Alain's Brasil-style turbo Fox build

10 minute(s) of a 85 minute read

Thanks for showing that, Difus have you talked to iMohr about it and seen if they will replace it under warranty?

When I got my bar, it did seem a little lighter than I thought it would be - but that made me happy I chose to ge tthe bar from a race-bred company rather than the cheap generic chromed bars that are popular in Brazil. I believe the iMohr bar takes the damage so that your unibody doesn't have to. A stronger bar could maybe ruin your strut towers over time.

But then, I am also beginning to wonder if your strut bar mishap would have anything to do with your car being salvaged from a roll over accident? Either way, time will tell if my bar will stay straight.

Lol about the CIS looking like a diesel setup for us brazilians: I was actually a huge Back to the Future/Delorean fan as a kid. I knew what a fuel distributor was before I learned they equipped Foxes

5-25-2012

Thanks nick, looking good   

I've been working hard on the Fox, doing body work, getting it ready for paint. Sanded through pretty much all of the copper paint back onto either the original white, original primer, or bare metal, since the top coat clear was peeling in lots of places and you could tell it had been a cheap colour change to begin with. Had to fill in a few areas to get rid of dings and low spots and such, which took way too long. 

Since the bottom half of the car will be covered by the bumpers and the Gol GTi cladding, I will keep it in rocker guard painted black, in order to keep costs down and protect from our dear rust. The blue colour will only go above it, but you won't be able to tell easily with everything on. 

After a few weeks of prep, finally got to spray the two-part epoxy primer today. So satisfying! 

Anyways, the pictures 





 



 

 

 

Soon the doors and hood will come off, the door jambs will be sanded and primed, a little more body work here and there, more primer, then everything will get painted. 

I'll also be replacing the engine, mine just happened to be burning oil, and it did have 350,000 km. It's a shame after all this work, but it's gotta be done. Recently brought home an engine (thanks myboxyfox and Rob) which is getting cleaned up, seals replaced, my parts swapped onto it, then swapped. But after paint. It is a small valve head engine which is a downgrade from mine but I really just need to enjoy this car, so I'll drop that in and later down the road rebuild my big valve head and swap it back in, maybe along with forged pistons if money allows. But I really just need to be able to DRIVE this car this summer or I'll go nuts!

5-26-2012

Thanks, fellas 

The short shifter is cheap, about $40 for one like mine I think, but I can't get parts from Brazil right now. I may be going back there late September though, so if I do, parts season will be opened again!

Steve, I have no concerns at all about the added weight of the turbo on the motor mount. I was concerned at first about the added torque going through all the mounts, but when I did the engine bay in 2010 I closely inspected them (that was after 2 years of a lot of road abuse with the turbo in) and they were still fine. I do plan on replacing them with bmw E30 ones at some point, but I'll never diss the stock Fox motor mounts. They may not be the stiffest, but they do take a lot of abuse and they last - they are over engineered like a lot of stuff on the car

05-31-2012

Getting ready to paint the main shell. Prepped and primed the door jambs, trunk lid, fuel door and a couple of spots I had spot puttied  

06-02-2012

Well the main shell is painted for now. I really liked the process and the overall result! Learned a lot and the car is shiny. 



 

 





 

This is the first time I am painting a car so I did run into a few of the problems you'd expect, including a couple of runs, a couple spots where paint coverage wasn't full, orange peel and a few dust specks, but this car is my school to learn on, and I did learn a lot! 

In the future when I repaint things I'll do panel by panel, with LOTS more light; for now though I am happy with it and want to drive it! 

More pics 

Nevermind the dust in the engine bay and trunk! 







Front was first rocker guarded like the original 



Runs:  





No runs on driver's side though  

6-14-2012

Thanks for the comments and the tips everyone!! 

efritsch - I'll paint your passat if you promise to finish the Wagon  

Difus - I got the cloth from JB Tecidos, not sure if they would have the one you're looking for but it's a good place to start the search   

QuantumSyncro - thanks for the tips! It is metallic, bc/cc, will definitely have to do some sanding and re-clear certain areas, but looking at it in the sun today I noticed base didn't cover fully in quite a few places so will have to do some of it over again... it's ok though live and learn. 

foxygrandpa - thanks for the comments, I am still a learner though! just very hands-on learning, I guess! This car has been a great school to learn on and at least it's not too expensive to make some mistakes on it   

Thanks Road Boss, Mean 'n Green86, ziddey, turbofox and reddfoxx!! 




I haven't done any more painting for now, but hopefully will have time to do some soon - for now I've been busy putting some stuff back together, and getting the new engine ready, in and running:

running: