Nick's Dusty Mauve VR6

**Jolteon** · 15-07-2014, 01:28 PM

Hi all,

A few weeks ago now, I bought my first car; a '94 Mk3 5-door VR6. She's nowhere near perfect, and problems include non-functioning electric windows, broken steering wheel surround, driver door needs re-gapping, the body work covered in a seemingly infinite number of little dents and scratches. The interior and the mechanicals, are however, mostly in great condition, apart from a broken CV joint, and a water leak from somewhere.

Here's what she looked like the day I got her:

And some of the things I've done so far:
Reblackening spoiler (going to do the rest of the trim too in the next few weeks)

Heater core replacement (this was probably the most tedious job I've ever had to undertake...)

And also managed to get hold of some better door trims to replace the ones that are busted, and also a VR lip.

Happy times!

**Vr6 hatchbacker** · 15-07-2014, 03:15 PM

Welcome to the club lol Looks good keep the updates coming

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**RickMk3** · 24-07-2014, 01:09 AM

Lookin good mate. How's that lip going?

**Tubbs76** · 24-07-2014, 09:34 AM

nice work dude, keep it up. welcome the mk3 family. look forward to seeing more updates.

**M4RK0** · 24-07-2014, 09:46 AM

Welcome man, what a nice project you have there! looking forward to more!

**fred27** · 24-07-2014, 02:46 PM

Welcome to the forum, congrats on the buy and compliments on doing that heater core job.

**KI11Z** · 24-07-2014, 11:32 PM

props to tackling the heater core as a first "mod"

**Jolteon** · 29-07-2014, 04:42 AM

Cheers guys!

Some updates from the past few weeks:

I decided to give the new door mouldings a lick of paint, and they turned out looking great. However in my haste to remove the old ones, I managed to break so many of the little clips that hold them on that I've had to order more... So I've been forced to drive around with duct tape over the holes until the new ones arrive. :/

Tired of having to unlock so many doors all the time, I also bought a central locking and remote keyless entry kit. However, to my surprise when I started to take off the door trim I noticed something rather peculiar:

A door lock actuator! Complete with vacuum line! I did a bit of Googling and tracked down the pump. And, lo and behold, it was disconnected...

Before reconnecting it, I though I'd better check the service history stuff a bit more carefully for any clues, and I found a receipt from a service in which someone was fixing some problems with the driver door; and they commented that the locks were okay but they disconnected the central locking to avoid damaging it. There wasn't much more than that to go on, so I hooked it up, and it was making some fun whirring noises; which searches seemed to point to a leak in the vacuum lines. I noticed that it was only locking the two doors on the drivers side, so I figured that if there were a leak, it would most likely be on the other side. I pulled up the back seats, and was surprised at how everything was in literally mint condition (I swear it's like the back seats have never even been used...), including the vacuum lines. Since I originally pulled off the trim from the front passenger-side door, I could see that it was all okay there; and I remembered that the previous owner mentioned that the rear passenger-side window had been broken and replaced at some point, so I hunched the problem must be in there somewhere.

After pulling the trim off that door, the problem was quite obvious: the vacuum line was missing! I traced the line up the door sill and through into the door, and it was rather strange because it just seemed to disappear. Detective-work revealed that the line had just been run through the wrong clip thing on the inside of the door, and as such was just not quite long enough to reach the actuator... and I guess whoever repaired the window thought it was too hard to undo a bolt and do it properly? Once it was connected, I turned the key and the central locking all worked perfectly - no excessive whirring or nothing!

It all goes to show - if someone takes lazy shortcuts at some point, it's going to cause headaches later on! I don't know quite who did that window repair, but I don't think I'd take my car there after this (the electric windows on that door don't work either, and it's missing two or three of the clips that hold the door trim on).

Next I'll be getting on to installing the keyless entry bit, which should be a bit of fun!

**Jolteon** · 15-11-2014, 03:59 AM

Bit of a bump and an update. Got my keyless entry working, after several dramas with central locking pumps playing up... now got a pretty cool Mk4-spec switchblade key!

Got me some fancy euro style custom plates, and also acquired a heckblende from Billy a few months back, and finally got some amber-reds to match it last week. She's now looking very smart.

I'm mid-way through repainting a new bumper, which I'll hopefully get on over the weekend, then in goes foglights!