The Green Hell Bites Back - Unscheduled Rebuild July 2008
My third trip to the 'ring of the year at the end of June 2008 turned out to be a rather costly and stressful one and almost prevented my return at the start of August for my 4th trip. Given the tight timescales between the two trips I haven't had a chance to update the progress thread during this time, but at last, here's a breakdown of events:
Saturday 28th June 2008
The Saturday (28th June) all went to plan and above is one of the last pics of my car before re-constructive surgery.
Sunday 29th June 2008
..was a bloomin' hot day, but nevertheless the car was going well right up to the end of my 99th lap of the year. Unfortunately, the 100-lap milestone for the lil Arosa proved to be a tricky one to conquer. At about 18:00 I headed out for this would-be milestone lap. Unfortunately I didn't get far and coming out of the old pits complex before Hatzenbach I ended up drifting out wide (hot track/hot tyres/me not reacting quick enough), running up a high kerb, bottoming out the car, and finally taking a trip across the track into the armco on the other side
The drivers door wouldn't open and the radiator was damaged.. I needed recovery
As you can see, other than radiator the damage wasn't too bad: headlight/front panel/wheel arch linings and lower valance of front bumper. The font panel is just plastic so this and lower valance simply crumpled, however the crash bar seemed to take most of the impact and the car simply bounced off the barrier. The recovery to UK process was handled with German efficiency by ADAC I was quoted a return time of 2-3 weeks.
Saturday 5th July 2008
Whilst waiting for the car to turn up, I scouted out a scrappy with a red 1.0 MK2 Arosa (heads up from m0rksport), and collected a new headlight, front bumper, front panel, radiator and front crash bar from them on the 5th July - all for £140.
Tuesday 8th July 2008
German efficiency returns the car to the UK and it is unloaded at a local garage. Unfortunately I get a call stating that oil was leaking from the car when it was being unloaded (there was no oil at the scene of the accident, just rapidly draining coolant!). A bit odd given it's just travelled over 550 miles to get back to the UK..
Saturday 12th July 2008
I go to the garage in order to get the car on a ramp, and I then proceeded to get the front end stripped down.
It's at this point where the oil story starts to make sense:
A quick chat with the garage owner soon concludes that a forklift truck has been involved in moving my car around at some point, unfortunately it was operated by (most probably given there wouldn't have been any oil left to escape if this had have happened on the continent) a lazy British workman who was in too much of a rush to get back to reading the Sun and eating his fry up than to take care with his work. Great.
Damage report: Power steering pump/power steering pipes/bracket for alternator and power steering pump/oil sump. Yup, more damage caused by recovery muppets than the accident itself.
Finally, here's a pic of the drivers door and sill: a bit of jig work required to straighten it all out:
Tuesday 15th July 2008
More great news: All the parts damaged during recovery are on back order with both VW and SEAT. Joy of joys.
Saturday 26th July 2008
With the parts finally onsite, I turned up to assist the fitting of the new sump/power steering pump and all supporting parts.
Given the one downpipe on the manifold had sustained a bit too much damage (down to 1/2 volume), I took this away with me to get the section cut out and replaced:
Monday 28th July 2008
Before work I drop off the repaired manifold for refitting. A colossal effort by the bodyshop sees the Arosa's front end rebuilt (bar front bumper as I had been repairing this by fitting my 'new' lower valance onto the old upper part of the bumper) and the necessary jigging done to get the door closing again and the side of the car looking mildly less mangled. After work I then collected it and drove it back home, where I then spend the evening in darkness refitting the front bumper in the midst of a thunderstorm. Nice. The end result is that although the front end needs aligning properly, the car can be driven to and from work for the remainder of the week before I head back to Germany in order to make sure it is all straight and OK.
Tuesday-Wednesday 29-30th July 2008
With the car driving perfectly, I spend the evenings of these two days prepping/cleaning/checking the car for the coming weekend.
Friday 1st August 2008 at 03:30AM
The Arosa and I leave home and head to Germany for some more maximum pasty attack.. Talk about a dash to the finish!
![[B)]](/forums/styles/seatcupra/oldforumsmileys/shades.gif "Cool [B)]")
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