Day nr.2 is over early, we're knackered and it's time for food... Shifter is replaced, gearbox is in, engine bay is back together, rear shocks and springs are out, rear brakes are changed... No pictures of current state, too tired to go back out and take some Had some issues today, a few minor and one a bit bigger... gearbox mount with two bad threads. One of them succesfully helicoiled, the other one sadly didn't take. Scavenged the mount off @Prawn 's car, along with a couple of other clips and such... Really can't express how grateful I am... it's a good thing I brought beer! Tomorrow, it should be on the road again
What a weekend... Fantastic result, at 10pm on the last day! Now bed, check back for a proper update tomorrow
Awesome effort lads! Good to see @daz-20vt car being re incarnated in so many ways! Ive got loads of bits from him too, top lad. And @Prawn hero once again!
So, I’ve finally got time to record this epic adventure Last Friday, I packed up the car with a LHD quick rack, a box of shiny new KW v3’s (produced to order and delivered within a week! Crazy Germans…) and a load of Lemforder suspension bits. Set off to the Calais ferry, made good time there, spotted a cool racing car thing, and got on the ferry for a rather bumpy trip. After getting off the ferry, I had to drive on the other side of the road for the first time ever. People had told me that the most confusing things are roundabouts, so ofcourse the first thing I was met with in Dover: roundabout. And the second thing. And the third… All went well though, only drove blindly onto one of them :| Happily drove towards London, until Google decided I better take an alternative route. Ended up on all sorts of twisty country roads, had way more fun than the M25 would have been. Thanks Google After about 3 hours I arrived at @Prawn ‘s house, and we actually met for the first time, after discussing this build for the past 18 months. Took a test drive in the car, Prawn complained everything was on the wrong side, we both agreed the old shocks were deceased, and then went back to get the car off the ground for the weekend. Moved the legendary racecar out of the garage, tidied up, and (clumsily) moved my car into her spot over the pit. Got her up off the ground, and then it was time to start stripping bits off! Prawn complained everything was on the wrong side, while a pile of parts started forming in the back yard: We found out that my wheels were excellent cupholders: Had a lovely dinner, played an awesome game of Chairs: All went smoothly, until we tried to undo a rear shock bolt… Since we both suffer from the affliction affectionately known as ‘Big Strong Man Syndrome’ (BSMS) we couldn’t just let it be… Damn thing ended up taking four hands and 30 minutes to finally come off! By the time it was 1am we had a half empty engine bay, and removed everything from top mounts to subframe. It had been a long day, but it felt good to have achieved all we’d aimed for
Early start on Saturday morning... Yesterday’s pile of parts: Took the angle grinder to the other rear shock bolt, which took all of two hands and two minutes. Rear suspension now off: Then we had to take the 5spd shifter out, which was made a lot easier by the fact my exhaust was already repaired just behind the cat. Took the repair sleeve off, let the cat hang off the flexi which turned out to be totally knackered. While @Prawn took the heatshields out of the tunnel, I stripped the interior, we undid the old shifter, and I was greeted by the following view: I then refitted the interior about three times because I forgot bits, while Prawn put the heatshields back in and re-repaired the exhaust with a shiny new sleeve. The new clutch and flywheel went in (apparently special stuff from Spec; an SMF and some type of fancy clutch, came with the 6spd gearbox), while I fitted the rear brakes. It was about this time we got raided by the police: Once we bribed policeman Sam we carried on working. One of the mounts had two bad threads, turned out they’d already been helicoiled. Removed the old helicoil with a clever trick: Then cleaned up the threads, new helicoils in, and it was time for the gearbox to go up. Due to BSMS we just used a rope instead of the hoist, because the hoist was “cumbersome”. Got the gearbox in, Prawn did up many bolts, at which point it turned out that one of the two helicoils didn’t take, and the mount was knackered. We scavenged the mount off Prawn’s engine, along with some other bits that didn’t come with the gearbox. Prawn did his favourite thing ever and rewired the speed sensor and reverse lights. Come 7pm, the engine bay was back together, so we decided to refit the dogbone and fire it up. Prawn got down in the pit, decided that fitting the dogbone was rather difficult without a subframe present, and we concluded we were very tired at this point. Further proof of exhaustion came in the form of a very loud bang when turning the key, followed by the unmistakable noise of a tool clattering to the floor. Big scare at this point. As Prawn looked at me with an expression of utter horror, I realized what’d just dropped on the bottom of the pit. We’d forgotten the breaker bar that was still on the crank, which had slammed into the chassis rail and then sheared its drive clean off. At this point Prawn’s BSMS kicked in again, he decided he’d hold the engine with his bare hands, acting as a human dogbone mount. The brilliance of this idea was all the motivation we needed to call it a night, have a meal and drinks at the pub, and race tiny F1 cars over Monaco: Prawn failed to heed my warnings about the special Dutch beer I brought him, and I was amazed he made it up the stairs afterwards. Another long day, progress not quite what we’d hoped for, but we got a lot done in the end
On to Sunday! My brain was overworked and sleep-deprived at this point, so my memory fails me somewhat. Mostly pictures today 8am came too soon, followed by another early start: We decided to reuse my old subframe instead cause it was still like new, unlike the LCR one: @Prawn cleaned up the rusty LCR arms: He assembled his rocking horse: At some point we discovered that the LCR setup had come with an unusual ARB of 18mm… will have to find out where that came from. I put in the shiny new rear suspension: Cleaned up the crusty rusted hubs, got the ABS wheel shiny again: Subframe ready to go up: Bolted in place: Shiny front suspension in: LCR Brembo’s on, bled them twice: Quality inspection: Shiny new parts: Front end finished: Wheels back on, assembly is complete!: Lowered the car back down, got the ‘TeamPrawnRacing Alignment Kit’™ on, @Rainbird popped in for a visit: Finished alignment with “a ton of castor”, around 1.5 degree camber and 0.5mm toe-in. Ride height still to be sorted, as the front is currently higher than the rear… Had dinner around 9pm (apologies to Prawn’s wife and mother in-law that had to wait this long for us to finish playing mechanics in the shed), then came one of the scariest moments of the weekend: the test drive. I got in, carefully felt it out, listened for odd noises… Prawn got in, complained everything was on the wrong side, then proceeded to blast it around some roundabouts, resulting in big grins and big relief for both of us Bought beers, blasted home, Prawn fell asleep on the sofa, time for bed.
Monday morning, another early start. Felt very tired and sore, but happy that we got it all done Went to Sainsbury’s to buy stuff that they don’t sell in Holland, like proper bacon and a leg of lamb. Ran into a rather fabulous lollipop lady: Loaded all the bits back into the car, tidied up the garage and put the racecar back in its rightful place. Set off to Dover, enjoyed my brand new ‘hidden’ 6th gear (still using 5th speed gearknob), missed the ferry, took the next one, adjusted the shocks for Belgian roads (several clicks softer to save my spine) and after about 8 hours I parked the car (with funny ride height) back on my drive: @Prawn, I can’t thank you enough for all your hard work and expertise. I’d never have managed all this without your help, and I am just grateful beyond words. The car feels just totally different to what it used to be. The LCR front end is amazing, the front just keeps on gripping and it feels so controllable. I haven’t had any time to play with the shock adjustments on the v3’s, no time to really take the car anywhere near its limits, so I will update here when I properly know what I’m doing
Erik, it was a pleasure. What a great write up! It was a weekend of new parts, new adventures, and most importantly new friends! I'm really glad you're enjoying the car. I think I need a rest before round 2!
