RobinJI

Yeah, that's normal, especially if it uses dual filament bulbs like H4s.

I can do any of those dates I believe. Although the longer I've got the more chance I've got of having the Porsche back on the road. I'm sure it'd still be fun in the BMW though. (I haven't voted as I don't want to just give a random date a bias. Maybe we could add a 'I don't mind' option to the poll?)

Count me in for this. I might have the Porsche back on the road, if not then the BMW will be a laugh at least. I'm very easy going with dates. Whenever's fine really as long as I've got a little notice.

Wow, just realised I haven't posted in here in a long while! In early December the 406 finally started playing up, then someone smashed the rear screen over night and the MOT was due soon. A friend offered me his 525d for a good price so sadly the 406 went over the weighbridge, but I'm very happy with the 5 series. Super comfy and less painfuly slow/floppy to drive. The 6 pot's super smooth for a diesel too. The Porsche has been off the road for the winter. I'll probably pull the head off to see if the noisy engine's the result of anything more sinister than the cam followers. Hopefully not, in which case I'll try and grab a second hand head for it and get on with suspension fun. Dan, I'm glad you got away with such little damage! Very lucky. We're the spacers hubcentric? I've run 15mm slip on hubcentrics without ever having the bolts slacken off. I guess the wheels face thickness could effect bolt length a fair bit though, mine were pretty thin. Jardo, massively gutted about the pop. I do hope it see's a 2nd life!

Very nice shots Dunc! A quick photo-dump of a few shots of the Porsche's gearbox happenings: The mounts with the old, rotten & delaminated rubber removed and some fresh polyurethane cast in instead: The box out of the car (might look familiar to old Audi owners, parts bin engineering at its finest: The new rear half of the linkage, this was all mega-warn nylon, rubber & plastic pivots before: And finally a crap picture of the new gearstick (need to make a boot still):

Sadly not. Life's got in the way of it too much and all physical trace of the project's gone now. I've still got the digital designs, and I'd love to one day build it (although probably not with a mini as the body), but I think it'll be a project for a few years time once I'm more settled. I'm sticking to rolling projects for now. I finished modifying the Porsche's gear linkage yesterday, just got to put it all back together now the paint should have dried on it all. It'll be interesting to see just how harsh it is with the mounts so solid. Worst case I can pull them back out and re-introduce some voids in them

I don't plan to extend it much, it's just that the standard stick's been butchered by a previous owner, and while I'm repairing it I thought I'd modify it to add a little length. Probably only around 40mm, which will put the top of the stick around the centre of the steering wheel. I've not had a chance to drive it really with the filled engine mounts, I started on the gearbox ones straight after fitting the engine ones. Sam, the stick in the Porsche is pretty high as standard, so I get where Paul's coming from. The transmission tunnel's really high in them because of the rear mounted gearbox. I loved the raised one in my scirocco so figure it's worth a go. Definitely a worthwhile thing in any typical hatchback or saloon car. If I find it odd being so high, but i can always cut it down.

I can only really repeat what Adam said. It sounds a lot like the symptoms you get from your battery terminals being loose. Check they're tight and that the battery's earth strap is in good condition. Failing that, maybe check the engine's earth strap. I've had to pull the Porsche's gearbox out to attack a bolt that snapped when I was taking the mounts off to fill them with polyurethane. On the bright side, it's let me pull the gear linkage out as it was hilariously warn out, leading to an impressively floppy gear stick. It'll all be getting replaced with rose joints, and I'll extend the gear stick and slightly reduce the fore/aft throw while I'm at it. If all goes to plan it should make it a little nicer to drive. Oh, and this is an impressively slow responce, but Paul, the Saab wheels I bought are the same as these (but a little less mint):

Dropped bits of metal in cylinders only end one way. The assessment won't tell you anything that'll make the repair cheaper than a new 20vt. Swapping a whole engine in a modern car is a really easy job with the right kit. If you're paying labour to a garage then given how cheap and common 20vt's are, it's almost certainly cheaper to replace the whole lump than just a piston and rebuild the head. It may seem like a good opportunity for an upgrade, but if you're not at that stage of the build yet then I'd agree with the others. Throw in a standard engine, then keep the old one to rebuild uprated in your own time so it's ready for when the cars at that stage. In Porsche news, I've been filling the engine and gearbox mounts with polyeurophane, but it's taking ages as the resin I bought's labeled '2 hour cure time' is more like 4 or 5 days. It definitely needed doing though, as the gearbox mounts were actually completely delaminated. That'd explain the knock as it takes up drive then! I've also bought some 15" Saab wheels for it as they were cheap and local, and will let me get some bigger brakes and better tyres on there.

Spring sounds good to me. The 924 might be (slightly) less shonky by then. I wouldn't really be happy abusing it much as it is, and where's the fun if I can't abuse it?

Nope, 924s all left the factory with them black. Personally I like them black, it makes the car look slimmer/lower profile proportionally, even if it doesn't look closer to the ground. Paul, have you re-indexed the torsion bars on yours now then? That's a job I'm not looking forward to. Supercharged 924 sounds interesting, is that a 2.0 still?

That clio trophy would look 10 times better with some bigger tyres. Surely that's not the standard size? If you're going to have a high purposeful ride height and small purposeful wheels it looks weird as hell without chunky purposeful tyres.

During one drive between home (somerset) and uni (oxford) I actually did the maths in my head of how much I'd save driving my Passat (1.6td b3 estate) behind a truck at ~56mph or just driving at 70/80. Even earning sod all at halfords at the time, it worked out as more cost effective to drive at 80 and work the time I'd saved on the journey.

I didn't take many photos no. I basically skim read this to get an idea of the best order to remove things in then got on with it. It wasn't hard at all in the end, one of the easiest dashes to remove that I've come across. I can get some shots of the reassembly if it'll help though? The Scirocco's mk1 golf based, so I guess they'd go straight on in that case. I'm pretty happy keeping it standard for a little while, but it's good to know I could move them over if I get the itch to tinker, although I'd probably want to fit softer springs. I know what you mean about cheap fun projects like your coilovers, sometime's making stuff yourself's not the most logical thing to do, but it's fun and satisfying, plus you get to learn/practice some skills.

Nice work on the coilovers Paul, looks like a fun project. What spring rate did you go for in the end? I'm kind of tempted to see if I can make my Sciroccos front coilovers fit the 924, but I think I'm just going to rock the standard set-up until I've saved for some Gaz Golds. I've received the new camshaft the mine, but not fitted it yet as I want to finish the wiring first. I've got the dash out and found things to be better than I expected behind there. The only wiring that's been played with in any way's isolated to the centre console, so I think I'm just going to re-make that 'branch' from the loom. The melted wire I found before appears surprisingly isolated which was a nice surprise, it looks like I'll get away with only un-taping about 6" of loom. I'm looking forward to building everything back up and making sure the dash goes in nice and solidly. I'm really please with how it's all put together behind there, it's such a nice simple, functionally, logically built car. The polyurethane resin I ordered arrive too, so once I'm happy with the wiring I'll look at re-making the engine/gearbox mounts to get rid of some of the slop. Plenty of plans are already building in my head, I can see this car being a lot of fun.

That's a cool shot of Anglesey. I gave the 924 a service and had an explore underneath it earlier. All looks good and solid underneath, I found one more little welded patch, but it looks solid if not particularly pretty. I stumbled across what I'm pretty sure's the cause of the flat feeling fairly noisy engine: When I took the oil filler cap off the cam lobe directly under it was facing up and showing off the fact that the nose of the lobe is badly warn. That makes sense, I read that they could wear badly in a guide for adjusting the tappets, and it drives like it's got a super mild cam in it. £40 on ebay later and a good condition cam should be in the post to me tomorrow. Hopefully that should wake the thing up a bit and get it sounding and revving a bit sweeter. The oil didn't have anything metallic looking in it, it was pretty black, but generally smooth and healthy looking. I'll probably change it again in a few hundred miles just to flush everything through a bit. All 4 plugs were a decent golden colour, and as a bonus (well, maybe, it probably makes no difference) when I went to replace the air filter I found a k&n panel filter already in there, so that'll get a clean and go back in when I get a chance. Wiring, bushes and engine mounts will be next on the cards as long as the new camshaft does the trick with the engine.

Thanks for the help & advise. I'm loving it so far still despite the issues. I've put a bit over 300 miles on it so far, but until this evening it have mostly been motorway. I went for a fun drive on the hills this evening and I'm definitely impressed with the chassis. Even with the wear and tear the car still feels really balanced and fun. I'm definitely looking forward to tightening things up a bit, I can only imagine it feeling great once it's age has been disguised a bit more. I think I've found the source of my battery drain too, the radiator fan's staying on all the time, but at a really low speed as if it's just seeing a few volts from somewhere. I've pulled the fuse for now and I'll see if the battery still drains its self. A quick shot from this evening:

I've been away for the weekend, so to follow on from this: Thanks. Cheers, It was £1200, which seemed like a bargain from the auction. (11 months MOT, a couple of new parts, generally straight & solid.) I'm not so sure now, but I don't think it was a rip off either. More about that below. Thanks, that's the plan as long as it's not already broken! I bid on it blind, kind of silly but I'd spotted it a few days before and assumed it would go out of my price range, so when I saw it still a fair bit lower than expected I put a cheeky bid in and ended up getting it for the guys reserve. I'd not been expecting to collect until today or yesterday, but as everything fell into place quicker than expected I popped down and drove it home on Thursday evening. It made the journey home without issue, sitting at a steady temperature. First impressions were that it felt pretty much as I expect for a 34 year old, £1200 Porsche with a few miles on the clock: In need of some work but generally roadworthy. I was a bit annoyed that it's had a new passenger side sill, but as far as I can tell the repair seems to have been done reasonably and he didn't state it had never been welded, it just means that sill wont be galvanized like it would have been from the factory. One of the jacking points needs some attention, it's not an issue yet, but could become one if left unchecked. There's a little rust in the bottom of the n/s inner wing/footwell, non structural and not an MOT issue, but needs addressing at some point. It's clearly had a respray at some point, which hasn't been done brilliantly and there's some blistering, but it's presentable unless you look pretty closely. I wasn't after a car with mint bodywork, as I want to use it without feeling guilty, so the condition of the shell's actually about spot on for what I'm looking for. Having said that, my thoughts that I'd done well from the auction were quickly toned down to just thinking it seemed a fair price considering it had a full MOT and seemed genuinely roadworthy. Mechanically, the engine seems a bit flat, and there's a top end noise that could be tappets or injectors, but it's got plenty of bottom end grunt and idles smoothly, so I'm thinking/hoping it'll respond well to a service and a bit of playing. The engine and gearbox mounts seem to be well past their best, and the back end feels a bit like the same's probably true of the rear beam or trailing arm bushes. There's a wheel wobble at speed, but it's pretty minor and I suspect it's exaggerated by tired bushes. The brakes seem to work better than I was expecting for a car from this era, which is nice. It runs a bit rough straight after starting, so I suspect some of the k-jet injection system's a bit tired, but as a second car this doesn't really bother me as it seems to clear up quickly, and I don't plan for the k-jet to be on there too long. If I'd gone to look at it advertised at this price, rather than bid blind, then I'd probably have walked away to have a think and hope something better came up soon, then maybe returned later if nothing else came up. Having bought it, I'm not over the moon with it, but I'm not particularly annoyed either, I could have done better, but hey, it's still a cheap old car. £1200 is cheep for any roadworthy 1981 car with a hint of future classic about it. The alternator started squealing at the end of the journey home, so I took a quick look and found that it's actually not quite fitted right, I suspect it's not really a 924 alternator, or has the wrong pulley on it at least. It sits about 3/4mm back from where it should, which was making the belt rub on one of its mountings slightly. It does work for now, and it'll be an easy fix (file down the mounting the appropriate amount.) but it was still a bit annoying. So having re-tensioned the belt, and found that this stopped the worst of the rubbing on the mount, I decided to excitedly drive it to Herefordshire for a family holiday this weekend, hoping for the best. It got me there and back without issue. I drove it to work this morning and was treated to a flat battery when I went to leave. Odd as it stood for 3 days over the weekend and fired straight up then. I suspect there's probably something sapping power somewhere. It's a lot of fun to drive, with loads of character and the chassis feels lovely and balanced, it feels like although it's a bit tired at the moment, there's the potential for a great little drivers car in there. The centre console's pretty poorly fitted and I thought I'd have a quick look at it to see if there was anything obvious on the switches and dials in it that could be draining power. Having pulled it out, it looks like someone less than gifted at wiring's shat all over it then handed a monkey some pliers and hoped it'd result in a working car. Amazingly, all the necessities do genuinely work as they should, but the wiring's in real need of some attention. To my despair, when I started unwrapping one tapped up wire, it revealed that a shared live had clearly been short circuited at some point and melted all it's insulation, right back into the main bulk of the loom. It still works, but I wont be happy until it's got fresh wire in there :'( So I'm going to have to pull the whole dash out, untape the loom and do some fairly serious re-wiring. Oddly I'm not feeling too pissed off by this, it's an old car and I was expecting some issues. At least this way, as long as I approach it right I can be sure that the wiring's all corrected and potentially upgraded, so I know it's a good base when I come to start playing around with things. It'll be good to know the cars wiring inside out too. So the to do list at the moment, in order of priority is: - Correct any dodgy or melted wiring in the cabin - Make some poly engine and gearbox mounts (replacement ones are either second hand or £90 each aftermarket uprated ones, and gearbox mounts are 2nd hand only.) - Replace/repair the shift linkage, preferably modify it to move the shifter up a bit. - Give the engine a thorough check over and service, then see if I can get my head around k-jet enough to get it running a bit sweater. If I can't, bin the k-jet and throw some webbers or megasquirt at it for now. - Replace all the bushes and the track-rods and ends. Maybe see how close the spare MX-5 steering rack I have is to fitting, I'd like less turns lock to lock. - See if I can do anything to make the spare Audi S3 brake calipers I've got fit it. (and pay Nick for the rear calipers!) - Purchase some Gaz Gold's once my wallet's recovered from buying the car. - Find some 15" wheels that I can throw some 205/50R15 semi-slicks on. - Think about seats/roll-cage. TLDR: It's a bit more of a dog than I'd hoped, but I'll make it work and I'm enjoying it so far, despite the issues.

I could make any of those I think. Depending on when it changes to I might have a friend to fill Lukes place if that's not filled yet and he still can't make it. Not a forum user but a trials rider who a few of you guys know (Ben Moore).

Ebay happened and now I'll be collecting this on Monday/Tuesday. On the one hand: woops, sorry wallet! On the other hand: Yay! a fun car again! I'm really looking forward to a fresh start and oddly, quite looking forward to a slow fun car again, the Scirocco is/was (not sure what to do with it still, it has quite a bit of rust) quick, but you couldn't ever really give it 100% safely. Besides fixing the inevitable issues that come with a 34 year old car, some Gaz Gold's and 15" wheels with sticky tyres will be first on the shopping list once my bank account recovers a little.

1. Tarty Adam - MX5 slutmobile? - yes to food 2. Bessell - MX5 3. Daniel James Anthony Delilah Jasmine Consuela Bananahammock Cox- fish finger wagon *cough*slower than Haz*cough*- yes to a tinder date 4. Stuart Thomas - s14a - yes to food 5. Paul Oliver- Poor mans Porsche (924)-yes to food 6. Prawn - A3 with ironing boards - Eats anything 7. Rainbird - Das Leon - Ja, Nahrung. 8. Jardo - rapey old Golf 9. Mikey pond - pimpmobile 10. Oli Skinner Chav-tastic Pug 106 11. Kennard - Feed me! 12. Haz - French clutter - Always hungry. 13. Robin - No idea but hopefully not a 406, yes to food! (but I don't need meet) 14. Richard (sfboy) - Cayman 15. George 'Le Spunk' - S3 - yes to food...anything! I basically definitely won't be in the scirocco. Just found a lot of rot, it'll either not be finished or never be finished.

Good stuff, the brackets haven't drooped at all then?

1. Tarty Adam - MX5 munter - yes to food 2. Bessell - MX5 3. Daniel James Anthony Delilah Jasmine Consuela Bananahammock Cox - yes to food 4. Stuart Thomas 5. Paul Oliver 6. Prawn - A3 with ironing boards 7. Rainbird 8. Jardo - ropey old Golf 9. Mikey pond 10. Oli Skinner Chav-tastic Pug 106 11. Kennard 12. Haz 13. Robin - Ropey Old Scirocco - yes to food! 14. 15.

Yeah, sorry, I wasn't questioning if it was needed, if it's broken it needs fixing, and you may as well upgrade while you're at it! I thought there was a suggestion of better fans being necessary for the 1.8t, but re-skimming over the thread I think I just miss understood. Tic looks happy, this makes me happy. Glad the cars going well Nick, how are the skirts holding up?

Fans shouldn't really matter for performance driving. The speed they pull air through the rad they'll quickly be overtaken by the air you're driving into as soon as you're not in traffic. They're more for traffic jams than thrashing, they're handy to bring temps down after a thrash, but if the cooling systems working properly they shouldn't need to come down much anyway. My scirocco had a knackered fan for a couple of months last year, it had no effect on spirited driving at all, I just had to stick the interior blowers on in traffic. In theory the grill area should provide more than enough air to cool and feed the intake for a 1.8t. As a general rule of thumb the radiator will need an opening about 1/3rd of its area. That's pretty small, leaving loads of room to scoop some air off to the intake. Personally I'd look at taking the intake infront of the rad rather than on the passenger side. Get the air before the hot stuff rather than just further from it. In my news, the sciroccos still barely been touched in months and the 406 is still trundling around happily. So alls boring here. Really, really need to pull my finger out and sort the scirocco.