A couple weeks ago, I got a PM, it was a semi local enthusiast with an offer I couldn't pass up. The plan for this vehicle will be an OEM rebuild with some euro flair.

So here is what I picked up. A 1991 Coupe Quattro, black on black.






The front bumper has been tucked, and it's on a pretty nice period correct set of borbet 16" wheels. Paint is in descent shape, but needs a good cleaning before I decide what the next steps are there.

Now, for the not so good. The engine is shot. The head was taken a machine shop and scrapped due to extreme cracking. I thought that was a 20vt issue, not so much the 20v in general. Both window regulators are bad, and the PS window is open about 1/2". The interior was mostly removed to attempt to save it. The tail lights leak, so there was also water in the trunk area. This lead to the most distressing issue. In 2 ares, the trunk is rotted through. The good news is it's in an area that should be relatively easy to repair, time will tell though.

It did come with a good selection of parts, so I'll be having fun going through those soon.

First, I need to get the garage ready for it's new tenant...


That will be a task in itself

Had plenty of time the other weekend to work on cleaning the garage, despite my 18 hour shift Friday night and Saturday. Made good headway I think...


My local scrap guy loves me now... and this isn't near all of what he got to take ..

Saturday I spent a good portion of the morning and early afternoon picking up the CQ.

Pics are thanks to the seller's mother. The guy helping me had a funeral to get to, so was in a hurry.



We did figure out that the brakes don't work by pressing the peddle...

Nothing a euro bumper won't fix though

Here it is finally sitting in my drive way. 3 years of dirt and pollen coating it.


A quick sponge bath to remove the majority of the grime. No hose involved, as I didn't want any more water getting into the car than necessary.


And here it is tucked in to it's new home.


I'll be planning a trip to CT soon to aquire an engine and much other needed, and "unneeded" parts haha. I'll post soon the parts that came with it. Some very nice and some quite rare parts as well.

Oh, and I have not listed who the seller is, as I do not know if he wants to be named. I will leave that up to him to post if he wishes.

I had the same wheels on my CQ back in the day.

Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

Well there weren't many choices back then. Mine were 15" those look like 16"?

Yes, they are 16". I wasn't sure I wanted to keep them, but they are kind of growing on me...

Congratulations!

You're not going to add a "t" to that "20V"?

No... Want to keep it stock and simple.

Looks good! I need to see where water is getting into mine as well. With all of the rain we've been getting, I've made sure to keep it parked in the garage until then.

As far as the trunk water goes, I think it might be the rear wiper. The main water infiltration came from the bad window regulator on the PS. The window had been blocked up, but not far enough to completely close the window.

gotcha...I think mine is coming in from the firewall area on the passenger side.

Make sure the drains are clear around the HVAC air intake. Also check down in the fender area.

So here is what I'm starting with. Engine is half there


Interior is taken mostly apart



Hatch filled with interior parts.


The good news is pretty much everything is bagged and tagged. The PO was very organized with his parts. I hope I can keep this going, as lots more has to come out. I'm normally not even 1/10 that organized, and end up kicking myself half way through the assembly process.

Now, on to the goodies that came with the car!


NOS window regulators


034 injector upgrade with harness


034 poly snub and delrin rear diff mount.(probably going to sell these)


And last but not least, a euro plate tub.


The plate tub will pair nicely with the H1/H4 single piece headlights I already owned.


I'm also working on having a euro coupe bumper imported. Not perfect, and will need painted, but the price is right...


This pic shows the major crack in the his bumper. Repairable, and I think I found someone willing to spray it for me, when/if the seller gets back to me...


I will need to find pigtails for the headlights, and grills for the bumper... Lots of fun to start soon, well after I get back from vacation with the family.

Wow... when you said "project" you weren't kidding!

Yep, and I didn't attempt to get pics of the trunk rot yet... It's really not terrible, but needs to be addressed.

Bumper, lights, pigtails, mount brackets, and the pigtails for the headlights official ordered. I just paid 1/2 what I did for the car for those parts!

Well family vacation is over. Had a good week with my wife and daughter at the beach. Time to get some work done...

Started today. I've never removed a 2 piece bumper, so that took a little extra time. Not to mention I'm spoiled with my sedan having all the plastic removed and wiring tucked out of the way...


