My long restoration of a 1983 Ur.

[4v6]

22-02-09
The long, long story of my continuing adventures with an '83 Ur.

Way back in 2009 ( damn that seems like such a long time ago!) i was looking around for an Ur as a project.
Before that, the last Audi i had was in 99, a coupe gt that i had for 13 years when it got rear ended and written off, after that i had a toyota celica which was a good car but i took out the 2.0 litre turbo motor and transplanted in a 3.0 litre v6...oh and kept it 4wd.

But my heart was never really in the toyota and i always wanted an Ur, so i went looking.
Lots of possibles came up and its a bit of a lottery to try and get one thats not so far gone that itd take years to get fixed up........still mines not done.

Anyhow, it was found down in Suffolk, a US serviceman based at RAF Lakenheath was running it round but i think it bankrupted him so he was selling it.
A deal was struck and i got it trailered home ready to start killing my wallet.











Although it looks pretty good on the photos i found plenty to fix, starting with the motor.
I already knew the original 10Vt was coming out so me being me, i bought the 20vt AAn motor to replace it with around 6 months before i bought the car...
The main idea being to replace all the tired and worn out parts and refurb it to new spec with a bit of extra grunt and hopefully reliability.



Didnt take long to strip the heck out of it, within a day or so of getting it back id already gutted the insides to look for rust (found some) and the engine came out in the next few days.







Lots wrong in the engine bay... right side mount..



Although it was a runner, it didnt run particularly well so i decided to strip the motor.
Just as well really because it was almost entirely shot to bits and was in danger of grenading.

This is whats left of one of the exhaust guides.
Javads piece on the exhaust valves losing heads comes to mind here.
Max valve rock at the head is supposed to be 1.3mm....i had over 5mm...



Theres simply no supporting material left, its entirely worn away.


Also found cracks in the head that went way too deep and one of the exhaust valves had a partial failure in the form of a crack.



You can just see the crack across the seat and partway round the valve head.
Thatd have made a bit of a mess i reckon.



The right side wing was removed as i noticed it had been removed before, turns out a light front end shunt was the reason.
Also it hadnt been resealed properly so the road salt and water had gotten underneath and rotted out the mounting flange partially.



Took me a while to clear all the nasties out and get it ready for a repair but that didnt take too long and came out fine.
At this point ive only removed the loose stuff.









I then proceeded to strip the engine bay out completely of all the pipes and steering rack etc, before stripping it back to bare metal.

Renewing any seam sealer that was peeling i primed it with acid etch primer and a couple of coats of high build.





Once dry, i could paint it the proper colour- Montego black metallic.
No clear coat here yet but it looks quite attractive in that satin finish.







Once clearcoated i could leave it to harden.





And refit the steering rack before doing a test fit of the 20 valver!



My poor car. No front sus, no electrics, no lights.



Speaking of lights, i never liked the single piece cibies so i sourced a set of quad h4/h1's.
A good friend in massachusetts managed to find me a set of the plastic surrounds/trims in good condition and sent them over, i still feel much indebted to Matt for that kindness. Cheers buddy!



More mess to clear up under the scuttle.
It had been crudely chopped into to get access to the clutch master instead of just dropping the pedal assy out, not good, let water in which destroyed the steering column bearing and wet the carpets and electrics.



I removed all that a couple of months ago and made it right.



Another friend was stripping a coupe gt and he donated the scuttle panel which i cut to fit over the existing area after clearing out all the old corroded and damaged material.



The hole is for the aan wiring harness to pass through, the ecu being mounted under the dash .



Sound deadening applied.



Brakes are now vacuum servo with an audi 80 master, RR 20 valve brakes on the rear, all new shocks, bearings seals, discs ball joints....



Luckily i finished all the outstanding welding work to the monocoque itself a couple of moths back, but its been quite a long process because as we all know repair panels are pretty hard to come by and the price can be high.
Thats been a major reason for the time to do this so far, its been done on a very restricted budget.
If id have had to subcontract out the work to the body, ie the welding and panel fabricating jobs, i couldnt have done it, itd have been too expensive, so panels/patches had to be made not bought.
Its been expensive as it is what with almost all parts being replaced for new, but that cant be helped and i always counted on doing it pretty much like i have, besides, i never really "own" a car until ive had its guts out all over the floor and know everything i can about it. :-)

So anyway, a few more photos.
The climate in this country isnt too grand at the best of times, heck it peeved the romans no end and even they buggered back off to sunier climes, so its hardly surprising that the poor old quattro was suffering from some weather and monkey induced damage.

One of the first jobs was to start repairing the jack up damage to the sills.
Obviously some folks dont give a hoot about where a jack goes and it shows...

The damage here has come about because the body coatings been damaged by jacking up without due regard to protection of it with a rubber pad or similar, rust gets a hold and the whole area gets weakened.



