up to date! 

So 5 years ago I had my first VR6, a White Golf Mk3 that I owned for nearly a year and showed with the VR6oc in 2011

Then the next car I had was a Nugget yellow Corrado 16v KR, I literally adored it, however I always wished it had the heart of the Golf...

Fast forward to 2013 and I found myself owning another Mk3 that I converted to a VR from an 8v Gti, again I loved it but when the Head gasket let go i let it go, the bodywork wasn't fantastic and there were a few rot issues so this kind of forced my hand...

I ended up then owning a Bora that I bagged on RH splits and kept for nearly 2 years, then owning a Mk2 Jetta with the intention of a VR swap, however it simply wasn't a good enough base for what I really wanted and the cost would have been a bit much, besides, at this point, I'd found what I always wanted.

So with the Bora put back to standard and sold and the Jetta sold I paid off a load of debts and ended up buying in October 2015 what deep down I had always wanted... a Corrado Vr6. 

The history of the car was pretty interesting, it has been owned by a chap who runs a local to me VW parts supplier called veedubmachine, his son then took over ownership, prior to them owning it was still in Cornwall owned by a guy since 2000 where he bought it from VW, I dont't have any history before this but the plate suggests the car came from ireland, and any info I've found on registration leads to 96' which is pretty odd. 

It's a late Corrado VR with the plastic rocker cover but with OBD1 ABS pump, late heater controls, and genuine 2.9 ABV. On pick up the car had 128k and had been sitting for about 6 months under a tree due to needing some work for MOT. The car ran and drove lovely, the main issues being rot that needed addressing. With a deal made at £1700 including standard speedlines, standard tail lights, and a spare bootlid as the current one was rotten I contacted my friend with a recovery truck and collected the car as soon as I could

The rot was on the Filler flap area, the rear arch, the drivers door, the drivers sill, and the bootlid. This picture shows the worst of the rot which was around the filler.

So with that work needing doing for an MOT the car went the whole 5 miles from collecting straight to the bodyshop! Haha!

A good while later I got the car home and on my driveway, had the drivers side repainted, the rot repaired, and had a few extra bits done while the car was there. The new bootlid was painted and fitted with the rear wiper being deleted and the hole smoothed, I had the rear badges deleted and smoothed over, and I had the drivers side rub strip removed (I did want both but I removed the n/s myself)

Got the car through MOT and then started to crack on with the inevitable jobs that needed doing... first one being the lovely wet floor that greeted me after a rainy night! Did the heater matrix, cleaned the scuttle tray and replaced the foliage seal, removed the headlining which sagged and replaced that along with the sunroof seal (77 quid! Thanks Volkswagen!), removed the carpet to de water the floor and binned the factory soundproofing and replaced, and cleaned up the interior prior to re-fit. 

These jobs were actually doing in a few hits rather than in one go over the space of a few weeks but it's much easier to cover it this way!

I did at roughly the same sort of time start to tidy a few things up exterior wise to make the car my own, I spent quite a lot of time on the remaining original paint to bring it up to standard, satin blacked the rear plate plinth, fitted red side repeaters to replace the smoked, full red tinted the standard rear lights (spent 2 days alone just on them!) I got included in the car purchase as frankly I detested the crystal lights :/ and fitted a set of JOM coilovers, not the best but a temporary measure until I can get the funds together for something like a set of H+R's

At this point I was starting to feel much happier with the car and it felt much more like my own, I did also have my number plate fitted in between all of this which has moved from car to car over the past few years, so G3 OCD brands the Corrado proudly

I did do a lot of maintenance in between all of this too, including rocker gasket, fresh paint on the inlet manifold, new red Beru leads, new NGK platinum plugs, new oil, new coolant, new expansion tank, new thermostat, new thermo housing, new sensors for the thermo housing, new rad switch and probably a ton of other stuff in between I've forgotten about! Needless to say I was doing my best to look after it on the inside aswell as out!

The next job... well Ultimate Dubs 2016 was approaching fast, and after chatting with Mike on here If I could set a decent set of shoes on the car and the drop right the car could grace the VR6OC stand for the show, something I was seriously keen for bearing in mind I'd shown with the VR6OC 5 years previous! 

So I managed to find a set of wheels... Rays Volk CV pro 3 piece splits, I've only indluded a buily up picture at the end as frankl;y this is long winded enough! But in the few weeks prior to UD they went from untouched 25 year old wheels, to fully rebuilt, polished lip, painted centres, new tuner bolts, new bolts and buts for assembly, the whole 9 yards, all the work carried out on my own and the wheels went on on the friday before Ultimate Dubs combined with a drop of the JOM coilovers and a chassis notch... cutting it close is an understatement!

So with the wheels on, the drop done, the car cleaned up, and a satin black VR6OC show plate sorted UD 2016 actually happened!

The car got a great reception, however its safe to say the trip wasn't without event! The car developed serious running issues on the way up which lasted a good week until it was diagnosed to be the Coilpack, I had also replaced the MAF at this point!One of the tyres was leaking horrendously which resulted in me resealing a wheel a day after the show! And the bonnet and rear bumper I had in the bodyshop werent ready in time so I had my old bonnet and rear bumper both of which were damaged on the car while it was on show...

Got the new coilpack fitted...

Got the new Kode half dished suede red stitch wheel I bought at the show fitted up

And got the old bonnet and rear bumper binned off as I collected the new repainted parts a few days later

Since then I've been enjoyed the car and doing a few jobs in between, had to go over the coolant system again and found the waterpump had died so I had it replaced, and did a full coolant flush (again) around the same time.

I also had the dash out for a second time after discovering the heater box flaps were blowing cold thanks to the good old foam disintegrating! I've replaced all the foam, tidied the wiring behind the dash, cleaned up everything, and sorted out the heater cables a bit as they were sticking...

This brings me up to date, no doubt theres some stuff I've missed but here some pictures of the car from lately now everything seems to be going well, still plenty I need to do, and want to do with the car but its all in the works

 

Oh wait... i forgot the latest update...

Well the car is fairly low to say the least... the engines raised but none the less the sump is just about at the same level as the subframe, bearing in mind the subframe has been hitting the floor quite a bit! 

Was driving home from my partners place about an hour from mine, about 2 minutes into the trip I hit a cats eyes completely wrong and whacked the sump HARD, The oil light went bezerk and buzzed and by the time I got to a safe spot it was too late... the car had lost power then cut out completely, so I'm pretty certain I've seized the engine....

Two recovery trucks and about 2 hours and the car was loaded up and recovered home.

So at this point in time the car is needing a new engine, which I may well have found, the wheels are possibly sold to pay for it (was selling them anyway to go a another way wheels wise), and I'm walking to work haha!

Fingers crossed they'll be some updates soon on new engine to get it back on the road!

Peace :0

Geo.

[cornishvr6 52]

Bad news on the engine mate, think I caught that post on Facebook the other night, if you need a hand with anything gimme a shout, I still have a few running issues myself atm.

[VR6Pete 1,455]

Hows the new engine transplant going mate?