tuffty 4 Posted December 5, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2021 Couple of little jobs done over the past week.... Painting the new rear calipers... Doing a bit of tweaking on the map and adding in timing up the top of the rev range while fine tuning the VE table.. I changed the view from kPa to PSI as I think this tends to make it a little more relatable so as you can see I am currently running a mere 16psi... the reported power is a little unbelievable tbh, it really doesn't feel like 560hp but I plan to get the car back on the dyno for another few runs so I can check my changes and make any further tweaks to get the engine where I want it Further to preparing for the DSG swap I have sorted a panel for the fuses and relays I will need... This will attach to the car using a couple of rivnuts... ...thusly... ...and clears the filter nicely... ...of course the panel was painted Waiting on some crimp terminals then I will start wiring everything in including the DSG gearbox loom and all the other bits I need to drive the starter inhibit and reverse light etc.. <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
dale p 62 Posted December 24, 2021 Report Share Posted December 24, 2021 looking good mate, almost their then tuffty 1 Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted December 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2021 47 minutes ago, dale p said: looking good mate, almost their then Thanks dude... getting there slowly but surely <tuffty/> dale p 1 Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted February 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2022 So I was a little bit bored and decided to take a trip to Mexico for a few map tweaks... I had originally imposed a 1bar limit on myself but in fairness I have already broken that at the top end to achieve 500hp... not by much of course... whats 100kpa between friends Anyhoo... I am getting close to running out of injector duty at 3bar and due to the fairly soft wastegate spring I am using I am close to maxing out the N75 duty too... obviously those things can be addressed but I am kinda ok with it as it means I can impose a hard limit on how much more I can tune the standard bottom end... to that end... this was my previous boost map... This has now been tweaked (including upping integrator max a bit) to this... I am not bringing it in with a wallop but instead still trying to get that 'big engine' feel from the tune... This was the power run from the 502hp map... These are the logs from tonight... Obviously pinches of salt all round but while the actual hp/torque figures may not be 100% accurate due to various reasons it does show relative gains and in fairness the car feels much like she did back when the 20v was at 620hp... In fact if you look at the graphs from the 20v runs you can get an idea of what the VR is doing on the same turbo for much less boost and RPM... (17psi essentially at the top end rather than the 32psi I ran on the 20v) No replacement for displacement Will get the car on the dyno as soon as I can to validate where she is <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted February 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2022 Have put the car on stands.... there is a decent reason for this... it stops me driving the car and gives me a reason to crack on with the current list of things I need to do... First up... I need to replace the top mounts as mine appear to have started to collapse... these Billy B8's are the first mod I did to the car when I first bought it and while they are still working fine they are showing signs of age (13yrs of age)... So while they are off I am going to clean them up and give them a fresh coat of paint... hopefully keep them decent for a while longer... it was just as well I decided to do these now as it turns out... ...the joy of potholes Another issue that has manifested itself is the scourge of most 8L S3's these days... This is a little disappointing but not unexpected... I will need to pull the sill covers off and see what needs doing I have also got an issue with the drivers door... it will struggle to shut and when it does it will sometimes pop open while I am driving... in anticipation of this I bought a new latch some time back but never got around to fitting it... These are now obsolete (like a lot of parts for our cars these days) but they are listed on Audi Tradition... however due to Brexit they are currently not shipping to the UK!!... On the subject of obsoleted parts I decided to pull my old haldex controller apart to see if it could be refurbed... Internally there is not much to it... some electronics (that use a jelly like potting compound) and stepper motor... I need to pull the valve out of the case too as I think its possible that this along with maybe the stepper is what is causing the issues with them being the only mechanical part of the controller... I need to do a bit more clean up and I think I have found a bit out about the stepper motor but I need to pull that apart to see what type of encoder it uses as this could be why its causing an issue... If I could find a way to 'fix' these then that would be a nice little win... Other things on the to do list include fitting the new rear calipers I bought recently and all the new brake pipes... then bleed the brakes using fresh RB600 fluid... Last things to do (for now) will be to fit the DSG loom and connect