Couple small things I found that will need to be addressed. One is the wiring for the dizzy needs to be repaired. One wire already has tape on it, and another has a split in the insulator. Another is the crankcase breather system need completely redone. The rubber hose is pretty well gone, and the pipes are clogged.


There is also this wiring fix... There is a little green wire soldered onto the back of the MFTS connector. It runs the whole way into the cabin, so I guess it must have worked...


Also, the alternator is completely locked up, so will need to replace that as well.

Hit a little financial snafu, so things are moving a little slower than I wanted. So, instead of going and picking up my engine, I'm cleaning things up, I wish I would have taken before pics :nuts:

Here is the carpet. The PO said he thought it might be trash, but I pressure washed it, and it came out pretty good. Unfortunately the rubber backing is trashed. It's all cracked up and peeling off.


Ok, so this car has 203k on the clock. I honestly believe the valve cover may have had the original gasket on it. Still have the OEM part #s and still kind of flexible.

This is after multiple cleanings at work with a mildly caustic soap, and the 180°F pressure washer. Follow that with a strong solvent cleaning and a good blasting... Now ready for powder coating.



Then there is the intake manifold. This thing was caked horribly on the inside with oil. The breather system in the car was pretty well non-existent by the time I got it, so I can only assume it was breathing in quite a lot of oil vapor for a long time before the timing belt popped...



The throttle body was pretty nasty as well. It was pretty well completely black when I started. This just took a trip into the parts wash tank. After about 10min of scrubbing, and another couple of mins blowing off all the excess solvent, it looks like this



All in all I'm happy with how these came out. Hopefully have more to report soon. I'm still waiting for Audibits to ship me a bumper. He said he isn't happy with the one he showed/sold me, so is trying to find a better one.

Got some time this morning to work on this. Decided I should probably check out the trunk rust. Wasn't as bad as I expected. The PS has a small hole, but the DS seems to still be solid.


I figured I should probably check the condition of the tank while I'm back here. That was fun... Someone must have lost the hardware for the rear 3 bolts that hold the trunk cover, so they just rammed in some regular bolts... After finally removing the tank cover, I was violently smacked in the face by the smell of varnished fuel. Not good I would say, but at least this looked clean enough...


Pulled the wiring connector for the sender and found it to be wet.


Pressed on with a brass drift to pop the sender ring off. Came off easily, they had fun getting the sender out of its seal. When I finally got it out, I was greated by this!


This damn tank if completly full! Full of 4 year old fuel! On one hand it's good, as it should have stayed off the corrosion, on the other hand, now I have to get it out of there! as of what is in the tank was giving me a massive headache, I called it a day and put the sender and ring back on. I'll figure out a way to get that stuff out of the tank, and then how to dispose of it. Should be interesting, hopefully the pump itself still works.

For what it's worth, I've found that a mix of 25% to 50% bad gas (depending how old it is) and balance of fresh gas makes usable gas. You probably wouldn't want to run it in the bandit at full boost, but for a non-turbo car, lawnmower/snowblower/etc. it would be fine.

Today I drained nearly 14 gallons of old nasty fuel from the tank. At this point I couldn't find anything deep enough for the siphon pump to suck out.


That was most of it... And don't worry, that wasn't a water container I used. The amount of crap that got sucked up through the siphon was amazing. I used an old kerosene siphon pump, so was roughly a 5/8" hose.

Here are a couple shots inside the tank. Not pretty, but not a total rust drum either!



I also need to look into a tiny little wire for the sender. The one that attaches to the swing arm is completely gone! I was however able to clean that up and make the arm move freely again, so that was my win for the day... Once I find some 22ga(?) Gasoline safe wire, I will be pulling that apart again, to replace the missing wire. Fun fun...

Oh, and does anyone know the part # for the sender seal? Those one on top of the tank. Mine is split in a couple spots, and 1/2 of the lip that goes into the tank has turned to goo...

I have seen good results with filling the tank with vinegar. A lot of the better rust removers are just based on vinegar. I have repaired that wire on a T-44 just stripped the insulation off a strand of wire and re-soldered it in place. Copper soldering wick/braid may also work and will have a little better give to it.

I'll have to give that a shot. Still trying to find a good wire to put in a gas tank.

Decided I would make up a lock ring tool instead of buying one. About an hour of work, and a bunch of scrap stuff later I have a very useful tool. I never liked the idea of beating on these rings with a brass drift, as I tend to hit everything else around it as well...



Now to find the pump tool...