[V8] V8 Digest, Vol 41, Issue 17

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 08:17:00 -0700
From: "Ed Kellock" <ekellock at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [V8] The Bangle-butted bungles are buggering all of
	us....
To: v8 at audifans.com
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	<ce8c96690703080717k6d72fe5es610feb4b7999f4f0 at mail.gmail.com>
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In continuance of your distractionary efforts, I don't understand why
you seem to think the Black Mariah (BM? no, too much like another) has
such a short lease on life.  I mean, it's received the Roger Woodbury
treatment and should be quite solid with only what could possibly be
considered regular maintenance to look forward to for some time.  I
have learned through you that ME has some fairly stringent inspection
standards, but what refurbishment is left for her?

Saw the 93 Avant on eBay.  For a moment I wondered if it was you
selling, but that made no sense, besideds it's gold and your's is grey
or silver or well, not gold, that much I could remember.

Regarding purchasing that car, don't do it.  Remember what Mom taught
you... (paraphrasing) the right V8 will come along.

Ed


On 3/8/07, Roger M. Woodbury <rmwoodbury at adelphia.net> wrote:
>
> Yesterday I went to visit my parents and then drove to my daughters house
to
> show it to a prospective buyer.  Total mileage just over 110, and we took
> The Black Mariah.  The temperature never rose above seven all day,
although
> the wind had died down, so it wasn't as frigid as the day before when the
> wind never went below 20mph, and the temperature never above zero.  The
> Black Mariah runs so well, it is hard to imagine driving anything else.
>
> Right now some folks are selling a tan 100CS Quattro Avant on eBay.  The
car
> has 105,000 miles, and is a '93.  Supposedly two owner car, and it is in
> Maine a bit more than a hundred miles from here.  I am thinking about
going
> to look at it as a replacement for the Black Mariah.  The car is going to
be
> cheap, and cost about what the Black Mariah will probably cost to go
another
> 100,000 miles.  Naturally, I'd welcome comments.  NO, it won't be the
SAME,
> but as serviceable transportation, the CS is a nice car...and for cheap
> dollars.  Better than spending large dollars for something that I just
don't
> want to drive, isn't it?
>
> But then, I am thinking about taking The Black Mariah to the mechanic and
> doing some things to it to make it go further.  The later model car is not
> an improvement over the Type 44...just more "modern".  And for $5 grand
the
> Mariah will run and look like new.
>
 
Yes.  Exactly.  And what is left to do to Mariah?  Well, here is the list in
most immediate order:

1.  Replace/repair rear axle seals and rear struts....maybe NOT the struts
but I rather think the clunking from the left rear is either the strut
itself or the strut mount, which has already been done.

2.  Front brakes.  Certainly pads in the next 90 days, and maybe UFO rotors,
too.  Not positive about the rotors yet.

3.  Rear abs sensors, which really means half shafts, as scraping the rust
out of the old sensor points is too expensive to hire done, and I don't have
the time.

4.  Probably should replace rear suspension bushings "while we are in
there".  Old, cracked and worn.

5.  Windshild wiper motor

6.  Probably the broken wire in the steering color that makes the connection
that will turn out the airbag light.  (Of course, it is possible to just
remove the bulb that is lighted up, and that is an option....provided I want
to remove the dash pad and tinker with it myself, that I really don't have
time to do.

7.  Tires.  (No big deal by themselves, just another item to add to the
list).

8.  Other stuff that I would like to do, including have the nose redone and
the entire car repainted.  Radio fixed to operate properly, and maybe think
aobut doing some stuff to the interior.

Basically, five grand will yield a very presentable car....six or seven
would be better, of course, but three for sure.  

The plain fact is that there is no good reason NOT to put more money into
Mariah.  It is not corroding terribly, even though the left front fender is
rusting at the bottom.  It is not an OEM part because it was replaced after
meeting a deer in Vermont at 30k.  This is an outstanding candidate for a V8
nose, incidentally, but let's not go there.  Just replacing the nose
sufficient to restore the original appearance would suffice.  

Clutch is strong, brakes (right now) are VERY strong, and for some reason,
the pulsing that I experienced off and on through the first year with the
car seems to have disappeared entirely.  I wonder how that works, although
I'll admit to having done a few "Italian" Brake tune-ups.  People have NO
idea how powerful UFO's are until  they try a maximum effort full stop from
120 miles per hour....but I digress.

There are "issues" in the instrument cluster that willprobably not be
resolved.  Bouncing speedo on occasion and inop cruise control the root
cause of which is in the speedo.  I would like to replace the front driver's
seat with a sport seat, I suppose.  And the headliner from the sunroof was
pulled down and thrown away in disgust by me last summer, but other than
that, as a "driver", the choice is really to finish my restoration project
with this car rather than buy something that I just plain don't want to be
in.

And wait for the right V8....

Oh, man!  What sickness!  But the simple truth is that I don't think that
Audi has reached the pinnacle of development that they reached with the '91
20 Valve Avant and the late V8 Quattro.  

Roger
 

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