it all up so I can test it all with the box plugged in and to dual port the wastegate replacing the N75 valve with a MAC valve... ...this should hopefully give me a bit more duty back at the higher boost levels so I can run a solid 1.2bar (220kpa/17.4psi) at the top end of my rev range... currently I am at 90% and its still struggling to get there so pretty sure there is nothing left without changing the spring which I would rather not do at this time... Not in a rush to get this lot done but as I am doing it outside the house and the weather is pants it may take me a while ...means I get to drive the A2 and actually have some money left at the end of the month from the saving on fuel lol... so I can buy more parts obvs <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted March 12, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2022 Have had the dreaded raised top of the strut for a little while which is typically the sign of the rubber top bush sagging... as I have LCR top mounts I was a little surprised they had gone as bad being harder rubber but I have had them a while now so in anticipation I bought poly replacements with new bearings and spring cups Finally got around to swapping out the rear calipers... Just as well I changed the lines as they were looking pretty scabby... Bought myself a fancy pressure bleeder as Bill uses a similar one and quite frankly just makes it real easy to bleed the brakes on your own I used RBF600 fluid too as its pretty decent stuff and never had any problems with my brakes when hauling up the VR6 (or 20v) anchor.... Pressure bleeders are brilliant and it didn't take long to get the brakes bled... I bought 3 bottles (1.5ltrs) to make sure that I could push all the old fluid out plus this bleeder needs a bit of a reserve in the bottom of a 100/200 ml to ensure that no air gets passed through the bleeder.. Once done I just needed to pull some fluid out with a syringe as pressure bleeders will leave the reservoir brimmed.. With all that done I could spend some time on the struts... I used gel based paint stripper to get the old paint off... It wasn't the most fun in the world but some scraping, sanding and aqua blasting later.... they were ready for some rust treatment for the remaining bits.. ...and I decided (for no other reason than I could) to cold blue the top of the strut in a vain attempt to prevent corrosion.. Etch primer next... ...and Rustoleums finest matt black... ....yes... BLACK!!!... in all honesty I did paint one yellow... but... the paint was very thin and took many many coats to get it looking half decent to the point that the finish was full of runs and the paint was still soft after a few days drying... so I flatted it all back and went 'stealth' black instead Actually looks ok and is in keeping with my general theme.. I also managed to break out one of my favourite tools that I never use... my vortex pass through socket set... Not driven the car as yet so need to test the brakes and once happy I can start tuning the boost map again for the dual ported wastegate.. <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
dale p 62 Posted March 13, 2022 Report Share Posted March 13, 2022 all looking good and fresh😁 tuffty 1 Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted March 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2022 As the weather has been reasonably nice I took a trip to Mexico so I could set up the boost control now that the wastegate is dual ported... Ignitron is such a breeze to use and didn't take long to get the PID control dialled in... Overall I am hitting the 220kpa I am asking for in the specified boost map for 10% less duty than when in the single port setup which never quite made 220kpa top end... happy days I have next week off to do some more bits to the car such as the aircon pump and DSG wiring... I am also replacing the oil pressure switch as that appears to have gone faulty as I am randomly getting the 3 beeps of doom when driving even under load where I can see I am getting 5bar of oil pressure... looking back at the build pics I think I used a Febi sensor for a 20v and it seems that they are rated differently to the VR6 for a start and I guess the Febi part is not as good as the OE part... who knows... either way I have a genuine switch to replace it with... If Bill is able and willing I will try and get the car on the dyno this weekend or during the week maybe... be nice to see where she is now I have spent a little time tweaking the map and running a little more boost... The figures IECU report can be fairly accurate but in my experience tend to over read... the car feels very fast and based on the below... ...the car took 6.93 seconds to get from around 1500rpm to around 7000rpm in third gear... I have nothing to gauge that against but she feels fast so can't complain <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted March 19, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2022 So this happened! ...which resulted in... The difference in the boost plots looks quite a bit... but other than I have brought the spool/mid range in sooner the actual difference top end is around 0.1bar which is about 1.5psi and the spool/mid range is a lift of 0.9bar to 1.1bar below 5k rising to 1.2bar request up to redline... I am happy with the top end power figure... not really interested in chasing figures but the OCD in me would like to tackle the slight wobblyness