shaunhutchinson [180 quattro]

A single place to record your entire TT ownership
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Each TTOC Member can post one thread to contain a full journal of their TT ownership.

This can be a full blown build thread or as simple as a set of pictures, the choice is yours.
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shaunhutchinson
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:11 pm
TTOC Membership: 02764
Location: Coventry
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I am making a Journal of my TT build here.

Pictures to come...
Last edited by shaunhutchinson on Fri Aug 08, 2014 10:02 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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burns
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Location: Manchester

Pics to come? No no no - we need pics nowwwww! :yes:
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Trev
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Location: Limekilns Scotland

I can wait ;) get it looking good before the pictures are posted :D I had the 180 loved it to bits :thumbsup:
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malstt
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Yeah we need pics ! :)
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shaunhutchinson
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:11 pm
TTOC Membership: 02764
Location: Coventry
Contact:

Trev wrote:I can wait ;) get it looking good before the pictures are posted :D I had the 180 loved it to bits :thumbsup:
It will just be a mygration of the previous pics from TTF. But I will keep it updated. TBH I thought that the TTF was the place where TTOC folk post their pictures TBH because there are so many TTOC members on the TTF. I have paid for 3 good years of TTOC membership so I guess I should really use a space here. Doing what I have been doing is kind-a-like paying for a house and then living elsewhere. ;D
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shaunhutchinson
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:11 pm
TTOC Membership: 02764
Location: Coventry
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THE STORY SO FAR...

ORIGINAL INTERIOR

The original interior was a mess. Looking over the car to check the full extend of the interior damage it would seem that the breakage to the cabin isn’t too bad. The mud washes off but there are four things that need replacing because they are missing or severely damages; The door handle on the diver side, the fan switch cover on the climes panel, the handbrake gator and push switch cover, and the gearstick which is just looking tired to be honest. Looks like a bit of shopping is in order. Will search eBay first to see if any of these parts can be acquired in v-good condition from an auction. If all else fails, off to the Audi dealership.

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Found a fault with the dashpod. The LCD display between the tachometer and the Speedometer is pixilated (click dash pod picture below for video). Soo… that is another thing that needs replacing. Boy the costs of fixing this car up just keep rising and rising – LOL. As long as I don’t exceed the approximate resale value I should be okay though. Currently no where near it so I’m happy enough to fix this.

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CABIN TIDY-UP
To start I eBayed an original OEM part from a leather interior. Should go well with the other black parts in the car, Audi mix the trim colour quite a lot in the TT so it’ll slot in to the scheme of things perfectly. Just need to find a button now. Seen one on ebay…
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Sorted out the renovation or replacement of the parts. Took the rubber off the handles, thought about what to do with the handles. leather trim, CF, paint in Matt black or plastidip. After looking at a couple of youTube videos I don’t think the rubber spray is durable enough so I need to think about what to do with them. The silver parts however are not silver but solid aluminium. Surprising really, most modern chrome and satin metal trim at just plastic with a thin coating.
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Pulled the interior apart today with the aim of removing the door handle to renovate them. What a hassle, after struggling to get the side discs off the interior door handle to give me access to the screws that hold the door on I eventually turned to the internet and found an awesome guide to remove the handle. The real trick was solving the puzzle of the disc opening. There is a tiny hole for a 2.5mm Allen key under the disc out of sight. Once you poke the internal plastic lever, twist the disc all is easy.
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The interior grab handles are also getting a once over with the spray gun just to see what they look like with some gloss. If all goes wrong they I'll get some new ones. Thought it would be nice to try something different. They have had a quick filler prime because the rubber came off more easily with a blade. Obviously this has its problems as it scrapes lines into the plastic. However they have come up nicely when filled as seen in the photo below.

Filler primed
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Coloured
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After a good scrub and clean up the interior looks much better.
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ENGINE BAY TIDY-UP
The engine bay was well scummy. bolts missing, dust all over the place. This engine bay needed a good old fashioned scrub and tidy up.
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I cleaned the engine bay with my Karcher jet washer. Knew that thing would come in handy for more than just cleaning the pavements. popped the Cookbot bits in and shined up the covers. Now it looks much better, the actual engine is still a bit scummy in places but it looks 200% better with a wash and the shiny blings of Cookbot in the bay. For some reason I feel like I am happier to tinker with the engine now when needed and it sounds better now that there are no covers rattling around under the bonnet. Thinking about painting the suspension bar in yellow using the high temperature paint I still have.

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Cookbot bits

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Cleaned engine bay. Looks much better.


