The Project Pad

Continuing the stripping and cleaning... man this is just a friggen joy...

I came across the Alarm Control Module and Tail light Relay (Or headlight control module?)...

What are the implications of removing the Alarm controller? All vacuum locks are gone and I'd like to remove this if at all possible, I just don't want any stupid lockout issues down the road. thoughts?



Also, guessing I'll just leave that Hella Relay thing in there although I don't totally underestand what it's doing... some sort of light autocheck?

But hey, progress right? Back at it tomorrow day...

Stripping all that crap is def the worst part of the whole build in my opinion. A bit of advice, if you at all plan on caging it, I'd pull te moon roof now before you get everything painted up and what not. That moonroof can be a PITA when the car is gutted, let alone when it's painted and littered with brake, fuel lines and what other doodads you've had installed. Leave a TON of headroom when you go to mount your seats too. Like almost on the floor haha.

Moonroof is gonnneee... and yes that was a pretty big PIA but we weren't too kind to it coming out. With that said, the glass is still in tact if anyone is looking for one. let me know.

All the sound deadening crap that was wet (everything on the floor pan) comes out so much easier. Also, with a lot of the fibrous material gone, the car is starting to loose its moldy basement smell... win.

Pulled the tail lights, they'll need some loving. One dumped about a liter of water on my foot during removal.

Big thanks to Peters for coming down and giving a hand breaking down the shocks, just about time to get the arms and sub frames welded up and ground down to be refinished.

No progress for the week as I'll be in Seattle for work.

Alright, so I didn't get anything done this past weekend since I got a surprise trip to Carlisle this weekend and got to meet some Audi folks but now it's back to business...

I got a few hours in last night and spent the time removing Dust shield bolts with bolt-offs (what an awesome tool) and getting one last stubborn strut cap off. The thing took much penetrating fluid, heat cycling but in the end it took about 500 ftlbs. of torque to get it broken free. That allowed me to get this shot



It's only missing the front sway bar because I forgot and the rear sway bar because I haven't had a chance to pick it up from Tim/Toph yet.

I need to spend more time removing control arm bushings and subframe bushings, then these can start being ground down to be refinished. Hubs are going to be brought to Lee to press out the old bearing and hubs since 2/4 of the bearings feel gritty and have play.

I've read that you should press in new hubs with new bearings for longer life - I forget where - but I can't find front hubs for cheaper than 100 a side... which is a little rich for me... anyone know a cheaper source?

That's all for now, and prolly for a week until after the holiday weekend

Dave - suggest that you stick with FAG or SKF bearings

If the old hubs are in good shape, don't worry about it - if they are worn or heavily corroded around the hub flange where the wheel sits, then consider replacing them. There are enough folks who have done 5 bolt conversions that you should be able to get inexpensively

Agreed, Peter, I'll be sourcing FAG bearings.

I'll review the hubs when they come out. Having Lee press out bearings/hubs next week when I get my summer setup put on my B4.

RFQs out for sandblasting work.

Hubs and bearings are out.

got a $100 quote to do all the sandblasting So I need to finish pulling bushings and give the parts a quick de-greasing before they change their mind.

Welding will be next up. Need to order bearings, bushings, and POR15 soon for finishing those components. Also need to get going on the fuel lines/brake lines oh and the electronic actuator for the diff.

I haven't pulled it out yet, but I'll likely replace the fuel pump with:

http://www.deatschwerks.com/products/fu ... 200-detail

It's smaller than the pump EFI Express lists but I doubt I'll be making more than 200HP for a long time so I this should do the trick (right?) and it's a very decent price.

I may be interested in the glass if the frame is in good condition. I got one already and the metal was rusted pretty bad.

Nice work so far, keep at it.

Regarding the DW200, if you really needed to in the future you could possibly add another in a surge tank... but that's just a thought.

scubadave wrote:I may be interested in the glass if the frame is in good condition. I got one already and the metal was rusted pretty bad.

Is this regarding the sunroof?

Control arm bushings are out, subframe is the target for tonight and may even get a chance to get the parts to the sandblaster tomorrow morning.

I'm using the Pipe and threaded rod method for extraction but for install, is there a better way? I don't want to mangle the new ones trying to put them in. just freeze them before??

dalspaugh wrote:

scubadave wrote:I may be interested in the glass if the frame is in good condition. I got one already and the metal was rusted pretty bad.

Is this regarding the sunroof?

Yes. It is a glass sunroof isn't it?

yes yes it is, I ruined the track taking it out but I believe the glass is still good although Peter may have claimed it already. I'll let you know.

I don't need the track. Just wanted the glass. Even if the metal is rusted to shit, i may use it as a repair unit to have on hand to send as others may want to have theirs repaired. I wanted to replace the steel with stainless or a CnC'd composite and perhaps figure out a new aftermarket moulding to replace what is now NLA.

Dropped off the suspension pieces to be sandblasted this morning. Should be picking them up Friday morning.

Project will likely be slow this month. I'll be in France to see Le Mans for the first half of the month and then traveling for work much of the second half of the month. We'll see what I can still get done!

one of my friends is going to see the le mans race as well, very jealous.

coupe is coming along well. i wouldn't worry about covering the headers, i ran my cq for a few years without any heat shield and it didn't hurt anything, let alone melt the air box lol.

I was at carlisle as well, not sure if we chatted? i was the idiot driving the rc cars around lol.

haha I must have missed you and the rc cars. I was only around for about an hour or two...

The round headlights in your signature pic of the CQ make it look like an E30 *(Gasp)* but I kinda like it... especially with that bumper, nice setup.

Anyway, thanks for the tip on the header. I am owed the heat shield, I just have to pick it up from the guy who has it, so I'll probably run that for now...

I might hack up the OEM Heat shield and open up the front of it so I could direct air from the grill, around the left side of the motor, into the heat shield and then along the headers to dump out the bottom of the car. Thus creating an air flow over the headers inside the heat shield. It should help keep the engine bay cooler, but I'm not there yet. I also want to wait on this so I can measure temps before and after.

How's the Toureg TDI as a DD? do you tow with it? I've been thinking lately those would make a nice DD/tow rig

Picked up the Suspension pieces this morning from the sandblaster - Fortune Metal Company in Needham Mass. and they look great!

Easily worth the 150 bucks, it would have taken me days with a wire wheel.

Bringing the Rear Control arms and subframes over to a welder tomorrow for a quote - seam welding everything and reinforcing the diff mount.

Trying to get whatever done that I can before leaving for France.

lol yeah the votex headlights are a love or hate thing, same with the reiger spoiler and my "rs2" styled plate tub. I have multiple headlights so it's like wearing different shoes/purses for girls to me. I personally love the "unique but period correct" look that these items give it. You should see the next setup i have planned... there's... more metal involved in the front.

I LOVE my touareg. If you're good on the throttle you can avg around 30mpg. I actually am avg 31mpg right now with 50% highway. I have towed with it and it's no problem at all, still avg'd 23mpg with a ton of hills towing a pos trailer i was borrowing and a 91 200. One thing i did notice (i'm going to blame the trailer and the tow hitch), is that over 65mph it would occasionally wag it's tail just a tad, so i kept it between 60-65 the whole way home and was fine. The trailer was seriously falling apart though and rusting to pieces and had unbalanced wheels.

That sounds like every open trailer I've seen up here in the NE... haha. I think if my B4 ever let me down, I'd find my way into a Touareg TDI at least to test drive before getting into something else...

OK,

This project is very much still alive, but I lost pretty much all of June to Vacation, Leaky fuel lines on my DD 90Q, and traveling for work. But I'm back.

Welding of the Rear CAs and Subframes is about 60% done. I'm learning how to weld on this project so progress has been a little slow but I'm getting better.

I also had to spend some time doing some lighting work in my garage as the ballast was faulty on one of the new lights and the replacement had a faulty ballast as well... stupid HD junk...

I'm just about ready to start painting and pull the trigger on a large bushing order from Jared.

Interested to see your approach to welding the subframes. What welding process are you using? I used STT (sorta like MIG) and did a lot of stitch welds, eventually getting a full seal.

My front is finished, and will start on the rear when I get a chance/days off.

re: shop lighting -

I've been installing LED tube shop lighting from Costco - less than $40 and much more lighting that the HD fluorescent 40w tubes.
The downside is that the LED lights do not have their own built in switch.

Peters wrote:re: shop lighting -

I've been installing LED tube shop lighting from Costco - less than $40 and much more lighting that the HD fluorescent 40w tubes.
The downside is that the LED lights do not have their own built in switch.

I've been wondering how those are.

I'll have to check those LEDs out this weeked Peter. At this point I've already sunk too much money into crappy fluorescent that I just want them to work for more than a week...

Got a bit more welding done yesterday and then ran out of gas... So that's at about 75% Still need to figure out how to reinforce my rear diff mount, the stock I was thinking of using is thinner than I thought and I'm not sure it'll be much good. Maybe need to go get some small bit of stock.

Sunday I'll be heading out to Peter's to help part out a coupe. Taking all the suspension components that I'll likely mangle on the first stage...