after 5.5k purely to smooth it out a bit... This is only the third time the car has been on the dyno since having a VR6 fitted so pretty happy with the tuning I have done so far... Next big task will be the DSG... <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted March 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 (edited) Had a few days off to get some little jobs sorted on the car... First job was the aircon... I have a new pump and dryer as the old pump is leaking PAG oil and makes sense to change the dryer too... Not the most fun job ever but easy enough tbh... I have also had an issue with the low oil pressure warning popping up randomly at any rpm or time it felt like... I know I have pressure as Ignitron picks that up and all the times the three beeps of death have popped up the pressure is over 2bar minimum... (IECU also records when the switch is triggered too) So bought a brand new OE VR6 switch... ...and so far this appears to have fixed the issue I also took a punt on a set of H7 LED bulbs for the main beam... Combined with bi-xenons main beam is pretty much daylight now so should make the late night trips to mexico a little less scary I had planned to fit the DSG wiring but... I bit the bullet on a job I have been putting off for some time... ...yes... the dreaded corrosion behind the door blade... full send it is then... Thankfully while I was quite late to the party I did catch it before the door became toast... I found pinholes by the particularly bad bit... ...so I will weld this up later when I get to borrow a friends MIG for "another" job and blend actual metal in rather than use filler... While I was at it I attacked the wings too... ...used Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 to treat the rusty bits that was left... I then masked up the car using masking film (brilliant stuff)... ..and etch primed the door and arch... Sadly I got a little over confident with the knife cutting the film for the arch and added a nice score mark... good job I am wet sanding it and painting huh lol Edges are nicely feathered rather than a hard edge which will make blending for paint easier I am not 100% on the amount of rust I got out so I have a cheap ebay sand blaster attachment on the way and will try to get the rest of the rust out of the door with that before I apply a finish to the 'repair'... I am not expecting much of a match even though the paint was 'matched' to my actual paint rather than just the paint code but its more that I have treated the rust areas to at least have some actual metal to be able to paint when the time comes for the full respray... The passenger door on the face of it looks ok but I will have the blade off that after doing this side and go from there.. <tuffty/> Edited March 25, 2022 by tuffty Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted April 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2022 Decided it was about time to level up my man status and acquired the following items... A 50ltr, 9.6cfm air compressor.... A MIG welder... ...and a cool welding mask to at least give the impression I know what I am doing.... First job was to fabricobble a stand for the gas bottle.... The broken spring from my A2 and a 1.8t cam pulley will do the job.... ...tada!!!!! So... filled with confidence and looking cool in my awesome helmet (fnarr!) I undertook the job I had been dreading.... The skirts come off pretty easily tbh... I removed the rear end cap (4 screws) and you have to kinda pull it off as its velcro'd at the top... then work your way along the underside of the skirt removing screws plus a few in the front wheel arch... then with a suitable tool you can unclip the sill step trim from the top of the sill cover... its essentially push fit into it and does bend up out the way... just don't pull to hard or force it... Once done you can pull the skirt away... the front of the skirt is clipped into a plastic moulding so pull away from the car.. There was a load of dirt and rust in the skirt ...in fact I removed the front wheel arch liner and cleaned all the accumulated crud (of which there was a lot!)... this looks to be something else thats getting added to the yearly maintenance list once the bodywork is done I was not surprised at what I did find... just a little disappointed... The rear faired a little better.... Scabby for sure but no real rot... I need to clean up and straighten the pinch weld at the back but it looks at least like I won't need to replace any metal... I knew this was there... I didn't know how bad it was and if I hadn't managed to put the jack through it the other week it may have even retained its shape... Will be attacking the rust and cutting sections out to get back to the good metal then make up patch panels and weld them in... I may take the passenger side off next to see how that looks... Oh the joy of 20 yr old cars <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted April 9, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2022 (edited) Cracked on with operation rusty POS today..... cut some more metal out... Started cleaning up the floor pan area by the jacking point damage... Then pulled the rear arch liner out and cleaned up the end of the sill to see if I was going to be doing work there too... thankfully it was just surface rust with minor pitting... So cleaned up a few other obvious areas while I was there... I have wire wheeled the cr@p out of