The end of the sill had broken away (behind where the trailing edge of the wing bolts down) and a quick shot with the grinder had it away meaning i could take a picture inside the sill.
Still had the original wax in place but obvious signs of rust creeping along the seam which needed cutting out.





This is on the drivers (rh side-im uk remember) and the corrosion extended about 18 inches along.
3 layers of steel to get to grips with here and rebuild it all to be as close as it could be to stock.





At this point ive removed all the rot from that damaged area and made good the end of the sill.
Still needed final fettling but thats just cosmetic.
The whole area is very much more solid than before, i felt at one point id be like Fred Flintstone with my feet providing stop and go action...



A spot of bubbling at the rear arch turned into a major job.



Cutting the affected part out revealed a corroded inner arch as well as its return flange...agh, hate doing these, theyre so involved!



Always turns into something bigger dosent it?



Not too put off i formed a cunning plan....... to forget all about refurbing it.....well not really i was quite into it at that point. :-)

Leading edge of the arch was toast as well as the jacking pont at the rear.
Lots and lots to think about here, not least keeping the relative shape of the arch and its structure in 3d space.....headaches.



First thing- leave the inner arch alone at this stage and fabricate up the outer skin replacement, you can still hang that where it should be using what you still have of the old material under it.
Fabricating that skin wasnt easy either as it has more than a few elements to it and shape and contour changes, and im no panel beater.
I am dogged tho which might be helpful.

Started like this.
Made a cardboard copy (very rough indeed) of the basic shape by impressing the edge shape onto it from the car then transferred it to sheet steel and starterd to hamerform the curve of the flange.
First ever attempt at something so complex.

Sturdy metal table is oh so useful. And ear defenders.
Pryed up an edge bit by bit all around the curve then steadily hammered it into shape.



Until after a few hours of clanging and no doubt irritating the neighbours across the way, i got this panel made up.
Quite pleased with it, but did it fit?



Heck yeah! Pretty much on the money. Only needed to be fettled to fit the hole id cut out and then itd be good to go.



Self congratulations and much handshaking gave way to the sudden realisation that the inner flange and arch was going to be a sight harder as it had an even more extreme shape....how the heck?

Can only say that i went at it in the same manner, cardboard, steel, table, little block of wood and a hammer or two.
Surprisingly it seemes to have been easier than the outer skin, at least thats what i felt about it. :?
It too came out pretty much on the money, such good luck!

One on top of the other.



Presenting the inner repair arch panel up and marking a place to cut it to and lap weld it in place took a while as it was a judgement call on where to remove the material to as i had to get the rot out and try and juggel all the points it needed to pick up, still it worked ok.
Obviously just tacked on here.





By now it was time to address the jack up point and sill corrosion.
1mm cutting disc did the job nicely.



And allowed me to fabricate a repair.



Along with an end to the box section to tie it all in when ready.



Once happy that it would all go in as it should i set about prepping up to weld it all together.
I used plug welds and did them infrequently to prevent distortion as much as possible.



I didnt seem to encounter any real issues as it all just "went in" ok. Weird really as its quite a complex repair now that i look back at it.
Wouldnt want to take it on for someone else i must say.



Barest skim of filler later and its looking pretty good.



Well with most of the welding finished ( theres way more than ive shown) and the metalwork sorted out, i could start on the rear suspension and drivetrain components.
When i got the car, even though i never actually drove it any distance, just moving it around on the front i could tell there were issues with it, like some groaning, doinging and ominous creaking sounds.
Turns out at some point its had the original rear springs taken off and some aftermarket "stuff" fitted on that dosent well, fit.
Heres the source of all the creaking and groaning.
Spring coils are over the cap which were fractured..




Other side was no better.



Bump stops were shot to bits as were all the top mounts, wheel bearings, brakes, all the subframe rubbers, balljoints, wishbone rubbers and toe control arms.
Complete overhaul was the order of the day.





Diff seals were leaking so they were on the agenda also.



Original 1983 rear damper inserts were well past it.



Underside was pretty clean, just oily from the diff.
Removed all the heat shielding to check behind and fabbed up a new section at the rear.



Prop centre bearing was shot to bits as well, new one has replaced this tired old fella.



Also finished off part of the wiring harness for the AAN motor.
I decided not to cut the body around, instead running the harness from the drivers side (RH) out under the scuttle thru the hole i made in the repair panel and thru the various holes that aready exist.
Once the rainwater deflectors on none of that will even be visible.



In between doing that and various other stuff, i repainted the rear subframe and refitted all the new components i had assimilated over the course of a year or so all in readiness to get it done.

Looks like theres a dead body dropped out from under the subframe...was mine i think.







Then proceeded to do a check on every bolt for correct torque, marking it with red as i went.



