Project passat..

[supafrisk]

Whilst I am still waiting for the useless solicitor to sort out the mess from the demise of my beloved pug, I've been busy with one of the older cars.
It's been a long old haul and there's still a few things to sort, namely the ABS system which a lovely backyard mechanic chopped the wires to and the aircon. However, she's coming along nicely and reached a huge milestone this week



Not bad, eh???

[supafrisk]

First week I jumped in it, there was a bad knocking coming from the N/S/F. After going in to the same back yard mechanic several times, it still came out with the same knock (and the owner was £400 lighter in the pocket).
I showed it to Dick, one of the mechanics I use who immediately diagnosed it as this...





We've concluded that he stripped the threads putting it in with an airgun then disregarded the knocking coming from there as he'd changed the part
Other beauties we have since found are the main wiring harness going into the BSI along the scuttle panel had been mullered with a screwdriver and wires were broken, the actual scuttle panel had been chopped because he couldn't be bothered to undo two bolts on the cover that battens them down, O/S/F wheel bearing completely shot, replacement headlamps thrown in and weren't bolted securely
And that is the tip of the iceberg...

[supafrisk]

Headlamp connectors had got so hot at one point they had soldered themselves to the headlamp bulbs
And the excess wiring had been wound around the reflector..



(I've chopped and crimped spade ends on)

[supafrisk]

The carpets were completely manky and had been shredded in the back footwells, so I hit lucky with one from a scrappy for £15.

It was a piece of cake to fit, surprisingly, the only chop I had to make was under the dashboard (no way was I taking the dash out lol!!) and then I fed both sides in.


Donor carpet valeted and ready to fit


(Old carpet after I'd unbolted the seats)



I found £17.83 whilst removing the old one!!!

[supafrisk]

Power steering leak was traced and rectified by chopping the aluminium pipe and fitting a piece of 12mm flexi and two fuel clips (better than jubilee clips)



The leak had been caused by a previous driver who had hit things repeatedly with the front end, breaking the brackets holding the cooler pipe in and time and friction had done the rest

[supafrisk]

Last week was the interior's turn again, the old black basic seats were manky, wouldn't clean up and had more stains than a hooker's bedsheets
The owner managed to get a full velour interior including doorcards for £30 - bargain



The doorcard in the pic is the original trim, but the seat is one of the new ones



Then I had to chop the old switches off othe old seats as the new ones didn't fit, got there in the end.
It's just a shame some barsteward keyed the whole passenger side of the car a few hours later.
And I mean KEYED. Down to metalwork in three places at least

[supafrisk]

More pics to follow when I manage to upload them, had a complete nightmare last week when the N/S/R caliper seals went, the n/s/r door locked solid and had both myself and a bloody good mechanic scratching our heads for an hour or so trying to get the new mechanism to work lol

[sirwiggum]

You're missing a decimal point on your mileometer

[Welly]

A nice story that and it's good to give the poor old thing a bit of TLC......

The car's coming along nicely too

[supafrisk]

You're missing a decimal point on your mileometer

Nope
Now THAT'S what you call a pedigree

[supafrisk]

A nice story that and it's good to give the poor old thing a bit of TLC......

The car's coming along nicely too

Bitch.

[supafrisk]

Remember I said it got keyed???













Whoever did it (And I have a damn good idea who it was, considering the new interior had been put in less than 6 hours previous) is a bit thick really

Oh, and another pic of the speedo (no decimal points) (excuse the tape it hides the ABS light )



The engine was a bit flat, so I MAFfed it and it goes like the veritable sh*t off a shovel now, it's hunting a bit but I think it's a leaky injector (owner thinks it's the wire loose on injector two so we will investigate and fix this week. And do the ABS )

[Welly]

So you fit a new interior and then it gets scratched? Why would anyone scratch an honest workhorse like that?

The ABS pump failure is common on VAG's isn't it?

[sirwiggum]

I too am puzzled as to why anybody would want to key an old Passat. They're not exactly the most offensive car on the road (although the new ones can occasionally be from the same aggressive driving school as 3 series and A4 drivers).

One more thing....

Why does your speedo read 450,000 constantly? I could understand you taking a pic of the milestone, but why is it now not for example 450,127 ?

Does the CPU not compute integers greater than 450k?
"Ve vill stop ze speedo at veer hundred und funf-zhen imperial miles, nobody can hack ze VAG standard seats for so long "

[Doggy]

"Ve vill stop ze speedo at veer hundred und funf-zhen imperial miles, nobody can hack ze VAG standard seats for so long "

For you, ze ride ist owver!