The beginning:It started back in about August of '05. I found an '85 4000S quattro in Durham, NC that supposedly had a blown head gasket, dead pass front window, dead rear window, no A/C and a radio that didn't work. After looking at pictures I decided, hell, I'm going to give this a go. I ended up picking up the car for $170 + $60 relocation chip in on my part since I couldn't pick the car up in time, and the owner was moving from his apt complex to a new place. Cost me another $170 to tow it back, but what have ya
I left bright and early one sat morning and made the 400 mi round trip venture from VA Beach and brought home this:
Car was a lil rough around the edges, but the paint was in remarkably good condition. I found out later that it has been treated to a MAACO special me thinks, but overall I can NOT complain one bit. There is no surface rust (knock on wood) and the underbody is in remarkably good shape. Car had 2 dents (front fender and rear bumper) but other than that, nada.
After about a month or two of the car sitting just like it was in my front lawn, I started to get to work on it to see exactly WHAT was wrong with it. After some diagnosing, I found that there was really nothing wrong with the compression in the motor (it was low in one cyl, but nothing to really worry that much about).
The one thing of concern was the fact that the oil pressure light kept turning on, and it is this reason that I think the PO was told the HG was shot by his mechanic (it's leaking oil, so i'm not surprised honestly he was told this) and why he stopped driving the car. After some conversations with my friend who's been our mechanic for 15+ yrs, we came to the conclusion that the Oil Pressure Control Unit was shot (relay under the dash). I solidified this theory by installing a mechanical oil pressure gauge under the hood of the car. Car held a constant 80 psi on warm up and 50ish psi when up and running. Only real noise that I started to hear that worried me was a strange knocking sound every now and again. After picking up my MC motor (more on that to come) Keith (RockinV8) told me he thinks I have a knocking wrist pin, so we'll see. If it self destructs, oh well... I got AAA and a motor being built to replace this one
My original post about this can be found here:
http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/viewtop ... 5140f7b725
So from here I started to tear into the car to make it road worthy! Game plan was to drive it for a bit while I prepped to drop the MC into it. So I took care of a bunch of mechanical and cosmetic things that were bothering me.
Right off the bat I got to working over the dents in the front and rear of the car. With a lil help from an automotive suction cup and my trusty 2lb shot filled mallet, I was able to get a very solid repair of the front fender 8)
hammer in action
Then I moved onto the rear bumper. Not sure what the PO hit, but he managed to catch the front corner and rear corner of the car, and leave the rest completely untouched... but what have you
From this point, I then stripped the interior of the car out to clean the seats and floor from tip to tail. I have since stripped the interior out and picked up a set up black Quattro Script seats from a fellow AW'er and MG'er Carson (GTIVR62801). He hooked me up with a killer price that I could NOT turn down ($150 for front and rear seats!!!! :woowoo: )
But from the get go, here's what the interior looked like stripped:
as you can see in these pix, there are a $hit load of coffee stains b/n the front seats. I swear the PO spilled about 20 gal of coffee a day, it was shnarsty to say the least...
and like they say, the proof is in the water :barf:
From this point, I started to tackle the nagging suspension issues. After originally crawling under the car to replace ball joints, I found I had a few issues to take care of...
1) Torn CV boot. I completely disassembled the CV joint and cleaned it thoroughly, and then reassembled. No clicking what so ever (BONUS!)
2) My CA Bushings were beyond shot... thanksfully there's a mr billzcat who hooked me up in this department
3) my tires were SHOT SHOT SHOT... they were so dryrotted they crackled when you pushed on them, and the CA Bushings were so shot that the alignment was completely f'ed so it ate through to the bands on the front tires...
So the car quickly went under the knife:
Here's some pix of the CA bushings:
The whole CA Assembly literally shifted front and back about 1/4" min... that explained the funny clunking I was getting as I turned the car :bashtard:
So it came time to install some new bushings. Since I"m going to be tracking the car, I decided to upgrade to Delrin bushings. Mr Billzcat was kind enough to supply me with the necessary equipment, and these things are def of HIGH quality.
To prevent the habitual squeaking that delrin bushings do after some time, I coated these things with a HEALTHY amount of antiseize. This won't eat at the delrin like I was told some greases will, and will prevent the water from being absorbed into the delrin, which causes them to squeak... and of course... :pics:
Here it is all installed... as you can see, antiseize galore!
From this point, it was time for tires, because as you can see... they were shot:
From there, the last cosmetic thing I was going to do was remove the pin strip off the side of the car... it was peeling off and looking real nasty, so I went at it with an old credit card and a hair dryer. I followed behind this w/ paint thinner to remove the remainder of the glue... turned out real well if I do say so myself. Makes the car look INFINITELY better IMHO
And from this point, this is how the car has been used for the past few months. Bought it in August of '05, and it finally got registered the beginning of March '06. I really didn't start working on it til december due to time not existing b/c of grad school... but what have ya.
next chapter... the TURBO MOTOR
... but onto the story of the ride....
