How to Save a Life- 19birel's attempt at reviving an A4

[19birel]

Hey everyone, I've been lurking on here for a while but just never got around to posting a thread. I bought the car in late february with a loose timing belt and have been slowing working on getting it back on the road. The car came with a few new parts pre installed, but overall it was a little rough around the edges. The interior was trashed, the bumpers need repainted, the wheels need refinished... the list goes on haha. Realistically those don't neeed fixed, but my hope it is have a relatively clean car when I'm done so I'll address everything I can. I'm 18 and this is my first car that I've purchased/ my first project so I've got a lot to learn but so far it's been a blast. Anyways, I'll copy everything over from the Fortitude thread to get this one up to speed.

Hey everyone, my name is Ayrton and I'm a sr. in high school who just purchased his first car! It's a 1999.5 A4 1.8T Quattro 5MT. It's a two owner car, the second owner having purchased it at the end of his friend's lease. According the the p.o. it has new brakes, a new turbo, and new clutch along with a few other things, unfortunately it the timing belt came loose and it no longer runs.

According to the gentleman I bought it from, he drove somewhere, the CEL came on (prompting him to call his shop to ask when he had scheduled the appointment for the timing belt) and when he tried started the car to go home, there was a "whining" noise and it wouldn't start so he had the car towed to his mechanic's shop & they said the belt came loose.

Having only purchased it for $900 I'm confident that even if I have to replace the engine (a worse case scenario from what I've read) I can still get her back on the road for around 2k including price of the car if I do all my own work which is the plan. Once the weather warms up a little bit and my dad is willing to sacrifice his spot in the garage, I'll bring in the A4 and get to work. Here are some pics from when I pulled the battery yesterday, i forgot the DSLR at home so excuse the iPotatoe quality.

[IMG]IMG_2007 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr[/IMG]

IMG_2008 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_2011 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_2009 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_2012 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_2018 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_2019 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Driver's seat is ruined
IMG_2013 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr


So here are my plans for it

1) Clean the crap out of it- the interior is grotesque and doesn't looks like it's ever been cleaned & the engine bay, where I'll be spending a ton of time could also use some work

2) Find out if the valves are bent- there is a small chance the valve train survived and that just the belt and tensioner needs replaced, if so I need to figure out if I can check this without pulling the head. If thats not possible, off comes the head...

3) Get it running, this process will vary on the results of the last one obviously

4) repair the interior

5) Body work- the bumpers are trashed so I'll have smooth them out and try and repaint them

6) Unless by some miracle I can afford wheels after all this, I'm going to refinish the stock wheels (the paint on them is bubbling) and throw fresh tires on as the current ones are bald

I'm sure there'll be a few other misc things that I do to it, but that should give you guys an idea of where I'm headed. I'm mechanically inclined but this is my first "build" so I have much to learn! All advice is appreciated!!!

Ok so here's yesterday's update. Cleaning took much longer than expected, there was so much more than I expected, and it took quite a bit of scrubbing the carpets to get the smell out:shifty Oh well, anyways here are some pics


Even after hitting it with the shop vac it looked pretty bad
IMG_1206 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Stains started going away after spraying them with purple power and scrubbing the snot out of em
IMG_1207 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
Forgot to take a pic of the finished product but oh well

The driver seat area was bad so I just removed the seat...that's about $5 in change there and a whole lot of nastiness
IMG_1209 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

After tons of scrubbing with carpet cleaner and vacuuming
IMG_1211 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I also sprayed it a few times with this stuff, it really helped with getting the odor out
IMG_1212 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

some of the grey trim that turned brown
IMG_1215 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

now its back to grey haha
IMG_1214 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I won't bore you with the rest of the details but here's the semi final product, I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'm going to shampoo the carpets as last I check the smell, although greatly reduced, still lingered.
IMG_1218 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Today I'm going to try and get a start on pulling the head though I have to go somewhere later and am not sure how much time I'll have to work.

Thanks for looking!

Thanks!



I found a site that will sell me the full fob with an uncut key blade for $15 and free shipping, only catch is it's a VW style one with a round badge insert on the front rather than one for the Audi rings (though they provide a generic german flag badge so it's not too big an issue). I looked at the eBay keys and they don't appear to have "HAA" branded blades like OEM (the one I found is also HAA) so I question whether or not I'll be able to remove the key blade and swap it out as I have planned. I'll keep browsing ebay though, theres a chance that I missed some.



