So, where do we begin?
It has been ages since I put this car back on the road, let alone drive it anywhere. It’s still surreal. Life happens and either way, I am just happy to be able to start reliving my joy and passion for this crazy automotive lifestyle. Like every car guy and car gal, we always have a plethora of “projects”. But. there’s always that “one” that we know, innately, would be the true regret of “the one that got away” if we were to ever part ways. Anyway! I am excited the car is back on the road but it was also a very eye opening experience that really revealed what the car really and truly needs to be even close to it’s hey day when I would frequent shows like WaterFest and New England Dustoff to name a couple.
But, for the car’s first time back out in forever, I made the somewhat nearby-ish trip to Helen, GA for Alpine VagFair hosted by EuroTripper. This is an absolute must on your seasonal travel plans because there is truly something for everyone here. It’s a beautiful town with so much history and that feeling of home in the mountains that could bring on nostalgia you could sleep to. Then, transplant a whole bunch of awesome cars and super cool people who share the same enthusiasm as you do and you have found nirvana.
So, what took so long? Well, like I said, Life happens. I was living out on the West Coast for nearly 8 years until my twin girls were born. As time passed, we needed to make the trek cross country back to the East Coast. My family, long time friends and bigger part of the Audi/VW community reside there and like they say “It takes a village!”.
The car spent about a year in Florida at my homey’s crib for a good part of a year after we moved back to the East Coast before I had it shipped up to my new home in Georgia. Once it was back in my possession, the real work began. The new life of a new Dad, work and other pressing matters forced me to neglect the car on and off for years.. and it showed. Up close, the paint is in TERRIBLE condition. Faded roof and hood and bumper tops from the relentless Cali and Florida Sun. Luckily, by using GlassParency products I have been able to restore much of its luster. You should know the car is also originally an East coast car. It was my 2nd MK3 Volkswagen and she sure is rusty. Rocker panels are gone beyond repair and the rear apron suffers from some missing metal as well. Long term goal is to replace the rockers and repair and weld all the bad rust along with a final respray in the original LY3D Tornado red and then just bury me in it because by then I’ll be dead from old age LOL
Back to the actual work. When I received the car back, I took extra care to clean and correct the paint to remove all the tar and debris. There were several mud dobbers who had made a home all around the undercarriage of the car as well as several areas around the engine compartment. Once I had cleaned everything as much as possible, it was time to tear into the maintenance.
First on the list was the thermostat. Original to the last rebuild, it was due for a replacement. I wanted to take the opportunity to flush the system and replace some older hoses. I also had some curiosity around different clamp styles and happen to try out some heat shrink wrap style clamps that eventually ended up really being a 50/50 success rate as one of them leaked and replacement on these requires destroying the existing one (because its heat shrink)
Next up was the Oil cooler seal. I had been having a steady but very slow leak from the oil cooler area for years and as the car didn’t get driven much, I mostly ignored it. But not this time. I was a straightforward job and I doubled on the opportunity by taking care of a full oil change at the same time.
After this repair was done, I moved onto replacing the clutch slave cylinder. Over the recent years, I had experienced a bit of a mushy pedal as well as the dreaded feeling of the pedal hitting the floor. While it was random, I didn’t want to skip taking care of this now as I had a brand new part sitting in its original box for years. The install was a breeze. In the future, I may consider also replacing the clutch master cylinder but left it alone as there didn’t seem to be any issues with the existing one (albeit, it is original to the car) I also took the opportunity to address a blown driver’s side axle.
After this was sorted it was time to address a majorly neglected area of this car. The brake system. I had one stuck rear caliper for years and an incorrectly installed rear proportion valve. So I was basically running on 50% brakes most of the time. Yikes! Anyway, for years I had collected some cool big brake upgrade parts such as the larger calipers from an Audi TT, stainless steel brake lines, 312mm slotted rotors (compared to factor 288mm), Hawk HPS brake pads, brand new ATE fluid and more. Stay tuned for the upcoming video! If you haven’t already, please SUBSCRIBE!
What I didn’t know going into this repair/restoration was that it was going to completely kick my ass. For the first time ever, i was forced to teach myself how to bend and flare brake lines! It was a frustrating experience at times but in the end, I am so glad to have gotten through it because now I have much more confidence in the car’s braking ability. The overall overhaul included new, upgraded rotors front and back ,new calipers front and back, new pads front and back, new stainless steel lines on all 4 corners as well as a good bit of new brake line with brand new flares. In the future, if I do plan to boost, I will at least have taken care of a major safety upgrade. Although, I will probably still also plan on a new or high performance Brake Master Cylinder and upgraded rear proportioning valve as those are quite literally the only 2 components not replaced in this overhaul.
At present, the car needs a little more to consider it fully tuned up as you can hear a slight miss even though the VR6 sounds as healthy as it does. Namely, spark plugs and wires. As of late, I have replaced the worn and dirty K&N Air Filter on my Turn2 Cold Air Intake. I am also going to take the opportunity to do a compression test to see exactly how healthy the motor is. The saga continues…