# #622 urq restoration pictures



## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

This is 4 years late...
I restored urq #622 4 years ago, and well here are some pictures of the job.
It was a rolling restoration (I had to drive the car every day)
I didn't have much experience with an urq then, so I was just going for it.
I'm in no way a professional restorer of cars...this was my first time.
My basic goal was originally to get the car rust free.
The car was as you can see originally graphite metallic, and had few small problem areas.
By the time I had removed much of the rot, the car was in various shades of black. (some from the previous owner.)
So I figured, what the heck, I dreamed of having a* red* urq, why not not try to do a color change?
I couldn't make the car look any worse than it did.
My budget consisted of a lot of free time, but small amounts of cash available over a long period of time.
Otherwise, I would have taken the car to get sprayed professionally.
I had a vision, and just went with it.
No stress on a time constraint, just do what I could, in an order that made sense to me.
The project took about 5 months from start to finish.
And here's a visual time line.

Keep checking back for more photos!


_Modified by Sepp at 10:22 PM 11-20-2006_


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: #622 urq restoration pictures (Sepp)*

I had already done quite a bit of initial work on the car before I thought of getting some photos.
Any of the gray primered spots is actually galvinizing compound.
The car came complete, and I promptly removed the bumpers, grille, and bumper surrounds.








I started with the front fenders, after galvinizing the bare spots, sprayed a coat of red filler primer, and sanded smooth to remove as many bumps, and bruises as possible.


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## VWVan (Feb 17, 2000)

*Re: #622 urq restoration pictures (Sepp)*

Awesome, lets see some more pics! I love these cars.


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: #622 urq restoration pictures (G20t)*

The car had been been in either 2 or more accidents, or was sandwiched at one time.
Upon dis-assembly, I found the car had at one time European bumpers, and headlamps.
A bit of shoddy spot welding was done in the front at the radiator support, and had surface rust.
Luckily the area where the front fenders attach to the car was solid.









The door sills, and rocker panels were solid with just surface rust.
The interior was in decent shape for such a neglected car.
The front seats were the only worn area.
The front drivers side door was slightly sagging at the hinge, but that was to be dealt with later.










_Modified by Sepp at 6:31 PM 11-21-2006_


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: #622 urq restoration pictures (Sepp)*

This car had seen some driving time in it's native New England winters....
The salt, and crap they put on the roads in the winter really eats through cars quick.
The trunk had a decent size hole under the carpet, so I cut out the rotted part, galvinized the area, and fashioned a metal patch to cover the hole both on the inside, and from the bottom exterior side.
With the patch in place, I POR 15'd the whole inside floor, and exterior section of the trunk.








Primer tends to absorb moisture rather quickly, so after I had the front fenders in decent shape, I quickly sprayed them with a red color coat to help resist the weather.


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: #622 urq restoration pictures (Sepp)*

By now I have removed all of the pieces that will not be needed for a while.
The gas flap door, the C pillar vent grilles, the interior (except for the drivers seat) the weather stripping seals, the rear plate suround, reflective strip, and mini DOT reflectors.
On the left side rear quarter, there was some small spots of rust above the wheel arch, and the lower forward section of the arch was missing (due to rust)
A terrible body repair, and overspray job concealed a lot of rust that I couldn't see until I started sanding the area all the way down to bare metal.
On the rear upper rear section, a terible body repair job was revealed just froward of the top area of the light housing..
As I was grinding down through all of the bondo, and rust (since whomever did such a bad repair job, that the repaired area began to rust again!!!) I had a god size hole I had to repair.
The troubled area is visible above, and forward of the tail light, and behind and below the rear C pilar vent opening.








Meanwhile everyday, during this whole time, later at night at home I am busy in the basement working on the bumpers, the front, and rear surrounds, the gas flap, the rear spoiler, and the rear C pillar vent grilles.
The front bumper, and surround have a good amount of stone chips, and the lower lip on the surround was damaged at one time from a curb strike.


_Modified by Sepp at 11:54 AM 11-24-2006_


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: #622 urq restoration pictures (Sepp)*

Next was the door jambs.
Since the drivers side door was sagging at it's hinges, I figured what the heck. I pulled it off the car, and precariously balanced it on a crate.








