More Engine Bay Work - We Plated Almost Everything

More distraction this week but look at it! Wouldn't you be distracted?Some of this is for the engine refurb but some has been holding up some ancillary stuff so we got busy. We installed the wipers (can you spot the long awaited plated parts?)This piece of automotive jewelry holds the blower motor resistor!Alternator fan (that's engine related)Power steering rack fittings.and the front left tie rod adjusters.We even got our anti-roll...

Turbo Trouble & Fuse Dash Panel

We received some bad news from our turbo shop, G-Pop Shop this week. Our turbo is bad. Exhaust turbine ate something that didn’t agree with it.We got on the blower to our engine supplier, EFI Express and they soon had another core sent out. This one turned out to be fine. The other good news is that the bad turbo was never on our engine, it was just one of...

Quattro Rally Build: Hot Side Engine Refurb

This week we turned our attention to the hot side of the engine and removed the turbo, exhaust manifold and waste gate. The turbo will be sent out to be refurbished, the exhaust manifold will be replaced with a slightly better one and the waste gate will be, well, we are not sure. We know we are not keen on the red cover however.This is the eBay special $85 exhaust...

Engine Refurb, Round 2

ENGINE REFURB 2 We know, engine stuff. (Focus TIM). But look what arrived this week!  We could have just tried to convince you that we had a surge of enthusiasm and finished the car but that wouldn't be right. We did paint something though, as promised:  Gold too!  and red!  We also had a go at cleaning up the oil pan. It's not obvious in the pictures but it did make quite a bit of difference.    Enough...

Getting Carried Away On The Rally Quattro Build Engine Bay

We promised you an engine-based post this week so here you are.As we mentioned in an earlier post we were supposed to just bolt this in but have recently gotten carried away with cleaning and polishing everything on this car so let's see how nuts we can go with an engine. Is there therapy available for this stuff? We need help.So we started by painting the block, even though nobody...

Wheel Selection for our Quattro Rally Build

Halfway through our engine tear down our new wheels showed up. Yes, they did distract us.We chose these from BRAID’s catalogue because they look very similar to the BBS wheels the Rothmans (and some others) rally Quattros ran back in the day. Look:Specs are:- BRAID Serie 4 RC- 15x10- Et0- 5x112- 57.1 center boreAs far as our research suggests, the same as the originals.Of course we took lots of pictures.Then,...

Engine Teardown Begins For Our Quattro Rally Build

Well, this is a big step forward for the project. It’s time to take the engine off its pallet and get it into the car. Of course it is not that simple. We have lots of ways to make it complicated.  As we’ve previously discussed, we decided to go with a fairly stock later AAN 20 valve engine rather than try to wring extra power from the original 10 valve that...

Brake Master Cylinder Work On Our Quattro Rally Car

We decided some time back that this car would dispense with the hydraulically powered brakes and employ dual master cylinders with a bias bar adjuster but were never quite sure how we'd accomplish that. Then a friend turned us on to Compbrake in England who have a bolt-in kit for the Quattro. How could we say "no"? So we ordered one up and it arrived in just a few days. Seems...

Quattro Rally Build - Clutch Master Cylinder & Coolant System Installation

Cracking on with engine bay stuff we installed the clutch master cylinder. Remember, we have an 20V AAN engine just itching to try on this engine bay for size so we want to get as much engine bay stuff figured out before it crawls in there.Not wanting to lose our bottle before the engine fit we also tested and installed the coolant reservoir. We rigged up this pressure test to...

Defrost Manifold - 83 Quattro Rally Build Update

Now we had the heater in we thought it a good idea to install some of the ducting to spread that heat where it might be needed. The foot wells heat comes right out of the side of the heater box so we don’t have to deal with that, and the center and side vents are fed from flexible pipes so we can figure those out later. But the windshield...

Rally Cars Need Heaters Too

We could have just wiped the dust of the heater box a bolted back in place but we are glad we took it apart as we found the heater core had been weeping or leaking. Besides, all the seals needed replacing and it was full of leaves inside.We had also broken off a tab from the blower while removing it from the heater box so that needed to be glued...

Acquisitions and (no) Mergers - A 83urq Update

Another long gap between updates, sorry. We have been traveling and working a lot and then there was the holidays to contend with. Still, we did manage quite a few parts acquisitions but we didn’t get to merge much of them with the car.Our long awaited 20V engine arrived late last year. Thanks to Marc of EFI Express for assembling it for us. It’s a AAN engine out of an...

