Audi UR quattro Rally Build

In reply to teamilluminata :

Paul, where can one find those Hella 2000 light covers? I had some, but they disintegrated with age a few years ago.

We're getting very close to finishing the dry build on our Quattro rally car and stripping the shell to paint it. Just a few final details need to be taken care of:

First, we decided now was the time to repair the cowl lip next to the right-side strut mount. At some time in the car’s life, it had got crushed and went a bit rusty. A bit rustier than we expected. We removed the crushed bits, cleaned up the rust and made a new part. We'll weld it in next time we're in the area with the welder.

Then we moved on to selecting and mounting the clutch fluid reservoir. We initially tried a third brake fluid reservoir but it seemed bigger than necessary and proved hard to find a spot for. So we set about using a small Honda unit and coming up with a suitable location for it. We weren't really happy with any of them until we settled on this, mostly because it allowed us to make a speed hole! More welding later.

Next on the list was adding some side vents to the HVAC system. Originally, we'd thought about just leaving the vent tubes open, assuming they would not be impeded by the impending wiring loom.

But once that was in, we realized we might just have some room to terminate them in the exact same vents we had used in the dash. After trying one, we knew what we had to do. I ordered some more and some better ducting.

Now the big one: getting the doors, hood and fenders to fit. We swear, when the car left the body shop eight years ago everything fit well but now it appeared that the car has morphed somewhat over time. The door gaps aft were tiny to non-existent and the fenders seemed now to be taller and at a funny angle. Most of the body lines didn't line up anymore either. First, we tackled the door gaps. 

There is no adjustment in the hinge system that would allow them to be positioned further forward. All we could do was add shims behind them to move them further back but that, of course, would make the situation worse. At least shimming allowed us to get them to close, latch and be level. 

We clearly had to move the hinges forward somehow. We tried hitting them with a BFH but they, and the a-pillar, were too sturdy. We thought about cutting them off and rewelding them on but thought we'd just bugger up the alignment of them doing that. Finally, we settled on cutting slots in them so they would more easily bend and, ultimately weld the slots up. It took a lot of chin rubbing and pacing back and forth but eventually we plucked up courage and were more than pleased when it seemed to work out better than expected.

We gained about 3mm of gap. We could have got more but we knew that opening the doors was going to be challenging even if we had 5-6mm of gap there, so were very happy with this. Next, fender fit!

Next, after shimming the doors level and getting most of the body lines lined up, we focused on the fenders. Oh boy! it seemed we may have BMW M3 fenders; they were that far out!

Firstly, we "adjusted" the fit as best we could by adjusting the mounting holes that were once in the right place. That improved things a bit but still left a lot of filling, cutting, grinding and sending left. And that was just to achieve a somewhat race car level of fit. If this was a concours build we would have had to start from scratch.

To lower the tops of the fenders where they meet the a-pillar we first cut a long, thin wedge out about a foot back, squished it down with lead weights and fixed it in place with some fiber glass matt and resin on the underside. We also had to extend both these surfaces to actually get close to the a-pillars. This was followed by fill, sand, fill sand, many times over.

We fixed the sides by adding lots of filler and sanding it down till the panels were in something approaching the same plane as the doors.

We fixed the bottom part that kicks out by cutting it off. Taking a wedge out of it and glassing it back in the right place. Of course, plenty of filling and sanding was also required.

We fixed the door gaps with the Dremel but had to remove so much material that we created holes. We added a lot of fiber glass matt inside this area to restore integrity. Then more filling and sanding, of course.

The lowest and smallest crease on the fenders was so low we had to rebuild it 1/2" higher!

This one made us laugh. We wanted to fix the droopy eye look over the headlights so added material to make them level. This only made them too deep and they no longer lined up with the bottom of the hood return. We decided, at least for now, to hide this issue with black electrical tape. It's quite effective and may become permanent!

Finally, we were happy with the fit and decided to stop. We could always improve it but at some point, you have to remind yourself that it's a rally car and not a show queen. That and the realization that we could tidy it up during paint prep if we really felt the need.