5th May Progress

Given my lack of brake fluid, I thought I'd tackle the exhaust. I had a Magnex full stainless off my previous Corrado, but as this one is a really early one, I was unable to use it due to the type of hangers being different. Gooney has the old hook type arrangement and Magnex was specified for the bar type. Needless to say I was a little gutted, but really it doesn't matter as ultimately I think the Magnex bore of 2.25" isn't really enough for the turbo'd motor that I'm building. So I ordered a replacement central resonator as the one that was on the car was a bodged VR6 one with some additional pipe and about 76 different joins! So with the correct part I set about fitting it. I reused the good clamps and liberal use of fire putty and hey presto one functional exhaust.

I hadn't fired him up since trailering him home at the beginning of February (2008), so I attached a freshly charged battery to see if the exhaust was sealed OK. Turned the key...nothing....ah yes - immobiliser....turned key again and he started straight away! Bloody marvellous! You can't beat a good bit of German engineering. This VW 16v engines really are the dogs danglies. Three months just sat there and away it goes on the first (without immobilisation lol) turn of the key! Not only that the exhaust seemed to be sealed perfectly, not a blow in ear shot!

Next job was to find out what was going on with the central locking. I had a spare pump from the other Corrado, so plugged that in and it worked! Not sure why the old one had broken, but when I was checking it was all working, the petrol filler flap lock seemed to be a bit sticky, so I'm wondering if that had stuck at some point and cause undue strain on the pump and thus knackered it! So, I applied a little oil/grease to the mechanism and that seemed to ease it.

Finally, I replaced the standard wash/wipe relay (19) with a later model intermittent wash/wipe relay (99)...that was quite an easy job to end the days work on...

More to come....

3rd May Progress

Well, made a little more progress....yeah I know it is slow, but been double busy! Managed to sort the seized bleed nipples, removed the corrosion with a wire brush and applied liberal amount of copper slip, so I don't end up with the same problem next time. Went to bleed the brake system with 'Easi-bleed' but that went a little wrong when the bottom hose from the brake reservoir decided to blow off sending brake fluid everywhere and leaving a hydraulic clutch system that needs to be bled as well now! Ran out of brake fluid at the same time, so will be taking a trip to my local motor factors for some more. Will be going for Dot 5.1 instead of Dot 4 this time too.

So in my fit of anger from all that I thought I'd wash-clay-wash-polish the 'other' car, given that the brake fluid had made its way onto the bonnet...oops!

More to come....

Progress

Not a huge amount of progress made thus far. I've replaced the rear calipers with mk4 Golf items, as the standard ones where a little seized! I had to replace the O/S brake line as well, as I fubar'd it whilst trying to get the standard caliper off. I also have a sticky caliper bleed nipple at the moment though, so I'm currently soaking that in PlusGas.

Also removed the exhaust as it was blowing quite badly. I have ordered a new central resonator, as the one fitted wasn't the correct one and had several more joins than desired.

As I'm waiting on a couple things I decided to start to refurbish my Borbet As. Here are a couple of pictures of the progress so far. Please note that the dishes were really corroded. The previous owner had polished the dish then lacquered over the top. One Winters worth of salt has played havoc with them.

Still need some more work, but that's down to 400 grit with a quick going over with 1500 grit and some Autosol, to see where I've got to. The centres will be painted satin black, although white has crossed my mind a couple of times....maybe I need to sort myself out lol

Say hello to 'Gooney'!

Many people name their car and I'm no exception ;-)

May I introduce, Gooney, son of Badcrumble. A bit of history on the name; My previous Corrado was called Mrs Badcrumble. That name originates from comedian Eddie Izzard, and as quite a few of her parts will be making their way onto Gooney....the rest is history! "Gooney?" you may ask, well, just look at the number plate! The name is a legacy of the previous owners Gav and Nikki (you know who you are)

Planned modifications

Initial plans are as follows;

I have other plans too, but want to get her running and handling well. Start from the ground up as they say. Future plans are obviously to go turbo, so will be building the engine separately, as this is my daily, so it can't be off the road for to long