A8 Parts Forum - What's in the workshop

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- - What's in the workshop - Dolphin Grey time (https://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14214)

What's in the workshop - Dolphin Grey time

Many of you saw what I'd been up to for the last month over the weekend, but for those who weren't at the meet, here's a run-down of what I've been doing on my own Dolphin Grey S8 :)

Here she was with Vera's Pelikan Blau:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

Gorgeous, but not very exciting :eek:

Some of you may remember this dead FE that I picked up locally from this thread

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

I liberated it's red interior. Red with grey. What were they thinking? http://www.corradov8.com/pics/screwy.gif

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

You may also remember this 2.8 FWD with a blown-up gearbox which I bought for its black interior

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

More of that later.

I stripped everything out of mine and got cracking...

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

I found the infernal rattle in the centre console - a loose snap nut with no home!

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

First job - get rid of the damn shifter interlock. This thing drives me nuts when putting a D2 on the lift (which I do a lot!) because it stops you shifting in to neutral without the key. Of course if you leave the key in, the car's electronics stay awake so the battery goes flat after a while. I can't open the doors on the lift so I have to leave the window open, and if I'm working on one for a few weeks it then gets dusty inside. Its all a big pain in the posterior so its getting deleted from mine.

This is the cable to the ignition barrel

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

and this is where it attaches to the shifter

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

With the key in, remove the circlip and slide the cable end out

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228517

One bolt removes the clamp from the shifter housing

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228547

This lever needs to go as without the cable it just flops about. Not sure if it would lock the shifter unintentionally, but it might rattle. I had to cut this up with the dremel and take it out in three bits.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228547

All gone. I replaced the top aluminium cover while it was off since the original was all corroded and nasty.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528228547

On to the interior. I started with the back seat from the blue car

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

First thing removed was the headrest supports

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

Then dismantled the armrest.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

and the centre headrest

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

It took quite a while to get all this lot separated

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

Did the same on the red seat

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

All the red leather removed from the grey plastic

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

I cleaned everything while it was apart since it was filthy

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230503

You can see the contrast to the original colour here

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230577

Its very hard to show before / after with the red, but you get the idea. I must have spent 25-30 hours just cleaning the leather!

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230577

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230577

Now some people have cast aspersions that there is only one, quite specific, market for a big black Audi with red leather seats. Of course I have vigorously defended it's honour in this regard.

Oh look. A sequin stuck on the back seat :o

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230577

And quite a lot of glitter... I may have to concede shenanigans :rolleyes:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230577

Back seat completed:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230577

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528230577

The driver's seat right bolster had collapsed in the FE so I stripped the perfect right bolster from the black donor passenger seat

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

FE bolster on the bottom here

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

I forgot to take any pics of swapping it over sorry! Its nice and comfy again though.

Original red front seat with grey plastic

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

The black interior donated all its black plastics

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

I experimented with the black seat controls panel like in Davey Blueeyes' car

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

I prefer the extended red though, and in hindsight given the rest of the extended red bits this was the right decision

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

Passenger seat completed

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231354

On to the most challenging part - the door cards. Those of a nervous disposition might want to change the channel at this point...

Cut the top off the red FE door card with a sawzall :eek2:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

Cleaned up the edges with the dremel to leave just the bit I wanted

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

I did the opposite with the black door cards from the donor interior, just keeping the top piece.

I did some experimenting with different types of adhesive using a scrap bit of the door card ABS plastic. I clamped up three pieces overnight and then measured the force required to break them the following morning

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

The 2-component Plastic Doctor at the top is by far the strongest - the plastic itself broke before the glue gave way, however with a 2-3 minute max working time it was useless for the task at hand. The airfix glue (remember that?) at the bottom was the weakest of the three but still very strong and also the easiest to work with, since it didn't require mixing and had a 10 minute working time. Given the surface area I was working with I deemed its strength to be acceptable so off I went.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

Swapped over the door catch, speaker grille, and vents, and one door card is complete. It took three full days work from the first cut to this picture, for each of the four panels, including cleaning and treating the leather.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

Fitted to the car

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

Same process with the tunnel trims

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528231922

I really wanted to keep the maple wood as I rather like it on the black dash, but it looked terrible against the red so I swapped in the FE Myrtle.

The panels were in a pretty terrible state so I dismantled all the pieces and polished them with some Koch Chemie M.2 ultrafine anti-hologram polish.

Before:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

After:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

Much better :) I'm going to experiment with some paint protection film to permanently protect the centre console pieces against scratches. More on that when I get to it.

Random pic of my sub setup for those who are interested:

The box is effectively inside-out and uses the boot as a tuned enclosure. I have bell-mouthed tuned ports mounted in the original speaker holes.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

The back of the amplifier board

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

I used terminal strips so the amp board is easily removable for tinkering

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

Test-fitted my new wheels to check for clearance.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

Discovered what a state the brake discs were in, hence changing them before I drove up to the meet on Friday!

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

The wheels fitted fine so gave them a good clean. It took six applications of fallout remover before they stopped running purple! The inside barrels were like sandpaper with all the embedded brake dust.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

Fitted new TPMS sensors. No, it doesn't have TPMS... yet ;)

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 tyres fitted.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233394

Looking fab in the sun before setting off for the meet

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1528233410

Bloody hell MJ..had no idea how much work was involved getting it like that, superb work yet again..when you moving to Scotland?;)

Around 200 hours spent on the interior, but it was totally worth it!

Beautiful. I love that colour combo +++

That's a lot of hours! Well worth it as it looked amazing. Would never have realised you needed to cut the door cards apart like that though.