So very tempting:laugh: how much would you be looking to get for the front seats? That head looks too beautiful, I'm afraid to ask how much though haha


Well here's an update for you guys on where I've gotten the past few days. I was sick on monday so I made very little progress then, but I got a lot done yesterday so here goes!

IMG_1220 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
First thing I did was remove the bolts to the intake manifold as well as loosen up the fuel rail. One thing that really struck me about this process was the lack of torque required to loosen all of the bolts. They were simply snug, not extraordinarily tight.

IMG_1221 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Then I removed the plugs for the injectors which was as simple as pushing the small clip attached to them and pulling them off. The whole wiring harness for them came up with it aswell which was nice.
IMG_1228 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

A quick pic of my method of organization to keep track of where everything goes, I have a labeled plastic bin for all the nuts.
IMG_1227 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I have also found taking notes helpful
IMG_1239 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Anyways, the next step was disconnecting this coolant hose
IMG_1251 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Now I thought I could contain the coolant without making too big a mess but.... shoulda drained the radiator:roll eyes:
IMG_1250 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Then I removed the two bolts towards the back of the engine that were holding it in place
IMG_1253 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Now I forgot to take a pic but that allowed me to move the intake manifold off of the cylinder head and move it far enough away that I should be able to pull the head without removing the intake, fuel rail etc.

Next was the valve cover, undo a few nuts & bolts and then get at the coil packs.
IMG_1234 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Of course the only non OEM coil pack gave me trouble, it actually split in two the first time I tried removing it, so I reinstalled it and wiggled it around for a while until it finally came out as one unit, I hope it still works properly:P
IMG_1235 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Removed and numbered them, not sure how true it is that I'll have misfire issues if I put them back in a different order, but don't feel like finding out haha
IMG_1236 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Got the valve cover removed
IMG_1244 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_1243 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Cleaned it up a little, debating on putting in a little more work and painting it
IMG_1249 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

That's were I'm at now, I just remembered I forgot to remove the exhaust manifold so that will come off tomorrow (I have to do some work on the daily tonight). Also my specialty tools to remove the head should be in tomorrow so I'll hopefully be able to take care of that then as well. Stay Tuned!

[19birel]

Part Two

A little update for you guys, the other day I got the head pulled

These bolts were a pain, especially the 3rd one (hidden by the heat shield in this pic)
IMG_1255 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Pulled the stretch bolts and removed a coolant hose on the back of the head that I don't have pics of
IMG_1257 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

And off came the head. Notice the small valve reliefs on the pistons that shouldn't exist:laugh:
IMG_1262 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Some bent valves
IMG_1265 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_1266 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I didn't see any cracks in the pistons, bit I'm going to clean off all of the carbon buildup on them to get a better look so I can confirm they're okay. Hopefully I'll have my daily back early next week so I can stop by the machine shop with the head and get a quote on what it's going to cost to rebuild. I'm most likely going with that but if the price is way out of whack, I'll buy a used one and throw it on.

In other news I shampooed the carpets and seats, and the interior is starting to smell a little better. there are still a few trim pieces I need to scrub and I need to vacuum the center arm rest out but it's getting there.

thanks for looking!

A little update for you guys, the other day I got the head pulled

These bolts were a pain, especially the 3rd one (hidden by the heat shield in this pic)
IMG_1255 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Pulled the stretch bolts and removed a coolant hose on the back of the head that I don't have pics of
IMG_1257 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

And off came the head. Notice the small valve reliefs on the pistons that shouldn't exist:laugh:
IMG_1262 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Some bent valves
IMG_1265 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

IMG_1266 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I didn't see any cracks in the pistons, bit I'm going to clean off all of the carbon buildup on them to get a better look so I can confirm they're okay. Hopefully I'll have my daily back early next week so I can stop by the machine shop with the head and get a quote on what it's going to cost to rebuild. I'm most likely going with that but if the price is way out of whack, I'll buy a used one and throw it on.

In other news I shampooed the carpets and seats, and the interior is starting to smell a little better. there are still a few trim pieces I need to scrub and I need to vacuum the center arm rest out but it's getting there.

thanks for looking!

