Another update on the Audi!
Last week, I started making the oil pan and the driver's side strut and brake shield pretty again. Sanded it down to bare metal, then covered it with Kovermi rust converter and then a coating with Brantho Korrux 3-in-1 chassis paint, which is a rust protectant primer and paint in one product. It's pretty great but takes ages to harden out properly.
Oilpan got mounted to the car, of course with a new gasket and a new drain bolt and washer.
Next up I assembled the strut. New shock and strut bearing, the rest of the parts were re-used, i.e. the spring, dust boot and spring perch. The spring perch just got a lick of black paint.
Next up... the subframe.
As I was de-rusting the old subframe, I made a literal break through. Ugh, rust. I hate it. One could probably weld this, but welding on the subframe is not something the German TÜV likes to see, so time to source a different one.
Took me a few days to find one. Either people wanted a fortune or the communication was curse word. In the end I got one for a reasonable price through Facebook.
Sadly, the mounting brackets for the engine tray were bent. That was quickly taken care of. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be mounting the engine tray, as I don't have one currently and it seems it's not that easy to find one in good condition, so we'll see.
The subframe then got the same procedure done to it as the other parts. Scrubbed off the paint and rust using a cleaning disc, then rust converter followed by Brantho 3-in-1 using a paint roller.
After the rust converter was done doing it's thing (takes about 3 hours for the chemical reaction to complete), I quickly pressed out the old bushings and installed some new ones. Here you can also see how the metal looks after the rust converter did it's job. This stuff is great in that you can paint straight over it.
Also did the same to the remaining strut and brake shield for the passenger side. Now everything's just sitting the shop waiting for me to hit it with a few more coats. As I said, it takes ages to dry and harden and it's recommended to wait 12 - 24 hours between coats.
My parts bin for the Audi is pretty filled up right now. This is roughly 95% of the parts to have the whole front end new. The only thing that's missing, I think, is the bushing for the transmission holder - I'm not sure yet if I'll replace that, but if I do, it'll be after I refitted the subframe to the car.
Last week, I started making the oil pan and the driver's side strut and brake shield pretty again. Sanded it down to bare metal, then covered it with Kovermi rust converter and then a coating with Brantho Korrux 3-in-1 chassis paint, which is a rust protectant primer and paint in one product. It's pretty great but takes ages to harden out properly.
Oilpan got mounted to the car, of course with a new gasket and a new drain bolt and washer.
Next up I assembled the strut. New shock and strut bearing, the rest of the parts were re-used, i.e. the spring, dust boot and spring perch. The spring perch just got a lick of black paint.
Next up... the subframe.
As I was de-rusting the old subframe, I made a literal break through. Ugh, rust. I hate it. One could probably weld this, but welding on the subframe is not something the German TÜV likes to see, so time to source a different one.
Took me a few days to find one. Either people wanted a fortune or the communication was curse word. In the end I got one for a reasonable price through Facebook.
Sadly, the mounting brackets for the engine tray were bent. That was quickly taken care of. I'm not entirely sure if I'll be mounting the engine tray, as I don't have one currently and it seems it's not that easy to find one in good condition, so we'll see.
The subframe then got the same procedure done to it as the other parts. Scrubbed off the paint and rust using a cleaning disc, then rust converter followed by Brantho 3-in-1 using a paint roller.
After the rust converter was done doing it's thing (takes about 3 hours for the chemical reaction to complete), I quickly pressed out the old bushings and installed some new ones. Here you can also see how the metal looks after the rust converter did it's job. This stuff is great in that you can paint straight over it.
Also did the same to the remaining strut and brake shield for the passenger side. Now everything's just sitting the shop waiting for me to hit it with a few more coats. As I said, it takes ages to dry and harden and it's recommended to wait 12 - 24 hours between coats.
My parts bin for the Audi is pretty filled up right now. This is roughly 95% of the parts to have the whole front end new. The only thing that's missing, I think, is the bushing for the transmission holder - I'm not sure yet if I'll replace that, but if I do, it'll be after I refitted the subframe to the car.
