Tagging along

I was put on 'assistant' duty for a Photoshoot that Josh had to do yesterday, and while I was standing around during all the static shots, I took the opportunity to take some pics of his Mk5. Winter can be a real pain the ass to deal with from time to time...brutally cold, hard on cars and equipment (not to mention people) and short days followed by long cold nights. It's enough to drive anyone to the brink, but it does have one thing: Good light.



Now, I'm far from a professional here, but I have picked up a few things in all my years of being drafted into the helper position for Josh's photoshoots, and I know good light when I see it. Capturing it is another thing altogether, but hey, I'm learning. (and yes I know these were all shot in the shadows..I was trying to get the 'setting sun vibe')



The main duty of the helper position usually involves a bit more hustle than yesterday's shoot, but that's often because there are cars about to run someone over, or bags to move, whatever. This was a pretty low-key process, so my main duty was navigator during the moving shots.



I've gotten pretty good, and can get close enough for the wide-angle shots to would make the Blue Angels proud.



Josh's shoot will appear in a future issue of Total 911. (it's a Porsche mag from the UK)





Despite the wind, which was cutting through us like an axe through butter, it was a good day, and nice to be able to get off from work early to enjoy the time outside.

_WRS

Is winter over yet?

Because it's depressing to open up the garage to this...

Dun dun dun...

Dah dun dun dah dun dun.



That would be phonetics for "another one bites the dust." Jason has official cashed in the chips on Project Fox. The years of sitting and consequent years of rotting would appear to be too much for both his pocket and his welding skills.



Once the fenders came off it was pretty clear that more than a simple resto would be needed to keep the front clip from breaking off over the first big bump. It's kind of surprising it made it home on the tow dolly in one piece.



So where do we go from here? Well this uber-rare 1973 Fox is up for grabs if anyone wants it. It won't go to the crusher, but it may end up being parted out for whatever the other 5 Audi Fox owners in the states might need. If you're interested, hit us up at wolfsburgrs@gmail.com and I can pass the offers along to Jason. He says he wants to get what he paid for it, but I can probably talk him into almost anything...



So there goes, our first Audi project is no longer.

_WRS

Winter battle mode: Part 2

So it's been snowing a lot here in the north east the past few weeks. It was pretty intense. This is not the sort of scene you want to wake up to when you have 6 hours to drive and you're on summer performance tires.



Luckily Project Mk5 made it home safe and sound from the icy great white north, despite the poor tire choice, and Josh managed to capture some great artistic shots along the way. Such as:

treading lightly (thank god for Anti-lock and traction control)

spin art salt dirt rims

and

froze up icy 19s

I've been trying to forget how cold it is outside by remembering the good times this past summer. And nothing says summer like a red-hot BBQ with some delicious meats and some Tiki drinks to keep you cool...



I feel warmer already.

_WRS

FULL SIZE over at the Flickr pages

Battling the weather

There's something I've always liked about a car which has spent time battling the elements to reach a destination. Covered in snow, dirt, ice, salt, slammed to the ground and on summer tires, but making it there in one piece. I've learned my lesson a long time ago about summer tires in winter weather (which is why my Falken 615's aren't on the car right now), but Josh still pushes that limit. Perhaps not the smartest thing to do, but the car looks good on the Lambo reps in the snow.

_WRS

Crazy like the Fox! A thorough inspection

A good deed never goes un-punished, and no 1973 Fox which has been sitting in a grassy area under a barn for over 15 years will be rust free. This we expect, know, and well, sort of take as a given. Jason has gotten the chance to do a very complete inspection of his super old, super rare 1973 Audi Fox and the news is both good and bad.



After a complimentary tow to the shop (thanks AAA! totally worth it if you don't have it), and the car was checked over, fueled up and fired up...and RAN we were really hoping for the best once the car was up in the air. Obviously some rust was expected, but things went a bit beyond that.



The first clue was the hood. It is virtually disintegrating in front of our eyes, and is barely hanging on by a latch...in fact the passenger driver's side has completely let go, consisting of more iron oxide than steel I suppose. The tops of the fenders weren't all that much better, and Jason was really beginning to worry about what the underside of the car was hiding.