the rusty bits and used rust treatment (Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80) to sort the remaining bits... now I know the end of the sill is sound I'll come back to that when I prep for doing the tough liner coating I plan for the inside of the arches and the bottom of the sills... So I was originally going to use steel from a spare body panel I have but a mate of mine had an A3 pattern part sill that he never used for his (same issue as me on his S3)... The lower part of the sill is the same profile as the S3 but as you can see the S3 is much squarer as it has the plastic sill covers where the A3 does not... Not a problem as I only plan to go part way up the sill as that part is not rotten I used the rear part of the sill to fabricate the repair panel... as the sill did not have the front part of the sill I had to get creative with the hammers Prepped and painted the inside of the panel and sill with weld through zinc primer... ...and started tacking it on... ...it was at this moment I realised the gas wasn't 'gassing'... not sure what the issue is as its a new regulator and bottle but after a quick look it seems the regulator maybe faulty... disappointing... So dressed up the "welds", sprayed some zinc primer on and called it a day... Quite happy with the results so far given I have not done this type of work before and I can't actually weld... I still need to sort out the repair panel for the floor pan area but that will have to wait until I get the gas issue fixed... Nice collection of 'bits' left over though <tuffty/> Edited April 9, 2022 by tuffty Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted April 30, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2022 (edited) Been a few weeks but I have made some progress... was having a fair few issues with gas... the little bottles are a bit of a pain and don't seem to last very well welding outside so I man'd up and got a proper bottle... Added a 3mm thick piece of bar to replace the rotten part of the floor pan lip... Welding underneath the car is a royal pain in the rear too especially as I don't have much room to work with and I don't bend like I used to in my younger days.. Not pretty but its solid and actual metal now... Have added another bit of 3mm bar to add a bit more strength... This will be painted and fully seam sealed to stop water ingress Addressed the rear jack point next... Removed the wing to reveal yet more tin worm... Cleaned it up to reveal a hole ...so added new metal It was at this point I removed the plastic sill panel (with the aluminium S3 insert in it)... kinda wish I hadn't.... Wasn't the most fun I have ever had but needed doing before it got worse... Masked everything up and etch primed the whole sill... I had also dug all the factory underseal from the other side of the pinch rail and etch primed that too... Lastly I broke out the spray gun I got with the compressor... ...using this I gave the sill a few coats of high zinc content black primer... it was rather good fun... (apart from cleaning the gun afterwards) I need to clean the inner arches at some point so I can de-rust and apply the zinc paint... once all done I can look to finish off with the bed liner coating I have... I had to brush the zinc primer onto the inside though as I couldn't get the gun in and working as the reservoir kept hitting the floor pan... Just need the primer to dry properly and I can then seam seal the flip out of it... Had a look at the wing while it was off... seems a common rust point on these... Will attack that once the sill are done.... I also need to give the old girl a serious clean... the grinder dust is making the paint rusty <tuffty/> Edited April 30, 2022 by tuffty Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2022 Bit more progress... Added seam sealer where it was needed... I also wire wheeled all the factory sealer from the inside edge of the pinch rail too and seam sealed the cr*p out of that... On to the rear wheel well and cleaned up corrosion in several areas of it... Decided that not all the wheel well needed to be painted as it was mostly ok so tried the wax product I have instead as a test... I think I will go to town with the wax anyway but its decent stuff from the looks... On to the front area behind the wing.... My A pillar is in need of some work as its been bubbling for a long time... this was down to a poor windscreen replacement back before I owned the car... I will need to take the screen out to deal with it and almost certain I will need to make patch panels to replace the corrosion there... not looking forward to that job! But one thing I did tackle was where some sealer had come away at the bottom of the A pillar... I have since gone over it with seam sealer so that should slow things down until I get a chance to look at the A pillar properly There were a few other areas that needed a bit of work... Have also added some seam sealer and will wax this area once the paint is done... One of the last little jobs I needed to sort out was the missing two holes for the sill cover fixings... which... are square!... so a 7mm drill and a flat needle file later and.. Nothing more to do now but mask up ready to shoot the high zinc primer and the bed liner under coat... to help me stand a better chance of getting paint underneath (using an air driven paint gun) I decided to invest in a new trolley jack... Pretty sure I was close to tipping the car over