Dropped the rear box on its mounts to test fit it and see how much room i had.



Plenty as it happens.



More to follow.

[4v6]

04-10-11,
Repaired the trailing edges of the rear arches which meant that nearly all the rust repairs to the shell are done.
Hoo bloody ray i say to that.
Still have to sort out the rear valance/slam panel problem but thats just a bit of cutting and shutting and should be fairly straightforward.


Rusted out due in part to the rear apron being reattached with self tappers at some point.
What happens is the screw goes through both layers and parts them slightly allowing water and road salt in, results as you can see here...



Meaning muggins here has to set about fabricating up repair sections to make it good again.
Not quite as hard to do as it first looked.



A few hours later and ive cut it all out and put it all back in, both layers, inner and outer.



Por 15 over the top and ensured it got between both layers so itll stay sealed up for ever...well nearly so.





With it all painted and sealed i doused it from inside the boot with waxoyl so it would creep up between the layers from that direction and then i spent the rest of the day undersealing the rear of the car before the subframe went back in on its new rubbers.

17-10-11
Drivers wing was a bit of a mess as itd been removed at some point and replaced, ie, its not the original item which was damaged by an impact in the past.
That led to the flange its bolted to being rusted out as it was never sealed against the elements after refit which i repaired as a very first welding job.
Some judicious prodding revealed multiple pinholes and rust in a pain in the butt area to repair.
I thought about cutting it out and welding in new metal but itd distort the panel and be a regular pest to get right so i opted to acid etch the rust out and solder it up.
Took a couple of days to do it but its basically sound again.

Underside of the wing, holed and not pretty.



After etching the rust out the surface is cratered and pitted but free of the tin worm and ready for tinning.



That same flange being etched out, notice the line of rust where the acid wasnt in contact previously.



A bit later on and its nearly there.



Once its been tinned, the solder can go on.
I used a wide copper strip and heated it with a blowtorch to get it hot enough and then buttered the repair area with it.



Top of the flange and the vertical sides were backed up with a thin copper sheet to give it some strength and to support the solder.



Leaving the outside pretty much as required with little in the way of distortion.



Boiling water removes and deactivates the flux and acid residues then dry it all off and POR15 the whole area after abrading it.
Happy me.

I also tackled the windscreens.
The rears are easy to remove as theyre quite flexible but the laminated fronts are a pest and easy to crack.
I did it by removing the door seals and internal pillar trims to get access to the reverse side of the rubber.
Then i folded it in on itself from about halfway up to the left corner and down the bottom then over the top of the screen 10mm at a time, repeating it on the right side.
Screen came out easily, no need to cut the rubber no cracked glass either!



Very, very happy to see no rusting issues of any note underneath that screen rubber too!
Both the corners are absolutely rust free with just a couple of minor scabs in the central areas of the lower part of the flange, already dealt with those yesterday.





Worst i found is about 5p sized and already sorted out.



Rear screen going in has this on it:



I also have all the rear suspension in and brakes.
Fabricated and replaced the rear hardlines today and piped up the flexis and new handbrake cables.
Starting to look very grand indeed under there now compared to how it was previously.





Since ive dispensed with the original fuellling setup the lines all have to be replaced too and just as well.
This is the return line where it was hiding inside one of the securing rubbers...
How it hasnt leaked is anyones guess, it just crumbled when i pulled it out.



Still to do under there: Diff seals and refit the diff, lock off the difflock mechs, fabricate or buy an exhaust front to rear, fab up the fuel lines, bolt up the prop, replace the rear valance. Drop it back on the deck. Thatll be a milestone.

Been continuing onwards.

Managed to raise the car and get the ramps under the wheels so i could torque up the wishbone pivot bolts with the weight on its wheels.
A couple of bumps down on the suspension yielded what looked like Uncle Bucks shockless 75 Mercury Marquis but after a couple more it firmed up and got all "controlled" on me. Cool.

Anyhow with that done i decided to get the old fuel lines out and also do a little more undersealing around the rear sill areas.

Ok, now, we all make screw ups, it happens, its part of what we are, its an unfortunate side effect of being human, but you gotta ask yourself, what kind of weapons grade moron shoves a jack under a car without looking what it might be bearing on?
What level of stoopid must someone be to do that?

Anyway, i found this.



Yup, jacked it up off of the fuel lines they have.
Fuel starvation problem ya say?



Of course, the chimp wielding the trolley jack just hadda crimp the chassis rail too, so thats another item to fix.
Id just love to meet the dimwit that did this and "jack" him up off his undercarriage.

Frustrating.

[4v6]

20-06-12

With the stripdown of the old celica done and dusted some weeks ago i now have a garage full of parts off that as well, its getting cramped in here.
That means im kinda limited to what i can until ive got the remaining underside parts sorted out, that being the exhaust mainly and a little bit of messing with the fuel lines as im not entirely happy with the routing of them to and from the filter.

