The $400 S4 Vert Resurrection
03-22-10, 09:43 AM
#1
The $400 S4 Vert Resurrection
Well I found a 88 convertible 2 hours away from me, and picked it up for $400. Runs/drives great, has 129xxx miles, all original, rough body. The previous owner was going to do a 350 swap(cool huh? 
) and he had it for a year and a half and it was sitting most of the time there, and after a bit of searching I found out it was sitting for a year before he bought it.
Like I said it runs good, but there was a catch; it did not stop. Previous owner *attempted* to put new brake pads in, and he said one line was leaking. After a bit of investigating, I found that the front hardlines (between the caliper and the strut) were way to long, thus leaking. I also found that he stripped out the bleeder screw on the caliper, and it needed a master cylinder. Along with that, it needed some interior work, a new top, new rocker panels (pics will explain that lol), and many, many various other small things.
But the good deal is that I have all those parts just sitting in the shed. I got the brakes working good, and have new pads. Fixed a lot of small things in the interior that needed replaced, and fresh oil change w/ K&N filter.
My plans right now are to fix it up into a nice daily driver and once I get more cash flowing, who knows what I'm going to do with it.
So here are some pics I took right after I got it, more pics will come with progress.
teh paint is faded horribly, looks like its never seen a garage, or a buffer in its life. But you gotta love sunrise red!
Sweet top eh?
The pic makes the paint look better than it is. But we'll see what we can do with that...
) and he had it for a year and a half and it was sitting most of the time there, and after a bit of searching I found out it was sitting for a year before he bought it. Like I said it runs good, but there was a catch; it did not stop. Previous owner *attempted* to put new brake pads in, and he said one line was leaking. After a bit of investigating, I found that the front hardlines (between the caliper and the strut) were way to long, thus leaking. I also found that he stripped out the bleeder screw on the caliper, and it needed a master cylinder. Along with that, it needed some interior work, a new top, new rocker panels (pics will explain that lol), and many, many various other small things.
But the good deal is that I have all those parts just sitting in the shed. I got the brakes working good, and have new pads. Fixed a lot of small things in the interior that needed replaced, and fresh oil change w/ K&N filter.
My plans right now are to fix it up into a nice daily driver and once I get more cash flowing, who knows what I'm going to do with it.
So here are some pics I took right after I got it, more pics will come with progress.
teh paint is faded horribly, looks like its never seen a garage, or a buffer in its life. But you gotta love sunrise red!
Sweet top eh?
The pic makes the paint look better than it is. But we'll see what we can do with that...
03-22-10, 03:52 PM
#3
Senior Member
I bought mine for 500 It sat for years too. It's not perfect but it will get there. The hard part is fixing the rust. At least the top is good doing a rebuild in the summer.
03-23-10, 03:16 PM
#7
Got the new top on, this top has a slight tear at the bottom thats just starting, so I'll see if I can find a place to patch that. Spent a lot of time polishing/waxing the paint, and it looks like an entirely different car now. Also put the k&n air filter in, along with a bunch of other small things.
I know how much teh 7club likes pics, so I'll post up a bunch of them...
new top.
Shiny paint!!! The pics don't do it justice, but in the pics in the original post, the car was washed, so all the imperfections were in the paint.
I know how much teh 7club likes pics, so I'll post up a bunch of them...
new top.
Shiny paint!!! The pics don't do it justice, but in the pics in the original post, the car was washed, so all the imperfections were in the paint.
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03-23-10, 03:35 PM
#8
Detailed the engine bay, it was coated in nastiness before I did this. Took out the wire that runs on top of the firewall going to the check connector by the coil(previous owners work).
Black with suede inserts door panels that were in my parts car.
$60 of awesome! I figured this would be a great thing to pick up being I am planning on keeping this mostly stock/unmolested.
And here are the miracle creams. I used this because I don't have a buffer, and the ultimate compound stuff works with little effort on rubbing it in. I can not say enough about how well they work.
Both of my 7's enjoying the sun...
03-25-10, 12:13 AM
#17
Yeah lol. That's my slowly progressing project which isn't even close to driving yet, I wouldn't let in leave my driveway with s4's and s5's. I'm in the process of modernizing the left tail, but the vert has been getting all of my attention.
03-28-10, 10:50 AM
#18
I put the s5 tails on I had sitting in the house, along with my GReddy Power Extreme exhaust. I was going to use this exhaust on my other car, but I'll probably run a large single on that, as the GReddy exhaust is 2.5". The previous owner gutted the cats and welded new pipe onto them, but the flanges are slightly off, so no matter how I adjusted everything it still leaks a bit. Some time I will have a mid pipe built which will fix the issue.
As I said before, besides for the oil/air filter, everything I have put into it is stuff that was just sitting around. So far I have $512 total invested in it.
Here's some more pics.
Stock exhaust vs. greddy
As I said before, besides for the oil/air filter, everything I have put into it is stuff that was just sitting around. So far I have $512 total invested in it.
Here's some more pics.
Stock exhaust vs. greddy
03-29-10, 10:38 PM
#21
lolz thanks casey.
Well, the TPS finally took a ****. It was out of spec pretty bad at idle, and the car would not hold an idle at all, and ran like crap below 2k. So I ended up stealing the TPS off of my TII engine. Also fixed a vac leak, so it idles better than it ever has!
Put my 10.5 mm Magnacore plug wires on, and call me crazy, but my butt dyno noticed an improvement...
Currently I am taking out random bolts/brackets out of the engine bay and polishing them. Yeah, I don't have anything better to do apparently
.
Well, the TPS finally took a ****. It was out of spec pretty bad at idle, and the car would not hold an idle at all, and ran like crap below 2k. So I ended up stealing the TPS off of my TII engine. Also fixed a vac leak, so it idles better than it ever has!
Put my 10.5 mm Magnacore plug wires on, and call me crazy, but my butt dyno noticed an improvement...
Currently I am taking out random bolts/brackets out of the engine bay and polishing them. Yeah, I don't have anything better to do apparently
.
03-30-10, 09:54 PM
#24
^Thanks
Rust is pretty bad, on the passenger side it is in the inside of the wheel well by the rocker, and it has some bondo on the outside of the rocker so it looks better than it is. The rest of the wheel arches, are clean however.
Had an 'oh ****' moment today. Was driving it up to the garage to detail the interior, and it started smoking under the hood right before I pulled it in. I smelled rubber burning, killed it and opened the hood to find smoke and fire coming from the passenger side of the engine bay. My first thought was pulsation damper, but it ended up being one of the wires coming out of the ACV shorted and the insulation/loom was burning. Amazed me how fast/well that **** burns! But I put it out before it did any damage, the aftermath of it is a black spot on the ACV, and a toasted wire, which I unplugged and removed.
My guess why that happened is because the wire and insulation is very brittle from the heat of the exhaust+being 22 years old. And a few days ago I was messing around down there wiring the aux ports open(yeah I know, zomg he wired teh ports open, stupid!!!) but they aren't opening obviously due to an after market exhaust, and I am not running a rpm switch setup to actuate them. But... when I working down there, I hit one of the wires on the ACV lightly, and it busted clean off. So I probably bumped this wire enough for it to start shorting out. I'm just glad it didn't happen going down the road, as it would of probably been the end of the car...
So now I have an excellent reason to delete the ACV and airpump
Rust is pretty bad, on the passenger side it is in the inside of the wheel well by the rocker, and it has some bondo on the outside of the rocker so it looks better than it is. The rest of the wheel arches, are clean however.
Had an 'oh ****' moment today. Was driving it up to the garage to detail the interior, and it started smoking under the hood right before I pulled it in. I smelled rubber burning, killed it and opened the hood to find smoke and fire coming from the passenger side of the engine bay. My first thought was pulsation damper, but it ended up being one of the wires coming out of the ACV shorted and the insulation/loom was burning. Amazed me how fast/well that **** burns! But I put it out before it did any damage, the aftermath of it is a black spot on the ACV, and a toasted wire, which I unplugged and removed.
My guess why that happened is because the wire and insulation is very brittle from the heat of the exhaust+being 22 years old. And a few days ago I was messing around down there wiring the aux ports open(yeah I know, zomg he wired teh ports open, stupid!!!) but they aren't opening obviously due to an after market exhaust, and I am not running a rpm switch setup to actuate them. But... when I working down there, I hit one of the wires on the ACV lightly, and it busted clean off. So I probably bumped this wire enough for it to start shorting out. I'm just glad it didn't happen going down the road, as it would of probably been the end of the car...
So now I have an excellent reason to delete the ACV and airpump
