The Project Pad

His Mars Red 83 Urq link

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The vin # of Her Urq





I guess it's time to start another project thread seeing as I've gone stupid and went and bought another 83 Urq. That is just what someone needs.....two old audis, let alone two old Urqs!! It should be a real trial in patience, time management, aquiring parts, and of course trying to finance two builds at the same time. So what did I tell the wife you ask? It was on sale and I couldn't pass it up, which as it turned out wasn't that far off. She wasn't all that thrilled that I dragged it home and has no idea that I have always had an itch to have some sort of Him and Her's of something, so why not Urqs? In all seriousness (now don't start laughing Hank) It would be way cool to talk her into an event where we both showed up in Mars Red cars. I'll have to work on that.

So this is the story. Dave up in Salt Lake (Hybrid_hatch) calls me one day a few months ago about a Urq in northern Nevada that is for sale. I'm not really interested in another all consuming project at this point, but figure since it is so close that I ought to at least look. I start the process to get pictures only to find out that both Derek and Martin have beat me to it and the guy sends me the same pictures that he has taken for them. The problem is that it has a rusty front driver's fender, the muffler is rotted away, the Mars Red was faded bad, the whole car was filthy all over, and if that wasn't bad enough it still had Wisconsin plates. I think it scared most potential buyers off including me. I told the guy I already had a rust bucket that I was working on and didn't need another and left it at that. He claimed that it was just surface rust, but it looked pretty scarey in the pictures. To add concern and stress was the fact that it hadn't been run since 91, but only had 93k on the clock. We finely settled on a sight unseen price delivered to Hank's shop in Salt Lake. I told Hank that if it was really bad we would just turn it into a dedicated track car and move on. I was really stressed seeing as I hadn't even told the wife that I had bought it.

The good news is that when it arrived in Salt Lake, Hank calls me and tells me that other than obvious problems of not running and the visible rust, that it was in way better condition than the project in my garage and that it was completely stock. He even went on to say that it was a real candidate for keeping it stock which for Hank is saying alot. The fender wells and all the normal rust spots on these cars were all good. There isn't a jack dent one under the car and just surface rust on completely straight subframes. All in all I'm way pleased with the car. I wish it wasn't red, but then how could you have a Him and Her's that weren't alike? LOL

A big thanks goes out to Dave for finding it for me and Hank for dealing and storing the car for the last month or two. I really am glad you two talked me into it and I'm pretty stoked to have brought another Urq into the family.

This is how it looked when I first went up to Salt Lake to The Lab to pick it up. It hadn't been cleaned up at all.








I thought that I had taken pictures of the engine bay when it was dirty, but can't seem to find them. It was pretty much like the rest of the car, completely stock with everything there and waaaaaay dirty. Oh and for the first time I get to deal with mice nests and droppings like I keep hearing you back east guys talk about. The trunk had a few nests where the insulation from somewhere in the car had been used. The glove box was also a favorite place. I'm just hoping that the wiring insulation hasn't been eaten.

I arrived in Salt Lake at 6am and Hank was already down there working on his Urq trying to get it ready for this weekend. (He didn't quite make it) The first thing I did was fire up the pressure washer to try to clean up the engine bay and outside a bit. The car will need to be painted, but I kind of wish I would have been a bit more gentle with the pressure washer as I blew off both sets of audi rings on the doors, pinstriping, and patches of paint here and there. Hank wanted to see if I could make it run and was pretty disappointed when I whipped out the buffer and started cleaning it up instead of trying to fire it up. He just shook his head and kept working on his car and let me be. I think that just polishing out the faded red and cleaning it up some added $2k onto it's value. Here are some of the pictures after cleaning and polishing.







I did deal with a battery and grounds that were badly corroded. The PO before had put a new fuel filter in and a new fuel pump trying to get it to run, but I'm not sure that the cables were even in good enough shape to turn it over. I pulled all the plugs and looked to see obvious rust etc and squirt a few shots of oil in each cylinder before trying to turn it over. All the hole had good finger over the spark plug hole compression and we had spark. Hank was dying to try it before we had to go to dinner, so I put the plugs back in and we went for a start.
IT FIRED ON THE FIRST TRY :woowoo: :woowoo: :woowoo:


Link to video


I decided that since it hadn't run since 91 and only had 93k on the clock that it was a good possibility that it had the original 27yr old timing belt still and that further starting was probably just flirting with disaster. I think I want to get a new belt on it before I do to much more with it. I at least know that it isn't ceased, but really don't know what took it off the road. I'll look into it more when I get it home. It looks like a new car all shined up!!