Before any of that though.....

I got the quad light surrounds that Matt (Zermatt gt ) kindly sent me over and prepped and painted them so theyre more "euro" spec than blingo edition, gotta admit they look way better painted.







I also got the underfloor felting sorted out and fitted, along with the carpets, still at bit untidy at this stage , hey, its a work in progress!

Original diff panel removed and gauge pod fitted, i like that look a lot better than the orginal pull knob thingy and since the diffs are now effectively locked out permananently until i decide what to do with em and since its only going on the road in the summer im unlikely to ever need them.
A case of being practical.



Got a replacement height adjustable seat base from a club member (cant remember who now but thanks! ) and got rid of the bodged up one.
Had to do some minor weld repairs to it where the sheet base cracks around the welds on these, and take off the adjuster handle bracket (swapover to fit mine) other than that its way better!



Tacked before tig.



I also gave the interior trim a good clean and the upholstery a vac and dry foam wash, it was absolutely filthy!










Finally set to work on paint stripping the sunroof panel as a test to see how long itd take and what lay underside...



Bit of surface rust and spidering from the edges inward.
Panel appears to be coated at the factory with some form of protection.



Theres some rust inside on the bracing that needs a bit of work so ill strip that side too and repair it.

The osf wing also got stripped yesterday, paint was thicker'n hell.
This is the one i did that solder repair to on the top edge.





Conclusion. Some Audi quattro front wings appear to be galvanised.





So, finish the top mounting flange of that wing today and start the nsf wing.


26-06-12
Got both the front wings stripped of paint back to bare metal.

Curiousness. Os wing is galvanised, passeneger original is not, oddly its in better condition than the galvanised item.











Paint was extremely thick on the passenger side, around 12 layers that i could count and some filler to a dent repair that will need re-instating.



Also started the bonnet.
Lots of work in this item as its the wrong colour and has/had some rust scabs on the bracing which needed work, so yesterday and today i spent most of my time prepping that.
Should be done on the inside tomorrow and the bonnets in otherwise A1 condition, thankfully!







The cavity wax injected inside is a great idea when the things finished, but for a repaint its a bloody pest as paint wont stick to it so i spent the best part of 2 hours with a couple of paint brushes and a toothbrush plus a couple of litres of panel wipe, removing it, then the new paint will go inside and colour the underside of the bonnet skin and itll all be one colour.
Little more tomorrow on that tho before its done entirely.








06-07-12
Well am definitely getting there, even though theres a lot of stuff to do to get it road ready.

Ive now almost all but completed the bonnet, having stripped all the paint off it and filled the odd few dings and dents that existed.
Im quite happy with it so far.

Cos sometimes i screw up (cos im no more perfect than anyone) and a small screw up, thats what id consider it anyways, is the colour of the vehicle.
Looking at the paint under the bonnet, im A) Not happy with how its finished, so out comes the engine again.
B) I fancy a change from black.

Bonnet stripped.



Sunroof stripped and rust repaired.



Surface , all hand done btw as my sander died a while back.





Yours truly hard at it.







Anyways, this is the colour she will be and i like it very much.






I was a little concerned that the colour and interior wouldnt be right but no, its ok.



So, LA6V it is then! Lhasa green metallic.

[4v6]

11-07-12
Well still proceeding with this one, passenger wing repairs are completed, included two areas that needed a light skim of filler to sort out the panel ripples from a previous parking shunt.
Took quite a while to get it so that with the flat of your hand you can feel no transitions or surface changes as you go over it.
Still has to have the outer panel surfaces scuffed and cleaned before epoxy primer and surfacer, block sanding to ensure its perfectly flat etc then itll be ready for paint, bonnet the same, drivers wing in progress and almost finished, derusted too.









16-07-12
Some fiddly, difficult stuff done over the past few days, the paint job that was done on the car was utter trash to put it mildly, comes off in places with a fingernail.
Took this off by hand its like vinyl wrap almost.



Anyways, since i had the passenger wing sorted it was time to start the door apertures, lots of effort required on these due to the shapes involved.
First off i got to work stripping the paint off the sill, it was massively thick and could be sheared off with a scraper mostly.
The top layers simply wernt keyed in at all.



At this point the door is becoming a nuisance so it had to be removed anyway, i half guessed thered be no waterproof membrane inside and i was right.
Mr bodgers strike again....



They also cut the wiring about which is more efforts for me unless i can get an uncut harness, but i bet the drivers door is the same, its sure to be.







So with the door off i had great access to the sill and the rest of the area and started stripping off the paint.















In fact i have not been the worlds laziest b*st*rd and just allowed this to drag onwards, ive actually been on it most every day up until 10 pm and having loadsa funs with it.


27-08-12
Since my last update id made a decision to complete the main bodywork issues and get the car in primer in 6 to 8 weeks, a bit of a tall order now i look back at it.
Sounds like a long time and it is when everything is done by hand on your own in cramped conditions although the time soon counts down in rapid fashion.
It gets even longer when further metalwork issues jump into the fray and give you even more work to complete, a veritable domino effect.
However my determination to get this one done has/is paying/paid off.
After completeing the strip back to bare metal of the bonnet, the wings and the door apertures, the passenger door got the same treatment including some attention to a little surface rust on the foldover lap joint underneath it.















Heading rearwards the dire state of the paint and underlying prepwork became obvious, with the discovery of around 10 to 12mm of filler on the rear quarter panel behind the passenger door trailing edge and further filler on the arch itself.
The whole lot had been simply trowelled on and run down with a DA sander leaving a shape that didnt exactly match the original but looked close enough, the fact that it wasnt necessary shows how crap a job had been done by various parties over the cars chequered past..
It took close to a week of solid effort to get the bare minimum skim installed and get the shape right on that passenger arch but the effort was in my opinion worth it to remove the unecessary filler and reinstate the shape to the damaged areas.

Vacancy for a stripper. Loads of paint on this car, up to 1mm thick in places.



Once that was completed the drivers side got the same treatment and more effort due to the further discovery of more filler in the sill area which covered yet more damage.
I spent the best part of week fettling that area and fixing the jackup damage ( dents) but its as good as it can be for a non professional like me.
Also I found what appears to be a bullet hole in the upper part of the rear quarter close to the A pillar.
Fairly neat hole with a few rips and tears to the edges, looks too irregular to be most anything else unless some sort of spike was rammed through but surrounding damage is extremely limited so I dunno!






Stripping off the rest of the panels paints revealed yet more expanses of heavy filler covering dents and creases in the skin which simply didnt need to be so thick so it was all removed back to bare steel and the whole lot steadily built up in very thin layers to get the shape back with minimal filler depth.

Weeks have now passed and the roof is begging to have its paint removed, and so the scraper is re-employed to shear off the crappy top layer before litres of paint stripper remove and soften the underlying layers.
I must have removed about 15kgs of paint from this car so far and all of it was crap.
No issues of any worth found on the roof panel! Happy!

Audilorean.





With most of that that attended to, the boot area needed attention.
Id always known the car had suffered from a rear impact but at one point I thought I could possibly fix the damage by carefully pulling it out.
Not gonna happen-ever.
The whole rear end had gone in probably around 1 to 1.5 inches, concentrated on the offside.
The upper corner and light aperture on the driver side was full of filler at about 10 to 15mm depth, shape was totally wrong and looked it.













I later found out it had oodles of birdsh*t weld to fill it all in as well, absolutely horrible.
The boot lid wouldnt sit squarely with the height differences between each corner being obvious, also the lineup with the edges and the lower sections of the boot lid meant itd never have been right so I decided to get a new rear valance from Pete at quattrocorner rather than pay out for a second hand item thatd need even more prep and had no guarantee of straightness.
Getting that part showed me just how difficult it would have been, impossible actually, to straighten out what I had, it simply was so badly damaged and distorted that it would never have worked.




So with my new panel sorted it took a day of hard work to carefully split the spot welds, preserving the flanges on the body panels and remove the old junker.









Took another couple of days to get the locations cleaned and trued up to accept the new panel for test fits.

















Wasnt a million miles away as it happens but far enough out to warrant more work, especially to that drivers rear light aperture and corner area where the old one was so buckled the light unit wouldnt sit flat at all and it overhung the panel. Nasty looking and was just plain nasty.
I briefly considered fabricating a replacement but thought better of it, just too much hassle to do it.







By now im deep into this one and getting deeper so I looked around for a rear corner panel I could cut up, Dave at audicoupeparts came up with one and I spent the best part of 3 to 4 days cutting, trimming, checking, test fitting and trimming again to get it mm perfect in terms of lineup- a right pain in the arse I can tell you with the distortion of the existing panel but at least the shapes right, theres no rust there anymore and it looks pretty good.
So with more cajoling, drilling holes for spot welds and fretting about the fit I started the job of welding it all in.
The corner and light aperture part had to go on second due to the lower panel having a return formed in it that was left after I removed the light aperture it came with.
That aperture was eventually dispensed with as I found it impossible to get a good lineup with it attached, so the original panel from pete was used and doing it that way made it easier to get it fitted correctly, or as close as it could go given the whack the rear had taken.
It then took another few days of multiple test fits, drilling the positions for new spot welds and yet more test fits.






