BOOT TIDY-UP
On another note, boot liners and tie down nets are all the rage at the mo around here. Previously all the car care kit I have accumulated clattered around in the boot, it made a terrible racket. Now it is as quiet as a Sunday morning in the country in there when I put my hoof down. Also the Boot liner is mega useful. I had no reservations about dumping three 40kg bags of Type 1 MOT hardcore for my front garden in there on Saturday because I know that any dust or loose stone marks would simply wipe off without a trace. Couldn’t have done that so easily with the nice carpet.

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Last edited by shaunhutchinson on Fri Aug 08, 2014 10:01 pm, edited 13 times in total.
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shaunhutchinson
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:11 pm
TTOC Membership: 02764
Location: Coventry
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ORIGINAL EXTERIOR
The exterior of the car wasn't in bad condition. Just a collision on the passenger side which needs some bodywork attention. Pics of the original car as bought below:
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BODYWORK TIDY-UP
The front passenger wing sprayed: primed, coloured, and lacquered. Just need to flat the lacquer down now and that job is done.

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Primer
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Colour
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Lacquer
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FOOT & SHOE TIDY-UP (SUSPENSION, HUBS, BRAKES, WHEELS)
My Uncle metaphorically locked me in the garage to sort out the base for the wheels mods. Can’t put nice new parts on nasty looking wells so I thoroughly cleaned and treated them today. Some damn fine work with a rotational wire brush, some water, and hammerite rust spray brought the mechanical part up to a nice clean looking standard.
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HUB AND BRAKE TIDY-UP
I used some MTEC grooved/drilled/vented discs for the hub refurb. Felt sorry for the courier though because they are a bit heavy. When I first ordered them I had a slight personal conflict with the colour choice of silver or black because it liked the way that the black would sit in the drilled chamfers and the grooves to emphasise them visually but wanted the hubs and vents to remain alloy to match the wheels and spread some light in the wheel well. To solve this conflict I aimed to mask around the friction areas where the drilled holes / grooves and spray them black so when the pads wear out the disc to reveal the bare metal the drills and grooves will be painted black.

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In general the track widening TPI stuff look awesome with the rather interesting ribs that slot into the socket head for rotational torque application. I had some deliberation about which one to choose; the 20/15mm or the 15/12mm as expressed in a various posts. However, I was given some good advice: "if you are unsure just get 5mm less, then you can always add a 5mm shim to beef they track up if you are not happy". So this is what I have done.
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Painted the callipers yellow and the hole chamfers/drills black. All looks okay when assembled. Only managed to get the rear set completed. The exhaust is next after the suspension is completed, it looks well rusty!

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SUSPENSION TIDY-UP
Took the car by the balls to replace the essential items such as suspension. 90,000 miles of driving is bound to take it’s toll on springs. Have seen HR springs for £186 at Awesome GTI, some for Eibach springs for £189.00 at the tuner shop and for £216.00 from eBay.

I eventually bought some Eibach 25mm ProKit springs. Initially I had a query about them, asking if they were actually progressive springs as advertised. Sometimes vendors just copy and paste info from the website and information can be generic or out of date so easily. So, naturally i was doubtful after past experience reminded me that progressive springs often have a variable pitch. However, after talking to an engineer who used to design springs (amazing who you can talk to in a university) I am satisfied that these are indeed progressive because they are tapered top and bottom on the rear set and at the top on the fronts. Also the thickness of the wire is variable on both, more so on the rear set. John our friendly engineer tells me that these attribute indicate a variable rate of compression (progressive) not linear. Overall, very happy with my purchase.
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The rear springs dropped in without too much problem. The first one was tricky, but the second one dropped in with ease. To finish the job we needed spring compressor to fit the front strut. T'was a bit tricky again but once we removed the top nut of the strut everything just fell into place. All the springs done now. Just need to assemble the front feet and it is ready to roll.
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Nasty old spring here:
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After looking around on the internet for replacement parts for the front shock assembly I just decided to replace the lot. I ordered the front and rear Bilstein B4 OE shock absorbers from Demon Tweeks because they near enough had the best internet price on genuine OE replacement parts when I ordered. One of my biggest worries was the genuineness of these B4 replacements.

However, when the Bilstein B4 shocks have arrived not only do they have the Bilstein press stamped into the cylinder, and the words ‘QUALITY OE’ slapped all over the box, they also had VW stamped into the cylinder too. Mega genuine OE approved parts.

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Bilstein B4 shocks.

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Bilstein Febi Bumpstop, Ball bearing & Top Mount came from eBay. Also found some hints and tips for suspension assembly here: http://public.fotki.com/TTQ2K2/tt-suspe ... html#media, should come in handy.

