Once more into the breach, the tales of a 1993 VW Corrado SLC/VR6

In reply to JeremyJ :

Yeah, that might be the better play.  Plus in the summer/fall the car will probably sell for more on BaT than now.

In other news I decided that since I now have that headlight housing I'd try to epoxy that reflector mount back on.  Luckily the way it broke it was really easy to clock it back into place.  Hit it with some JB Weld epoxy and so far it's been fine.  Also removed the rusty bolt that holds the headlight into the car and replaced it with a stainless steel one I had in my bolts bin

Sunday I should be meeting up with a local corrado guy to grab a passenger side headlight lens.  That'll complete all the parts I need to build another two sets of headlights.  I'll sell one now, keep the other as back up, then if I sell the car, I'll sell it too.

doc,

A co-worker needs a windshield for his VR6 Corrado. I guess they are made out of Unobtainium. Any help?

He's up here in Southern NH but since it has stalled his motivation for the project he'd buy from anywhere.

In reply to preach (dudeist priest) :

Apparently Corrado Farm brought in some, not sure if they have any left.  $600 plus shipping.  Or you can order them from Europe, but it's 600 Euro just in shipping over here, so it'd be best for him to buy several of them and share the shipping costs with other local corrado owners.

Well, one of the nice things about this freakishly warm weather we're having is I'm able to use the corrado when normally I wouldn't be.  I'd managed to find a passenger side european headlight lens that was somewhat local.  Guy didn't want to ship it, was afraid it'd break.  I was going to just buy it but discovered I had two complete sets of tail lights in my basement stash and he was looking for a set, so we agreed on a trade.

Had to drive 45 minutes to meet up with him, but we both got what we wanted.  I now have everything I need to build another two sets of headlights.  Since it's been 9 months since VX Tuning was supposed to ship my other headlight lens I may contact them for a refund. 

The guy was super cool and has a bunch of VW's, his son has a ton of caddy's, the old VW truck.  I've always loved those, the perfect size for what I need, which is running around a snowblower/lawn mower and maybe a motorcycle.  He offered me one for $2500, I may go look at it.  Not that I have any space for it...

After the long drive I'm even more conflicted about selling the car, I really think I need to hang onto it a little longer to make sure.  I don't want to sell it and then regret it.  Will make for a bummer conversation though, although I just have a verbal agreement right now with no money exchanged.

One thing I've been wanting to do is turn the unused rear fog light spots into additional brake lights.  I'd done this to my first corrado too.  Of course all the photo links on the VW Vortex threads were gone but I figured it out.

First remove the quarter turn fasteners.  I found these to be extremely fragile and easily stripped.  That gets you to the light housings.  Pinch the black clips on either side to remove the bulb housing.

Top bulb is my reverse bulb.  Put in a single filament bulb in the other spot, that'll be for your brake light.  Like this.

Here's what you see on the light housing itself.  It's held in place by 3 8mm nuts.  One of the nuts is hiding underneath the black rubber plug on the outside corner of the hatch.

You can see the black plastic "plug" you need to remove.  Remove the housing from the hatch and remove the plug.  Either a hole saw or a knife.  I used a utility knife, the plastic is very thin and easily pops apart.  Be careful not to damage the housing.  This is what you want.

Now reinstall the housings into the hatch of the car.  Time to do some wiring.  You need to trace the leads on the back of the light fixtures to see where to tap.  This was really easy on my drivers side, I only had one open connector, so that's the one I used.  A female spade connector works fine.  Wire both sides of the light housing, bring them to the middle of the hatch.

Passenger side wiring

Ok, connect the two wires into a single wire going up to the 3rd brake light.  You want to tap the black with red stripe wire off the 3rd brake light.

I unplugged this to get proper access to tap it.  Plugging it back in is a PITA as access is tight.  

Here's all my wiring done, I ended up removing the solder/heat shrink to properly solder my connection together.

And the final result.

I also spent some time putting together my spare euro headlights.  I now have two sets put together, one as a spare and I'll sell the other set

Got the car on the lift yesterday so I can remove the rear muffler to take it back to the shop for final welding.  Easy enough, had to play a little bit to get it lined back up but it's all done now and sounds amazing.

Went to bleed the brakes as the pedal is a little spongy and this is where things got a little kooky.  I've bled brakes for a long time, never had an issue, usually use my Motive power bleeder since I do it solo.  Apparently on the Corrado, with it's super old school ABS system you really can't use a power bleeder.  You have to use the 2 man method, you also need the ignition on to bleed the rear brakes (so the ABS pump is active) and need to support the rear beam axle at ride height so the rear proportioning valve opens up.

Since I was solo I couldn't do any of that, so couldn't bleed the brakes.  I'll wait for a friend to be free and then try again I guess.

I also found a set of brand new Karmannski roof moldings to replace mine, which are damaged.  Score there!  Also found a new, old stock set of power window regulators that I'm going to buy. 

Found a set of new, old stock front brake shields.  The ones on my car are in pretty sad condition.  Will try and find a set of rear brake shields too.  Yesterday I took a wire wheel to the brake calipers and cleaned them up significantly.  I'll get some G2 Caliper paint and paint them silver so they look nice at the same time that I replace the brake shields.

Sitting around on Christmas a little bored.  Don't want to get into a huge project, sort of want a lay up.  Hmmm, what's something easy to do?  I know, I've been unhappy with the position of the steering wheel, let's fix that!  This car has a tilt adjustable column but not telescoping.  I really want the steering wheel closer to me, but don't want to be closer to the pedal box. 

I can acheive that with a steering wheel spacer, but I thought I had something in my basement that would work just as well and be a little but more cool.  Went down there and dug around and found it, a Works Bell detachable steering wheel hub/kit.  Score!  Of course all the instructions are in some sort of Asian language that I can't understand at all and the pictures included are pretty useless.  Luckily this isn't all that hard.  Let's get started.

First, remove the 6 5mm allen head bolts holding the steering wheel to the Momo hub.  Now you're going to have to swap out the Momo horn ring for the one from the Works Bell kit, it's flat.  The raised section on the Momo part interferes with the other part of the Works Bell hub.

Slide on the first part of the Works Bell hub, after you've put the horn ring in place and attached the ground to it.  Push the wiring up through the center of the Works Bell part.

Ok, now using the 6 5mm bolts you took out of the steering wheel, bolt this part to the Momo hub.

Notice the little dot indentation at 12 o clock?  That's your witness mark to line up the other part of the Works Bell hub.  Line it up and snap it on.

See that little button at 11 o clock? If you want to remove this part, push that in, put your fingers on the back of the hub, push it forward and then pull it off.  This way everything is locked in place, you can visually see that and you're good to go.

Ok, hook up your momo horn button, line up your steering wheel and using 6 5mm allen head bolts (that I happened to have cause I hoard Momo stuff) bolt your steering wheel into place.

I did push the momo horn button forward to be flush with the steering wheel.  Yes, that would've driven me bonkers.

Ok, lets do a fit check.  I want to have my wrist sitting on the steering wheel comfortably.

Mission accomplished!  So not only did i make this far more comfortable for me, but I can also remove the steering wheel.  It's little ergonomic stuff like this that make driving the car SO much more enjoyable!

Some more parts have arrived!  A local Mk3 guy posted a set of headers for a good price and he's ten minutes away from me.  So I popped on over to his house and bought them.

I need to get those other broken bolts out, they help hold the heat shield on.  I'm soaking them with PB Blaster now, then I'll hit them with a MAPP gas torch.  Hopefully the top one turns out but I suspect I'll have to drill out the lower one, there's not a whole lot for me to grab

Then I'll hit them with some header paint and into the stash they'll go.

I also found a B4 Passat cup holder.  These are the holy grail as they work great and of course are NLA.  I've got a perfect one in my basement that I've kept for years.  But since it's perfect I'm reluctant to put it into service.  I managed to find this one, which is in good shape but the "skirts" around the arms are gone.  Don't think it'll matter tho and I don't have an issue using it in the car.

Features

My Karmannski roof moldings showed up too.  I need to get some 3M body tape for them and then I'll put them on the car.  After that I'll jump after the fog light lens, take off the cracked OEM ones and put on the VX Tuning ones.

More parts arrived today!  First up is this Wolfsburg horn button.  Sadly it doesn't fit with my works bell hub, so into the stash it goes

Then I got a NOS set of front brake shields.  My car spent most of its life on the East Coast and is actually in quite good nick rust wise.  With the exception of the front brake shields, which are really crusty.  So I'm excited to have these!  I'll put them on when I use the caliper paint and restore all the calipers

So did some more work to the car today.  I'd received a new set of roof moldings, the old ones always have the inner seal degrade and mine were just gone completely.

First, using your fingers, pull up on the very back of the molding.  Be extremely careful to not mess up the black plastic hatch covers, you can't buy them anymore and they're super brittle by now

Now work your way forward, pulling on either side of the molding to pop it out.  When you get most of it out, pull the entire trim towards the back of the car, to pull the molding off the front stud.

Here's the front stud

And the rear mounting stud

The stock moldings are held in with those two studs and double sided tape, which has turned to dust by now.  Clean up all the adhesive and dirt from the channel and test fit the new piece.  Put new 3M body tape on it, leaving a 1" gap near the front stud.

Then install the trim into place.

Done!

Next up I wanted to install my Passat cupholder.  Things went a little sideways here as my old console immediately cracked when I tried to test fit the cupholder.  Dammit!  Into the stash I went and I found a black console.  Well, that'll do...

Unfortunately everything has to come out of the car to replace it...