I'd be kinda worried about leaving small bits of glue in the cylinder as sometimes the glue doesn't always peel nicely. though I could be wrong it still could work.

I've got a small update for you guys. So the seat bottoms are getting reupholstered, I've decided to stick with the factory wheels (I got a deal 3 center caps from Cactus Avant, thanks!) and I've got the bumper removed, a/c condenser out of the way and the radiator nearly out.

I thought I snapped these bolts when removing the bumper but it turns out they're just in there really tight:what:
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

This is what is preventing me from removing the radiator, this bloody sensor that I can't seem to remove:banghead:
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I stopped there because it was getting late and I had to get some school stuff done.

In other news though, I threw the battery back prior to starting work on the car today so I could test out the sound system:laugh: Using the aux adapter for the tape deck that came with the car it sucked, lows were muddy and miss and highs were terribly distorted as well. However, when using the CD changer it sound pretty good for a 15 y/o setup, almost as good as my MKIV Golf that has an upgraded blaupunkt headunit which is fine by me. This is kind of a long shot, but does anyone know if it is possible to retain functionality of the 6 disc changer in the trunk with an after market headunit? I'll probably stay stock simply because this car already has made me broke but I've been considering it and would like to keep the cd changer if I do upgrade. And one last thing, I found all these in the cd changer today. Besides the Bon Iver cd, the po did not have a great taste in music lol:laugh::P
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
I only have a week left of school so hopefully that means more updates more frequently! Stay tuned!

[RoadRage]

Seems like a decent price for the car. and if you need to get the car on the road, you can probably find a used head for a couple hundred or less.

[ray4624]

those bumper bolts are definitley broken. Looks like you are making some good progress though.

[19birel]

Seems like a decent price for the car. and if you need to get the car on the road, you can probably find a used head for a couple hundred or less.

Yeah, I looked around and found one for only $250 but I'd rather get mine re-done, in doing so I'd basically have a new head and I'm willing to wait since I have something to daily drive already.

those bumper bolts are definitley broken. Looks like you are making some good progress though.

Thanks! I saw some pics of how the bolts should look and mine seem to be missing half the threads lol. Where the rest of the bolts went is a mystery to me though as I check the bumper shocks and found nothing.

[Turbo_B5]

Thanks! I saw some pics of how the bolts should look and mine seem to be missing half the threads lol. Where the rest of the bolts went is a mystery to me though as I check the bumper shocks and found nothing.

maybe they where trimmed for quick removal.

[ray4624]

Thanks! I saw some pics of how the bolts should look and mine seem to be missing half the threads lol. Where the rest of the bolts went is a mystery to me though as I check the bumper shocks and found nothing.

they dont bolt into your bumper shocks. They go through the shocks and mount to the bumper support bar.

[Quattro420]

I bought a 01 with bent valves I put 20 new valves and seals and had the machine shop put them in. They called said exhaust guids were wrecked so it got all new exhaust guids pressure tested decked planned and seats re cut nice to see someone else doin the same. I'm about 1200 into head but I'm doing lifters and chain and what not I only paid 600 for the car, and I'm going to do the bottom end and clutch to

[Seerlah]

they dont bolt into your bumper shocks. They go through the shocks and mount to the bumper support bar

I just learned something new. Always thought they threaded into the bumper shock.

I bought a 01 with bent valves I put 20 new valves and seals and had the machine shop put them in. They called said exhaust guids were wrecked so it got all new exhaust guids pressure tested decked planned and seats re cut nice to see someone else doin the same. I'm about 1200 into head but I'm doing lifters and chain and what not I only paid 600 for the car, and I'm going to do the bottom end and clutch to

Not to be that guy, but that shop took you for a ride on that head. That is the cost of fully built ones you can pick up. Easiest and cheapest thing to do would have been to pick up a used head, deck it, and swap it in. When I bent valves I picked up a used head on here for $150 shipped. It was missing cams and CCT, but that was a small hurdle. Just swapped them over from the head with belt valves. Got that head decked, and has been running on my car for a while now with a BT application. Many ways to go about it to save some coin.

[Quattro420]

536 was the actual machine shop price the other 600 is all parts for the head 20 lifters at 12 bucks a piece new timing chain I supplied the 20 valves I'm happy with the head so far haven't bolted it in yet still waiting parts

[19birel]

they dont bolt into your bumper shocks. They go through the shocks and mount to the bumper support bar.

