1993 Audi 100E Avant (Chronic MoT failure 9/7/13 update)

[keithyboy]

Not sure that it's really retro but it's nearly 20 years old and there are apparently only 50 2.0E Avant manuals left so it's a rare sight these days.

Since we got a dog last year, I've been under pressure from my wife to buy an estate car for general domestic duties. I scrapped my Alfa 156 earlier in the year due to a list of woes that would cost more to fix than it was worth so I've been without a car for the first time since I passed my test.

Anyway, to me estate car really means Volvo and ideally a 940 Turbo. Then I stumbled across a 1993 Audi 100 Avant on ebay. It was externally tatty and only a 2.0E but it was cheap, had lots of T&T and lots of history.

Yesterday I trekked across the pennines, collected it from Sheffield, and drove it home over Snake Pass.

Mechanically, it wears its 19 years and 180,000 miles really well but it does have some cosmetic issues.

On the way home:



Filth:







Bits hanging off:



Magic extra opening bonnet:





I cracked on with the paintwork tonight and the bonnet looks fairly decent. I just need to do the rest now.







Once it's clean and looking less sheddy I have a rusty front wing bottom to repair. Once that's done, a bit of adjustment of the ride height is called for. I'm also going to ditch the wheel trims and paint the wheels black.

The chrome trim around the grille is scruffy so I think that can turn black. The badges on the rear can go apart from the four rings which I might paint dark grey.

I was hoping to ditch the door mouldings but they have clips rather than glue so paint would be needed

[LAndy]

I painted the grill surround black on my audi 80 and it looked miles better!

With a good drop and wheels this should be a breat looking bus!

[keithyboy]

Further work on the cleaning front tonight. curse word me that's a big roof though. First car I 've had where the middle of the roof requires a proper stretch.

[keithyboy]

It's been lashing down on and off all day so there's been no polishing. I did break out the spanners and the ramps to change the oil and replace the broken dipstick tube though. Hopefully the car won't stink of hot oil now.

Engine access is a dream compared to most FWD cars.











With that done, I ventured into the garage to see if I could do anything with the knackered door moulding from the driver's door. The problem seems to be that the metal strip inside the plastic has rusted and swelled up. To cut a long story very short, I ground out the rusty section and glued in a new piece of steel. It won't be perfect when finished but it will sit flush and look respectable.













The big question is whether the procon ten sticker remains or not.

[Neil]

This:



must remain!

[keithyboy]

Fathers' day update.

The gift haul included this so my tyres are now black and shiny (or at least were, see below).



Everything above the door mouldings is polished up now. Below the mouldings needs claying and I ran out of clay substitute the other day. Sticking to the principles of bangernomics, the mouldings needed sorting out and the only solution was to break out the boiled linseed oil.







She now looks like this:





Another pic using a new cartoon effect on the camera.



The dog loves having her own space. So much so that she keeps climbing in whenever the tailgate is open.



We loaded her up this aft and went to find some mud to spread all over my nice clean tyres.

[orangecords]

I'm liking that-i love a luxowagon

[keithyboy]

A bit of progress to report. My photobucket account has gone tits up so I'm transferring to imageshack. I just haven't had chance to transfer all my other pics yet.

Anyway, the towbar stabliser mount has gone (requiring the use of a 5 foot breaker bar).


By keith070271 at 2012-06-23


By keith070271 at 2012-06-23

The chrome surround on the front grille was tatty as hell. No shine, stonechipped, faded.


By keith070271 at 2012-06-25

Following Greavesy's lead, I had a root in the garage and found half a can of black from painting my son's BMX last summer. So off with the grille:


By keith070271 at 2012-06-25

Off with the surround. These Germans adopt a belt and braces approach, with the securing taps melted to the grille itself.


By keith070271 at 2012-06-25

Flatting with 600 grade paper.


By keith070271 at 2012-06-25

Degreased and painted


By keith070271 at 2012-06-25

And back on the car.


By keith070271 at 2012-06-25

Rear badges off is next I think. However, the are too close to the body to get owt behind so I need some fishing line to sort of saw them off.

[GT4ME]

Looks cool.

[VIP]

Jun 25, 2012 12:46:13 GMT keithyboy said:

Rear badges off is next I think. However, the are too close to the body to get owt behind so I need some fishing line to sort of saw them off.

Heatgun the chuff out of them, you should be able to get a finger nail behind them enough to pop them off, or an old credit card.

[keithyboy]

Jun 25, 2012 13:31:27 GMT VIP said:

Jun 25, 2012 12:46:13 GMT keithyboy said:

Rear badges off is next I think. However, the are too close to the body to get owt behind so I need some fishing line to sort of saw them off.

Heatgun the chuff out of them, you should be able to get a finger nail behind them enough to pop them off, or an old credit card.

I'm between heatguns at the moment (I seem to get hrough them). I've been making do with an old hairdryer for painting jobs but I think it might be time to invest again. Hadn't thought of the credit card idea.

Cheers.

[mylittletony]

dude, is this pre or post facelift? I had a 100 s4 many moons ago and bought a badgeless grill, but turns out it was for the post facelift (hardly any difference...)

Anyway, I've still got it and if you want it for minimal funds, you're welcome to it!

[keithyboy]

Jun 25, 2012 17:27:18 GMT mylittletony said:

dude, is this pre or post facelift? I had a 100 s4 many moons ago and bought a badgeless grill, but turns out it was for the post facelift (hardly any difference...)

Anyway, I've still got it and if you want it for minimal funds, you're welcome to it!

I thought all C4s were the same until the A6 came along so I'm learning all the time. I usually like a badgeless grille and toyed with buying one but I think I prefer it with the badge. The place is to keep the four circles front and back and ditch the rest (if I ever get the rears off).

Thanks anyway.

[keithyboy]

Because of the filthy state of the car, getting the bits between the badges clean proved to be impossible. I couldn't help thinking that it would look better without them so, with the dog fast asleep in the boot, I set to.

Yanking the badges left this black stuff that was rock hard.


By keith070271 at 2012-06-27

43 hours of rubbing with white spirit later and I was left with fairly obvious outlines of where the badges had been.


By keith070271 at 2012-06-27

So out with the compound.



The finished job.


By keith070271 at 2012-06-27


By keith070271 at 2012-06-27

You can still just see where the badges were from certain angles so I might try a bit of gentle wet sanding next.
By keith070271 at 2012-06-27

[keithyboy]

Does anyone know any good forums for older Audis? I've joined audi-sport.net but the techie bit for older cars is a bit of ghost town.

[craig1010cc]

the 2 I've been using are

www.classic-audi.co.uk/forum/index.php

and

www.audifans.net/forums.html

[keithyboy]

Jul 1, 2012 15:46:06 GMT craig1010cc said:

the 2 I've been using are

www.classic-audi.co.uk/forum/index.php

and

www.audifans.net/forums.html

Cheers.

A quick look at the second one has thrown up a sticky on the very speedo problem I need to ask about.

[keithyboy]

I've now retrieved my memory card so a brief update on my rusty front wing.

Behind the filler is a hi-tec steel/fibreglass honeycomb. The shape is far more complex than you might think so it took a few passes with the trowel. Sadly there are no pics of my lousy welding as my daughter had the camera. Bizarrely, apart from the same spot on the other wing (which isn't really bad enough to be worth worrying about) thereis no more rust at all.



All masked up and ready to prime.



Primed.



There is some bubbling all around the arch like this.



But attacking it with a twist knot brush in the grinder found nowt but solid metal.



So I splashed on some Hammerite rust killer and took the dog (who had been waiting patiently in the boot as always) for a walk.

[keithyboy]

The rain (and my loss of bottle as regards cutting springs coupled with a lack of funds for new springs) has hampered further activities other than a bit more work on the manky front wing. Underneath the bubbling it was mostly solid metal too.

[keithyboy]

Bit of spanner twirling today. Ever since I got the car there has been an annoying squeak/scraping noise from the OSF brakes. It didn't sound serious but was getting on my ****.

With the wheel off, it was immediately apparent that the heat shield was rusted to curse word and had buckled making it catch on the disc.



So off with the caliper, carrier and disc (which despite not being vented, weighs a bllody ton).





Loads of meat on the pads.





Thus exposing the offending shield.



It's held on by 3 10mm bolts but these were rusted to curse word too so much chiseling, hammering and pulling was needed.



Before putting it back together, I gave the sliders and good clean as they were a bit sticky.



Spot of loctite on the carrier bolts.



And it's back together.



With the shield off, you can see where it was catching the disc.



The other job I've been meaning to do is paint the wheels. I don't want a set of scabby old wobbly alloys but I hate wheel trims so a coat of gloss black was required. Materials were purchased from Manchester's premier bodyshop supplier yesterday (Poundland).



I won't bore you with rubbing down. I'll just show you my patented tyre masking system. Getting tape to stick to rubber is a get. It's much easier to paint the tyres with washing up liquid.



Splash of primer, and blow over with the black and it's job done. One £1 can was just enough to do two wheels. I'll go and buy more next week to do the back ones.



All it needs is hosing off to get rid of the washing up liquid and the overspray goes with it.

Whilst it was up in the air, I had a look at the suspension and I don't think spring chopping is an option as the bottom coil tapers in quite a bit. Once the service work is done, funds will be found for a set of springs.