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For some reason I wasn’t expecting them to be Febi parts too. The whole assembly will nearly be Bilstein factory. Kinda cool but they are only OE parts not sports so I’m not creaming my pants. Even so, good to know they are genuine parts not crappy fakes. eBay can be such a dodgy place sometimes.

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With the parts assembled (excluding springs) All that waits is the fitment. Obviously a garage job.

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Managed to fit the new Bilstien B4 shocks. The fronts took 5hrs and the rears 2hrs. With the whole set of shock replaced the ride quality was instantly noticeable, it's drives is very stable now is and is very responsive. I even managed to get a bit of tire squeal from them around a tight corner, I wouldn’t have braved a corner on the edge of traction with the old shocks. Driving home was a pleasure. No noise form the wheel wells anymore and traction at speed is great. On a 10m run up the A45 to Coventry it was great to take manholes at 60mph without feeling like I’m on a fairground ride with bouncing, slipping and sliding all over the place. It would appear the old shocks had a drastic effect on the handling. The ride hight of the car is a bit high at the moment but I am informed that it will decrease as they settle. Overall, very happy.

Compressed rubber mount:
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Front shock:
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Rear shock:
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EXHAUST TIDY-UP
I was unhappy with the single exit of the exhaust, and as mentioned earlier the original was rusty and needed replacing.

I managed to find a clean backbox and muffler with twin pipes for the TT. I snapped it up after finding out that it costs over £700 from a rather rude Audi stockist. I tried other stockists but the told me that Audi were the only people who would sell this to me brand new. Well I wasn’t about to let this issue put a dent in my tiny budget. I bumped into a company called Pheonix exhausts on the internet who sold me these babies for just over a ton. They are a performance company so I presume that this is one of their part exchange parts for some awesome dude who now has mega performance exhaust. Happy to get them cheap without corrosion and with very minimal wear; just a couple of scratches on them as can be seen in the pic below.
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All fits in place well but there is a problem getting it to match the pipe from the twin catalytic converter. The diameters of the different pipes are:

- Muffler pipe: 65mm
- Catalytic converter pipe : 54mm

Luckily the guy at Pheonix Exhausts offered a free collar to match my car if I had any problems. It looks like a stainless steel pipe, which is great. Mild steel normally has some discolouration whereas this is nice and shiny. It is much lighter and the original one which was surprising but then again stainless is tougher than mild steel so I presume less material is needed.
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Fitting it was easy, just required an extra rubber hanger because the twin exhaust is heavier.
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As for the valance, the original one only had a single exit. I wanted a honeycombe valance but was running out of cash so I put together a makeshift valance.

Mirroring the second hole was quite easy because it is symmetrical. I just covered the old hole with masking tape ensuring the tape covered the whole of the surface material, then cut the hole out with very sharp knife. I then peeled the masking tape that was stuck to the valance off and stuck it to a piece of paper. Using the sharp knife I cut the paper using the masking tape as a guide. Once this was done I covered the masking tape side of the paper pattern with double sided sticky tape (closely aligned together), this pattern was then aligned with the other side and stuck down with the double sided tape. The rest was easy, just used a sharp edged drill to cut the hole out that can be seen in the pic below. The same thing was done with the inside surface that sits at 90 degrees to the outer surface of the valance. The smiling cut-out came from a old 2013 Nissan Juke polypropylene Bumper I found in my uncle's garage. Always loads of spare material around his body repair unit next door to the assembly garage I use.

After a bit of experimenting with various options my uncle introduced me to a triggered hot iron and told me "this is how you do it lad" LOL! I held it while he tacked the parts together. Then he walked off and I did the rest by welding with black polypropylene rods into the join. Could have sanded the inside as well as the outside but didn't have time. This is okay though, the inside is an unseen B-surface. Pics of the remodelling below:
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Cut-out, donor plastic and remodelled valance.

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Plastic welded joint, bit messy but won't be seen when assembled.

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Filler primer applied.

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2Pac primer applied


WHEEL TIDY-UP
When I refurbed the wheels they came out looking mint. Just need to Plastidip these when the air is put into the tyres. I orginally thought black would look cool but was unsure. I bit of experimentation was needed.
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At the time I was not sure if I would like the final outcomes. Would the black too black. Would an anthracite (dark grey) have been better? Still not sure. Whatever, the four cans covered the wheels with four coats. Will need more glossifier to cover the wheels properly think another two will be okay. One thing I really do like about the Plastidip process is the peel-ability of the paint. You can get wonderful masking without masking. The paint on the rings just came off like a dream.

