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- Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland
As some of you may know, we'll be needing a second car in a few months time, as the missus uses the TQS every day for work.
I dont have a huge budget to spend on this, so i was scouring ebay looking for an early A4 quattro, probably a 2.6v6 model, with a limit of £500. Clearly being in no rush i wasnt going to jump in, i was just patiently waiting for the right car at the right price to come along, the only real requirement being that it had to have quattro.
So last week i'm doing the usual rounds on ebay, and i come across what i've now nicknamed The Shed. Its a 2000 model 1.8TQS Saloon in Metallic Black, and was advertised with "some accident damage" and a siezed engine. The guy wanted too much for it, but after chatting with mark, i decided to pop in an offer of £600, over my budget, but being a newer car and a TQS i decided it was worth that at least, even in its dodgy condition. He accepted my offer, and a few days later i have the sheddiest A4 in the world on my driveway.
The plan is to spend as little as possible, and get it safe and road legal. Im not bothered about the cosmetics being perfect, although some panels will be changed where required.
Looking over the car, and viewing the MOT history online, it seems the car was crashed sometime back in 2006, shoddily repaired and driven since then. Starting at the front, the lock carrier has been replaced, the nearside wings bent, and the offside wing has been replaced with a '95 model year one. The facelift bumper had been badly refitted, and the arch liners are mangled. The headlights were flapping around because the proper fixings hadnt been transferred over to the new front panel.
The engine itself is a sludgemonster, wont turn over on the starter and the turbo is siezed solid. I have some spare parts from the old FWD engine, so the plan is to rebuild the FWD motor, with new parts where necessary and swap it in, although i will need to find a cylinder head unless the one on there is servicable.
The middle of the car is more or less fine, drivers bolster is worn, both airbags have been deployed and then glued!! back together. Doors seem more or less damage free although the drivers one has dropped, that should be an easy fix.
The rear ends taken a hit, presumably at the same time in 2006. Rear boot floor is a little crumpled around the bumper mounting on the offside, and the bumper itself is clearly the one that was crashed into, as it has a big split in it, and is hanging off at the sides, held in place by some nice self tappers. Rear lens on the offside is also cracked, and the offside quarter panel is dented above the wheel arch and looks as though its been beaten back out with a hammer.
Importantly, all the structural bits like the front and rear chassis rails look good.
So the plan is something like this:
Sort the engine.
Fit a pair of facelift wings (i have these already) and sort the trashed arch liners.
Repaint the bonnet (its badly painted and flaking off, showing the kingfisher blue from underneath)
Fit front bumper correctly, possibly replacing the brackets if need be.
Find and fit a new rear bumper, with new brackets if required, and beat the crumpled boot floor with a hammer to straighten it as much as possible.
Then there will no doubt be the usual service items you'll have when buying any used car, such as brakes, bushes, balljoints etc, although these will be very much replaced on a "only if required" basis.
Some pics as it stands today (i pulled the bumper off last night):
Will post some more pics once i get stuck into the engine.
I dont have a huge budget to spend on this, so i was scouring ebay looking for an early A4 quattro, probably a 2.6v6 model, with a limit of £500. Clearly being in no rush i wasnt going to jump in, i was just patiently waiting for the right car at the right price to come along, the only real requirement being that it had to have quattro.
So last week i'm doing the usual rounds on ebay, and i come across what i've now nicknamed The Shed. Its a 2000 model 1.8TQS Saloon in Metallic Black, and was advertised with "some accident damage" and a siezed engine. The guy wanted too much for it, but after chatting with mark, i decided to pop in an offer of £600, over my budget, but being a newer car and a TQS i decided it was worth that at least, even in its dodgy condition. He accepted my offer, and a few days later i have the sheddiest A4 in the world on my driveway.
The plan is to spend as little as possible, and get it safe and road legal. Im not bothered about the cosmetics being perfect, although some panels will be changed where required.
Looking over the car, and viewing the MOT history online, it seems the car was crashed sometime back in 2006, shoddily repaired and driven since then. Starting at the front, the lock carrier has been replaced, the nearside wings bent, and the offside wing has been replaced with a '95 model year one. The facelift bumper had been badly refitted, and the arch liners are mangled. The headlights were flapping around because the proper fixings hadnt been transferred over to the new front panel.
The engine itself is a sludgemonster, wont turn over on the starter and the turbo is siezed solid. I have some spare parts from the old FWD engine, so the plan is to rebuild the FWD motor, with new parts where necessary and swap it in, although i will need to find a cylinder head unless the one on there is servicable.
The middle of the car is more or less fine, drivers bolster is worn, both airbags have been deployed and then glued!! back together. Doors seem more or less damage free although the drivers one has dropped, that should be an easy fix.
The rear ends taken a hit, presumably at the same time in 2006. Rear boot floor is a little crumpled around the bumper mounting on the offside, and the bumper itself is clearly the one that was crashed into, as it has a big split in it, and is hanging off at the sides, held in place by some nice self tappers. Rear lens on the offside is also cracked, and the offside quarter panel is dented above the wheel arch and looks as though its been beaten back out with a hammer.
Importantly, all the structural bits like the front and rear chassis rails look good.
So the plan is something like this:
Sort the engine.
Fit a pair of facelift wings (i have these already) and sort the trashed arch liners.
Repaint the bonnet (its badly painted and flaking off, showing the kingfisher blue from underneath)
Fit front bumper correctly, possibly replacing the brackets if need be.
Find and fit a new rear bumper, with new brackets if required, and beat the crumpled boot floor with a hammer to straighten it as much as possible.
Then there will no doubt be the usual service items you'll have when buying any used car, such as brakes, bushes, balljoints etc, although these will be very much replaced on a "only if required" basis.
Some pics as it stands today (i pulled the bumper off last night):
Will post some more pics once i get stuck into the engine.