Oh, looks like I'll be checking the bumper support bar then. Thanks!

I bought a 01 with bent valves I put 20 new valves and seals and had the machine shop put them in. They called said exhaust guids were wrecked so it got all new exhaust guids pressure tested decked planned and seats re cut nice to see someone else doin the same. I'm about 1200 into head but I'm doing lifters and chain and what not I only paid 600 for the car, and I'm going to do the bottom end and clutch to

That sounds a little too expensive from what I've read, but hey I'm no expert, the details of the scenarios I've read could have been a little different. Hopefully my machine shop doesn't quote me something like that

I just learned something new. Always thought they threaded into the bumper shock.



Not to be that guy, but that shop took you for a ride on that head. That is the cost of fully built ones you can pick up. Easiest and cheapest thing to do would have been to pick up a used head, deck it, and swap it in. When I bent valves I picked up a used head on here for $150 shipped. It was missing cams and CCT, but that was a small hurdle. Just swapped them over from the head with belt valves. Got that head decked, and has been running on my car for a while now with a BT application. Many ways to go about it to save some coin.

This may be a noob question but what do you mean by deck the head? I considered going used, but I talked to our family mechanic who specializes in German cars for his opinion and he said I'd run the risk of the valve seals on the used head letting go requiring me to take everything back apart to replace them. How many miles were on your used head?

[Seerlah]

Can't recall miles. As for decking, it is the same thing as saying surfacing. It is having the surface that sits on the head gasket machined completely flat.

[19birel]

Oh I see, thanks. I'm gonna try and stop by the machine shop next week and get a quote since I'll be off school. If they ask too much, I guess Ill end up used and replace the seals and have it decked.

[Quattro420]

My machine shop quoted me 250 plus tax to install the valves and seals I supplied. That was decking and pressure testing, then he called and said the guids were damaged he said 350 if I supply guids 450 plus tax if he supplied them that's way it cost so much but I paid 200 plus just for valve kit

[Bordom]

My machine shop quoted me 250 plus tax to install the valves and seals I supplied. That was decking and pressure testing, then he called and said the guids were damaged he said 350 if I supply guids 450 plus tax if he supplied them that's way it cost so much but I paid 200 plus just for valve kit

Thank God I only have 12 valves

[19birel]

Well thankfully not all 20 of my valves are bent so only a few will need replaced haha

[Quattro420]

I had both exhaust on cylinder three no others were bent I'm just picky so I did everything but springs and keepers. If I was selling the car it would of got just the bent valves but I figured since it's going to be one of my dailys I didn't want to worry. I replaced far more on my head then needed to be but I'm wierd like that.

[19birel]

So I've got a bit of an update for you guys, got the radiator removed and cleaned the carbon from the pistons.
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Removed fan, just these four bolts
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

at this point I noticed this belt was barely holding on Is this for the water pump?
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

With the fan removed I was able to crank the engine to get the pistons at the top of there stroke to clean them. They started off pretty nasty as you can see so I started with carefully scaping off the big stuff with a razor blade and then got the engine cleaner and a scotch bright pad and went to town.

Before
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

After
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Then I rolled her out of the garage to clean the engine bay since I had a pressure washer for the evening.
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

After
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Some pipes are still slightly corroded so I'm gonna have to give those some extra tlc but otherwise its a heck of a lot cleaner.

The other day I got these back too, no more ripped seams or ripped bolster! I can't wait to put them back together and reinstall them in the car.
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

[19birel]

Threw the seats back together and conditioned them again
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Only issue I ran into was the small plastic trim piece that goes on the inside side of the seats. When removing them I broke posts that attach to the seat.
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I tried some JB Weld but that wasn't very successful either so it looks like I'm going to have to hunt down those pieces

[Quattro420]

How's your head doing?

[19birel]

How's your head doing?

I'm going to try and take it down to the shop tomorrow morning and get an estimate on how much a rebuild will cost. I haven't had the money to really do anything with it yet so it's kinda been on the back burner while I tend to things that don't really cost me anything (did I mention I got those seats done for free?). Depending on what the shop says tomorrow, I'll either take it back in a couple weeks when I have some money and get it redone, or buy a used one and get it decked.

