Return of the Eurotrash Princess

[Jenny Curtis]

Hey Qlist:

How I've missed you all.  I unsubbed last November when I went on
vacation for two weeks and did not resub because I was just
overwhelmed with post-vacation e-mail.  But all this time there's been
a void...a void I've tried to fill by spending large amounts of time
and money with the Anderson Motorsport monkey lads and raving at the
television for those annoying ads for that stupid Subaru with the
metal pedals...but alas, there is only one fix--I needed to resub to
the beloved qlist.

So glad to see you are all still discussing topics near and dear to my
heart like 4kQ conversion.  My dream lives on to one day have a
battery in my trunk.  But until then I need to get a house with a nice
garage so I have a place to work.  Putting cardboard on the gravel
driveway only goes so far.

I was also glad to see that there were two BTDT questions that I could
answer in my first batch of emails:

Lug bolts:  anti-seize as everyone has said is the way to go.  But I
put it on every other season and that seems to emmulate the effect of
new bolts with the torque wrench.  Not very scientific, but you have
to realize that if the torque figures are based on new bolts and not
ones that are covered with that mysterious black crap that causes the
bolts to seize.  Also without anti-seize I cannot get my tire iron to
budge, even by jumping up and down on it.  Hey speaking of switching
from snows to summer tires ( a job which I just did last week-end
myself) doesn't it SUCK the way that the disc rotates so that you have
a heck of a time lining the bolts up with the tire.  This is not the
case on my boyfriend's Saab.  Must be one one of those tricks of
German engineering that take a simple thing and make it hard for
regular shmoes and shmoettes to do on their own.  Like changing the
BLANKETY BLANK air filter!

How much does it cost to paint a 4kQ?  Well my answer would be don't!
Unless the non-rusted paint is excessivley damaged (faded or cracked
from sun exposure) don't bother.  Painting over the rust will just
bring the rust back in a few months.  If the rust is properly repaired
the spots can be effectively matched to the original finish.  I know
because I sincerely beleived that I needed to repaint the Princess
untill I finished the repair.  Once that was done with all the wet
sanding we did, the spots that we repainted were so shiny and wet
looking they really melted nicely into the original finish.  And I'm
proud to say that after one hellishly long, snowy and salty winter
here in Minnesota the only rust that's reappeared on the Princess are
a few new spots on the hood and trunk where there were fresh chips
over the winter, (possibly due to my over-zealous attacks with ice
scraper after a freezing rain storm).  The rust repair can be done for
about $200 in materials if you do it yourself.  And soon there will be
a web page up describing this process in more detail than you probably
want to know.  (Yes I know I have been promising this page longer than
the lag between Star Wars movies, but hey like George Lucas, I'm a
demanding perfectionist...And I wear flannel shirts!) where was I?

Other projects that I've been working on in my hiatus:  I finally
finished the exhaust upgrade.  In the end I went with the Stebro
(purchased with the Quattro club discount) and a K&N filter that I got
as a Valentine's Day present.  This combined with the cam upgrade
(thank you Ben!) and a much-needed tune up, the Princess has never
been better.  At 300,000 plus miles she's louder (in a good way),
faster and peppier than she was when she rolled off the assembly
line.  Plus she has that understated European elegance and that boxey
profile that I love.

Well, I should wrap this up, but wanted to say that I signed up for
the Brainerd driving school.  Are there any qlisters in Minnesota
going to this?  My fear is that I'll be the only person there with a
"classic" Audi and everyone else will be driving new cars and talking
about putting $2,000 18" wheels on their A8s or something.  (The day I
blew my tire and my spare on potholes and had to be towed into
Anderson, a guy was leaving the shop having just done that...Not so
smart when Minnesota roads are one giant crater-filled obstacle
course).

Good to be back,

Jenny Curtis
864kQ: The Eurothrash Princess