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There is an old saying that “there is nothing more fickle than a designer”. Being a picky bugger I was still undecided about the colour of the wheels. I still like them dark not silver but do not feel the matt black. The black wheels are two 'Batman' for me. I tried Gunmetal grey next but still no joy, still wasn't feeling it.

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Gunmetal grey... mmmmm, no! Too plastic looking.

I found a new source for rubber paint called Spraydip. Unlike Plastidip this brand is highly available in the UK and comes in a wide variety of colours. The Spray dip has a “thinner formulation than plastidip which means the coating is easier to apply and levels better, generally an easier product to work with” apparently. Initially when I saw the cap I was a bit disappointed because it didn’t match the colour chart but upon spraying the real colour on the cap (as can be seen in the photo of the spraydip aerosol) I found that the can cap sticker wasn’t correct and the colour chart of samples was good – Phew.

In general they offered a larger range of colours I think so if all goes well I might use them again now that i feel that the colours are not bad to match from the swatches. I hoped my next experiment will be anthracite, a dark grey that has metallic flecks would be better. This should give me the depth of colour but still make them look solid and less plastic like.

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Finally I managed to get the anthracite colour on the wheels. I think it works better than the gunmetal grey.
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Added some small wheel centre caps. I just went for a body coloured gloss black set of 60mm covers. Not even a tenners worth of cash on them. Currently thinking about buying as shiny aluminium set too when I have the cash. Just to see what they look like. The fit is actually just a wee bit loose but the are definitely secured tightly enough to ensure they do not fall out. I might also experiment with the idea of spraying the wheel colour and pulling the dip off to reveal the chrome rings.
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FRONT BUMPER TIDY-UP
The Seat front splitter, from a Seat Leon R, seems very popular in the forum so I thought i'd have try one out.
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I managed to modify and align the splitter to the font of the car. because an actual front splitter isn’t made for the TT most 8N owners use a modified Seat Leon Cupra-R splitter. A handy post on the TT forum gives a step by step guide on how to fit this. Link is here:

http://public.fotki.com/BlueTTop/mods/lcr-splitter

Have already chopped the to of the central supports off and flattened the tabs. Just need to drill holes into the tabs align the splitter with the bumper underside correctly and dill and bolt the splitter to the car. Just easy cut and fit stuff really. Looks cool on the Wee Beastie pic below, definately a job worth doing.
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Last edited by shaunhutchinson on Sun Aug 24, 2014 11:38 pm, edited 36 times in total.
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Trev
Posts: 4113
Joined: Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:32 pm
TTOC Membership: 00745
Location: Limekilns Scotland

shaunhutchinson wrote:
Trev wrote:I can wait ;) get it looking good before the pictures are posted :D I had the 180 loved it to bits :thumbsup:
It will just be a mygration of the previous pics from TTF. But I will keep it updated. TBH I thought that the TTF was the place where TTOC folk post their pictures TBH because there are so many TTOC members on the TTF. I have paid for 3 good years of TTOC membership so I guess I should really use a space here. Doing what I have been doing is kind-a-like paying for a house and then living elsewhere. ;D

Better late than never fella :thumbsup: that's a problem we have with new members thinking that the ttf is this site :no: we are a friendly bunch here, ;D never seen a mod delete any post so far :D
Three years you've got a lot of catching up to do fella ;D
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shaunhutchinson
Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:11 pm
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Location: Coventry
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I think the TTF gains a hell of a lot from TTOC member being on there forum. Yet lately they have started to act a bit nastily towards the TTOC.

My perspective (as a relative newbie to the TT community) is that the TTOC act, and should be valued, like party starters on the TTF. The fanatical folks of the TTOC like TT's more than the average punter and are just 'mad for it' (for use of a better phrase) and will always act enthusiastically. This in turn enthuses more timid folk from TTF. It is like a dance club. Club employees dance veraciously on the dance floor and then that breaks the ice and others join in until the place is a rocking to the rafters.

Don't get me wrong, there are some really enthusiastic folks on the TTF. I just seems that they would be more likely to get more browsers (who google TT problems) than committed enthusiast who want to show their car. Now I suppose the upside for the TTOC is that the browsers may decide to join TTOC to be a part of the community. and maybe the TTF see this as the advantage that they give the TTOC. However I have to ask if the TTF would be such a rocking party that browsers want to join in with if the TTOC was not there. It is a strange position. Personally I think the TTOC could survive without the TTF. But the standard of posts would fall on the TTF if the TTOC would leave. Anyway this is my brief and simplified view at the moment. I know I haven't considered all the possible factors, but as a knee jerk reaction this is how I feel at the moment.

Anyway, back to the journal on the real home of the TTOC.
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Trev
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Things will get back to normal no point in getting involved enjoy the club :thumbsup:
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