with this but settled on a sensible height and had to break out the 3 tonne Halfrauds stands as I ran out of height on the 2 tonne ones Much cleaning and masking then ensued... Followed by paint gunnage! I am hoping to grab some 2k thinners tomorrow so I can shoot the bed liner product... I could just use the shultz gun I have but they are a bit spitty and I am outside on axle stands... not really much fun... once I have some thinners I can mix up smaller batches of the product and lay it down much better with the gun.. I decided to poke the wings rust with the pointy end of my panel hammer... Bit of weld and a grind should sort that... Nearly there on the drivers side... passenger side next!!! eeep! <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 8, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2022 Managed to grab some 2k thinners so game on! Went on nicely.... Painting under the car was as always a mahoosive challenge... I did get quite a bit of coverage but I think I might just go over the trickier to get areas with a brush at a later date then I will be waxing the flip out of everywhere That signalled the end of the main work on the drivers side... I have fitted anything back yet and still need to wax things but will do that after I have finished the rust repairs and paint work on the passenger side... and to that end I turned the car around and jacked up the passenger side... removing all the trim and the sill covers came a lot easier this time... however... ...rear wheel tub... Rear jack point... ...and of course the front jack point... *sigh* At least I have a better idea of what to do now so hoping this will go a bit smoother... thankfully the upper sill area looks a lot better than the drivers side did As does the the bottom of the door See you in a couple of weeks <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 15, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2022 Posting latest progress as rain has stopped play Passenger side is generally 'rustier' in terms of surface and general scabbiness... the hole in the sill was about the same as the drivers side but this time the floor pan faired much better... As per the drivers side I added in a 3mm thick to add a bit of strength Not sure if I will add the extra angled bit of steel like I did to the drivers side but that was more to make up for the state of the floor pan than anything (and also my dodgy welding!) Cut a section from the A3 sill panel and took to it with grinders and hammers... Then threw some molten metal at it in some hope it would stick... The pinch rail looks a bit lumpy but thats by design... (my design at least lol)... I wanted make it form around the protruded spots caused by adding the 3mm strengthening plate and tabs from the internal sill strengthening assembly... this will mean less of a gap to fill with seam sealer... Cleaned up the 'nose' of the sill... as per usual there was pitting and thin metal as I gave it a gentle tap with the pointy hammer... basically ended up spending 20mins with the MIG chasing blown holes to add metal back... all worked out and now solid... With the wing off I could see the seam sealer was gone at the bottom of the A-pillar much like the drivers side... So will clean that up and so the same as I did there On to the rear jack point... I straightened out the crumpled metal by first hammering it flat then pulling down the return lip... This was then wire wheeled to remove the factory seam sealant in prep for paint... The rear wheel tub was definitely worse than the drivers side with a lot more rusty scabbiness... had to remove all the seam sealer at the bottom to ensure I got to it all... Also had bubbling on the outside of the arch but this thankfully turned out to be surface rust and not coming from inside... at least from what I could see... I will be removing the rear cards later to wax things at a later date... hopefully there won't be anything lurking... Getting into the crevice to clean out the rust was tricky but after a good scrape/rust conversion later I prepped the sill and arch for etch primer... Then zinc primed by hand the areas in the arch I wanted to seam seal... And splodged the sealer all over... This stuff is quite tricky to apply nicely so will let it go off then try a final smoother coat with a bigger/stiffer nylon bristle brush... It was at this time the heavens did open so played a few rounds of Infantry only on BF2042 with my mate instead... happy days bit more sealer to apply, bit more old sealer to remove and to work on the front wheel well then I can mask and zinc prime the lot followed by the tough liner ...once its stopped raining of course <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