We then loaded it up on the trailer for the ride home to Vegas after unloading Hank's new coupe GT.










I'll try and post when I have more time at it's new home. It needs paint, but it could be driven to the Vegas event in October if needs be. I just have to get it running.

TWO MARS RED URQS......... :bashtard: :bashtard: :bashtard: I was really stressing about this fact until while cleaning up the interior other day I found this.

:woowoo: Looks great! Congrats on the easy start up!!!

Most of the dings and scratches on the car look to be from auction handling. The carfax has it as a one owner until the car came up for auction and the PO bought it. He never did get it running and I haven't for that matter other than about what you saw in the vid. The worst part of the car is the front drivers fender that has been poorly repainted and the paint peeled off, hence the rust spots. It doesn't feel like there is any bondo, but we will see. The other problem that is really too bad is that somewhere along it's life the car had a battery explosion. I don't know if this was while the PO was trying to get it to run or if this was maybe what took it off the road in 91, but the back of the rear seat and the drivers seat should have been washed down to dilute the acid drops. An otherwise very nice interior has some acid pock marks that at first I thought was mice nibbles. The seats are still serviceable, but will probably make their way into the hotrod Urq instead of the wifes car. I like the sound of that except if she once catches on she is liable to sell it while I'm at work.

Pictures of the acid damage after being cleaned up.

Nice John, Im excited to see this thing (again) in october, i like this his and hers idea, i'll try to convince my wife to get a drivers license and to drive my second coupe down to vegas! that will be the day... I'm glad it found a good home!!

That is awesome! I'm glad you found a car that could possibly get completely by October!

I still have to figure out how to get it running, but have a few tricks up my sleeve. :-D
I also haven't given up completely on His Urq, but Her Urq seems like it could be an easier go.

Hybrid_Hatch wrote:Nice John, Im excited to see this thing (again) in october, i like this his and hers idea, i'll try to convince my wife to get a drivers license and to drive my second coupe down to vegas! that will be the day... I'm glad it found a good home!!

DO IT!!!!

I gotta get a UR... that's all there is to it. As soon as the 4kq is on the road, that will be my next purchase! This settles it. :bashtard:

Alright this thread is completely unfair. First you get another UrQ, when you already have what, two in the family!?
And I owned that white Coupe GT for about a week or so. :(

Nice score!

awesome.... so you took one of the 7 Audi's out to the Lab (the white one?) and brought back the new UrQ.... fair trade in my mind.

how does SHE feel about "HER" new car? big step going from a B6 A4 to a Ur.... i would imagine the lack of luxury there would be deterrent enough for you to have two Ur's and her none.

If I have any hope at all of her coming up to speed on this plan, it wouldn't entail her giving up her S-line A4 in the process. That won't happen. I think that I will sell the TT in the process, but like you said about the luxury or lack thereof, she won't think it a fair trade. It will have to have working air, windows that work, and a proven reliability before she will even consider the plan. Her car will never have zoned climate control, but already has leather and electric everything!! I would think that the Urq would be luxurious enough, but maybe not soooooooo I guess I might have to have tow Ur's and her none.

yes, she did not seem the type to go with a plan like that. just like my wife driving the Lago CQ over the C5 4.2L A6.... not if she can help it haha.

Aaron, I was thinking more of just a couple of cars to run to Pahrump track days or something like the Vegas GTG where she only really drove it on special occasions or to show off to the young doctors and paramedics at work every once in a while. We'll see, but I've already hit a snag and have her upset again at me because of cars. She sold her grandmother toyota Sienna van to buy the A4 and sometimes misses the van :? I figured that I would buy her something to replace that empty spot and still keep it VAG. This is what I dragged home the other day that has her steaming.



What more could you want than having the option to run an old beat up VW van when the situation calls for more room? She wasn't impressed!!