Well...it was as bad as we thought, but all was not (and is not) a total loss. Although the inner fender literally came out in Jason's hand when he gave it a small tug, the main structure of the strut towers is quite solid and unharmed. Another year or so and it's hard to say, but as is, it's salvageable with some patch work and paying close attention to removing all the remaining surface rust.



Probably the biggest concern is the front subframe area. (no not the floors, although they need some work too)



The whole thing has sort of become one big hunk of rust, lightly sprinkled with holes...and the drive line needs to be removed to repair it. No biggie, but the removal of the subframe is going to be tricky.



This is not an area where Jason wants a broken, stripped or otherwise destroyed or non-removable bolt. The chances of that are pretty high, but with a little luck it won't happen. I'm not a betting man, but if I was, those are not odds that I would take. (What I'm saying is I would bet there will more likely be a problem than not.)



So. What else does the future hold? Well Jason is in the full swing of the Save the 8v™ movement and will be keeping the Fox carb'd and 8-valved. He's eyeballing an old GT4 spec head that once resided on a 1.6 Rabbit race car, along with a nice fat cam and a bigger carb. Naturally that will be down the road, but it's good to focus on the positive when you have so much potential negative on your plate now.



We'll let you know how things go after we tear into project Crazy like the Fox! In the meantime, I'm thinking we're the crazy ones....

_WRS

Crazy like the Fox! - Teaser pic

So Jason finally got his not so shiny and not all that new 1973 Audi Fox to the headquarters for some work and much closer inspection, and overall it's both better and worse than anticipated. Better, because all it needed was a fresh battery, fresh oil and some gas and it started right up. Worse because the rust is a bit more prevalent than was expected. I'll go a bit more into depth on that all later but the important thing is that the ball is rolling and work is progressing. Jason's managed to keep a pretty level head about it which is important about this sort of thing. Rust is most certainly a downer on any new car, but figuring that 1973 Audi Foxes are super rare, it'll be worth the hard work.

_WRS

Progress, albeit slow progress. (Corrado updates)

There's some saying, which I don't know the exact words of, about something like "the best laid plans of mice and men." There's another saying, which I am quite fond of, which is, "it seemed like a good idea at the time." I can't say I ever quite got to that point over the past week with working on Carmen, but it came pretty close.

Why? Well despite my previous experience working on 8v motors of all sorts, it had been a while since I had to work on one which was still sporting pretty much all the original accessories as equipped from Volkswagen. What could possibly go wrong?

Well to start, not a whole lot. Aside from some fairly skanky coolant, things were progressing quite smoothly up until it came time to separate the water pump from the O.G. water pump housing. Snap, snap, snap...three of the bolts decided they were just fine where they were and didn't feel they needed to move one inch. Looks like the supercharger and all it's bracketry has to come off...

And so it's just as well. The G-lader, despite being a pretty low mile rebuild, has clearly had oil seeping through the seals, so I took the time to clean things up.

I assume this was from the rebuild? Someone was in there with an engraver at some point. Looks like M.B. 08/21/01. (Like I said, the car was sitting for quite a while before I picked it up)

We'll revisit some time in the future to see if they're still a problem, but for now things are looking a lot better, visually anyway.

After removing the charger, disconnecting the A/C compressor (which still seems to work amazingly enough), and removing the charger bracket, I was finally able to swap out the housing. It's pretty clear that the PG block has been living with sub-standard coolant and not VW G11, as there is a lot of corrosion in there. It makes me a little nervous but we'll see how things pan out there as well.

The other big job was to swap the old coolant hoses for a high-quality Samco kit. Although the top hose had been installed some time before, the rest of the kit was sitting in a box just waiting to be installed. How hard could that be? Turns out, very.

I'd never worked on a Corrado before, and let's just say space is at a bit of a premium. The factory spring clamps, although reliable and strong, are a real pain to remove when you can barely get a grip on them. I took this chance to replace them with stainless steel ABA clamps which are easier to install and won't cut into the silicone. Much time was spent cursing, swearing, and generally abusing my arms and hands trying to get this kit on. No wonder it was still in the box. It took a good bit of effort, but eventually everything was replaced, including the coolant flange on the side of the head, and thanks to a handy-dandy vacuum pump, I had the cooling system topped off and things running again in no time. As long as by no time you mean spending four 5 hour+ evenings after work getting all these little problems worked out.

