RobClubley

Vinyl stripped off the hardboard backing of my roof lining. Omg! This is after Kohl Rod and Custom have scrubbed it several times with disinfectant and sanitiser. No wonder it smelled musty! The plan is to paint with flexible rubber paint to seal it, and then re-cover.

If you park under a totara tree in windy Wellington, with the sunroof open, expect a car full of leaves. In other news, they washed the back of my head liner board and loads of black stuff came out of it !!

Today's job was to pull out the carpets with the assumption that they were where the musty smell was hiding. But once they were out and thoroughly sniff tested, they smelled fine. So back in they went. The car is actually smelling better since the head liner came out, and that has some light dusty mould on the back. So I'm now thinking that the slight sunroof leak has been keeping that damp, and it has been retained in the hardboard backing.

Took my head liner and sun roof into #kohlrodandcustom to talk about re-covering them. The vinyl is sagging in the back so it needs sorting. Interestingly my car was built in December 1984 but my sun roof was made in 1986. The mysteries of old cars!

Bit of Dynamat in the boot.

Headliner is out. Part of the plan to make sure my water leak is fixed. Carpets out next. Also it’s starting to sag in the back so I want to get it refurbished and re-covered. These holes in the body are there to accommodate rivets in the sunroof mechanism but in heavy rain they let water in. This foam tape works as an effective gasket and no more leaks! It can’t be the source of the damp carpet so work is ongoing on that.

Oh yes and - after chatting with one of the previous NZ owners I learned a couple of bits of history I didn't know. I knew the car had had a rear-end accident at some point, the boot lid isn't original, but I learned it was hit hard from the back when parked in Wellington, shortly after the red leather interior was done. An Auckland bodyshop reckoned the roof wasn't original, and my body guy said the same. I'm not sure if this is right because the way it's fitted and welded looks like pics of other cars I've seen, but I'm no expert! My bodyshop guy said the front was about 4mm shorter on one side than the other so it may also have had a frontal at some point. though everything fits and lines up, as well as any of these 80s cars do So yeah this car has had a life!! Oh and I got a new insurance valuation last week - the car is finally worth more than I've put into it!!

That’s my fitting my thinking was it’s more likely to seep in through a gap at the bottom than the top.

Little cruise up Paekakariki Hill Road

Leave a little rainbow everywhere you travel….

Story time… My OEM rain deflector looks a bit sorry for itself, with splits and cracks in the plastic. A few months ago I found this reproduction part in Russia, via EBay Germany. I ordered the part and after about 10 weeks it got to New Zealand, delayed by the Evergiven issue in the Suez. It got to New Zealand, then from Auckland to Porirua about 15km from me. Then NZ Post said the box was damaged and immediately returned it to sender. About 8 weeks later it got home to Russia, and though the box looked like it had been jumped on, the part inside was undamaged. So frustrating! I messaged the seller and he wanted to refund my money rather than re-send as it was a lot of hassle. Then he checked out my Instagram and saw how much I love old Audis, and decided to make sure the part got to me. Being a handy sort of guy, he bought wood and made a custom shipping crate! Only four weeks this time and it got to me unscathed. The part fits really well and is 10x better quality than the original part. Thanks to Denis from @brgarage_team for taking the time and effort to get this to me. I really appreciate it.

WoF before and after New master cylinder fitted by Wellington European The brake fluid should now stay inside the car. Quattro noises: https://fb.watch/90qg0PyMwP/ School run. Sunday driving. https://i.imgur.com/ilpkA5e.jpg https://i.imgur.com/BHom3B1.jpg https://i.imgur.com/rQBSw0T.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QKGqbUB.jpg

Lockdown retail therapy. Dashcams fitted. Great service and very fast delivery from Te Rapa Auto Electrical 2020 Wiring was really simple - live, earth and switched live. I just plumbed it into the mess already there 😃 Everything was going great until I changed the WiFi password on the camera - as recommended in the instructions - I used an @ sign in my password which it seems it can't handle well, and translates to "%40" then truncates the end of the password. It took me a while to work that out - fortunately the desktop software reads the settings and shows the password in plain text so I was able to log back in and change it to a simpler one. We're still in lockdown so a test drive will have to wait a while but quality looks good on initial tests. The camera talks to you though, hope camera lady doesn't get into a battle with Patrizia the voice diagnostics lady. Little drive in Rusty with my daughter. Good news! After 59 days in transit my new door seals arrived from Germany. The quality and fit is fantastic. Hoping this fixes my water leak.

Okay some catchup and pics Running errands. Also, no warning lights on the dash. First time ever. https://i.imgur.com/LUDC1Ol.jpg https://i.imgur.com/brNRoVn.jpg Fitting my new oil temp sender from autewo.de - Audi Teilemarkt Proving once again I have no idea what I’m doing 😃 [Click and drag to move] I totally forgot about that internal spring. I soon worked it out though. What’s a better thing to receive than Audi quattro parts? Seals and stuff from Classic Quattros in the UK A few more little fixes. New neoprene headlight seals from Classic Quattros, the originals were perished and mouldy. Replacement for the clip on the adjuster, and I applied clear protective film to the headlights and fog lights. You know you have an old Audi when parts say “West Germany” on them. Also when door seals look like mine.

Grr Facebook must be doing stuff to discourage using them as image hosts, as they seem to disappear or change URL after a few days. That’ll be why my car smells of petrol after filling up! When petrol bubbles up the filler, which it does a lot, any overflow goes down a hole which I assumed went into the tank. Well no, it’s supposed to go down a vent pipe through a grommet to the road! Except on my car it goes into the boot. DIY shopping. Progress on finding the water leak after a drive in heavy rain. It seems to be getting in via the door seal. Dehumidifier in for now. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, made a basic bracket to mount my fire extinguisher to the bolts that hold the mat in place.

Hahahaha so funny. After 90 minutes of multimeter testing, scrabbling around the footwell, then reading wiring diagrams, it was a fuse. Yes there appears to be a fuse that serves just one tail light.

Another little job done.

Loving these new tail light bulbs from http://www.classicandvintagebulbs.com/ I should be more visible now 🙂 Of course, because old car, something’s wrong with the wiring to the right side. Brake lights work, not tail lights.

Little drive on Saturday.

Trying a new way of linking from FB that hopefully won't break after a while. Practical classic ?

I love a simple fix. My sub has had a vibration since I installed it in the Audi, gradually getting worse, and I assumed it was some loose trim somewhere in the car. Finally had time for a look, took sub cover off, unscrewed it from its 38mm of mdf mounting, tested, still making the noise. Oh no I thought, my trusty 10 year old sub is broken. Then I realised the centre cap was what was moving, it had come unglued from the cone. I gently prised it off, tested again. Epic bass noises, no vibrations. Result!

Grr FB has broken the image links again. Went for a drive to the shops, called in at Armstrong Audi for a chat, and they offered me the keys to their demo RS6. Wow what a car! It has always been one of my dream cars, so I wasn’t going to turn down a drive! Effortlessly, ballistically, fast, see a gap, lightly prod the throttle and the gap is 200m behind you. All in total luxury. Love it! Anyone fancy loaning me $227k?

Whoa, yeah very. An original 20v is worth more than mine, but it makes the amount I’ve spent feel less painful :)

Last few pics from the weekend.