[Quattro420]

I bought my valves from a company spost to be OEM but my intake valves were wrong. Didn't notice till I installed the cams and timed the chain, all the intake valves were open regardless of cam lobe. Mine set me back now cause I have to buy new intake valves and get them installed.


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[19birel]

So i took the head in the other day for the shop to take a look at it and give me a quote, they called me today and said all the valves need replaced but the valve guides survived and gave me a price of $605 for parts and labor which I think is reasonable.

[19birel]

Progress has been at a halt for a while as I had took a last minute trip to Uganda for about 3 weeks, but now I'm back and can share with you a couple of small updates.

So before I left I got the cylinder head back from the machine shop
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
I'll post a few close ups later but it looks absolutely beautiful

Here's a pic of one of the bent valves from before
by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Now this is what I just ordered this morning
Untitled by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

That should be nearly everything I need to get her running again! Stay tuned for more!

[CarlWeasly]

Great Thread so far! love the work you've been putting in On another note do you mind me asking how much the seats cost to get re-upholstered? Slightly curious as i need to get mine done

[19birel]

Great Thread so far! love the work you've been putting in On another note do you mind me asking how much the seats cost to get re-upholstered? Slightly curious as i need to get mine done

Thanks man, I really appreciate it! As for the seats, I actually got them done for free by a friend of my dad. I've heard its typically pretty expensive though, the p.o. of my car said he got quoted around $400 or something crazy like that to have them done and decided it wasn't worth it. Personally, for that money I would by a brand new replacement seat cover from ECS tuning for around $350 ish or buy a whole other set of front seats. Then again yours may not cost that much if there not as bad as mine were.

[CarlWeasly]

Thanks man, I really appreciate it! As for the seats, I actually got them done for free by a friend of my dad. I've heard its typically pretty expensive though, the p.o. of my car said he got quoted around $400 or something crazy like that to have them done and decided it wasn't worth it. Personally, for that money I would by a brand new replacement seat cover from ECS tuning for around $350 ish or buy a whole other set of front seats. Then again yours may not cost that much if there not as bad as mine were.

Awesome to here about getting you seat done for free, more money for other parts ha-ha. I may have to go the diy route with mine (unless i find a used one) if its around that much, mine are worse that yours
thanks for the info though!

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

[19birel]

Awesome to here about getting you seat done for free, more money for other parts ha-ha. I may have to go the diy route with mine (unless i find a used one) if its around that much, mine are worse that yours
thanks for the info though!

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

You may be better off just finding a replacement seat if they are worse then mine. The leatherette gets very hard over time if it's not properly cleaned and conditioned regularly and as a result shrinks a little. Even the guy that did my seats said that made them very difficult to work with. I'm sure if you when to a pick n'pull you could find a nicer set of seats for cheap, even if they have small rips you'll have a better basis to start from.

BTW I have a lead on a set of wheels, I won't leak any details because nothing is concrete yet but theres a very real chance the first time this car turns a wheel it won't be on the stock 16s!

[CarlWeasly]

You may be better off just finding a replacement seat if they are worse then mine. The leatherette gets very hard over time if it's not properly cleaned and conditioned regularly and as a result shrinks a little. Even the guy that did my seats said that made them very difficult to work with. I'm sure if you when to a pick n'pull you could find a nicer set of seats for cheap, even if they have small rips you'll have a better basis to start from.

BTW I have a lead on a set of wheels, I won't leak any details because nothing is concrete yet but theres a very real chance the first time this car turns a wheel it won't be on the stock 16s!

That's what I was thinking, although the last time o was at my pick-n-pull they only had a stripped out 97 have to go again sometime. Yeah the spot where my seat is ripped is brittle, all the other ones are perfect. And nice to here about wheels, let us know when you find out more!

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

[19birel]

So I got my order from ECS Last Night
P_20150718_210452 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
I highly recommend that anyone doing the timing belt on their car buys the ECS Ultimate Timing Belt Kit, in addition to the timing belt you get EVERY OTHER BELT that could possibly need replaced so you can knock everything out at once. It comes with so much stuff I feel like the car is going to be very well sorted by the time I get it all installed.