I prepped, primed, and painted the jamb all in one really long night.
I continued along with the rocker panel as well.....
















While the paint was drying, I fashioned a bunch of shims from a cut up Pepsi can.
With the door in place with the top hinge bolted on loosely, it took a while, but I added enough shims to the bottom hinge, to even the door back to level again!
The over-spray on the dash cleaned up OK.....












_Modified by Sepp at 1:08 AM 11-25-2006_


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## Shawn M. (Oct 15, 2002)

nice work thus far, cant wait to see the rest


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Shawn M.)*

The followng day I did the other jamb on the passenger side..
Here's a shot of the primer coat.








And I continued on with the rocker panel here as well.








My work on the rear spoiler wasn't going so well, it was badly weather cracked, and had a few dents so I placed a visit to Force5, and chris hooked me up with a better spoiler from a Coupe GT, painted in pearl white.
This took the paint better!
With all of the interior out of the car, and no door/trunk seals, it was VERY loud to drive..and quite breezy even with the windows closed.


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

The rear section was next. I filled in the mounting holes for the silly rear reflectors they instaled on the US cars.
The trunk on the later urq's is fiberglass, so I didn't have to worry about any rust issues.
The white strips of tape on the rear spoiler mounting holes, and the antenna hole is to keep the rain out of the trunk.








In this shot one can see I re-worked some poor body work from when the PO had the car.
Some ripples are present in the trunk, but that's common with the glass trunk, so I let it be.
One can see the cut-out's for the European rear fog light(s)


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

Both the hood, and the roof had seen some serious hail damage...
This wasn't too obvious at first, but as I was block sanding the original paint down, it looked pretty bad..
I managed to caress out many dimples in the sheet metal, but couldn't get them all.
So Mr. Bondo stepped in to help.
The hood was originally galvinized, so wasn't rusty, just some major rock chips.








It took a lot of attention to get the hood smooth again...









A lot of bare metal was the result, so I galvinized it again, and it needed a bit more smoothing before I was happy.










_Modified by Sepp at 7:05 PM 11-28-2006_


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

Between the last post, and this one, I covered alot of ground with the car, and was too into the project to snap off many photos.
After all of the body work was looking good on the car as a whole, I sprayed the entire car with a red color coat, and let it cure for a few days.
I then commenced to block sand the entire car.
Any imperfections in the body work would show through if I took a certian area down to the primer.
I sprayed some filler primer, and kept at it until any obvious problems were gone.


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

After all of the block sanding is done, 2 coats of red color coat is sprayed on the entire car. I wet sanded with 800 grit between coats.
















A little more work was done under the tail lights to fill in the holes for the stupid US reflectors. The car looks so strange without the rear spoiler.








Back at the house, the bumpers, surrounds, spoiler, C pillar vents are done, and waiting for the rest of the car.


_Modified by Sepp at 4:42 PM 11-30-2006_


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

With the whole car color coated, I finished spraying the trunk, and underhood areas...


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

For a while after the color coats, I let the car alone for 2 weeks.
During this time, the car and I made an appearance at the first annual UPG (ur quattro preservation group) quattro bash in Connecticut. (2003)
There were 22 ur quattros there!!
I had to temporarly re-attach the front, and rear bumpers, and the surrounds so I wouldn't get pulled over..
Mine of course was the worst looking, but since my interior was out of the car, many people were pleased to get a good look at what a urq looks like stripped down.
Can you guess which one is mine????








This is what a tornado urq is supposed to look like.








After my return home, I stockpiled tornado red paint (where I got it from will be revealed later!)
I also orderd a wheel refinishing kit from Griot's.


_Modified by Sepp at 9:01 PM 11-30-2006_


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## PerL (Jan 9, 2001)

*Re: (Sepp)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Sepp* »_Both the hood, and the roof had seen some serious hail damage...
This wasn't too obvious at first, but as I was block sanding the original paint down, it looked pretty bad..