Testing123 8 Posted May 16, 2022 Report Share Posted May 16, 2022 (edited) Great work @tuffty. I was just about to write looking up hobby weld for some gas as I caught up on your thread and saw the disposable bottle but see you already have. Like you I bought a load of gear and started fixing the rust myself - can be quite saisfying and the confidence you gain in yourself and ability to keep an older car on fine fettle on the body makes you feel unstoppable on your projects! Apparently 0.8 wire is better than 0.6 for automotive but have massive supplies of 0.6 so haven't tried myself. When i was fixing my mk3 i found some MOT style patches which were litreally new metal over the top of the rotten metal - so much better to do it yourself right. I've got to put 2 x arches into my mk2 16v next. I've done work like yourself on the ends of sills but this will be my first "on show" (well it is behind the GTI arches). I haven't yet tried to paint with my air compressor (same specs as yours but got from SGS). Its the thought of cleaning out the gun that puts me off - any tips?! I did buy a kit with various thin brushes. Edited May 16, 2022 by MJA tuffty 1 Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2022 Cleaning is a complete PITA tbh... use normal thinners (not expensive 2k stuff) and just fire some through before stripping the gun down and basically using thinners and brushes etc to clean where ever the paint is.... I would have a read up about using the gun if you can... I didn't realise I could adjust the size of the fan!... also get yourself a water trap for the airline if you haven't got one... you don't really need an oiler for the tools as you can pre-oil before use but water in the airline for painting is not a good idea... I also got some paint mixing cups and wooden stirrers for the paint which are useful... Last thing I recently bought was a small paint gun with 125ml pot... that should make painting under the car and in the wheel wells a lot easier... the normal 600ml pot sticks up too far to be able to get a decent angle in a restricted space Doing this work is not the most fun in the world but in fairness I am enjoying it... be nice if it wasn't outside on axle stands but reminds me of my youth messing about with my Mk2 Escort on the drive at my parents... Although back in those days I didn't use a welder... pop rivets and fibre glass lol <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
Testing123 8 Posted May 16, 2022 Report Share Posted May 16, 2022 haha yes my step dad said to me why don't you just stuff the hole with newspaper and paint black underseal over it (as that is what he used to do back in the day!) tuffty 1 Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 21, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 21, 2022 Rotting sill saga update!... Spent some time digging out the factory sealer from the inside of the pinch rail... it was partially separated from the return so made sense to clean this up and re-seal ...etch primed the bare metal followed by high zinc primer then splooged a load of brush on seam sealer to top it off... Dealt with the rust around the fixings for the sill cover... Flatted, rust converted and etch primed... A few bits left to sort before masking up to do the main painting... This was better on the passenger side than the drivers oddly... Next job was to degrease the underside with APC and degreaser then on to the masking... Rain stopped play (again) but thankfully today was loverly soooooo.... A few coats of zinc primer followed by a few coats of 955 Tough Liner coating... Happy days.... I have left one of my wings with my local paint shop to mix up 1/2ltr of silver base coat... I will need this for the wings at the very least but I think I will paint the sills in too... will give me a bit of practice prior to trying to blend the paint on the wings... not convinced I will do a brilliant job (first time and outside etc) but tbh as long as it looks ok from a distance it will be fine until I get the car actually professionally resprayed... After all the object is to remove the rust and protect from it coming back... if it kinda looks the right colour then that'll do for now One thing I also plan to do is to clean everything and everywhere thats typically hidden... With the rear bumper removed it was pretty mucky so will clean up all the plastics and metal brackets along with the inside of the bumpers, arch liners and sill covers before refitting... I also need to finish off the cavity wax application too but I am waiting for the paint to dry off a bit first so might sort that tomorrow after cleaning things... <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 22, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2022 Busy day doing all the things..... The A3 sill doesn't have the holes for the sill cover fixings so had to add a couple like I did on the drivers side... Pilot hole followed by a 7mm drill... ...a bit of fettling later using a flat needle file and... With that out of the way I could crack on with the giving the car a good waxing!!! Basically went mental applying this stuff mostly everywhere... in the sills, in the wheel wells and the floorpan/inside lip of the pinch rail... I applied the wax before adding new bungs then went over the bungs with wax just to seal them in... I did this on both sides which involved dropping the car off the stands and turning her round (the VR sounded soooo good!) but before I used the jack I added powerflex jack pads (the Mk1 TT comes with similar pads from the factory)... the idea being I will use these to jack the car up from rather than the jack points... However... there is a problem with the fronts... the rear box section the pad fits into is solid as a rock but the front is not quite as solid and... using the jack on the pad up front actually dents the floor up... there is a cavity it dents into so does not push into the cabin but something to be aware of all the same if you plan to use these... Personally for me its the lesser of two evils... I can live with the dent in the floor vs potentially damaging the jack point again despite reworking it... truth be told I would rather not have to do all this work again in a few years! Next job is to clean things.... Cleaned up the rear valance... ...cleaned up the arch liners... ...bit of rubbage from when I ran the car lower and on 235/40/18's... will look for some replacements at some point but for now these will do Cleaned up all bumper plastics too... ...as well as painting the screws Took the insert out of the rear bumper... this was full of crud... Cleanage... Assembly of stuff.... Also cleaned the front bumper... ...and the front of the car... Like I said... busy day <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 28, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2022 More progress... home stretch now Prepped and painted the rear bumper mounting hardware... Used PPF where hardware fixings were used to mitigate potential metal to metal rubbage... ...and replaced the rusty bolts with stainless ones... Next task was to work on the wings.... both had the usual stone chip damage at the lower part of the return... So much wire wheel action later... Getting into the lower area on the inside of the wing wasn't the most fun... ...many different wire based attachments were used including a few on the dremel... managed to get it to a point I was happy to let the rust converter do the rest of the work... Bit of prep and masking later.... The drivers side wing has a pinhole that had rotted through so prepped that... ...for a little bit of galvanised steel as a backstop patch... Welded, ground and etch primed... ...I also gave it a light skim of filler to fill the remaining flaws.... this was followed by a healthy dose of zinc primer.... Once dry it was on to the seam sealer... ...and finally treated the inside and the outside of the lip to some 955 Tough Liner... this "should" give it a bit of stone chip protection... In the week I picked up some base coat... ...this was colour matched to one of my wings so hopefully will be fairly close... much masking and cleaning and yet more rust removal ensued... ...followed by a top up of the tough liner... The next bit was a tad scary to say the least... not actually sprayed a basecoat using what could arguably be called "proper equipment"... Eeeeeepp!!!... I did use rattle can clear coat though but in fairness it was a decent product that I have used before and goes on really well as well as being a "2K" based product like the base coat... Unfortunately my lack of experience and quite possibly a little bit of rushing to get it done in a timely fashion so the neighbours wouldn't hate me too much lead to a couple of rooky mistakes Clearly I hadn't left the tough liner to dry enough which created a reaction to the base coat (both are 2K products).... ...plus I totally forgot to sort the masking out properly and create a couple of feathered mask areas so I could fully paint over the tough liner... Both are fixable... and I know better for next time but the pressure of the potentially variable weather and not wanting to leave the car masked up over night got the better of me... DOH... Joys of doing this outside the front of the house... along with this of course! Ah well... passenger side to do (better hopefully) and then some work on the wings before I blow them over with silver... <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 30, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2022 The weather is seriously getting in the way of progress which is a little annoying as I am close to having the car drivable again... Sunday was mostly a bust... I managed to fit the new fixings for the sill cover... I used a little RTV too to help seal and prevent them moving around potentially damaging the paint which I think will be tougher than ever now... ...then it rained... so played games for a few hours... but it cleared up for a while and ran out to sort the rear valance out so I could get the rear bumper on properly... there were a few little spots of rust to deal with... ...and managed to get some etch primer on too but it was far too late to get the compressor out so this afternoon after work I ran out again and gave the valance a couple of coats of zinc primer then after a bit of time a couple of coats of 955 Tough Liner Will let that harden over the next day or so then I can get the rear bumper refitted... I also dug out some parts I have been sitting on for about 5 years... I had been saving them for when I got the car resprayed but now seemed as good a time as any.. The grille is essentially brand new but I have painted the chrome surround black... the guy I got the kit from had got the parts painted... looks a bit better than mine at least... They had been fitted to the car before he broke it for parts so I need to clean the insides a bit and do some mitigation work on the blades to prevent them from potential future corrosion issues... One last thing I have had through the post recently are these... I have a spare subframe and front arms that I need to de-rust and paint... I was going to get them powder coated but I am impressed with the zinc primer/tough liner combo so as I have the paint and the kit I think I will just paint them myself... the tough liner is designed for truck beds so should be hard wearing enough for a subframe and arms... <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted May 31, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2022 Bl**dy showers and other unforeseen wibble has given me a hard time on the passenger side... Mostly inexperience too tbh... Colour match on the wing is not great but... This was to be expected as this wing has been painted before and I gave my factory painted wing to the paint shop so is a better match to that... Granted I think I could have blended it better but I haven't really got a clue what I am doing sooooo... There is that! 