You did an excellent job Scott. I think it looks fantastic.

 

LOTS of work accomplished this past weekend on reassembly - sure helps to have Friday's off in the summer!

Overview list:
(1) Axle shaft (passenger torqued and wired into place (Thanks Chris Lockhart and Seth [skpyle])!
(2) Fuel tank reinstalled - no leaks!!!!!! (Thanks Lou [vetter59]
(3) Which allowed me to verify that my new fuel lines do not leak
(4) Which allowed a successful startup for the first time in 6 months
(5) Which allowed rear bumper to be remounted + install new tow hook plugs, reinstall overriders, etc.
(6) Fuel door remounted
(7) Rear wheels polished
(8) Front parking light lenses cleaned and polished
(9) HVAC Operation verified (I had plugged one solenoid for the blend door and zip tied it open)
(10) Dash reinstalled
(11) Pod instrument operation verified - still in progress
(12) Bottom of passenger seat de-upholstered (this one is going to be fun!)
(13) New radio wiring harness installed
(14) Front air dam pieces resprayed with flex seal

Rear end being rebuilt.


Gas flap reatttached and lights in place


Newly polished lenses - nice and shiny


Fresh front end with cleaned lenses.


Flex seal on front air dam. Blow this up and let me know what you think. To me the texture is a little thicker than factory, but still looks pretty good.


Also made a trip to LKQ on Saturday and found...
- three new solid back interior headliner lamps
- a replacement radio antenna
- a bose spare tire subwoofer

 

Dash is back in.


Antenna (roof antenna from a Mazda 626). It fits the hole very well and I kind of like the look. My power antenna was broken.


Junkyard run - three new interior lights from an early 2000's jetta (painted the bezels black). And antenna from Mazda 626 (painted black as well).


My other junkyard find - a homelink transmitter from the visor of an A6 - fits very nicely in the front of the cassette box and a new piece of foam covers the transmitter antenna that runs the length of the visor.


Power is all the Homelink box needs - drilled a small hole in the front of cassette box and will run under the carpet to the console and tie in to X bus.


Wheels polished up nicely - was not expecting that. Used Meguiars Ultra Cut. Had to do them by hand - DA was not effective.


Old seat bottom carcass

 

I guess I missed it, but when did you decide to chop the front spoiler up into 3 pieces?

And your work on the seats is amazing. Those look great.

If you think the design looks good, wait until you sit in them.

I've put in a few very long (8+ hours with short breaks) days riding in them. Hands down, most comfortable seats I've ridden in.

 

 

 

Well been out of town over the weekend and first part of the week but have gotten a few things done...

1) Finished passenger seat. Finally got the bottom stretched a bit more but still not the tight look I was going for. The metal rods that are held tight against the seat springs with hog clips are about as tight as I can get them, so I believe on the driver's seat I need to add a bit more batting on the tops of the scallops to make the vinyl pull down farther. Live and learn.
2) Got the roof mechanism working smoothly. Have not reattached the panel itself yet, so I hope the smoothness will continue once reattached. Ready to get the headliner back in and out of the garage.
3) Got the front end put back together. That was relief as I cut my parts stash down by quite a bit. Front spoiler did not turn out quite as I envisioned but its ok. Definitely no pressure on the side wings from the center section. Not sure how I could make it any smoother there.
4) Trim painted on rear 1/4 windows.

See pics below. More to come. We're getting close.

Front end reassembled. Looks pretty clean now with crisp black lines for newly painted spoiler and light trim, clean lenses, etc.


Spoiler does not meet quite as I had hoped, but it works to be in 3 pieces. Nice to have these pieces off the floor and on the car so they don't get lost or broken.


Passenger seat. Still working on switches to get them working. The bottom section is not as "tight" as the top - will put more batting in the driver's bottom to hopefully alleviate.

 

 

Link?

 

 

Well work continues to get everything reinstalled - touch to see progress sometimes because things are hidden, small, etc. but it is nice to know things are happening!

A summary of the weekend work:

1) reinstalled pod and verified operation. coolant temp gauge pegs on startup, and fuel gauge does not register, but I think these are both sender related
2) cleaned and reinstalled headlights and covers
3) installed final three pieces of carpet
4) stripped driver's seat and recovered bottom (and got 2/3 way through the back)
5) finished wiring stereo head unit
6) worked on headliner...having to make adjustments to fit...difficulty is that obviously I can't see holes to match for visors, etc. The old headliner is so warped it is no help.
7) reinstalled sunroof and it WORKS!!! Hard to believe. I cannot get it to raise all the way in the back when I close it (have to push it the last couple of mm manually). But I probably will never open it.
8) wired door crossovers for speakers

Bottom of driver's seat. Used quite a bit more new batting this time as my big tail really compressed the foam.


Test fit of new cover. Still not perfectly happy with the bottom but its a little better than the passenger side. Made a bunch of short videos of the disassembly process to post and help someone else down the road.


Door crossovers installed


Full shot of door crossover and speaker panels.


She can see again!


Working sunroof - no scratches.


Pod is back in - what a pain.


Testing the seat switches for good operation. MajesticMoose was a big help here. Faulty seat switches are caused by the spring built into the contacts not allowing the circuit to make in one direction or the other. It is really a trial and error process until it is 'fixed'.

 

And was able to get the driver's side back finished up at lunch. Will put it back together tonight and be ready to go.

 

 

Small steps today but for some odd reason satisfying - I guess its just that the end of the project is near. And my parts stash and plastic baggies for storage is shrinking considerably.

1) Reinstalled the side trim on the back that I forgot to put in when I put the rear seatbacks in.
2) Finally got the drivers side of the new headliner screwed in (visor and clip, etc.). I believe the plastic is going to work great. For those that want to try this at home, The holes that I tried to copy from the old headliner for the grommets, etc. did not line up well. Someone smarter than me needs to think through that and provide insight for everyone. Good news is the total $$ investment in the headliner is all of about $50, so it could be pulled and reworked.
3) Started working on the passenger door - I need to get the window motor to quiet down considerably, and have to replace the handle mechanism...I have the security shield out.
4) Seatbelt buckles cleaned and reinstalled in front.



Visor does a good job of holding the 'bend' around the corner in the headliner panel I made. My holes are a bit off - I think from not enough consideration for the bend when I traced them from the old headliner. Need to work on that.


Good news is the entire headliner cost all of $50 to make, so it can easily be reworked. It looks a million times better than what I had though.


Some idiot forgot to put these trim panels in when reinstalling the rear seatbacks...I hate fixing stuff PO's mess up (oooops!)


Nice and clean.


There was something weird about putting these back in that was really satisfying...I can't explain that one.

 

Got the pass side visor and clip installed last night. I have to say, for $50...it looks a heck of a lot better than the old one. Still have to find some trim for around the sunroof hole, but I have a plan.

Also got the passenger side door handle replaced - not as bad as I was dreading.