CQ20V

The project - code name "Happy Daze"
The first drive I had in my new steed was a 200+ mile trip home to Scotland. I think I had a smile on my face every minute of the journey!
With the mechanical side of things sorted, it was time to start addressing bodywork issues. The main issue being multiple fine scratches. First attempt using coarse cutting paste made little impression so I gritted my teeth and used very fine wet and dry (1500 & 2500 grade) to flatten as much as I dared. This was followed with Farcla G3 and then G10 cutting compounds
This was followed with Farcla G3 and then G10 cutting compounds
An then Mezerna Final Finish Polish (all applied with the Meguiars G220 DA Polisher)
This certainly improved things and after a couple more sessions with the polish, Collinite 476S wax was applied.
That was 2 days on just one pannel! The tailgate was next after removing the now redundant 2.6E badge and an S-line badge someone had fitted. The process was the same as for the bonnet but I only needed the 2500 grade wet and dry to start things off.
Next was the roof - this was also covered in a multitude of fine scratches. Wet n dry, G3, G10 and Mezerna. It needs a couple more sessions before the wax can go on but the weather has stopped play for now.
It's getting there!!
Whilst attacking the tailgate, the old badges were removed
and replaced with more suitable items
That's better!
Happy Daze has taken a turn for the worse. Some minor starting issues were investigated by removing the plugs only to find that plugs 4 and 5 were soaking wet and stinking of anti-freeze
Hopefully this is just the head gasket and so has to be replaced. Sourcing ones proved to be difficult as NLA from Audi, GSF have not stock and will not be getting anymore (despite having the gasket set listed on their site) and even quattro Corner didn't have one although after some phoning around, managed to find me one! ( Huge thanks to them). 034 Motorsport in the USA list competition ones but at $300, that's more than I was prepared to pay for an engine that's going to be kept standard. The new head gasket (along with new head bolts) should be with me on Friday and my good friend Mike will help me swap it. Nogin did kindly offer but I didn't think driving all that was was a good idea in case I wrecked the head.
Well after an extremely busy weekend with some first class help from Mike (Thank you once again!), the head gasket has been changed.
Have to say, the old gasket didn't look that bad but No4 cylinder had a significant amount of water in it whist the others were dry.
There was some slight delamination of the gasket though so hopefully it was caught early before any real damage was done!
When putting it back together we had real problem refilling the cooling system. We could not get more than about a litre of water in. This clearly wasn't right so upon further investigation it appeared that the thermostat was seized shut. In fact it was so bad we had to "persuade" it to come out with a large hammer! I wonder if this was the root cause of the gasket failure!!! A new one was obtained (top service by Autosave in Dundee and also got a new alternator belt from Halfords. All refitted and refilled the coolant and so far so good.
Sadly this was not the end of the problem. Two long runs were fine but the first time it was used in traffic, the head gasket failed again with the car looking more like it was steam powered than petrol! However, Eric came to the rescue and drove up with a spare head and this was changed in the most Scottish foul weather. Top support once again. I also found that the fan switch had failed on the radiator so Peter at Stirling Audi came to the rescue and that was replaced. At the same time, I reverted from a KV radiator to the full 20v set up complete with the aux radiator (Thanks Darryl).
It's first long run wasn't exactly as planned. A smooth run got as far as Perth where a brand new rotor arm exploded (never had this happen before on an any car) resulting in a trip home behind an RAC van (Thank you Glen). Another rotor arm was sourced (Autosave again) and the car fired up. Since then I have repeated that journey without any issues (in fact, even the wife says she can't believe how smooth this car is). Happy daze indded!