audi 80 back at it!

made the mistake of calling the cops before I left work. They were pushing him into the backseat by the time I got there. I prolly loaded and unloaded the thing 30 times pacing around the kitchen table waiting for the officers to take my statement.

Trans is in, waiting on an engine hoist. Hoping to drive this puppy back to spokane.

Whoops been a while, got relocated, got through the holidays, got the garage arranged and blew up a car.

Insurance paperwork comes in tomorrow so next weekend will hopefully be the start of the major work.

Got back at her tonight, got the engine and dash wiring harnesses out, need to get the rest of the interior harness out and trim it all down.

Any one have any helpful tricks for this? I plan on splaying it across the garage floor tomorrow night and going to town with a label maker, a meter and the bentley. I've lost track of where I left off when I was removing the ABS system.

Plan is use the factory wiring/fusebox/relays for head/taillights/blinkers/heater.

Dash switched:
Radiator fan
Fuel pump (in conjunction with ecu control)
Ignition
Engine start
Rally light one
Rally light two
Kill switch
Aux 1
Aux 2
Rally Computer
Nav light

I'm just shooting in the dark here, aux switches are for future something. I'd rather be able to add something than not have it.
Relays for dash switches will be dash mounted

Do I want to make the factory guage cluster work or should I just go buy a speedo and tach and use the rest of the guages I have lying around?

Stick with factory gauges. On the XR it was easier to isolate the engine harness from the chassis, and wire the rest of the car from scratch. Also, where the fuse box is, that is the perfect spot for a cage bar to go to the front strut tower.

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aj_johnson
made the mistake of calling the cops before I left work. They were pushing him into the backseat by the time I got there. I prolly loaded and unloaded the thing 30 times pacing around the kitchen table waiting for the officers to take my statement.

I highly recomend Akidas or if you can find them, Akida/wolf mix. Its like having Seals that love your kids guarding your house.

Factory gauges are fine. They're just for reference and to alert you. Add oil temp and oil pressure (electric is fine , we run the car on milli-volts and milli-amps, oughtter be good enuf for mere gauges. I use VDO cause the VDO and Euro senders are a snap to match)

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
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is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

after the small hiatus while parting the fireball...

Every once of wiring has been removed from the car. Found a ton of leftover spools from someone elses project, and those should be here at the end of the month.

Interior is stripped. Gotta figure out how to remove the sunroof. Time to clean up, yank the motor again and get friendly with the dry ice.
Wife is taking the kids to the inlaws for a little over a week starting next thursday. That gives me till next sunday to have this car on a trailer headed for the real shop. The following monday starts cage fitting and tacking. I'm not sure how much help I'm gonna have with the bending/fitting. There is supposed to be some help but I dunno how much.
I've got someone lined up to weld it for me, but I've only got a week to fit it.
Any generic "start here, this next, this last" tips?
I'm assuming I need to remove the windshield, but the rear window?
Any tips for finding all the holes that need to be plugged?

Decide if the cage will land on the floor, or on top of the sills first. Fit the main hoop, then fit the forward bars to the chassis, have them both sitting on top of the top plates for the feet, nothing welded into the car yet. Fit the brow bar. Fit the roof V or X. If you do an X, make the tacos now if you cant get to them through the sunroof hole. Tack that whole structure together, if the cage sits up on the sills then pull the main hoop legs together with a ratchet strap so you can drop it down on the floor and weld all the tops of the tubes. Put it back up, weld the bottom side of the tubes, then move on to making the rest of the bars.

The main X, rear stays, door bars, A pillar support can all be welded fully with the main structure up in place. Just make sure you don't forget to weld the top of a tube and put it up into place.

If your cage sits on the floor, you can drill holes in the floor to drop the cage down, that get covered up by the feet plates.

Best to have the seat mounts done first, as seat position dictates alot of the bar placement.

Weld up any holes where dust or water can get in.

looks like I'm gonna have to borrow some seats. On the roof V vs X
V provides more headroom correct? Headroom is a concern. I'm only 6' but it's not that tall of a car.

I was going to offer up one of my seats but there is already plenty of seats sitting around for you to use haha.

Plenty of seats to borrow, but I'd rather not have to mount them twice.

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aj_johnson
Plenty of seats to borrow, but I'd rather not have to mount them twice.

You will mount and remove everything in there so many times...

I know but it would be nice to do it with seats that I'm going to actually use.

Got the sound deadening out last night. My fingers are still numb from using the Harbor Freight electric scraper. I tried dry ice on one section and it seemed to go worse than the the sections that I attacked with just the scraper.

To remove the remnants of the tar, is Kerosene the trick?

Tonight I have my first date with the spot weld drill. Do I need the deluxe model? or can I just pick one up at Harbor Freight?

I had better luck with a $20 one from Tool Zone. The Harbor Freight one I used the cutters from the nicer one and still had issues as the pin was soft and kept getting round. Never had that issue with the Tool Zone one and they carry replacement pins as well. Can't remember brand, but made in America.

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Grant Hughes