I’ve made some solid progress on Rusty this month. First job was bleeding the brakes, with a bit of help from my wife and daughter to pump the pedal for me. I got everything bled but found that the front left caliper wasn’t retracting, so off it came again for investigation.

I haven’t managed to shift the pistons yet with the caliper out, working on that!

In case you’re wondering, the red fluid in the tray is ATF from my power steering, which has a slow leak from one of the sealing washers. I bought some new ones from Audi but haven’t fitted them yet.

I borrowed some big-boy tools from a mate to get the centre wheel nuts in place. My little battery rattle gun would not have done the trick. Now I want a compressor!

I couldn’t resist re-fitting the other three wheels, but before I did that I applied my tyre decals.

I re-filled the coolant. Top tip here, don’t forget to tighten one of your jubilee clips!

Next job was to fit that fuel line. I decided to route it a different way to the one that came on the car, adding a couple of extra clips.

So of course as soon as I got fuel in there it was time to see what a quattro sounded like with no exhaust.

Epic fail. After some investigation I traced the fault to an earth cable I’d knocked off when doing the brake lines.

This was the point where I finally had to take the plunge and order an exhaust. I had settled on a Milltek because of the sound, quality and warranty. I looked at importing one myself but in the end I decided to spend a little bit more and get one from the local agent. Mainly so I’d have that local backup and warranty. I bought it from New Zealand Performance Tuning, who had it on my doorstep in just over a week, all the way from Derby in the UK.

Humphrey wasn’t so sure, but I was very excited!

Just the tip…

The next Saturday morning I was down in the garage working out how to fit an exhaust.

I started at the front, got half of it fitted then notice I was bleeding a bit, so went for a cuppa.

After a bit of thinking and a lot of squeezing in and out from under the car I realised that I should have started at the back, because of the new brackets that needed to be bolted to the boot floor. I had to drill four holes in my car! After a LOT of measuring and double checking I went for it.

After that it all went together pretty easily.

I’m really pleased with the fit and quality. I’m sure it will need some adjustment but I’ll enlist the help of someone with a hoist to do that. It took me about three hours to fit but it would have been a lot less with a hoist and an assistant.

Here’s a clip of the first test with it fitted.

That flashing dash is getting higher on my to-do list.

I’m a few steps closer to driving my car. Next on the list – passenger window regulator, dashboard, brake caliper, put interior back together properly.

Follow the full Project Rusty build here.

Previous article2017 Toyota C-HR 2WD – Car Review – impracticably gorgeous
Next articlePress release: Stunning new Subaru XV – even makes mud look good
Rob Clubley
I love everything about cars! Driving, looking at them, modifying. It's great to see what people do with cars, the different car cultures. If I was rich, my garage would be bigger than my house!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.