Ryan’s 1981 Blue Storm - NRB

[Ryan]

I bought my second Storm in March 2005 from mr.brown off this very forum (or should that be the old one?).
At the time I had a green storm and was planning a long list of resto/upgrades, but when this blue car came up for sale I told mr.brown I was very interested, and within a short time I was the proud owner of two storms!
I ran the two cars for a while then sold the green one to a chap in Cornwall (no not that chap in Cornwall) who came up on the train and drove it back.

mr.brown had bought NRB in November 2004 from a small car dealers nr Twickenham (I think).
I had seen the ad on AutoTrader, but it had a rubbish picture (see below) and I wasn’t looking to get another mk1.



In the few months he had it, the car benefitted from hours of tinkering by mr.brown which included...

Blue Igniter leads
Bosch dizzy cap/rotor arm
VW fuel filter
K&N Air Filter
OEM Bosch fuel injectors
OEM Bosch Cold Start Injector
OEM Bosch Auxiliary Air Valve
65A Bosch Alternator
Larger Bosch battery
Gearshift linkage bushes replaced with VW items
Gearshift link rods and shift finger
Techtonics Tuning quick shift fitted (3 settings)
Thatcham Cat2 Laserline Immobiliser (with certificate)
Headlights relayed with new relays, wiring and connectors.

The brake light switch (on the m/c) packed up, so rather than replace the m/c he bought a BMW pedal switch and mounted it with a custom made bracket.


He also removed the towbar that was fitted - as well as the electric windows and airhorns.
Due to the window motors, the door cards have bowed slightly so he fitted late Passat winders.
There were 3 (yes 3) separate alarms/immob on the car as well as air horns/compressor/relays etc in the engine bay.
After removing all of this mr.b reported that the car was about 5kg lighter!
Here’s one of the pics of it on mr.browns RA’s (at least I knew it would look good on the set I had on my green storm…)

[Ryan]

NRB showed just under 63, 000 miles on the clock when I picked it up and from the large wad of history that also came with the car it was clear that it had been pampered by the second owner who had it from the early eighties onwards. It had bills for some resto work including the rear arches, and I was told it spent about 7 years of its life out in Portugal where it was used as a 'holiday' car during the UK winter - so that explained the low miles and good condition then...

I found it pulled much smoother than the green storm and sounded a bit more fruitier due to the exhaust note, however it didn't feel any quicker, and certainly didn't stop anywhere near as well



In addition to the electirc windows and alarms NRB had been modified further by the second owner who had fitted -
an aftermarket pop-up glass sunroof
a stainless steel exhaust (with bill from ’84)
and a Bilstein suspension kit

The car also had numerous stickers over the dash indicating when it had a new battery and certain service items fitted.
The bumpers had been repainted at some point and were starting to flake slightly.
When the airhorns were fitted it resulted in a hole in the dashboard from a stupid toggle switch.
It also had a new back box fitted.

[Ryan]

So the first mods...
Although the original wheels were in great nick (with new Continentals from mr.brown) I fitted my 15” BBS RA’s that I had been running on the Green Machine.


I also swapped the filler cap for the one i bought for the Green Machine, as I didn't like the flip-up key hole cover of the original.


Next thing was probably the radio. NRB didn't come with one, and as I wasn't driving it all the time I didn't mind so much, but when I sold my MoT fail Mk2 Golf GTi, I fitted the JVC radio cassette headunit & 12 CD changer on it (and it was blue!)


mr.brown had fitted a mk3 polo steering wheel to save wear on the original item and I ran it on and off for a while (you can see some of the stickers on the dash undertray).
I also bought a new set of black leather gaitors for the handbrake and gearstick off ebay and chose blue stitching to match the rest of the interior.

[Ryan]

At the end of August 2005 the stainless exhaust that had been on the car for 19 years disintergrated on the way back from Brighton – on the Basingstoke ring road I noticed a weird sound, then on a lonely stretch of the A339 it snapped! The middle section broke just in front of the centre box. After a swift inspection at the roadside I decided it could make it home ok (which it did) but I kept to the back roads and sounded like a VERY angry rally car – without much puff it has to be said!

I managed to get a very cheap and rusty centre section as a stop-gap measure thinking that I would drive the car with it for a while whilst I made up my mind what new spangly system I should buy…it didn’t quite work out, as the centre section – believed to be an old powerflow – did not fit the standard back box. This resulted in me driving a slightly less noisy car, sounding more like a Group B rally monster – which didn’t feel like it was going to shake the glass out as it did before, but did cause awful vibrations nonetheless.

After much indecision I dropped the car in to a Longlife branch on my way to Wales on day to get a manifold back stainless system fitted.











Looks nice and subtle I think - tucked in a bit further than most...

[Ryan]

I was pretty happy with the car at this stage - apart from one thing - the brakes - they were pretty awful (especially when I was used to the good ones on the Green Machine. I finally decided to get them upgraded after an overshoot at a junction

After looking into the various options of how to improve the brakes on a 'rocco, I decided to upgrade them whilst I was at it.
And so the parts hording started as I decided I was going for OEM 16v 256mm brakes on the front with a 9" servo and 22mm mastercylinder and Goodridge hoses.

It took me a while to source all the parts (like nearly 12months!), but I ended up getting the carriers new from C&R Enterprises, and sourced some new calipers from a 'bloke on the net' (CGTi). mr.brown kindly picked up the Brembo discs and (forget which) pads along with the master cylinder and hoses for me from GSF. Servo was sourced from ebay and the fluid reservoir from VW themselves...