Also, I'm going to pick these up today
01717_gPUPqYCmoRX_600x450 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
They're 18" C6 A6 S-Line reps, they have a bit of curb rash (though they are still in wayy better shape than my 16s) and they're missing one center cap, but for $100 I can't complain. Originally I was going to keep the 16's and refinish them, but I don't have the time to do that with all the other things I need to get done, and considering these wheels cost about as much as I would've spent on materials to refinish the 16's (and they both need tyres regardless) I couldn't pass them up.

Here's a pic of what they look like on an A6


Thanks for looking!

[19birel]

I've got another update!

So earlier this week I got around to painting the valve cover. I did this simply so it didn't show as much dirt and was easier to keep clean. I think it turned out alright, though it is by no means perfect.

Before
P_20150721_175341 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

During (primer)
P_20150721_175932 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

After
IMG_20150721_194010 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr
If anyone is wondering, I used Duplicolor hi temp primer and paint.

Yesterday I FINALLY got the seats installed.
P_20150724_201441 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I also noticed this in the cupholders, mold who's idea was it to put fabric here!? Any ideas on how to get rid of this stuff?
P_20150724_200055_LL by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I also restored my shift knob which was looking rather tired.
P_20150724_201633 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

I masked off the chrome trim and the top plastic part of the knob
P_20150724_202052 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Grabbed some of this
P_20150724_202351 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

and voila!
P_20150724_202720 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

P_20150725_131303 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Oh and of course a quick mock up of the new wheels
IMG_20150719_152714 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Tomorrow I'm shooting to have the water pump and all the belts done do hopefully I can make that happen, stay tuned!

EDIT: links fixed

[_BOOSTED_]

Love the build. Can't wait to see it all put back together


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[19birel]

Love the build. Can't wait to see it all put back together


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! I appreciate it!

[_BOOSTED_]

So that die works pretty good then. I have been wanting to try it out on my car


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[10kredline]

I wish they have that dye in Dark Blue. Sucks to have the interior blue..it's so hard to find parts to match it...

[_BOOSTED_]

I wish they have that dye in Dark Blue. Sucks to have the interior blue..it's so hard to find parts to match it...

Have you tried looking on like amazon or ebay maybe. They have it I think the problem thow would be trying to get close to your blue

[19birel]

So that die works pretty good then. I have been wanting to try it out on my car

Yeah, it's an easy, cheap little fix that lasts a long time and looks really good too. I'd highly recommend trying it, works great on steering wheels too!

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I wish they have that dye in Dark Blue. Sucks to have the interior blue..it's so hard to find parts to match it...

I've never seen the blue b5 interior so I don't know for sure, but I'd imagine if you did a bit of searching you could find some in the right color.

[19birel]

Well lets just say a lot of Progress has been made recently, in a rush to get this thing at least running before I leave for school on tuesday (I'm not bringing the car till after thanksgiving so any minor details will get taken care of then most likely)

I replaced all the belts, water pump, and and the tensioners. Here's the old timing belt tensioner
P_20150731_215940 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

vs new
P_20150731_220138 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Unfortunately I didn't take many pics but after that I got the head on, did the timing and all that jazz. Then I hit a pick n'pull for the first time and found a nice 99 1.8t with some good parts.

snagged all this for $40:D
P_20150814_174030 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

P_20150814_174046 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr (mine already has a new first aid kit so I gave this to my dad to put in the B8)

P_20150814_184214 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr (a much nicer coolant reservoir)

also got a bolt for the exhaust manifold to hook up to the turbo since I messed up one of mine in the removal process.

Went back the following day and snagged all this for $60 got the door pulls mainly for the springs, and those 3way rear deck speakers even have the factory wiring installed on them
P_20150815_213240 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Fast forward a few hours and she looks like a car again!
P_20150815_213305 by Ayrton @ Drive19, on Flickr

Turned the key, and she fired up! Took her for a quick spin around the block and was pleasantly surprised, the clutch grabs really hard (so I guess the po didn't lie about replacing that recently) the gearbox is smooth, the engine is quiet, and the suspension feels really nice. Only issue was the oil feed to the turbo not being tight enough causing a small leak, but I just need to get a smaller wrench to fit in the space and tighten it and then I should be good to go! Stay tuned I've got a few more things planned before I leave!

[down_n_dapper]

what an update! smashed it mate! glad to see the car is all sorted and running

can definitely see that tensioner shat itself.. glad it all worked out!

[Seerlah]

You could try some Lysol, for the cup holder.