Re: jmoritz audi junkers

[Dasisgoot@aol.com]

>Subj:	 Re: Audi Junkers
>Date:	98-02-09 11:17:37 EST
>From:	jmoritz@mail.med.und.nodak.edu (Jon Moritz)
>Sender:	owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net
>To:	quattro@coimbra.ans.net
 
>>>How much did you end up spending on this rebuild?  Would you have been
>>>better off buying a 92-95 year model in good but high mileage form?  Was
>>>this a personal challenge to spend that much time/money on the project?
>>>Congradulations on the outcome of the project!  It's certainly more work
>>>than I would have undertaken.  Glad to hear your Audi dealer was so
helpful.

First off, thank you for the kind words.

I'll admit this one was an impulse buy, but the way cars move at these yards,
you
don't always have the time to work out all the details before the purchase, if
the 
car is priced less than half of a similar model used, I'll take the chance. I
figure that
at the very least I can resell the car to someone who can make the numbers
work.
As it was I still came in at less than two-thirds the price similar cars in
the paper.

Ideally if I could have found a decent used front end for my car I could have
done even better but, I spent the better part of two months waiting for used
parts to turn up at Shokan in New York or at Mitch's the local place here in
Detroit. I gave up made the decision to go ahead and order as many new OEM
parts as it would to put the car back together correctly. True to Murphy's law
shortly thereafter UPS went on strike delaying all the part deliveries to the
dealerships, and about two weeks after the majority of the new parts arrived,
a yard call with a good used front clip. Patience is indeed a virtue. Maybe
next time. 

At the point when I purchased the car, someone had already started work on it
and given up. My guess is that a repair shop got into it discovered additional
work which hadn't been quoted and the repair was canned. What that meant for
me was 
a lot of missing fasteners and a more head scratching than expected. My
recommendation, start with a car that has all the pieces, even if they're
broken. I should also mention another great source of info. Check at the local
yards at the beginning of the year, sometimes they get new Mitchell's
Collision Estimating Guides, and part with the old ones (97's) for a song.
Anyone who has seen these books knows their value.

Its a good hobbie, keeps my mechanical skills sharp, makes a mess out of the
garage with all the overspray and grease and antifreeze, but I love it. If I
ever HAD to do this for a living I probably would'n't be as fond of getting up
early Saturday morning and chasing for parts half way across the state, but
for now this is how I enjoy my time off... and if just by chance there's a
slightly bruised A8 in California......