Part of the reason I ended up buying the Urq sight unseen is that although I knew it hadn't run in 20yrs and knew that it could very easily be seized and past running, I had a plan. While dealing with the Urq I was talking with a friend of mine that owns a shop here in town one day and out of the blue he wants to know if I am interested in buying a 20vt that came out of an Urq? I tell him that I'm really pretty much converted to 20vt's, but what all came with it? He said everything.....engine, tranny, turbo, I/C, radiator, aux radiator, CIS, downpipe, and computer all with less than a 100k. I told him ok I'd bite and asked how much he wanted since he had said cheap and he pretty much offered me a deal I couldn't refuse. I ask "what's the catch" ? This is what I found out the catch was...





He tells me that I have to take the van also to which I say I don't want an old van and does it have a title so that I can get rid of it easily? He says yes and that for $50.00 he can have his tow guy drag it over. It's been at the house now a total of 2 days, is unloaded, the return call to the towing service has been made, and the $50.00 to drag it away is in the ashtray. I thought I handled it fast and organized compared to how I usually operate. Hopefully it will be gone by Monday afternoon.

The engine came from a desert car that I know made the 2k trip to Urq25 a couple of years ago. It is way clean and should go a long way in getting Her Urq rolling even if just for swapping CIS or parts, but if needs be I can swap the whole engine. Both car and drivetrain were just to good of deals to pass up. You know.....THEY WERE ON SALE...HONEY!!!

it never works. and i know how that side of your house is LOL..... never less than 4 that i've ever seen. :bump:

That motor looks clean!

THEY WERE ON SALE...HONEY

Makes me laugh

I say that kind of crap all the time hahahaha

Check out leatherique.com for stripping and repairing the acid pitts the leater seats. The leather looks in overall "good" shape otherwise - whie it may be a lot of work it *may* be worth it in the end.

Good Luck on the Great Deal!.

Thanks for the link. I used leather repair products before with some success. You are right in that the interior is in good shape otherwise. The pictures don't do it justice as far as how soft and pliable it is without any stitching coming out. The worst part of the acid damage, although the front seat is way visible, is in the rear back where drops got into the pleats and actually ate holes all the way though. You can't really see them, but they are there. :(

what size are the wheels on the blue and white van? they look cool.

The tow driver dropped the car further back in the yard, but I needed it next to the driveway where the engine hoist could be used on the concrete to pull the motor out of the van, so it had to be moved. The problem is that it had a flat front passenger side tire with the sidewall split so couldn't just be aired up. I looked around the junk on hand and came up with a late 80's jeep cherokee wheel and tire. The pattern worked but the front fender had been hit so bad that I had to get out the saws-all to trim the fender before it would roll. Lol It would never work for real, but looks beefy and suited my needs.

Ordered new timing belt, water pump, and idler pulley yesterday. Once I get that changed out I will be able to spend a bit more effort in trying to get it to start and KEEP running.

I did get the injectors pulled, cleaned, flowed, and new o-rings installed thinking that maybe I was sucking air through bad injector seals.




When flowed the pattern of each injector looked pretty decent and the flows were pretty even.





Does anyone have a picture or can someone tell me how the aluminum piece that sits on top of the metering plate and feeds the turbo is secured. It has two ears/tabs that are cast into it, but they don't seem to line up with anything on the metering block. When trying to start the engine a couple of times a slight back fire would just pop this piece off because it isn't secured.

I found this picture and can kind of see that it is bolted down and what position it is in, but can't quite make out what it is bolted to or what the clip does.



Oh now I see. Does anyone have an idea where to get these clips

I think I have one spare or two spares, but my 85 UrQ originally had ones made out of threaded rod- they just bent the threaded rod into the L shape and they worked fine.

Believe it or not I found a bunch of the correct parts sitting in one of the frame rails when I pulled the US spec bumper. Who knows how they got in there or when- it looked like they'd been bouncing around in there for the life of the car

That's funny!! I will look around and see if they happen to be stashed somewhere or make something now that I know what they were originally. I would be willing to work something out with you also if you can find your spare set. Thanks

Thinking I have seen this car before on MG, and you should let your wife know she is fighting the same battle with you, that both me, and my wife are right now, however I have vowed never to bring another Audi home since the last 85 4000q. I say give here the detergent soap tell here to clean every crack, and crevasse, then we both can be done with our ur quattro's that have not been run since 1991...! :stupid: