The Project Pad

Did some modeling to figure out the best place to put it to. Also did the math to figure out what the best width was such that all my cars would fit and could drive through if necessary. Ended up with 120" total outer width, which gives a 'drive-thru' width of about 86". My Touareg is the widest at 76", so that gives 5" of clearance on each side if I wanted to drive through. All other cars are 66-68" wide. I also have plenty of room to walk around all sides.
Might get to marking out the drill spots this weekend, maybe next. Still need to plan wiring for the power, but I'm hoping to get it up and running by the end of Thanksgiving!

Lift Model 3 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

Lift Model 2 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

Jelly.

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Did some electrical work tonight. Installed a 30A 240V circit for the lift and made a power cord for the pump from 20' of 10/3 SOOW wire. Was going to wire up another 30A 240V circuit, but I bought the wrong receptacle since the welder has a 50A 3-wire plug (even though it calls for a 30A circuit). That'll be another day. Just glad I don't have to wire up a 50A circuit for it with 6 gauge wire, that shit is expensive! (10 gauge was already painful enough to buy)

IMG_20141108_214655663 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

IMG_20141108_232514194 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

Nice! You can also just cut the plug off the welder and put a different one on to match what you have.

I'm going to move near you...btw can I borrow your lift for the next like....forever?

Ho hum. One day. Eventually. Maybe.

Car Update! (kinda)

Had a good trip to the junkyard this past weekend and finally found a set of black leather rear seats to go along with the set of power front sport seats I already had.
Cleaned up really nice with some Adam's Polishes leather cleaner. Still need to condition them, but they're still pretty soft.

Rears:
IMG_20141116_123246092 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

Fronts (dusty from storage):
IMG_20141115_173415697 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

The only pic I have of the current interior and it's a bad one. Going for a two-tone interior so I'll be keeping the carpet tan and the tan leather/vinyl in the door panels. However, I'm thinking I should either die the carpet on the lower door panel black, or replace them with ones off a black door panel. I'll also eventually get the 3-spoke sport wheel mounted too.



The car at the junkyard has some nice door panels I could snag the lowers from (if they come apart). Or I could just do the all black door panels, but I like the tan leather/vinyl and think it helps break it up some.
IMG_20141115_092536764 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

Lift install is progressing slowly. Had to buy a bigger hammer-drill as my 7-amp Porter Cable wasn't cutting through some of the rocks I was hitting. Found that the Harbor Freight 10-amp one had some great reviews and after a 25% off coupon was about the same price...so now I have two that I'll probably never use again. Still cheaper than renting several times.

The big boy with the 'toy' one in the background:
IMG_20141116_111144479 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

Also, the bolts that were supplied with the anchors were about 0.75" too long. So I had to pick up 12 new shorter ones at $5/each! (Grade 9...maybe overkill, but they weren't that much more than lower grades)
IMG_20141113_193416355 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

Got homework due this week so I can't do much until that's done, but I hope to get one post finished and mounted and start drilling holes for the other over the weekend. Should go by quicker with the bigger drill. With the small drill, I could only do about 2 holes per night, the vibration really starts to fatigue you!

Nice score on the seats- which yard did you find them at? AG isn't buying much of our vintage cars anymore...

Looking forward to seeing the lift in action!

the german wrote:Nice score on the seats- which yard did you find them at? AG isn't buying much of our vintage cars anymore...

Looking forward to seeing the lift in action!

Pick n pull in Lynwood

Having that lift and garage space at your place is going to be awesome!
Nice build on the 90 as well!

I guess I need to learn how to use a lathe now! Pick up a 1930's/early-'40's South Bend 10"x36" 'Heavy 10' lathe for really cheap on craigslist...just had to drive 2hrs to Raymond, WA to get it. It's not very pretty, but works very well and came with a decent amount of tooling. The icing on the cake was the 70yo machinist/woodworker I bought it from, he had lots of great stories to tell.
Need to get a new motor since this ones 480V/3-phase, but that's not a big deal. Will eventually get a fresh coat of paint.

IMG_20141125_222835813 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

nice score! you may want to make a guard for that belt drive though. Would suck to get tangled up in that thing.

It works! Bleeding the system now (with the new project on it)

IMG_20141214_243848814 by alxdgr8, on Flickr

The 90qs is still sitting neglected outside since getting sidelined for the CGT and now UrQ project. But....it might be coming into the garage soon. I've been reorganizing some priorities in life as I plan on getting engaged later this year and wanting to buy a house next year. This mean I'm planning on getting rid of my Touareg to cut some expenses (and at the same time remove my ability to tow stuff so I can resist adding more projects easier). I'm currently waiting on VW to decide how they're going to respond and possible compensate 3.0L TDI owners so I don't want to sell it until that's figured out in case they decide to give me a lump of cash. In the mean time, that gives me time to figure out what I want to DD in the future. I've given up on my dream of buying a Focus RS, maybe I'll get a used one in a few years. I've toyed with the idea of getting a Mk7 GTI or used A3. Then I kinda remembered I had this perfectly good B4 90q wasting away outside and only needs an engine put into it. I had started to brush off the idea of doing anything with it since we're getting really close to being able to import B4 avants which is what I'd really want more than a sedan. But then I had the idea to skip the V8t idea into it and save that for the avant that I'll import in a few years. So that leads me to deciding about another swap into the 90qs sedan. Currently leaning very heavily on a 1.8t swap like Dave. Super cheap and super simple and still a fun DD that gets great MPG. I sadly passed on a 1.8t passat parts car last night for $150 due to a sketchy deal. I've also toyed with the idea of a spare AAN I have sitting around, but that's a lot more work/fab/parts cost since I'd have to source a few things for it. 1.8t donor cars are cheap and have everything I need.

Soooooo....cliff notes:
This car will probably be getting a 1.8t and turned into DD status. I will probably start on this sooner than later since I plan on taking my time with the UrQ anyways.
V8t/01E/lots of other goodies will be saved for a B4 avant that I will import in a couple years.

So just imagine this car (with probably some RS2 headlights that I've collected and the TSW Hock's)


With this engine
P1090789 by Vex Art, on Flickr

I like this plan. This is pretty much what I am thinking for a powerplant in the lifted car as well.

Pulled the old girl out of the yard and into the driveway...only a few feet laterally but still progress! Also I think I found a well maintained donor engine for a good price that I'm probably going to pick up.

Some parts I've been hoarding that will get installed with the 1.8T:
-RS2 headlights...will probably run these until I modify my dual rounds to fit the B4 better since I'll be DD'ing it. Having just low beams with the single round isn't the safest idea.
-Smoked euro tails. Will see if I like the smoked better than the standard euro tails I've already got.
-5x112 eventually? For now I plan on staying 4x108 for simplicity and since I've got fresh tires (albeit 205's) on my TSW Hockenheims. I might see if my 17" Porsche Cup 1's will fit with the 4x108-5x130 adapters I've got. If I do convert to 5x112 then I have a few options including 17" Avantgard and 18" UPS.
-Reinstall comp spoiler (instead of sending to Dave haha)
-B4 euro rear bumper. Sadly it's just a normal euro and not a competition/color edition bumper (like Dave has...) But it's still better than the US one.
-Black leather seats
-Will see if the FMIC I have sitting around will fit...it's top entry so I don't think it will.
-Carbon fiber B4 hood
-3" stainless exhaust with v-bands

2016-06-21_12-04-07 by Vex Art, on Flickr

Sweet! I'm thinking of doing a 1.8t swap on my cabriolet and have started thinking about a parts car. Is there an advantage to getting an A4 parts car vs a Passat that you know of?

Also, if you decide on two-tone I still have this sport wheel from when I did it...

I'm not sure if there's much different between the A4 and Passat AEB's. I think model year (ECU version) and transmission (crankshaft) have the biggest impacts.
Not sure how that wheel would look in my car, did you recover it? I've already got a black sport airbag wheel and a non-airbag euro UrS6 wheel that I was thinking of installing.

alxdgr8 wrote:I'm not sure if there's much different between the A4 and Passat AEB's. I think model year (ECU version) and transmission (crankshaft) have the biggest impacts.
Not sure how that wheel would look in my car, did you recover it? I've already got a black sport airbag wheel and a non-airbag euro UrS6 wheel that I was thinking of installing.

It had been re-covered when I got it. Let me know. I have no use for it anymore.

I know I need to stick with AEB to use the cabrio 4 cyl mounts I bought.

Forgot how nicely the interior cleans up, will look even better with black seats. And I forgot the car only has 140k miles on it until I looked at the odometer.

IMG_20160621_195657 by Vex Art, on Flickr

IMG_20160621_195709 by Vex Art, on Flickr

And it's gone! Say goodbye to the V8...kinda sad as seeing Kirk's V8 CQ at Audi Expo reminded me just how much I like V8's in these small chassis cars. Oh well, that'll come soon enough and be in an Avant which will be even more hilarious to drive around in and see the look on people's faces.

IMG_20160626_204827 by Vex Art, on Flickr

There will be a lot of 1.8T projects happening soon - I've been on the lookout for a parts car for a swap into my cabriolet.

Are those stock ABH exhaust manifolds? how the hell did they fit in there?

Yeah stock ABH manifolds. They have extensions welded on them to get the flange closer to to subframe. Clears everything.

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And we have a donor! Started to think I shouldn't even bother finding ADR engine mounts and I should work on my fab skills and make my own. I do need to practice my welding...

IMG_20160629_221307 by Vex Art, on Flickr

And the "while I'm in there" bug is starting to bite... Should I pull the engine apart and put in some $300 scat rods for cheap insurance for future upgrades? Will require some new gaskets, but also allows me to look at the oil pump. Engine has 175k miles in it. Or do I just swap it and be happy with a chipped K03 or maybe K04 in the future....

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