One thing I had noticed when test fitting was that it was going to be hard to push the panel into position at the bottom due to flex and misalignment in the original panelling on the car, so I utilised my ratchet straps and a couple of wood blocks and with an eye bolt welded to a long bolt screwed into the fuel tank bracket, the other end hooked into the subframe to gently encourage it to position before I set about tacking and welding it all in.







More time gone out the deadline and lots of grinding down of welds to make it right led to finally applying the seam sealer underneath and the use of some polyurethane seam sealer for the ends of the panel as per the original item.
Once set, the whole seam edges inside the boot were blasted with weld thru primer ( high zinc content) so it would find its way between the two sheets and preserve them for years to come, although id already sprayed them days before as further insurance, then the inner panel overlaps were treated to a coating of Upol grey stripe brush on seam sealer, stinks bad but does the job nicely so it looks rather good.














Then to finish off, a couple of sound deadening panels were installed to cut down on drumming noise.







I had previously test fitted the boot lid, its seal and the lock mechanism, but no way would it work and it took Mr Brain a few moments of confusion to notice that the dickhead that is me had installed the striker on backwards...doh!
Once that was put on right and adjusted it all sat fine.
Its not 100% "perfect" but compared to how it was when I first had it, its 99 % right.

After filling the repair panel with a very thin skim due to weld distortion I set about refitting the boot liners and carpets.
Amazing how much better it all looks when its cleaned and fitted nicely, not to mention it gets them out of storage and secured inside where they belong.
Theres a new carpet section to glue in over the boot loading "ledge" area shortly too.













After roughly masking off the boot and light apertures I could set about regaining the shape of the panel and getting rid of the slight uneveness caused by welding it in.
Its not much but a flat of the hand shows it up like a sore thumb.
Once a few hours passed it was ready for its first squirt of etch primer which exposed a few feather edges and little marks which ill sort out on the next pass.











So next job to complete is to finish around the sunroof aperture and strip the drivers door.

Two weeks left on my deadline too so should make it.

[4v6]

18-09-12
Ok so with the backend in the best condition its been for some years i turned my focus to the engine bay.
Now, i could have gone two ways here, the hard way or the easy way, consisting of three options, none of which really attracted me, still, ya have to pick one of em!

So, 1) leave the bay black and live with the outside being lhasa.
2) Scuff and paint the engine bay and attempt to work around the engine.
3) pull the engine, strip the whole lot off and start at bare metal stage.
4) This is the worst option i think; Give up and sell the lot.

Stupidity, stubborness, call it what you will forced me to go option 3.
I couldnt stand the thought of having gone this far and then have a different paint colour in the bay for want of a couple of weeks slog....
And thats where i am now, deep, deep, deep in the midst of a cramped and dark engine bay, stripping off paint back to the wood so to speak, poor me.

As always, things arent ever so easy as just pulling the engine and going to it, oh no, how to get the engine out since its now connected to the gearbox and theres no room to remove it out the front?
I considered just about everything but decided to cut the front off the car, im not THAT concerned about originality any longer and it means cambelts become a breeze rather than a chore.
However, ive removed it with an eye to refitting it so that it looks as close to what it should as possible and ill do that with hidden bolts and tabs welded into relevant points to hold it all together, no problem, just more work. :(
With the front end carefully removed i could attack the engines lower pulley having locked it with mine humungous locking bar thing.
It nearly bent due to the tension on that bolt however some heat applied to it softened the sealing compound and it eventually came free so ill change the water pump, idler roller and belt before it goes back in.







With that out of the way my attention turned to something thats been bugging me ever since i fitted it; The brake servo.
It fitted fine where the oem hydro assisted unit sat but the piping was messy, irritated me no end and i finally succumbed to the desire to relocate it to the drivers side for a direct acting pedal, short and neat line runs and a warm feeling inside.
Having done precsely the same mod to my old 82 coupe gt i knew the servo wont go in as is, the strut tower needs to be ahem, "massaged" in the right place.
No such worries for CQ owners as the servos already fitted on the drivers side so who am i to argue?
In order to actually fit the servo, you also have to remove the little triangulation piece above the intended location that holds the coil of the Ur and also the cover plate thats bolted and welded in as standard on all these shells.
Much fun was to be had, the kind of fun that only a contortionist in a box of dildos might have in the removal of the old pull rod linkage to the passenger side but eventually brute force and ignorance triumphed over a well thought out and executed plan.





I also had to shorten the "top hat" mount that the servo bolts up to as the Ur one is a tad too long.
If i could kick myself in the nits with my left leg i would be walking oddly today as i had previously thrown out the short one i needed some time back, ahh well alls well that ends well.
Currently about 2 thirds of the way around the engine bay is stripped back so it should be ready for some paint in the next few days....theres another load of fun to be had.




28-09-12
Well im still progressing on this one and no signs of me gaining any sense at all and giving up on it!

Engine bays all stripped of paint, that was done in a couple of days.