Our 83 Audi Rally Project Gets New Rear Reflectors, Fuel Tank, Bulkhead & Rothmans Rally Dash

Installation was relatively simple as we kept all the hardware.Then we remembered that we also have a broken reflector which we thought would be better used on this car rather than the pristine one that came off it as we are going to be wrapping it anyway a la Rothmans livery:But how to fix the crack? It can be unsightly but has to be smooth as any hint of a...

Choosing Wheels and Tires for the 83 Quattro Project

TIRESIt’s time to start thinking about wheels and tires. Well, it’s a bit early but a) we are obsessed about wheels and tires and b) this project is as much about showing off our BRAID wheels as anything. At least that’s how we justify it.You may recall we previously purchased a set of BRAID Series 6 in 16x9 and mounted some 245/45-16 Bridgestones on them. This size combination seems to be...

Now Our 83 Quattro Has Legs!

Like the suave, sophisticated gentleman in this video says “The car has legs now”How did we get to this point? Well, as we discussed in our last post the delrin bushings are wider than the sleeve that goes through them. This sleeve needs to end up slightly proud of the bushings so that it gets clamped in the mounting slots on the subframe and does not move. Then the bushings...

Our 83 Quattro Rally Build Gets Delrin Bushings, Coil-Over Conversion & Spherical Bearing Top Mounts!

It’s been a while since we got to work on the rally Quattro project so also a while since any updates. We have been distracted by other projects such as getting our 85 Quattro ready for the Concours D’elegance of America towards the end of July. Happily the car won an award so it was worth the effort.  As you may recall the car came with some suspension parts, the...

Short Shifting and Full Gas

We mentioned earlier that we had purchased a short shift kit from 034 Motorsports. Well, with our freshly plated shifter components back at the shop we wasted no time in assembling it and bolting it in.   This is the stock shifter: And the freshly plated components and short shift kit jigsaw puzzle: We soon had it together: And bolted in the car: Of course the transmission is not in...

All That Glitters........

We took our first foray into replating components for our UR Quattro rally build recently. Many steel components on 80s German cars have a gold finish which was at the time probably cadmium plating. These days, due to EPA regulations, zinc dichromate plating seems to be a better option. You can do it in-house quite easily but the dichromate part is really toxic so we prefer to have it done...

Gauging Progress on the Quattro Rally Build

Gauging progress on the Quattro Rally Build.The dash on the Group B Quattros is somewhat iconic especially the big orange oil light in the middle. For this reason we have been very keen to progress work in this area. Our large tachometer came without any mounting hardware. It looks like it was designed to mount into a rubber grommet like the Porsche 911 gauges. That was never going to work...

A Quick Dash in the Rally Quattro.

It’s time to make the Group B rally dash actually fit in the car. This is a reproduction panel modelled on an original by a member of the US Quattro community and is beautifully crafted. Unfortutunately they have to be “relieved” to fit round the steering column as the lower return is supplied straight. You can’t just cut it as it would then be too flimsy. An added complication is...

Shiny Things For Our Quattro Rally Build

Like most car nuts we are easily distracted by shiny things that come in the mail. This week was particularly distracting in that regard:   Clutch bulkhead brace from 034 Motorsports:     Solid Delrin engine mounts from 034 Motorsports:       Transmission mounts from 034 Motorsports:       Short shift kit from 034 Motorsport (of course):     We also gave the car its own "woom" to...

UR Quattro Rally Build - Transmission

We made quite a lot of progress this week but it doesn’t feel like it. Perhaps because we didn’t get to actually bolt anything to the car. What we did do was finish prepping the transmission. We replaced the rear coupling and seals with a non-broken version, cleaned and painted the case, installed new drain and fill plugs, replaced the input shaft seal and installed the mounts and brackets. Mounts...

Quattro Rally Build: TOO MANY FRONTS!

TOO MANY FRONTS! What do we mean by “fronts”. Well, we have opened up quite a few areas of work on the car, none of which seem to be nearing completion: namely:•    transmission, •    plating•    pedals•    dash•    shifter We have power washed the transmission and replaced axle seals but we broke a tab off the rear output unit and only just found a spare transmission to steal one off. Now we...

Quattro Rally Build Pedal Car

  This concept of refurbishing parts then bolting them to the unpainted shell is working out well as we have already discovered a few things we need to mod and are accumulating quite a parts list too.   We got our first batch of parts back from powder coating:   And wasted no time attaching some of them to the car. Front sub=frame for instance:       We also received...