Rally Car Update...

[Dave Hord]

Hey all,

I figured it was about time for a rally car update...My website has gone
down/been down for a while due to a slight loss of backup CD...hmm...I'll get
to it next month? :-)

Anyways, 38 weeks ago I stripped out the Audi 90 quattro ('89) and sent it off
to the roll cage shop.  The job was supposed to take 2 weeks...but needless to
say it went a little longer.  35 weeks longer to be exact! Last friday I
finally picked up the Audi from the roll cage shop. Sigh...I'm a 8.5 MONTHS
without having driven the Audi...yes, I did say MONTHS!

vent mode off...i'll continue.

Well, the weekend turned out to be a great time to work on the car, I was able
to get into the warehouse at work...and had some buddies volunteer to give me a
hand. 30 hours later (probably 80-90 man hours when you include my buddies) we
had completed the following:

1) Cut the dash to fit around the cage
2) Test fit the door panels
3) Remove any wiring that I had left in because 'maybe I'll use those one day'.
Yes, I will have a rally-car with heated seats.  No, I won't be using the stock
wiring anymore!
4) Cleaned the entire inside of the car with Varsol...EVERYthing with varsol.
(theres a joke about being high around here somewhere...but it has nothing to
do with drugs...only varsol...)
5) Masked off everything...4 rolls of masking tape later, and I still hadn't
done the doors! What to do?  Hmm...that skid wrapping plastic from teh
warehouse looks good!  (and it was!)
6) Primed the inside...5 spray cans later...
Dry overnight
7) Painted the inside...9 cans later. Could've, would've, should've used
another 9 cans. Maybe in the summer...
8) Unmask everything...
9) Mount dash and door panels.
10) re-wire lights...again.  it's becoming a hobby of mine.
11) re-wire half the dash...find out the other half isn't working now...rewire
somemore!!
12) mount up the dash panels, a new 4000quattro diff lock and install the
instrument cluster.
13) mount up the drivers seat
14) mount up the passenger seat...oops, won't fit with the cage...hmmm, solve
that later.
15) Tie in some belts AND...
16) discover that the starter solinoid is dead...yer going nowhere fast!

I have photos of the first 11 steps available at:

http://home.the-wire.com/~spokes/rollcage/page1.htm



Today I got the car ready to go to the shop for a starter.  I just installed 4
new snow tires (blew two at the last rally going into the trees)...and almost
lost an arm in the process.  I had taken my 2.5ton floor jack home last night,
so I was going to use the Audi jack.  Alas, I had forgotten that the driverside
parking brake was disconnected.  When I jacked it up it was all stable...when I
removed the wheel, it was all stable.  When I touched the car to see if the
disc/hub holes were lined up...it dropped.  Watched (sort of) my whole car rock
forward on the jack and crash to the floor...just got my arm out in time.
Didn't break it...or break it off.  Wow. That will get your heart going in
no-time.  Needless to say I've thought a lot about the safety of that!!

Around lunch time we lined 'er up with loading door one and I jumped in the
seat...my coworkers pushed me down the ramp and 'pop' went the clutch.  For the
first time in 6 months the car fired right up.

Words cannot express how much fun it was to drive just the short 5km to the
shop where the starter is being done.

Let's put it this way...I couldn't wipe the stupid grin off my face all day.

There's a few issues to sort out still, and I'm probably going to wait a while
before rallying it again...but it's alive and kicking! Tomorrow I get to take
it for a longer spin...can't wait!

Thanks for all the list help in the past!  More photos to go up later this
week...I'll let you know!

-Dave





--------------------------------------------------
89 90q  300km+ Rally Conversion in High Gear...
(sometimes it helps to hit trees??)