After dousing the calipers and carriers in a liberal amount of Halfords silver I was all set so off I toddled to the Phirm in July 2006. While it was there I also asked them to service it and had the cambelt changed. The brake work caused them some trouble as they had to make some new brake lines, and replace the linkage bar because it had become one with the old servo. Still it was a huge improvement once the brakes were bedded in.

[Ryan]

NRB attended a few shows during 2006 including Edition 38 in September.
Here's a pic of the Scirocco Register line up...

[Ryan]

Here's a pic of NRB at No-Rice March 2007 sporting black/silver plates again.



And on the drive - a final pic with the Bilstein kit fitted...pre 2007 Phirm visit.
I fitted pressed metal plates, as I had one on the spot fine from plod for the black and silver plates
I also swapped the polo wheel for my wooden Momo.

[Ryan]

Fast forward to the end of May 2007
I picked up the Storm after leaving it down at the Phirm for them to tinker with.

They fitted poly bushes, new front wishbones and ball joints, Neuspeed front strut braces, and Weitec TX fully adjustable coilovers with new top mounts.
They also fitted a replacement fuel tank and a NOS small fuel pipe - the 90 degree one - (thanks to mr.brown for those) and cured a small fuel leak problem.

It was now sitting a bit lower, but the ride remained the same.
Although I soon found out how much lower as I grounded the lower brace on the way out of their lane

Here's the new top strut brace fitted...


and the lower brace sporting early scars from the Phirm lane...


Coilovers through spokes...


I gave the old girl a good wash as she'd been out in the weather for a while and headed out to attempt blatent pic whore shots at a local industrial estate.

[Ryan]

I spent quite a bit of time during 2007 buying bits and pieces for the resto and talking to various places about doing the work.
In October 2007 I took the car to a local MG restorers to see if they would be interested in talking the various rust spots on the car, they weren’t too enthusiastic, and to further dampen my day I managed to get a cracked windscreen when a large stone was thrown up by a lorry in front of me…so a new windscreen fitted through the insurers cost me just £40 excess all done, and the guy came out to my work to fit it. RESULT :D

By the end of November 2007 no further progress had been made...
Apart from reaching 73,000 miles and failing the Mot!

Failed on fog light - fixed the previous year and again this
High idle - loose screw - unsure of fix...
NS sill corroded - YIKES - got the garage to weld it and got it retested the following week - all good

It also had an advisory on the loose fuel pump (which turned out to have a small leak ) - cheers to mr.brown (you see a theme here!) for parting with his along with the good fuel pump basket he had horded.

[Ryan]

"STOP THIEF!"
Summer 2008


He's a determined blighter

[Ryan]

Right some progress...
August 2008 and at last NRB was getting some rust removal - the Storm was in the bodyshop!
Just got the lower rear corners sorted for this visit.




Also dropped my ATS wheels of at the refurbers on the same trip got them off ebay.de at the beginning of July.

[Ryan]

End of September 2008
I picked up the Classics from the refurbers and really like the finish :D

I wanted the look of the normal ATS Classic wheel style, but wanted blue instead of black.
I chose the paint code of our Bora LB5N, as it is nice and dark (and I new what the code was!).
When I saw them I was extremely happy, I think it looks alot better than I ever imagined.





I struggled for ages to get some centre caps that I liked for them - then tried one off my Dad's B5.5 Passat sport & BINGO - perfect fit.
Wasted no time getting a new set from the dealers and some new dust caps from ebay whilst I was at it.

[Ryan]

Back to the resto details...
Because I wanted the car to look awesome, and I have all the restoration skills of a drunken bull in a china shop, I wisely outsourced the work to someone who had an idea of what he was doing.
Namely Danny Allen of orange mk1 golf fame.
http://dubz-by-dan.moonfruit.com/

So "A picture tells a thousand words."

Here are the before pics of the lower rear panel.
It had rusted on each corner.





I had bought a repro panel from ebay.de, along with a pair of corner repair sections.
I hoped these would suffice, but just incase (and for the future) I also got a pair of repro rear arch repair sections as well.

Despite having trawlled though numerous resto/build threads I still had a bit of a shock seeing my car stripped and cut up!

The rust on drivers side...

That pic also shows the hole in the rear panel that (I presume) was used for the cable for the tow bar which was previously removed by mr.brown.

Passenger side...


Out with the old...test fit


This is the pic that scared me the most...


In with the new...










Primer...


Whilst the rear panel was being done I also wanted the little black cap on the drivers rear quarter deleted.
It's a remnant of one of the many immobilisers the car has had over the years...

Before...


Gone...


Smoothed...

[Ryan]

13th October 2008 NRB finally clocks up 75, 000 miles

I bodged the pipercross air filter on (bought from guess who?), but decided against the power rohr bling.


Finally got round to taking some pics of the new paint...

Offside rear corner -


Nearside rear corner -


Area of former cap location -


Two tone!

[Ryan]

February 2009 - Classics are on - BBS are gone

Turned out the ATS's need spacing by about 5mm on the front because they won’t clear the calipers (256mm)
This is something I wasn't expecting - so much so that I didn't test fit the wheels before I had them refurbed
The garage fitted x2 3mm spacers on each wheel, and they've got just over 1mm clearance to the caliper, so at least I could get it back home.

I've now bought some FK 6mm spacers as I wanted to have as few things between the wheel and the hub as I could.
Not got the longer bolts sorted out yet - I'm hoping to have a look at these tonight to make sure I get the correct length.

Good news is I like the look of the wheels – (thank f@ck!)






Dad's scraped caps