I test fit the cupholder and drilled the mounts outside the car.  I did mock it up in the car but without the passenger seat in place.  Oops.  Turns out I should've pushed the cupholder more towards the front of the car.  Oh well.  I've also changed the shifter surround to a black one I have after I took this pic, I didn't like the way the grey one looked.

If anyone has a grey console piece, let me know!

Next up, fog light lens and swapping in the euro headlight housings that don't have a broken tab.  I'm not looking forward to removing the stock fog light lens. 

Best way to remove the stock lens is still a hammer. 

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, that's what I gather.  Although someone else says he pours a little gasoline inside them and apparently that softens up the OEM glue so much that you can easily pry the lens off intact.  So I may give that a go...

If it melts the glue I would be worried about messing up the housing or plating. 

In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm concerned about that as well.  I asked the guy, he said put in just enough to get to the glue, that's it.  Let it sit 4-5 hours and it'll peel apart.  At the same time, I can't risk damaging the housings or reflectors.

I'm glad that you are enjoying the car.

So I need to address a few things.  The car has been leaking coolant and the brake pedal feel is garbage, got the car like that.  Recently moved the corrado out of the garage so I could drop the motorcycle lift into the hole and noticed that the drip pan had quite a bit more coolant on it now.  Doh!  I also need to replace the passenger side window regulator and I've sourced a good, used one.

I've been looking for the coolant leak and can't find it, even tho the coolant has UV dye in it and I have a black light.  Between that, the brake bleeding job having to be done old school 2 man method and my general lack of interest in replacing the window regulator myself I've decided to let a shop take care of all of it.

Yes, not very grassroots but I just want it done so I can drive the car and do projects I find more fun.  Some back and forth with the shop, they've been busy moving but finally have an appointment for March 25th.  Excited about that!

After I get the car back from the shop my plan is to finally replace the cracked fog light lens, see if I can repair the one broken tab on each headlight housing (if not I've got another set of headlight housings I can swap over) then finally detail/ceramic coat the car. 

Then drive it a bit and try and assess it's status in the fleet, whether that's long term or sell it on BaT...

Dropped the car off at the shop this morning.  Haven't driven it in a few months have sold the Golf R (~425-450hp) and picked up a Land Cruiser as my DD in the meantime.

The Corrado felt strong!  Really had good throttle response and felt like it had good power, which sorta surprised me.  Then I remembered that in comparison to the R and 996, it felt slow but in comparison to the Land Cruiser it feels fast.  Nice.

In reply to docwyte :

I fel the same way about my neon. Compared to the duster, slow as all. Compared to the dd truck or Prius, pretty quick. 

Its amazing how time marches on though. Our 90s cars, though very modern, are also very vintage feeling. 

Love the car, keep up the good fight!

These have aged pretty well despite the unobtanium parts.  They still have great eyeball and turn a lot of heads.  Love this thing - don't sell - you'll never find another as clean.

In reply to 84FSP :

Yes, they have, they look good.  I have most of the unobtanium parts in my basement.  A windshield and windshield trim are really the only things I'm missing at this point.  It is a super clean car, which is whats giving me pause as far as getting rid of it.  Plus it has the recaro interior, which was a rare option even for Canada and Europe.

So I put the moto up on the lift yesterday, which meant moving the drip pan.  What I thought was all coolant on it I now think is brake fluid.  So it turns out that the crack in the brake fluid reservoir that I thought wasn't leaking, actually was.  Good thing I tossed my spare reservoir into the hatch for the shop...

Well, heard back from the shop.  All the stuff was little things, which honestly I'm a little embarrassed I didn't catch.  Oh well.

They pressure tested the coolant system and found a leak from the coolant hose on the back side of the head.  Replaced the clamp and it was good.

Brake fluid leak was from the hose going from the reservoir to the clutch slave.  Replaced that, bled the system.  They're going to drive it more and perhaps bleed it again, they're not entirely happy with the brake pedal feel.

Window wasn't the regulator, a bracket was bent and the wiring was routed incorrectly, so that was getting all jammed up and cut.  So they bent the bracket back and repaired the wiring, fixing it into place.

So the good news is it was all ticky tack stuff, bad news is I should've spent a bit more of my time looking into it.  In the end, still worth having them go over the car.  They were very impressed with the fact that everything on it works, lol!

Picked the car up yesterday and drove it around town.  It's running great!  Brake pedal feel has gotten better but still feels a little soft.  I called the shop and asked them if they'd cycled the ABS, which either needs to be done manually (IE, go out and crush the brakes a few times to activate it) or use the old school 1551 VW scan tool, which most shops no longer have.

The answer was they usually do it for all cars when they bleed the brakes but weren't sure they did it on mine, so they said to drop it back off and they'd take care of it.  So I'm taking it there next Friday.

Also got my SpoonFed extended rear wing, I need to mock it up to make sure it fits right, then get some quotes for painting it.  My normal shop gave me a quote that I think is a bit spendy