My Murple

[Goran]

Sorry I saw it later on in the dash weighing picture
19kg that's kind of a relief, I was worried it would be heavier. Still not easy to handle, I'm not looking forward to that.

Thanks for the recommendations I will check those out.
I am itching to get started, your posts really motivate me. I am torn between risking ordering a dash and going over there to check it out in person.
Thanks for the offer, I am hoping to get started soon, just need this lockdown to end. Other problem is its my only car so I can't have it out of action for too long, I need it for shopping duties.

[MikkiJayne]

Could be a post-lockdown weekend project then.

This one is taking me weeks, but thats because I have nothing else to do and I'm doing a deep clean and complete audio refit as I go along. If you had the donor interior cleaned and ready to go I still think it could be done in a weekend by two people.

I wouldn't really want to try shipping a dash, with or without the extra weight as there is too much delicate stuff to break at the corners. The only safe way to do it would be in a crate which would be very expensive (and look like a coffin!). Collection in person is really the best way to get it intact, plus a good excuse for a road trip

Out of interest, I did manage to get everything from inside an S8, including the headlining, dash, seats and carpet inside my A6, while still being able to drive it home from Prestige!

[Goran]

Wow that is impressive! And there I was worrying how I would fit in the dashboard into a 8
That's great advice, I'll drive over there and select a dash and drive it back myself. I would be too worried that the courier people would damage it during transport.

I do need to give those donor seats a bit of a clean.

By the way I still have those TT Mk1 seats if you want them for free. One is dismantled when I was trying to figure out if I should keep the TT base or bolt it on a D2 manual base instead. I have a couple of those D2 manual bases too. I'll put that seat back together.

[MikkiJayne]

This is all that is left of the original audio harness



Switched ignition, illumination, main power (direct from the battery), ground, and reverse. Thats all I needed from the car itself.

Wired up the Kenwood amp:

[ulfilias]

Totally love the purple.....My favourite colour. Used to have a BMW 316i M-sport compact in techno violet. It was BMW's own rip on an M3 looked very similar from the front, but a bit odd from the back being a hatchback. However was so much more practical than a saloon. I miss back seats that fold!

As for bodge jobs, well on my S8 and even my PF D3 4.2 sport, they've been practical daily drivers, with high mileage and run for relatively cheap, but i've never done stuff like that and it's always solve the underlying problem with things and then sort, rather than silicone everything to death but keep the water, that's just madness!

[The_Laird]

Michaela
How many hours are there in a day in Devon? We only have 24 up here!

[MikkiJayne]

Not enough!

[MikkiJayne]

Drivetrain time. No good it just being a nice place to sit - it needs to be driveable too so its in for an engine-out service

Due to more bodging by the aforementioned perpetrator, general corrosion and nastiness, it took 2 hours to get the front end off, most of which was taken up with the bumper since both main M12 bolts were seized and one just snapped in half! I can get the bumper off while still attached to the support brackets, but in this case general bodging and gorilla-ing of the bolts made it even more of an ordeal than usual.

I've bought a Gopro for making workshop videos, so here's 2 hours of fighting with it compressed in to 3 and a bit minutes:

https://youtu.be/uUYPe-gVGD4

Only one front panel bolt snapped which is a bonus I guess, although I still have both bumper bolts to deal with at some point. Luckily I bought a load of front panel hardware from Tradition a while back so no qualms about binning rusty hardware now.

This is where I got to by the end of the vid:



This thing is in a terrible state









This is a 2000, from when Xenon Plus were optional. It still has the original external ballasts, but has been retrofitted with the later integrated-ballast headlights.



Oh dear. What has happened here?



The perpetrator has replaced the original sealed connector with some repair wires and an unsealed connector, so of course moisture has got in and eaten the terminals



Not sure what to say about this next bodge...

Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot




Both these abominations will be cut off and replaced with unmolested parts from a spare wiring harness.

End of play today - (almost) everything on the top removed, ready for underneath work tomorrow.

(the snub mount bracket is still attached because one of the bolts is rounded off - that needs cutting off, but Big Red is just out of shot so thats another job for tomorrow when she can be moved)



Brace yourselves for some extra-special bodging....

This is what the bumper support should look like:



This is the passenger side:



One ear has been deiberately cut off to allow it to clear the AC radiator

Just for interest, this is the collection of tools required to get this far:

[Conan_the_Librarian]

I know it's wrong but I was thinking the Benny Hill Chase theme while watching the video! I'm a bad person arn't I?

[homer simpson]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Just for interest, this is the collection of tools required to get this far:

Some very important tools missing there. Kettle, mug and some tea bags!