Great write up for a very productive trip across the water! A little gutted I was only able to pop by so briefly rather than lend a useful hand but it seems I avoided some headaches along the way Car looked really tidy in the flesh, so I can only imagine how good it feels to now have a handling setup to match the aesthetic. Top job lads
I know mate, don't think I could do a weekend like this again for a couple of months! You should see it when it's clean
@Prawn alerted me to the fact that I'd made a big mistake in the writeup of last weekend... I forgot to introduce the third member of the team: This is Charlie, the chief-mechanic and mascot of the weekend!
Changed oil, filter and plugs today, at 265k km... Also fixed the side-to-side motion on the gearstick by replacing these bits: All back in place, replaced the emergency ziptie with a proper clip on the other cable as well... Leveled ride height front and rear at 35cm, arch to center of wheel. Another happy day playing mechanic... you'd think I would've had enough of that after last weekend
Throttle body is acting up again, car cuts out half a second after starting. Used TB ordered, hope this'll fix it once and for all... If not, the wideband conversion should take care of it...
TB arrived the next day. Needs a bit of cleaning: Gave it a good go with a cloth and some brake cleaner... Still not as clean as the original part (on the right): After fitting and turning the key, I could hear it whirring while it adapted (old one had stopped doing that). Fired it up, it ran first go, and there seem to be less vibrations... I sure hope it happens to fix the annoying glovebox rattle too! Also played with my knob: Had to swap the leather over... No more hidden 6th gear!
Looking Smart Erik! That was a nuisance about the left / right shift bush. I've never known one so seized before, and it seemed ok after a DIY ream with the dremel, but clearly the bush was beyond help! Hopefully now it'll stay nice and free when the engine is hot! Good to see Charlie on the thread too,he's a cool little dude! And of course, he's a fan of TeamPrawnRacing too
Yeah, that bush was pretty shot... Theyre only thin plastic pieces. I wire brushed inside the hole, a lot of white powdery stuff came out, I guess it was worn plastic. I put the new ones in with a generous helping of vaseline, they needed a few heat cycles to settle, but all is well now When he grows up, Charlie will be a #TeamPrawnRacing's new driver
Finally got a chance to clean the car For anyone that likes their wheels clean, I cannot recommend DS3000 brake pads...
Passed MOT 2 weeks ago, then it broke: http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/a3-cutting-out-after-starting.276877/ Fixed it, happy now
aha!!!! very nice!!! Look forward to seeing this happen how does the k04-64 (from 8p???) bolt on? wouldn't that mean custom piping as well? the intake is different and they don't have the charge pipe running across the top like an S3 does....
And to keep this legible: Has anyone had any issues with the compression bolt on the rear dogbone bushes working loose?
Apparently, this over-compresses the bush, causing vibrations, which is exactly what I'm hoping to avoid. Ofcourse mine isn't a racecar so I'm being overly fussy by your standards
very fussy, like that strange dutch guy who came to my house and spent a weekend cleaning threads. FT is the answer
Received these yesterday, purchased from @Tj 0785 . Very pleased with how the sale went down Now to get them refurb'd ASAP, hopefully before the trip to Germany late next week.
Progress! sort of... Have recently put a set of Michelin PS4's onto the wheels shown above. Due to the crappy weather I haven't really gotten to test their limits, sadly. Saturday I washed it. I'd forgotten two things: the original colour of the paint (member Ming Blue?) and, how much **** comes off those DS3000 pads. I've given up on cleaning the wheels until I get normal pads on there. Then this morning, she refused to start (-6 degrees outside). Battery charger fixed it soon enough, but ordered a new battery anyway.
Has been ages since last post, time for a little update... I've recently purchased an 02M FWD gearbox with a Peloquin diff fitted. This will be rebuilt and then fitted along with the engine, hopefully later this year I've also discovered a new feature on my head-unit: lateral G-force detection... ... Under sufficient lateral G, it stops working Beginning to see why people like these Michelin PS4s so much wasn't too impressed with them over winter, but now that the sun is out and the asphalt is nice and warm, they are very impressive. Definitely more grip than my Goodyear Eagle F1 Asym 2's had, although I preferred those as an "all-year" option, they handled pretty much identical in any season.