You know, you could've saved yourself a lot of work getting a used hood off a 4k


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (PerL)*


_Quote, originally posted by *PerL* »_
You know, you could've saved yourself a lot of work getting a used hood off a 4k

This is true, but where's the challenge in that??







the hood will definitely be replaced some day.....


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

During the two weeks break from working on the car itself, I refinished the rims, and completed the final stages of work on the other parts that were removed.
I was getting a preview of how good the car was to look while finishing up work on the bumpers, surrounds, spoiler etc....
Finally the time came when I was to spray the car in the VW/Audi factory color of tornado red.
This took a good two weeks to get the car completely sprayed.
I took the car on in sections (hood, doors, fenders, etc)
After spraying four coats of tornado red I let the car set for 2 weeks.
Then I resprayed the black sections of the B pillar, and window trim in satin black.
The car sat for a week....
The wet sanding began....*50 hours*......
The buffing by hand began........*10 hours*......
After the wet sanding with the intital sand with 1500 grit, I sanded again with 2000 grit.
For the buffing I used some 3M fine cut rubbing compound part # 39002.
I could have used an orbital buffer, but I preferred to do the job by hand.
After the buffing was complete, I re-assembeled the car, and topped it off with 3M imperial hand glaze. (it's not recommended that you use a wax on a newly painted car, as the paint needs to be unsealed to properly "breathe")
2 coats of the glaze, and then the installation of the newly re-finished rims..and I was a very happy.







http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif






















Here's the results................



















































_Modified by Sepp at 7:30 PM 12-1-2006_


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## WAUOla (Apr 15, 2005)

Nice work there Sepp! Althought not a fan of the
US bumpers.
Something about US lights and tornado red that
makes me wonder.







For us here in Europe it was
Venus red that was optional on the "early" models.
But, tell me once and for all, EXACTLY how is the
chassisnumbers specified in the US for these cars?


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## PerL (Jan 9, 2001)

*Re: (WAUOla)*


_Quote, originally posted by *WAUOla* »_But, tell me once and for all, EXACTLY how is the
chassisnumbers specified in the US for these cars?

The three ZZZ in the beginning, and the Z after 85, in the number is replaced by variuos letters and figures on US spec cars.


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## Shawn M. (Oct 15, 2002)

great work!


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (WAUOla)*


_Quote, originally posted by *WAUOla* »_Nice work there Sepp! Althought not a fan of the
US bumpers.
Something about US lights and tornado red that
makes me wonder.







For us here in Europe it was
Venus red that was optional on the "early" models.
But, tell me once and for all, EXACTLY how is the
chassisnumbers specified in the US for these cars?

Yes, it takes a little cash to get European Bumpers..... which I don't have at the moment. New tires are more important.


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

It was a tremendous learning expierance working on the car.
Plus what a way to bond with the car!
There's a hair under the paint somewhere on the car (not telling)
So I guess if it gets stolen, we can do a DNA test!









What a difference!!!!!


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## Quattro Krant (Sep 15, 2004)

*Re: (Sepp)*

Looks nice Sepp, makes me want to drop my faded Tornado Pink Ur-Q off at the body shop right now







One question though, how come you didn't do the sunroof in TR also?


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Quattro Krant)*

That's a good question, and I really don't know why..... I painted the sunroof channel red....
This year I _finally_ painted the roof panel red.


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## Quattro Krant (Sep 15, 2004)

*Re: (Sepp)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Sepp* »_That's a good question, and I really don't know why..... I painted the sunroof channel red....
This year I _finally_ painted the roof panel red.
Maybe you were a bit goofy after all the paint fumes you were subject to


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Quattro Krant)*

I had obviously done soo much work, and spent soo much time on the car, I needed a vacation from working on it.
Some people thought it was a glass roof!


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

It was good timing, the Bay State Audi convention (I think that it was called) in Masachussetts, was going on.
So The car made it's debut in full color.
There was a gaggle of other urq's there as well, but they were in the main show/vendor area.
Here's a shot of another fellow Audi owner wondering where my interior is.
I still had the door cards removed......








The car looked good, and even some people from European car magazine took some shots..


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## apavlov (Dec 4, 2005)

Very nice job! Are you planning on getting the fading audi rings?