While i waited for various paint suppliers to sort their self out ( the one in birmingham lost my custom due to their lack of phone or email contact back to me-your loss fellas) i cracked on with this removable front panel.

Happy to report it works as expected and allows removal of the complete panel for engine access work without appearing to be so.
Ive put in a number of stealthy fixings that replace the factory spot welds and allow the use of bolts without being particularly obvious.



Oh yeah and the paint arrived this afternoon.

I opted for the original maker (basf) and although more expensive than some its the right stuff and the colour should be spot on as well.
The stuff shown here is simply the epoxy primer/surfacer and hopefully i can start getting that applied this coming week.
Its all getting rather exciting!




10-10-12
Well after a few billion test fits and checks to see the front panel could be fitted and removed with the wings still attached and finding it could (phew) i finally took the plunge today and laid down some epoxy primer.

The plan was to put a couple of coats on the engine bay only, however i mixed a little too much and since this stuffs so expensive theres no way it was going to be wasted so i painted the inside of the bonnet id prepped months ago, the wings and shuts and the sills.

What can i say? Its the first time ive sprayed this stuff (had my proper PPE on!) and its absolutely ace!
I love the finish and the way it goes on, way better than anything ive used before.

Some of the fixings.
I used stainless steel to fabricate the various pieces.




















12-10-12
Bee well and truly in the bonnet today!

Started masking it all up at about 730 ish this morning spent until 1 oclock fettling, degreasing and making sure i hadnt missed something, then went and painted the rest of the shell.

Two full wet coats with the proscribed flash off time and a further coat on filled areas to build some piant film on scratches and pinholes of which i found a few, nothing major and will get sorted shortly.

So, let the spraying commence!
Harder than it looks when youre so cramped but made no mistakes other than buying the car in the first place and by 4 ish id got it all done and the cleanup in full swing.















Primed?



Still to do, the doors, boot lid and sunroof.

And i still have about 2 litres of paint left for those "little" jobs.
Much happier now as its protected against the possibility of damp and the rust that promotes.

[4v6]

18-10-12

Was up at 4 am today and out in the garage at 5.30 doing the prep on the doors, bootlid, drivers wing and sunroof panel.

Finally all done on the priming work, so next stop is block sanding ready for colour...thatll take a while as its all done by hand and just takes time to trudge through, still, should look good when its done.








26-10-12
Well i got another painting session out the way earlier this week, needed to build a bit of extra paint depth here and there and tried out a different gun i had which put the primer on fairly well.















A few days later and some idiots vandalized it with a blue spray can.....had to be done, its called a "guide coat".

The way it works is a contrasting colour, in this case blue basecoat (could be black, pink or puke green dosent matter) is just gobbed over the surface.
The paint goes all over as you can see and falls in high and low spots which when rubbed back with a block and 600 grit wet and dry will expose those low areas and allow you to know when theyve been sanded to the surrounding paint level and hence indicates when to move elsewhere.



This where ive started on the left rear quarter, the blue gets removed and is left in dips and low spots, guiding us to a nice flat surface on which to chuck our expensive base and clears. :smilewinkgrin:



Mr Marigold here is pointing to a low spot.



If youve read all my entire saga on this one, youll remember how badly knocked about this arch was, so to see a good undistorted reflection in it makes me feel a bit happy, same on the osr as well im sure.






By 8.30 tonight id done the rear quarter and most of the passenger door, took around 5 hours but curiously i enjoyed it.
Somethings not right with that!

Probably should have it ready for colour by midweek as i sanded the engine bay a few days ago, getting closer to the big one.

[EDIGREG]

wow epic project. That is a ton of work!! awesome

[4v6]

Thanks Ed, its currently under a couple of plastic layers waiting for the colour and clearcoats which ill spray on this summer, ran out of time last year when the weather went freezing and has only just warmed up.
Lhasa Green methinks.

[Hank]

We love us a good URQ build!!!

[chaloux]

Wow. No words. Epic.

[AngryTaco]

OMG SO AWESOME I WANT IT

[jretal]

Spectacular work for sure! I don't envy you w/ all the block sanding, that's for sure. And I'm slightly scared for our UrQ, which makes yours look like a concours edition in regards to rust damage... lol.

[crimson ghost]

Thats going to be one nice car when finished . Great work !

[quattro87]

Very nice project. Great work! Thanks for bringing this project to the Pad. Looking at all the work you have done makes me think I ought to get out and do some work on my Urq. I quite often can talk myself into getting bogged down and discouraged with what needs to be done......then I see something like this and it perks a guy right up. Keep us updated.

[4v6]

Thanks for all the comments fellas, its been a long hard road up until now thats cost a heck more than i expected but im sure itll be worth the effort the first time it rolls down the street under its own power and comes back on a towtruck.