One other thing I noticed is that Carmen seems to be running a 65mm pulley rather than the 68mm that I assumed was on the charger. The 68mm pulley was stuffed down inside another parts box and after comparing the two, it's clear that the one from the charger was smaller. I also took the time to create a little more clearance for the super wide Bahn Brenner belt conversion, which had done some clearancing of its own, but Chad had some of his trusty metal bits around so it took barely any time to do.

The one thing I didn't get a chance to do was to get her on the dyno. For another time I suppose. The important thing is that the timing belt (which was in fine shape), water pump (bearings felt good!), and a few other key components (the only weak point was the coolant flange I replaced), were brought back to spec and we're at a point where we won't have to worry about those things when we finally are on the dyno. I also sprung for a new crankshaft bolt, as this is a one-time use item and as they tend to back out and wreck crankshafts and motors, I wasn't taking any chances. I also cleaned and re-oiled the K&N air filter, but like I said before, I hope to be going back to a stock air box before too long. I'll dyno it to see if there are any losses, but the extra safety is probably worth a few less horses.

One last final word of thanks to Chad and Pat from NGP, who as always came through with tools, time, and always helpful advice. Without those guys I would not have gotten things done in the time I had. And I'd not have that super fantastic OEM grill with G60 badge if it weren't for Chad either. (chad has a Corrado G60 as well and is stocked to the gills with extra this and that from all his parts cars)

As of right now we're going to have some time before we move any further forward with Carmen, which is perfect since Jason has finally taken delivery of his 1973 Fox sedan and has been cursing his decision ever since. More soon!

_WRS

Underbody inspections, doc says 'A-OK'

So I don't have any more videos today, but I do have a more in-depth look under the skin of Carmen, aka Ultimate 8v, aka, our newest project. Driving a car around a parking lot and having it feel 'solid' is one thing, but putting her up in the air and getting a good look at the condition of the unibody and floorboards is the only real way to know whether its rotten or golden.

Any car which has lived its life in the general Mid-Atlantic area has probably seen its fair share of poor weather and as such, probably is hiding some deep dark secrets. Rust. Every car I've owned has had some, and I figured this Corrado would be no different.

...and how nice it is to be wrong! Sure, there is some wear and tear. It's nearly 20 years old and it's not all that surprising for the undercarriage to show signs of being put on and off of lifts, and the banged up rocker panels so often seen when an emergency tire change is needed. But otherwise? Nothing much! I can honestly say this is the nicest car I have ever owned in terms of the actual condition of the car. This one my friends, is a keeper.

One thing I'm not sure about keeping, on this car anyways, are the MSW Type 55C wheels. MSW wheels were made by O.Z. Racing, and much like the old Fittipaldi wheels, were marketed as O.Z. wheels in Europe. Why they felt the need to re-name certain designs for the USA market I'll never understand. Don't get me wrong, I love the 55C and won't sell them, but I'm not 100% sold on the Corrado. I really want to get this car 'period correct' in terms of aesthetics, and I don't know if the big 17" 6-spokers suit the car.

They also rub the hell out of the inner fender area at full lock. Any thoughts? I'm partial to a Zender turbo or something similar if anyone has any they'd like to get rid of.

Another throw-back item are the DTM tips. I love em, and since not every single car is sporting them these days they are unique these days. The eagle-eyed among you may notice the 2.25" Techtonics stainless steel exhaust to which they are attached. Quality parts all over this car, and I haven't even detailed what's done to the engine yet. I keep pinching myself to make sure I didn't dream this thing up!

By the way, we did a little freshing up while we had Carmen in the air. Oil was swapped out for some of finest 5-40 synth that Total (Elf) has to offer with a MANN oil filter, and a MANN fuel filter replaced the Fram which was on the car. MANN filter, made in China. Indeed.

Oddly enough the side skirts and rear diffuser are starting to grow on me from the back angle here, from the front however, I just can't get down with the RS4 styled bumper. But like I said, looks will come second, getting the mechanicals finished up and reliable remains the priority.


_WRS