Stealth TDI Still Kicking...

[Stealth TDI]

Thanks for the comments, guys! Dream Theater's "As I Am" summed up my diesel and tuning attitude pretty well. But I had worn out that song in my other videos. This song, although not high on my playlist, says it well, too. I have five years to find another song to mark 20 years!

 

[agxster]

An inspiring video, well done.

 

[Dozenspeed]

Today marks the 15th anniversary...... commemorative video to celebrate the anniversary....


Scott

http://youtu.be/sVNYWpLASYo


I'm still really digging this video, so I'm bumping it because not enough people have watched it!

Makes me want to shoot some bumper cam video.

 

[Stealth TDI]

I don't think a lot of people come in here. I can't think of a more appropriate place to share. So I added a link to my signature. If only I posted more...

 

[rocketeer928]

Nice video, Scott. My heart fluttered when I saw the Hartford, CT photo. Ha, ha!

 

[Stealth TDI]

Okay. Time to bump this with some bad news... not terrible news... just not what I want to share. This thread has contained my very best photos for as long as I've had it open. But now I must share some bad ones... RUST.

At first, I spotted this bit in the wheel well by accident when I was taking a photo of the KONI's for someone here in TDIClub.

I didn't see the rust in person, but I sure noticed in the photo. Strut tower rust is usually a kiss of death on the Mk3s. I'm hoping this is just surface rust.

As you may know, my Mk3 has had little rest in its 16 years and 450,000 miles. I certainly didn't have the time to take it off the road for a proper repair. So I got another car to drive while I consider my Mk3 options. Did I really just by a new car so I can fix an old one?

I also had the return of some rust in the fuel filler area...

Since I currently don't have the tools to remove my suspension and I have another car to drive, I decided to take my time and attack the fuel filler area first. It got UGLY!

This is just after hitting it with a wire brush attached to a drill...

Here's the back side...

The inaccessible void behind the fuel door hinges is compromised...

This seemed like the beginning of the end since most of the patch jobs I've seen cut from other cars ALSO rusted. But then I found new panels HERE and HERE. Here are some photos:

Initially, I figured I could get away with the smaller piece. But I'm not sure how the void behind the panel is addressed. Perhaps I'll buy them both and see which one I really need. Now I just have to figure out how I want to install it... and when.

So now I'm back to other parts of the car. I need to check the floors and the severity of the strut towers before I commit to cutting and patching the fuel door. I'm going to start by stripping out the interior. There's no sense in fixing the fuel door if the floors are rotted. Some have told me floor rot is uncommon. But they haven't had THIS happen to their floors.

If my floors are good, then I'll pull the suspension and hit the strut towers. If it's just surface rust, then I'll fix it, seal it up and order some fuel door panels. I suspect I'll take it to a body shop and have them finish with a paint job. It seems like a waste of effort to repair that fuel door panel if there's not going to be good paint put over it and undercoat behind it.

I'll clean up the interior while the car is away at the body shop unless I find time to do it sooner. This is a bit out of order from a previous plan I had shared elsewhere (a plan which included another turbo upgrade). But things have changed now that I've found new problems.

Wish me luck!

Scott

 

[nicklockard]

Oh! Ouch. I hope it is just surface rust.

Also, I'm curious how the combination of water/methanol injection plus that turbo is working out for you?

 

[Stealth TDI]

The W/M system works well for reducing EGTs. But it doesn't really create more power. I used to peg at 1500-degrees in no time. Now it slowly gets up to about 1400. It may still peg at 1500 if I felt like accelerating to 100 or so. But I don't do that anymore.

I THINK the W/M may allow me to hang onto the power I make for a little longer before IC heatsoak catches up. But there's no additional power. I've checked via dyno. The turbo really is the chocking point. W/M isn't going to make things better until I can move more air.

 

[Abacus]

Floor rust isn't the kiss of death, it just takes a little longer. Your car is worth the effort.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I had the rockers and some of the floors replaced on my son's A3 a couple years ago. Not a small job, but it was nice to make the car whole. His fuel filler looks about like what yours did. I think I'll wait to dig into it.

 

[SamJammerTDi]

Keep it alive!! Grrat car!

 

[Stealth TDI]

Today I reinstalled the fuel tank so I could move the car. I also need to tow my trailer to pick up some furniture from a friend's house. My Mk6 isn't equipped to tow yet. So the Mk3 is still my mule. While I was under the car, I decided to take some photos of the rockers. The flash from the camera showed me things I normally cannot see:

Initial look at left-rear rocker area...

A shot from beneath... (yes, brake lines need replacing)...

The left-front rocker area...

The right-rear rocker looks good at first glance...

But it gets worse as it transitions up to the front...

That's it for now. I can hardly stand to think about how much this will cost to fix. I don't have the tools or dry work area to do this myself. So it'll have to go to a body shop. It'll easily cost more than the market value of the car. But will it cost as much as sentimental value? Who knows? BTW, I drove it a few miles today. After driving my Mk6 for the past month, my Mk3 feels like a real heap! Maybe the love has died. I'd like to keep it at least two more years so I can teach my daughter to drive it.

Scott

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

That doesn't look too bad, although I know that once you dig into it things can be worse than they appear. FWIW I just picked up my wagon after getting rust repair on the rockers, new fenders, and new tailgate. Fortunately most of it was covered by VW. But I'm happy to have the car back, still fun to drive. But it's low mileage compared to yours.

 

[Abacus]

Peter has it right, what you see is only part of what there is.

But that's not too bad at all, I've repaired much worse. There are two types of repairs, showroom and 'good enough' and both are priced accordingly.

I'd recommend some Fluid Film to protect it from spreading, to include the brake lines.

 

[vanbcguy]

Rust Check is awesome for delaying the inevitable. I've been nursing along some patches on Jezebel for about 5 years now. At some point I'll either get it fixed or find a nice B3 to drop my drivetrain in to...

My fuel filler area is actually perfect. I've got the same rust behind the front wheels though where someone jacked the car wrong and damaged the pinch weld. I always check for that now when buying used cars.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

This is the result of a bent jack point on my wagon:

All fixed now, but the other side wasn't nearly as bad because the jack point hadn't been bent over.

 

[mbatzel]

That doesn't look too bad, although I know that once you dig into it things can be worse than they appear. FWIW I just picked up my wagon after getting rust repair on the rockers, new fenders, and new tailgate. Fortunately most of it was covered by VW. But I'm happy to have the car back, still fun to drive. But it's low mileage compared to yours.

Sorry for the sidebar but could you PM how you got VW to fix your rust? Thanks so much.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

There are a number of threads on this: VW has a 12 year unlimited mileage warranty on rust. If you're the original owner I believe it's 12 years from date of sale: if not, it's from the build date. I'm the original owner of my car, but was also (just) within the 12 year window from the build date. Only criteria are it has to be visible rust from the outside in (not a result of surface damage, like a scratch) and there can't be any previous bodywork in the area. You take it to the dealer, they get it approved, and then they pay for the repair. Some have had trouble getting dealers to approve the warranty, but I didn't, probably because we have a good relationship with one of our local dealers.

Back OT, my son just got his A3 back on the road after an 18 month sit. Although we replaced rockers and repaired a couple parts of the floors two years ago, Mr. Chill said the car probably has about a year left in it before the structure is too rusty to drive. Scott, you should look over the entire car and make sure the core structure is still sound. I bet yours is, but sadly my son's is not. However, we do have another A3 gasser sitting that is clean and we may just swap the drivetrain into that when the time comes.

 

[Stealth TDI]

Time flies while enjoying a new car. My poor Mk3 has sat in the backyard for far too long:

The battery is dead and the coolant has leaked out. I'll charge up the battery so I can move it to the driveway. From there, I'll start to look for the coolant leak and assess the rust (again). I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.

Scott

 

[Abacus]

I'm glad, it's not good to let icons go by the wayside.

 

[JeffDes4]

Not worth throwing in the towel to me, still looks like a great car. Good idea hanging onto it.

Time flies while enjoying a new car. My poor Mk3 has sat in the backyard for far too long:

The battery is dead and the coolant has leaked out. I'll charge up the battery so I can move it to the driveway. From there, I'll start to look for the coolant leak and assess the rust (again). I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet.

Scott

 

[rocketeer928]

How about a new paint job after all the rust is taken care of?

 

[Stealth TDI]

That's the plan. The car is in the driveway with the tank removed. No real good days to do more work since then. Soon, I hope.

 

[Stealth TDI]

I found the coolant leak. It's the "tree" coming from the front of the head. I'll take care of it when the weather is better.

Before I commit to paint, I will restrip the rust around the fuel filler area (it's bad) and then seal it to keep it from spreading more. I expect to have a body man replace the fuel filler area with a replacement panel.

Then I will address another area of concern, the front strut towers. For this, I will reinstall the fuel tank, turn the car around, remove the front struts and get to work stripping the inner strut tower area. I'll be thrilled if what I see, shown in this post, is only surface rust and hasn't gotten worse since taking the photo. If it's clean, I'll reseal it with POR15, hit it with undercoat, reinstall the struts, and then have the car aligned.

Sometime during all of this, I will pull out the carpet to ensure I don't have a nightmare waiting in the floor boards. I don't think I shared my underbody mishap in this thread. But you can see it here. I didn't close the topic with photos of my finished "repair." The car was back on the road and driving like mad for so long that I never took repair photos. The thread had died and I didn't want to resurrect it. I think I did a good job with it. But it's time to take a new look, especially on the inside, since I've had a spill or two inside the car.

With that done, and if I'm happy with the floorboards, I will feel pretty good about driving the car down to my body guy for a new paint estimate that includes far more body work than I had originally planned. It's tough to budget this repair when I'm on the verge of getting my Mk6 tuned and considering options. I'm also blowing money on my bicycles.

Take Care,

Scott

 

[Stealth TDI]

Obligatory "snow car pic." This is my only photo that features all three TDIs...

I'm looking forward to some dry, tolerable weather so I can get to work. My 14-y/o daughter helped me with the tank. She's the one who jacked the car and removed the wheels. She's hardly a budding mechanic. But she'll have some sweat equity in this by the time she learns to drive in it.

Scott

 

[Norman]

... My 14-y/o daughter helped me with the tank. ...

Gee, thanks for making some of us feel really, really old, Scott.....

We're hanging on to our old cars too, so I'm glad to hear you're making plans to do the same with StealthTDI.

Take care and let us know when you're visiting family, we'll have to get together again some time.

 

[Stealth TDI]

She's almost 15 and will be eligible for a learner's permit in December.

 

[vanbcguy]

Ha... My Mk3 has a December 93 build date, she's old enough to drink!

 

[NarfBLAST]

The nice weather is here... so, how is the car coming?

 

[Stealth TDI]

Thanks for the bump. Coincidentally, I had yesterday off and some great weather. A knee injury has me off the bicycle. So what better way to spend a cool day than working on the car (or surfing TDIClub, right)?

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to report. The car has sat neglected for months! My Mk6 has me quite care-free. But I'm inclined to get the Mk3 going. I've been putting funds aside since the rust repair is going to add cost to the project. I had planned to take a bunch of photos of my journey to recovery. I didn't remember to take photos before my spring clean-up, a time when the car looked its worse. Here are a few photos that I took after the clean-up and during yesterday's work:

I just realized the car hasn't moved in about a year...

The fuel tank has been out the entire time. I didn't seal up the hole to the trunk. A single bird dropping in the trunk floor indicates that a bird took refuge from the rain inside the car. At least one spider has setup shop, too...

I found other unwanted guests, too... one nest in May and another this past weekend...

I cleaned A LOT of rust off the drums. I forgot to take that photo. But it took a lot of beating with a mallet to get the wheels off last year. I wire-wheel'd the rust away and then painted the drums...

The rust in the fuel filler area is almost impossible to clean out. Rather than continue to fight it, I've sprayed a preservative in there to (hopefully) prevent it from spreading until I can get it to a body shop for panel replacement...

I reinstalled the fuel tank after putting the factory fuel sender back into service. I couldn't connect the fuel hoses because the bits I use to connect the lift pump were rotted. I have replacements on hand and will let my daughter replace them after work today.

I then tackled the coolant leak. I replaced the coolant flange at the front of the head. Unfortunately, the part does not have a good seal at the temperature sensor. The coolant leaked out. Not wanting to mess around with another vendor's product, I just ponied-up for an OEM part, as well as associated gaskets. I'll pick it up today.

Here's my poor, corroded engine bay...

My plan for today, hopefully with my daughter's "help," is to install the OEM coolant flange, top-off the coolant, change the oil/filter, change the fuel filter, add 5-gallons of fuel and prime the fuel system, mount the rear wheels, and then get the car started.

If I'm happy with the way the car runs, I'll put it on the ground and take it for an easy drive. The tires are old and shot. So no highway miles... just some low-speed stuff to get the parts moving. The battery is DEAD. So I have to rely on my battery charger in "start" mode until I get a replacement.

Question: The front rotors have quite a layer of rust. I cannot get the car on the ground without driving it off the ramps first. Will the rust just knock-off when I apply the brakes? Or should I hit the rotors with a brush first? The rear drums spin freely. So I think I'll have SOME brakes.

My longer-term plan is to turn the car around and then remove the front suspension so I can check the strut tower rust. I'm hoping the rust is only surface rust. If it is, I'll clean it apply POR-15, undercoat it, and then prepare to send it to a body shop. Perhaps I'll have it ready to the body shop in September? I need to stay focused, perhaps stay off the bike for a while?

Wish me luck!

Scott