Maybe, just maybe ill get the colourcoats and clears applied this summer, then itll not take so long to get it all bolted back together for its first outing.
I have to get it finished, my 3 year old nephew is pestering me so badly and he's been doing that since he first sat in it at 14 months old doing all the brum brum sounds and yanking the steering wheel off.

[90quattrocoupe]

Looking great. Nice work.

Greg W.

[Quattro v1.0]

Very nice project. Great work! Thanks for bringing this project to the Pad. Looking at all the work you have done makes me think I ought to get out and do some work on my Urq. I quite often can talk myself into getting bogged down and discouraged with what needs to be done......then I see something like this and it perks a guy right up. Keep us updated.

Amen to THAT

[glibobbo21]

Very nice. Someday ill get to my URQ.

[highlander69]

Love the attention to detail.

Very nice work there.

Cheers,

Craig

[vt10vt]

As others have said, awesome progress and wow you have a lot of work into the car! It looks like it's turning out pretty mint though, looking foreword to seeing more!

[ringbearer]

Glad to see the car saved, you gave it what it deserved all along!

With a good sense of humor to boot

Keep up the good work.

[4v6]

Little update time I think.

Since I've been doing all the work on this car right from the start and since I like testing myself out, I decided to bite the bullet and paint the thing myself.
Currently I'm typing this and waiting for a call back regarding the paint I've chosen, I decided I'd rather have Lago Green metallic rather than Lhasa, so the paint code will now be LY6Z and I really do like that better than the Lhasa green.
Original maker for the paint on these was BASF so a check shows the maker still producing the colour using the Glasurit name.
Looks to be top quality paint and it should be, the price is top quality as well!

So with the decision made I set about looking at spray gun options and decided on a Satajet 4000B digital hvlp to do the work as best as it could be, no point in going for the best paint I can afford then skimping on the gun to apply it.
Then if it all goes tits up itll all be my own fault.
Guns the version with the RPS (rapid preparation system) cups with integrated filters so it all gets mixed in that cup and makes cleanups easier as well as being convenient.







Im still waiting on a few items, such as a new hose, fittings and a 3 stage air filter to keep the oil vapour and water out of the paint and theres some final prep to do to remove a couple of defects here and there and finish prepping the scuttle area, so in three weeks maximum I think itll be all near enough one colour, photos when it is.

[4v6]

Been a busy boy this week.

Its taken way too long to get together what I needed to get to the point where I could get some colour applied, but its finally started today.

I had to buy the necessary supplies to make it happen though and thats been an expensive road to go, although ultimately an extremely satisfying one.

New air hose, tack cloths for waterborne basecoat, air regulator and filter assembly, tapes and paint cups to fit the Sata amongst other bits and pieces.



Paint is Glasurit 90 line, made by BASF same as oem as far as I understand, although this is a waterborne basecoat which I've never used-until today and wasnt available when the Ur was produced in '83.
5 litres of Glasurit clear laquer, activators, thinners and base adjusters....expensive but in my opinion worth every penny now that I've experienced the system in use.



Friday afternoon saw some high build primer action on some areas that were bugging me and theyre soon to be worked over ready for some colour.

Red light zone.
Thats an IR heat lamp helping to flash the reducer and set the paint off.



I'd spent many hours on the scuttle area which was in a poor state paintwise.
I suppose if I'd been a lazy bastard I could have let it alone and left it black but no-way was that going the happen, body colour or sack the whole frigging job.
So with the scuttle prepped it got a healthy dose of glasurit primer and high build.



I wont bore you with all the minutiae of what I got up today and just let the engine bay photos talk to you.















Its quite hard to convey how absolutely glassy the clearcoat is on this now, the photos dont do it justice, its quite odd to see it looking like its just come out the gun and it appears wet even though its hardened enough to touch it.

More soon I hope!

[4v6]

Short video of some speeded up painting malarky, not entirely complete as I ran out of tape at one point and didnt get the second basecoat application on the left inner wheelwell on film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... CJ0GFrC9sk

[4v6]

Update thingy.

Wednesday saw me out of bed at 4.30am and in the cave by 5.00, finishing off some masking up that I'd started the night before in readiness to get the insides of the doors apertures, the doors, the bootlid, wings, sunroof and bonnet in colour.
Dunno what the neighbours think they probably think I've got a meth lab going.....
Anyways, I spent most all of wednesday spraying and getting sticky ( not in the way you think ) and the results are pretty pleasing I must say.
Its not 100% concours, cant pick any flies out of it but its probably as good as it was when the factory did it and although bits of it didnt go quite to plan I'm quite happy to do a little remedial stuff here and there.
Oddly, on all the vertical surfaces I encountered not a single, run or drag even though the clearcoats went on pretty "wet".
Happy.
Only have to spray the outside now.:yikes: