Well, my 89 vert reached 220,000 problem free km last fall and then started giving me some trouble with the coolant buzzer. After confirming it was more than just a bad thermostat , rad, or hose leak I decided she deserved a rebuild.

Its not finished yet but should be back on the road in a month with some new paint, rebuild kit and an auxillary streetport. The engine work is being done by RPM Motorsports in Breslau Ontario and paint was done by Dinos Autobody in Guelph, Ontario.

I thought i'd share the excitement of a getting the car new again before its all finished.

Here are few of the paint prep work first.

 

Some work on the doors that had a few dents in theme from minivan drivers at the grocery store . One more reason to stick with a drive-through diet .

 

everything but a birds nest in this engine bay.

 

some gunk remover and one afternoon and the old paint is visble again . The "orange " is mostly from the flourescent and mercury vapour lamps in the shop distorting the colour

a couple holes in the wheel wells needed some patches

 

taping off and some primer in the bay . Already looks better.

And then the real stuff . Sikkens Blaze Red base and clear. )

 

and now a little on the engine .

The block

 

the Internals,

where was that coolant leak going to be?

 

there's the %#@&%%

broken casting in the center iron and torn seal

 

a little more body prep and primer

 

couldn't resist a little RPM Motorsport powder coating on those peripherals !!

 

thats it for now.

 

wow, just wow.

So when they said your car needed a rebuild, you know they meant just the motor right???

j/k haha way to go all out

 

heres the new paint, empty engine bay and the new Shineauto half bumper

 

I love it...I cant believe this thread isnt 10 pages deep by now.

 

wow man you definitly did a great job the final paint looks great, I hope when it comes time to rebuild my vert it comes out as nice as yours did.

 

nice looking project. any idea on why those water o rings were so corroded? the busted out wall is common for s4 motors but i havent seen too many s5 motors with that issue. anyway its great news that the motor toasted cause now its rock on

 

nice paint im not feeling the front bumper though

 

wow - the same thing happened to my front plate at the exact spot - but it never leaked coolant. the seal held up but i found it when i was cleaning out the groove. i now gotta find another one

 

can u say "Teh sex" nice job.

 

I hope to do that to mine one day........Mine has 80, 778 original miles..Had repaint sometime before I got it ...Looks like had some body work on drivers side,
But for 1900 its a nice DD until I get motor in my 80 SA...............Nothing like cruising with the top down.........................

 

i love seeing threads like this
good work

i'll make one like this some days lol

 

thanks all for the comments:

not sure about the tears in the seal, maybe the strain put on it by flow through the jacket was too much over time and eventually overcame the tensional strength of the seal near the cast break. The car sat for about a year with only periodic startups too, maybe just stting there weakened the oring, I also had a rad flush which started this whole episode last fall, that may have done something as well .

I think the casting break may have been related to the car sitting for about a year and the coolant being weak (water content) in a bad spot and it possibly froze on me , cracking the casting.

 

How much did that run you?

 

about $500

 

That's not bad at all. Makes me wish I had the cash.