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Daily banter For everything, and anything that doesnt fit in elsewhere |
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#1
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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: Gorgeous, but not very exciting Some of you may remember this dead FE that I picked up locally from this thread I liberated it's red interior. Red with grey. What were they thinking? You may also remember this 2.8 FWD with a blown-up gearbox which I bought for its black interior More of that later. I stripped everything out of mine and got cracking... I found the infernal rattle in the centre console - a loose snap nut with no home! 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 and this is where it attaches to the shifter With the key in, remove the circlip and slide the cable end out One bolt removes the clamp from the shifter housing 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. All gone. I replaced the top aluminium cover while it was off since the original was all corroded and nasty. |
#2
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On to the interior. I started with the back seat from the blue car
First thing removed was the headrest supports Then dismantled the armrest. and the centre headrest It took quite a while to get all this lot separated Did the same on the red seat All the red leather removed from the grey plastic I cleaned everything while it was apart since it was filthy You can see the contrast to the original colour here 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! 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 And quite a lot of glitter... I may have to concede shenanigans Back seat completed: |
#3
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The driver's seat right bolster had collapsed in the FE so I stripped the perfect right bolster from the black donor passenger seat
FE bolster on the bottom here I forgot to take any pics of swapping it over sorry! Its nice and comfy again though. Original red front seat with grey plastic The black interior donated all its black plastics I experimented with the black seat controls panel like in Davey Blueeyes' car I prefer the extended red though, and in hindsight given the rest of the extended red bits this was the right decision Passenger seat completed |
#4
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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 Cleaned up the edges with the dremel to leave just the bit I wanted 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 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. 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. Fitted to the car Same process with the tunnel trims |
#5
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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: After: 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. The back of the amplifier board I used terminal strips so the amp board is easily removable for tinkering Test-fitted my new wheels to check for clearance. Discovered what a state the brake discs were in, hence changing them before I drove up to the meet on Friday! 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. Fitted new TPMS sensors. No, it doesn't have TPMS... yet Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 tyres fitted. Looking fab in the sun before setting off for the meet |
#6
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Some pics of the completed interior after I got back from the meet:
I have fallen in love with this car all over again The new wheels and tyres have transformed the handling, the Supersport exhaust has released just the right amount of lovely V8 burble, and the interior has gone from a nice place to be to properly exciting |
#7
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Bloody hell MJ..had no idea how much work was involved getting it like that, superb work yet again..when you moving to Scotland?
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Audi S8 2015, Daytona Grey Maserati Granturismo 2008, Metallic Nero Carbonio |
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