🙂 Had some reactions with the tough liner on the sill... Thinking maybe a sealing primer would have been useful but again no experience of such things... ...and the great outdoors is great!!!... (apparently) At the end of the day... Rust has been dealt with... Some paint and other animals has been applied for protection.... It's kinda oneish colour... I know I can do better with more experience and advice I am sure but given the circumstances of doing this outside etc I am pretty happy with the result It was never going to be showroom and was always going for a proper paint job but at least the vast majority of the corrosion (and a couple of rather big holes) had been dealt with... One wing left to sort... A potential revisit to this wing maybe and then the doors which again is damage limitation rather than showroom finish... ...oh and the bl**dy "A" pillar... as that's getting nasty 🙁 <tuffty/> Link to post Share on other sites
tuffty 4 Posted June 4, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2022 (edited) While the weather is being all weathery as per usual I haven't been able to get the other wing painted... so just cracked on with a few jobs that are weather agnostic... Essentially cleaning things and getting trim etc refitted... first up was refitting the rear bumper... Unfortunately the top trim for these appears to have "warped" and is not fitting as it should... its held on by two screws at the side and held to the bumper by the heavy duty velcro VAG are so fond of... only problem seems to be that the warping is applying tension stronger than the double sided tape I was using for securing the velcro... no pictures as yet as I need to come up with a solution to that so will cover it later.. Anyhoo... with the car back together enough I thought it best to wash the old girl after 2 months of hammering, grinding, welding and other animals... I knew that there was a covering of grinder debris so out with the iron-x (well... Korrosol...) ... boy oh boy did she bleed! Now that she was clean I moved on to the trim... I can't really fit the blades at this time as I want to leave the sills a bit longer for the lacquer to fully go hard and the rear blades are attached to sill covers and I still need to address the bottom of the doors before I can fit the door blades... I have however machine polished all the replacement trim parts and dressed everything else... Grabbed a window of opportunity in between the showers to fit the bumper trim... I still need to clay bar the whole car followed by a quick once over with the DA but she looking like a car again... I have cleaned and polished one of the sill covers... looking at the state of it underneath I think when the car gets a full paint job I might look at PPF for the sills and a couple of other areas... talking of PPF... one cosmetically challenged area on the S3 is the rear sill cap or more specifically the "PPF" on the lower part of the sill cap... This stuff looks a mess particularly on light coloured S3's like mine and one of mine (I have seen this on other S3's too) was painted (from a previous 'repair') I did make a start of trying to get this off in one piece but its more like a flexible gel than a film and proved a right royal PITA to remove and certainly not in one piece... I left that one and tried one of my spares instead... Took a bit of effort, a little heat too but the best method seemed to be to roll it up with your thumbs... this did the job (slowly) and left the least amount of residue to clean up after... for which I used IPA and degreaser... If you do it wrong then it becomes a complete nightmare to clean up after... As you don't appear to be able to buy replacements for this I tried a bit of left over Lamin-X that I had used for a set of headlights in the past... This was a scrap bit hence the imperfections but it was a proof of concept so wasn't too worried... the plan was to buy new if it worked.... which.... ...it didn't Lamin-X simply isn't sticky enough... so I ordered up a small bit of "3M" PPF (eBay... so probably not 3M) and tried again... This faired a little better but I had made a template from the lamin-x bit and I think this was the wrong way to do it as I found using heat made it easier to work with and if I had not cut to shape I could have easily gotten rid of the creases... But it held on so have stripped both end caps and cleaned them up to have another go later to see if I can be a bit more successful... that said I am also tempted to PPF the whole end cap given the stone chip damage... Not a fan of using PPF all over the car like some but I think its worth considering using sparingly in places prone to stone chipping like the sill covers, inside return edge of the front wing and maybe the underside of the front bumper... Hoping the weather will hold off enough for one day next week so I can paint the wing... I can then actually fit the front bumper properly and be able to drive the car again... <tuffty/> Edited June 4, 2022 by tuffty image issues Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts