My minor modding thread

[hydro s3]

Getting there mate good job. I'm afraid to have a look below my sill covers god knows what kind of surprises are lurking lol.
Not sure what plans for the underneath you have but I used Lanoguard on the underneath of mine which is far better than waxoyl and seems to be doing a good job.

 

[<tuffty/>]

I have some HB Body 955 Tough Liner to spray over the sills, floor pan and inner arches... will be cleaning everything first then spraying the high zinc primer then this tough liner stuff...

One of the causes for the spotty rust areas seems to be movement or friction related... so the idea is that if there is a friction resistant protection layer then the arch liners and sill covers won't rub the paint causing these potential rust areas to manifest...

Plus it should make the underside a lot more resistant to corrosion so hopefully keep her out of Chris "S3 Breaker" McDermott's hands for a long time to come

<tuffty/>

 

[Djordje1]

@&lt;tuffty/&gt; how good is HB Body 955 Tough Liner...There is couple more bedliners on the market highly recommend.Herculiner,raptor...I like in general body products...Do you have previous experience with HB Body 955?


btw.Very nice job!Reason why I ask...I have to paint my beetle this month.Changing color.Is good idea to check and protect floor as well.

Thanks,
Djordj

Sent from my Mi A3 using Tapatalk

 

[<tuffty/>]

Simple answer... no idea....

Raptor and this are more or less the same thing... not sure on overall durability but given I am not using it as an actual bed liner then should be durable enough...

Main reason for me using this over Raptor is that my local paint supplies place sell it... if I run out mid application then its easy to get and supports local business etc

I have some of the 740 2k thinners as well... I have got a shultz gun that I was originally looking to use to apply it with but I think I will give it a go with my spray gun instead... shultz guns are quite "spitty" and as I am doing this outside I would rather have a bit more control over the process

<tuffty/>

 

[Djordje1]

Simple answer... no idea....

Raptor and this are more or less the same thing... not sure on overall durability but given I am not using it as an actual bed liner then should be durable enough...

Main reason for me using this over Raptor is that my local paint supplies place sell it... if I run out mid application then its easy to get and supports local business etc

I have some of the 740 2k thinners as well... I have got a shultz gun that I was originally looking to use to apply it with but I think I will give it a go with my spray gun instead... shultz guns are quite "spitty" and as I am doing this outside I would rather have a bit more control over the process

<tuffty/>

Thank you @<tuffty/> absolutely makes sense. It's very difficult and expensive to get one of these. I also can easily find body as well. I'm kind of doing the same thing as you on my car. I'll find more information online, but you have enough information to finish my stuff.Thank you again

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[Rainbird]

Nice.

I've not used S50 but was pretty pleased with the Dynax UC I used on the TT last year.

 

[<tuffty/>]

Nice.

I've not used S50 but was pretty pleased with the Dynax UC I used on the TT last year.

S50 is supposed to be quite thin initially allowing it to seep into crevice's (fnarrr)... given the level of vehicular dismemberment the old girl is currently undertaking I think I will just spam it everywhere

Trying to be marginally realistic too as I want to leave some areas obvious for when a body shop takes her on for the respray... rather than do half a job and cover it up so to speak

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Amazing as always PT! it’s really nice to see someone going to all this effort continuously with these cars. I know there are less and less of them about, but still….. it inspires the ones that do have them to keep them going and not send them to the McDermott graveyard


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[<tuffty/>]

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 uppper 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/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[Djordje1]

More progress... home stretch now

Prepped and painted the rear bumper mounting hardware...
View attachment 254948

Used PPF where hardware fixings were used to mitigate potential metal to metal rubbage...
View attachment 254949

View attachment 254950

...and replaced the rusty bolts with stainless ones...
View attachment 254951

Next task was to work on the wings.... both had the usual stone chip damage at the lower part of the return...
View attachment 254952

So much wire wheel action later...
View attachment 254953

View attachment 254955

View attachment 254956

Getting into the lower area on the inside of the wing wasn't the most fun...
View attachment 254954

...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...
View attachment 254957

Bit of prep and masking later....
View attachment 254958

The drivers side wing has a pinhole that had rotted through so prepped that...
View attachment 254960

...for a little bit of galvanised steel as a backstop patch...
View attachment 254961

View attachment 254962

Welded, ground and etch primed...
View attachment 254964

...I also gave it a light skim of filler to fill the remaining flaws.... this was followed by a healthy dose of zinc primer....
View attachment 254965

View attachment 254966

Once dry it was on to the seam sealer...
View attachment 254967

View attachment 254968

...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...
View attachment 254970

In the week I picked up some base coat...
View attachment 254959

...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...
View attachment 254969

...followed by a top up of the tough liner...
View attachment 254971

The next bit was a tad scary to say the least... not actually sprayed a basecoat using what could arguably be called "proper equipment"...
View attachment 254972

Eeeeeepp!!!...
View attachment 254973

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...
View attachment 254978

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)....
View attachment 254974

View attachment 254977

...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...
View attachment 254976

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!
View attachment 254975

Ah well... passenger side to do (better hopefully) and then some work on the wings before I blow them over with silver...

<tuffty/>

Step by step you'll paint the whole car by yourself

Make sure you are using anti-silicon and tack cloth. That should help with the strange things you get on the paint. It's clearly happening in the corner, that might be some grease or something like that.

 

[<tuffty/>]

It was freshly painted in the morning with tough liner, keyed with grey scotchbrite, cleaned with degreaser and tacked off... Only thing I can think of is I hadn't left it long enough but hey ho

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

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/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Finally a dry day!!!... weather has been a bit of a challenge of late but the sun was out and so was the compressor!!

Drivers wing was already prepped and ready... been watching a few vids on you of tube on painting and blending stuff... so thought I would give it a go...

Base coat went on a bit better after faffing with the gun settings a bit...

Clear coat was aerosol though, HB Body 496 2K HS Clear... its one of the nicest clears I have used and compatible with the 2k base coat I am using... it was a bit of a challenge to lay it down though due to the wind... always something with the flippin' weather!!!

Its a little duller than it normally lays down but I will give it a few more coats later as ironically the weather started to cloud over and it was looking like it might rain (which it eventually did!)

The colour match actually looks decent but I will see once I have given the wing a once over with the DA... either way this was more successful than the passenger side so I am going to revisit that wing a bit later and see if I can get a better result now I have had a little practice...

While waiting for the wing to dry enough to be handled I moved on to the front brakes... I had noticed the rotors had started cracking in the grooves which is a shame as they were generally fairly decent still...

They have had a good innings mind... Bill had retired them from the Badger Wagon some 5 years ago as they had a few micro cracks... so I fitted them to the car and been using them ever since

They have lasted well but they needed to be changed so got some rotors from Reyland Motorsport...

I also had new pads... Mintex M1155's like before as I kinda like them...

I had cleaned up my old bells back when I fitted Bills rotors as he had gone over to a floating disc setup so I used the discs complete with his old bells (which is why they have extra holes as was drilled for 4 x 100)

New bolts fitted (also from Reyland) and on they went...

Just need to let the clear dry a bit longer then I can fit the wing back properly along with all the bracketry etc... I have finished off the passenger side fitting the A pillar/door jamb splash guard trim and the arch liner...

Once the drivers wing is done I will be able to safely drive the car... quite looking forward to that..

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Sooooo.... I have been driving the car

Front wings are fully bolted up and all relevant plastic parts are on... feels nice to be driving the old girl again...

Not a massive fan of the drivers wing overall finish... in the sunlight its really difficult to tell the "blend" but in shadow its quite obvious... the paint appears to be a darker tone overall which in itself is fine but I think I may actually revisit both wings and just repaint them all over... at the end of the day they are silver, the rust has been removed and future corrosion issues mitigated (hopefully)...

I had left the sill covers off for the time being as they needed a little tlc... and by tlc I mean sorting the crack that the jack made when it went through the sill!!!

First up... drill a hole to stop the crack from growing...

Used some aluminium tape to hold the crack together... its got no flex so holds stuff like this well

The scuff up the back to help with adhesion...

I had watched more than a few youtubes on plastic bumper crack repairs and there are a fair few ways to do it... some requiring a substantial investment in kit!!... so I decided to go cheap and step it up from there if needed

The metal mesh is to help reinforce the the epoxy... seems to have worked ok....

There was some damage on the other sill cover too...

Once that had set I took a dremel to the other side and dig out a groove for the epoxy...

...and all done

Its sorely tempting to finish these off now and paint them but they are plastic and given my level of experience so far I think I will practice on some spares I have plus I will need to get some special "stuff" to allow the paint to work with the plastic shizz...

I think for now I will just fit them as is though as I have plenty of other things to sort out first and in anticipation I cleaned up the screws and painted them

Next up will be sorting the bottom of the doors...

<tuffty/>

 

[Stuart B]

Interesting you've moved from tech -> mechanical -> body work....

Will you start making your own oil next?

It's a great commitment as usual Tuffty

 

[<tuffty/>]

Interesting you've moved from tech -> mechanical -> body work....

Will you start making your own oil next?

It's a great commitment as usual Tuffty

Thanks dude

More of a case of having too.... getting to that stage if you want to keep and maintain a 20yr old car then you have to broaden your skill set somewhat...

Its been a bit of a learning curve but its been fun (other than the weather) and have learnt a lot... while I would like to have been able to get better results from the painting side of things I am under no illusion as to the limitations I am working with and happy with the results so far....

The biggest take away from it all though is the amount of time the actual prep work takes... the painting side of it is over very quickly... it takes longer to clean the gun after painting than the painting does... the masking and other prep work is the real killer time wise... I have spent most of a day working up towards paint with masking, cleaning, keying etc...

Painting using a compressor and spray gun is very addictive though... more so than using cans for sure

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Decided to take advantage of the nice weather to start sorting the bottoms of the doors... went in heavy with the wire wheel to reveal what I already knew was there...

Out came the MIG and I threw some metal at them...

The metal was getting quite thin and was blowing holes left right and centre... trying to get a decent angle to grind back the welds was proving to be interesting too... so I will try getting her back up on stands to see if it helps... failing that I will look to swap the door with my dented spare and then work on it at my leisure...

I called it a day on that work for now and just etch primed over it for now... wanting to actually achieve something today I fitted the sill covers...

Also fitted the passenger side but only the front section and not the end cap as I still have a bit of filler to sand and paint on the rear arch...

Looking more like an S3 every day

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Jacking the car up gave me better access to the door... so made a small plate to fill the large hole on the corner of the door

Tacked that in and then decided it would be easier to remove the window frame to get to the inside of the door... I also removed the lower crash bar to be able to see what I was doing a bit better

Not pretty I know but never said I could weld

While the door was this dismantled I took the opportunity to swap out the door lock...

I little fiddly but pretty straightforward and works like a charm....

Back to the "welding" (I use the term loosely lol) I threw a load of metal from the inside of the door as this was actually easier to do than welding from the outside... this is where the fun began!!!... the steel seems quite thin at this point probably due to the folds in the steel stretching it a bit plus the corrosion... this meant I was faffing with the MIG settings quite a bit as I was essentially chasing blown holes in the door... the result of which is not pretty at all!!!...

But it did give me a bit more to work with on the outside..

Needs a little more work and have ordered a power file to be able to get a bit more control over finishing the weld on the edge as I want to minimise the amount of filler I will end up using...

I also need to get the hammer and dolly out I think as chasing the holes warped the area around the weld a bit :/

I really don't know how this will end up at the moment... I still have some pin holes to fill and grind back and one blown hole to fill... there is also the issue with the blade mount pins... most are corroded which in itself is no biggy as there are 4 screws holding the blade in place but I would ideally like to do something with the bad ones and one idea is to use part of a nail... drill a hole where the old pin was, cut the head off a suitable nail and weld it in... that is of course assuming I can recover the door well enough...

I do have another door but its dented and not sure if thats more work to sort out than what I am doing to my current door...

Will see how I go but I think I will be looking out for a replacement door all the same... be silly not to get a minter if I can for the respray

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

While the weather has been a bit variable of late I cracked on with some other work... some on the A2 as she needed a little TLC and a bit on some parts for the S3..

I have a spare set of front cast arms to refurb... borrowed a bush smasher (fnarr) kit from a mate...

...and removed the old bushes...

The kit won't always remove the alloy bush surround though...

...so a hammer and cold chisel made short work of those

Wire wheeled and aqua blasted the arms before masking the relevant machined surfaces

A few coats of UPOL Etch Primer....

Followed by a couple of coats of Manor High Zinc primer...

...and finished off with HB Body Tough Liner...

All the machined surfaces were then chemically blued...

...and then fitted the Powerflex Black Series bushes

Will sort the subframe out when I do the DSG swap and fit all the refreshed items then...

Hoping to get the bottom of the doors painted this week then onto the DSG wiring

<tuffty/>

 

[Bempa]

Nice work on the control arms!

 

[<tuffty/>]

Weather was better (ish) for long enough to get some work done on the car... I removed the drivers seat... mainly to be able to make a start on cleaning the interior as its dusty AF but also to try an minimise the amount of dirt/dust that gets on the alcantara as its a beatch to clean...

F$%k me S3 Recaros are heavy!!!... it was not the most fun in the world I have had getting that up into my loft office!!!... one thing I did find though was...

Appears to be a limit switch for the electrics... I never adjust the seat so tbh no idea how long its been like that or which part of the adjustment this limits but I will try and fix that back on later

Anyhoo... I spent a bit of time trying to knock as much of the rippling out as I could then broke out the filler...

Not perfect but I actually have a pair of unmarked doors on the way so they will be used when the car eventually goes for a proper paint job...

Masked up the lower part of the door and threw some paint at it... I still have a lot to learn about using an airgun and proper base coat... first attempt I think I was spraying far to much paint and it ran like forest gump on acid.... like that flash off and wet sanded back down... attempt 2 went better... a little streaky which apparently is common with silver but flashed off ok... then applied the clear coat (HB Body C496 2k clear in a can)... the C496 is great clear but a little thin so easy to get runs... which of course I did... but they will be easy enough to deal with once the clear goes off hard...

Given I am a complete amateur and I am doing this outside the house on the road I am pretty happy with the results...

I still can't blend for toffee of course...

...but the paint job is functional and will do for now...

While waiting for the paint to dry enough to feel comfortable removing all the masking I addressed the rust repair I had done on the nearside rear arch...

I had put filler in it a while back but not done anything with it until now... so flatted the filler down and primed it...

Then sprayed it silver....

Yes its a rather pants match but this is the same issue as the nearside front wing... this side has had paint... its darker than the factory paint that I had the basecoat matched too... tbh its now rust free and protected... it also acts as a reminder to the bits I have attacked so the body shop can see where I have attacked it all and make a call on if it needs reworking or not...

Next job will be to sort the nearside door...

This side is rust free but as it was repainted before the paint is flaking off so will clean it up and give a blow over... I am less concerned about the doors now with the replacements on the way... I did want to keep the car as original as poss bodywork wise but for the sake of preservation its simply not worth it

One job remains bodywork wise and to be quite honest I am not looking forward to it...

Offside 'A' Pillar curtesy of a windscreen replacement prior to my ownership... pretty sure I will need to patch a bit of metal in so might try and get a complete A pillar from a scrapper and use that as the repair panel

Happy days

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Credit where credit is due mate….. good effort! Yeah that A pillar is quite shocking, I see mines got a couple bubbles appearing under the trim.


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[<tuffty/>]

I bought some doors that were supposed to be in decent enough condition... turns out that the drivers side had a similar issue as mine although not quite as bad...

Wire wheeling this lot off revealed a pinhole... disappointing as I was kinda hoping not to do any remedial work on the doors other than a bit of surface rust removal... will clean up the rust as the door itself is in ok condition... has one small dent I have seen so far (PDR should sort that) and a few scratches but it would be painted anyway so not a drama... the main issue is that pinhole and pitting around that edge as ideally you don't want to use filler as it will chip off easily and while I could weld it I would rather not at this time so will present it and my current door to whoever I choose to paint the car and they can decide how they want to proceed...

Looking at the work I did on my drivers door again I am inclined to see if its worth them sorting that over using the one I have just acquired

Its not fantastic but it maybe more solid and need less work than the other door but I will leave that up to the bodyshop to decide... for the time being my functional painting skillz will do

Talking of which it was time to urn my attention to the passenger door which as it turns out was not as bad as I was expecting...

The worst bit was thankfully surface rust with not real pitting

So prepped and painted it using the aerosol basecoat...

The aerosol was actually fairly pants... I could have done a better job using the gun (even with my limited skillz in using it!) but the colour match this side is way off anyway and all I would essentially do is make more work for the bodyshop to prep it for paint later so its de-rusted and has paint on it...

Looking more like an S3 every day

<tuffty/>

 

[Gops]

Helloooooooo there!

Great effort mate! Car is looking better and better! Can’t believe this thread is still going, love it!

Hope you’re all good my friend!


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[<tuffty/>]

Hope you’re all good my friend!

I am good mate... now where are my samosa's?

<tuffty/>

 

[<tuffty/>]

Busy few days despite the heat... which is annoying (I am typically British!)

Finished cleaning the inside of the car...

All the dustiness from the bodywork is gone and I refitted the passenger seat (still chuffing heavy!!)... I left the drivers seat out so I had more room to sort the DSG wiring out...

Attaching the CAN wires and power wires for the selector... I am waiting on another fuse block to replace the 2 way one I use for WMI and inline fuel pump so I can fuse the selector power too

On the subject of wiring... here is my current setup... this was derived from the one @desertstorm originally put together for his TT track car but I have adapted it a bit for my setup..

I have updated this to reflect where I connected things in my car... also as I have retro fitted a MFSW I have added CAN from the module too so the paddles will work... alternatively you can rewire them as switches and use inputs to IECU instead...

The selector wiring is pretty straight forward...

The illumination control wire in case its not obvious where that goes connects to the larger plug of the light switch

...which is labelled '17' and corresponds to the 58d pin on the switch

With the selector wiring done it was time to move onto the gearbox wiring... I had put together a power distro/relay board to handle all this...

This will handle the gearbox main power and power to the various relays I have in place so reverse light (as no switch on a DSG box), starter inhibitor (ideally needed on an auto), gearbox switched power and the two extra relays I use for the brake servo vacuum pump and turbo coolant after run pump...

Power and earth is feed from the 12v battery point I have fitted previously for the battery relocation to the boot and the factory earth point on the chassis leg

A lot neater than having the relays just floating about...

Once that lot was done I ran the loom up past the ECU... I needed to connect a few wires there first... mainly the reverse light output (switched earth), starter inhibitor (switched earth), vacuum pump output (switched earth) and VSS signal to the cluster as the DSG has no speed sensor...

Once that lot was done I ran the remainder of the wires through to the cabin... this was the CAN wires, K-Line wire and speedo signal wire...

With all those hooked up I put the interior back together and refitted the drivers seat...

I need to address the red power cable for the distro though... really messing with my OCD!!

With the car drivable again I took her up to Bills where my box has been residing....

...and connected it up using an extension test lead I made up...

Then tested everything... clumsily... with one hand...


All works

There are a couple of fault codes in the box around missing messages but this is normal for this type of retro fit...

Next job is to clean up the box, swap out the mechatronic cover for the new one I have and I guess its then just a case of slinging it into the car

<tuffty/>

 

[S3AMJ]

Busy few days despite the heat... which is annoying (I am typically British!)

Finished cleaning the inside of the car...
View attachment 256822

All the dustiness from the bodywork is gone and I refitted the passenger seat (still chuffing heavy!!)... I left the drivers seat out so I had more room to sort the DSG wiring out...
View attachment 256826

View attachment 256827

Attaching the CAN wires and power wires for the selector... I am waiting on another fuse block to replace the 2 way one I use for WMI and inline fuel pump so I can fuse the selector power too

On the subject of wiring... here is my current setup... this was derived from the one @desertstorm originally put together for his TT track car but I have adapted it a bit for my setup..
View attachment 256850

I have updated this to reflect where I connected things in my car... also as I have retro fitted a MFSW I have added CAN from the module too so the paddles will work... alternatively you can rewire them as switches and use inputs to IECU instead...

The selector wiring is pretty straight forward...
View attachment 256823

View attachment 256831

The illumination control wire in case its not obvious where that goes connects to the larger plug of the light switch
View attachment 256824

...which is labelled '17' and corresponds to the 58d pin on the switch
View attachment 256825

With the selector wiring done it was time to move onto the gearbox wiring... I had put together a power distro/relay board to handle all this...
View attachment 256829

This will handle the gearbox main power and power to the various relays I have in place so reverse light (as no switch on a DSG box), starter inhibitor (ideally needed on an auto), gearbox switched power and the two extra relays I use for the brake servo vacuum pump and turbo coolant after run pump...
View attachment 256832

Power and earth is feed from the 12v battery point I have fitted previously for the battery relocation to the boot and the factory earth point on the chassis leg
View attachment 256833

A lot neater than having the relays just floating about...
View attachment 256834

View attachment 256835

View attachment 256836

View attachment 256840

Once that lot was done I ran the loom up past the ECU... I needed to connect a few wires there first... mainly the reverse light output (switched earth), starter inhibitor (switched earth), vacuum pump output (switched earth) and VSS signal to the cluster as the DSG has no speed sensor...
View attachment 256837

Once that lot was done I ran the remainder of the wires through to the cabin... this was the CAN wires, K-Line wire and speedo signal wire...
View attachment 256839

View attachment 256838

With all those hooked up I put the interior back together and refitted the drivers seat...
View attachment 256843

View attachment 256844

I need to address the red power cable for the distro though... really messing with my OCD!!
View attachment 256841

View attachment 256842

With the car drivable again I took her up to Bills where my box has been residing....
View attachment 256848

...and connected it up using an extension test lead I made up...
View attachment 256846

View attachment 256847

View attachment 256845

Then tested everything... clumsily... with one hand...


All works

There are a couple of fault codes in the box around missing messages but this is normal for this type of retro fit...

Next job is to clean up the box, swap out the mechatronic cover for the new one I have and I guess its then just a case of slinging it into the car

Epic! Nice one mate, very excited for this!


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[desertstorm]

Looking good. Don't forget that spigot bearing in the end of the crank. Wouldn't want to have to pull the gearbox again.

 

[<tuffty/>]

Looking good. Don't forget that spigot bearing in the end of the crank. Wouldn't want to have to pull the gearbox again.

already one in there on the VR as was DSG before but have a new one supplied with the DMF to go in

<tuffty/>

 

[Rainbird]

Good stuff PT, great to see the car coming together again in its latest evolution

 

[Gops]

I am good mate... now where are my samosa's?

<tuffty/>

hhahaha! I'll drop them off when I drop the A4 off to Bill. Make sure you're there!

 

[Dohcwp]

Without a doubt the cleanest build i have seen over the years

 

[S3AMJ]

hhahaha! I'll drop them off when I drop the A4 off to Bill. Make sure you're there!

When you bringing the A4 down to Bills mate??


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