TR: [urq] A new project : a 5000TD !

[Christopher G. Mason]

On 5/14/2010 4:04 PM, Huw Powell wrote:
> They usually are.  Mine isn't because when it was young it was in some 
> awful accident, so there's ancient bodywork that is finally becoming 
> an issue.  When it rains hard, it leaks at a bit of damage at the 
> windshield center.  This has ruined the cig lighter socket.  When the 
> heater core let go, it messed up the ECU connector so it takes three 
> tries to start it properly when warm for some reason.  The windshield 
> is pretty sandblasted.  It's a pity, because it's a great little car, 
> euro lights, nice stereo, seat heaters work, etc.  If it weren't for 
> the abysmal condition of the body it would be worth spending a day 
> doing the heater core and buying a new windshield to get another 
> 300,000 out of it.
>
> And yeah, it would be fun to find a nice coupe that just needs a bunch 
> of mechanicals, since I have two spares of most parts.
>
Might want to ask the folks over on the quattroworld 4000/CGT forum ( 
http://forums.quattroworld.com/4000 ). They have a knack for finding 
cheap clean Coupe GTs on craigslist regularly. Don't be afraid to look 
in "not so northern" salt belt states. While it snows from time to time 
in NJ, its nowheres near as frequent as New England (last season was an 
exception). The cars here aren't all rusted out from salt as a result. I 
haven't run across too many cancer ridden Type 81/85s here, of course 
the plastic wheel well liners on the later cars help a lot.

As for Type 89s, it seems impossible to find a clean example these days. 
All the ones I find are totally beat to crap inside and out. Why the 
earlier cars don't seem to meet the same fate is beyond me.