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (apavlov)*


_Quote, originally posted by *apavlov* »_Very nice job! Are you planning on getting the fading audi rings?

Thank you.
Yes, and the factory side stripes. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

Anyone care to guess how I painted the car????


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## Fusilier (Apr 17, 2004)

*Re: (Sepp)*

well since you're asking us to guess, I'd imagine its a non-standard method.
I'll guess Airbrush.


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## PerL (Jan 9, 2001)

*Re: (Sepp)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Sepp* »_Anyone care to guess how I painted the car???? 

I remember you saying it back when you did it, but I'll keep my mouth shut








Still amazed by the good results, but is it this shiny today?


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (PerL)*

I spray painted it...
A sin some of you might say, but again I honestly couldn't make the car look worse than it was when I received it.
A guy at the auto show flat-out refused to beleive me.
I used around 200 cans of inport color touch up spray in tornado red, 30 cans of filler primer, and 20 cans of generic red. All made by duplicolor.








I ended up ordering it a case at a time from the local auto parts store, of which the employees got to know me very well.
They were very interested in what the heck I was doing with soo many cans of paint.
I brought the car down to the store at the request of the manager after I was done, they all thought I was on crack.

Sure, I'm insane for undertaking such a large project with such a terrible method of painting..
But again, I wanted to work on the car, and I had little money to work with over a long period of time.
As stated before, if I had the money, I would have had the car professionaly sprayed.
How does it look after 4 years?
Well, I had intended on getting the car re-sprayed after just a few years of the resto, but time goes quickly, and I've been VERY busy with my job...So the car still has the duplicolor on it, and considering all the forces of nature working against me with the resto years ago, like rain, cold etc. the paint actually looks good.
There is some paint failure, of which small specks of the paint has lifted off. It looks simular to the roof of the car has rock chips on it.
You have to be real close to the car to even see them....
In photos, and more than 5 feet away, the car really looks great still...much to my suprise.

















































The rear spoiler has some paint cracks, as do the bumper surrounds, but the paint I used wasn't of the flexable type.
The rear spoilers even are known to crack with the factory paint, so I'm not worried about it.
The benefit of using spray, is that I can conduct any type of touch up, or body work, and have nothing to worry about getting a decent paint match!




_Modified by Sepp at 2:18 AM 12-17-2006_


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## Fusilier (Apr 17, 2004)

*Re: (Sepp)*

I can see that thinking. mostly the cost would be excessive. 90% of painting is surface preparation.


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Fusilier)*

The total cost including sand paper, body filler, paint etc was around 600 dollars. -Spread out over 4-5 months.
Comprable in price to a spray job at Macco.


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## Quattro Krant (Sep 15, 2004)

*Re: (Sepp)*

I remember hearing stories of some sicko that painted his Ur-Q with rattle cans.














Results look DAMN good


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Quattro Krant)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Quattro Krant* »_sicko 

That's me.








I brought the car back to where I bought it from, and showed it to the previous owner.
He was very impressed. His son/co-mechanic was speechless.
The only thing the PO said was "glad I sold it to you"....he was a man of very few words.


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

Here's the reason behind the reason that I _HAD_ to have a urq in tornado red.
I bought this magazine before I actually owned the car.
So my brain was already pre-programed to accept nothing else.


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## glibobbo21 (Nov 11, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

just barely saw this....awesome...

all you need is some decent headlights now hehe


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## delux68 (Jul 20, 2004)

*Re: (glibobbo21)*

that is amazing ive never seen spray paint look so good


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (delux68)*

Thanks.
My next plans????(for the exterior)
*Back to the original color.* (graphite metallic)
Do I hear a sigh of relief from any purists?
It's something I thought might happen after the car was red.
Looking at the pictures of *Mr.RS4's *quattro, it really set in.
The car was intended to be graphite metallic, so it must be.
I _do_ like the color.
My wife dosen't agree. "quattros should be only in red"
At least it wasn't originally gobi... (....ducks head.....)


























_Modified by Sepp at 4:28 PM 12-27-2006_


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Sepp)*

It's still red! And it's still a *4 season daily driver*.
The paint is as tired as ever, and someone mentioned that the low-res photos didn't actually convince that the car was in stil pretty decent shape.
How's the car look still??
The latest photos are of this spring by some Vortexers with nice cameras....
It takes a bit of wax to get the car looking this good, but nonetheless.


















_Modified by Sepp at 6:56 PM 9-11-2007_


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## Mr.RS4 (Jul 16, 2005)

*Re: (Sepp)*

Ill admit - i was the same. Tornado red was the only colour i ever considered
But when the opportunity came up to buy a quattro - i didnt care what colour it was - It was a quattro, it didnt matter.
The best part is, im actually glad i had the chance to buy a quattro that is still in every sense original - yet unique even amongst other quattros. Its clear you have spent a lot of time to get your car in the condition it is now - would you bother going and having all your work undone to change it back to the original colour when it looks so good currently? (which btw means more stickers but in silver







)


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Mr.RS4)*

It was the same for me, I really didn't care as to what color the car was, I was just fortuante to even get one.
All of the work I put into the car originally, during this project, was to truthfully just get the car from rusting away.
It's far from good work, and the car is not near the condition I'd like it to be...not even close.
I do like the original color as it's unique, and rare. Plus it's not a bad color at all.
In fact I've seen 24 other ur Quattros in person...not one of them was the color of our cars.
In fact othe only other Graphite car I know of is just 7 cars down the line of production from mine!
Most of them were red.
If the car was originally Gobi, I couldn't do that.








In fact, I have a question for you Sir,
Could you please contact me off the forum at [email protected]
Thank you.




_Modified by Sepp at 10:59 PM 9-15-2007_


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## MikeHock (Dec 9, 2004)

*Re: (Sepp)*

This is the first time Ive seen this thread. WOW is all I have to say. Who thought a rattle can job could look SO good, seriously. 
Very good work, I like it alot.
I dont know jack about body work and can barely detail my own Audi








Looks fantastic, good work. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (MikeHock)*

Thanks man, 
Hopefully this fall, the car will be off the road, and will get torn down for another (proper) re-spray... 
I'll be sure to post the details.


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## Orjan (May 28, 1999)

*Re: (Sepp)*

Great work - I am truly impressed! http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (Orjan)*

Thanks for the kind words, I love your E21!


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## Bones 16v (Oct 12, 2005)

*Re: (Sepp)*

lovely


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## teach2 (Aug 3, 2005)

I was the guy at the MA show who simply wouldn't believe you........and what's the matter with Gobi?!? Gobi beige metallic happens to be my favorite "period" Audi color!
Much props. to you Joe for all of the work you have done. I am sure you take pride in it.


_Modified by teach2 at 5:47 PM 10/11/2007_


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: (teach2)*

Nothing really wrong with Gobi..the more I see Gobi cars, the more I've warmed up to them.
But I'd gladly spray over that color with anything else in the "period" catalog of colors anyday.
Most likely when I see you again (at the next Audi expo?) the car will be back to it's original color.


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## Quattro Krant (Sep 15, 2004)

*Re: (Sepp)*


_Quote, originally posted by *Sepp* »_Nothing really wrong with Gobi
Yeah, theres nothing really wrong with Gobi except the color itself


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## derracuda (Oct 22, 2004)

i second Quattro Krant!!! gobi is akin to buicks of the era... BLAH! 
i can talk because i have a gobi URQ... and hate the color.. it's horrid. oceanic, tornado, volcanic... anything would have been better... but i guess i can't complain when it only cost $1500


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## Quattro Krant (Sep 15, 2004)

*Re: (derracuda)*


_Quote, originally posted by *derracuda* »_i second Quattro Krant!!! gobi is akin to buicks of the era... BLAH! 
i can talk because i have a gobi URQ... and hate the color.. it's horrid. oceanic, tornado, volcanic... anything would have been better... but i guess i can't complain when it only cost $1500








Yeah, $1500 is nothing, especially for how solid yours is. Between Gobi and Mars Red, I don't know what is a worse color, ICK!!!!!!!


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