Dumb accident with '86 TQ, question about bent frame

cp, geez...sorry to hear about the accident - of course it could have been worse - like a telephone pole in the median or a kid crossing the road......we have a median in front of our house that has collected 2 westbound cars and 1 eastbound car over the past 2 years (mostly sleepy drivers). Look across the roof for wrinkles, along the body lines from back to front to see if there are any bends, and look at panel transitions like where the rear door meets the rear quarter panel to see if they've crashed into each other. The Bentley manual has measurements that you can make to see if there's been any body distortions. If you're buying lights, grille, a hood, a subframe, an oil pan, engine and tranny mounts, etc., maybe you should be looking in the online classifieds for a new 5ktq - the junkyards were at one time fairly full of them, but since the scrap metal price (in North America) is through the roof many yards around me have been squishing them for the cash. You could get an estimate from a couple of autobody shops on the repair and get them to see if the frame is out of wack. You probably could repair the car without yanking on the unibody, and get a (4 wheel) alignment to make it track decently, but any distortions will have an effect on the suspension geometry and how it handles in turns, etc. As far as the difficulty level, I'd imagine it would depend on how rusty the car is, but I'm sure a shop could at least give you an estimate. Cheers! Steve Sears

1987 Audi 5kTQ 1980 Audi 5k 1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes (SPAM Blocker NOTE: Remove SHOES to reply)

"cp" wrote in message news:7D7yd.6462$uj2.2031@clgrps12...

Everything is fixable the question is: is the car still worth it? You probably buy a 12 year younger one for the same price. But then, you may be attached to the car -like me.

Ronald

>

:-) yeh I likes it, it's in very nice condition (save a gash in the hood, broken light, very grooved oil pan, and a hanging bumper), not a speck of rust, the thing was in a rich audi aficionado's garage for all of it's life, if it wasn't for the quattro I'd dump and get another one, I saw 4 non quattros in the paper today for between $500 and $1500, definitely good for parts. hmmmmm I think I'll junk it and get something recent, though the mortgage prevents anything too recent...

cp

Hi Steve, good to hear from you. Yeh, could have been worse, luckily no one saw me! I'd collapse from embarrassment. I was looking in the papers and found 4 audis ('86-'88 can I use parts from an '88 CS?) very cheap, for the price of a hood and lights at a junk yard. I'm going to see what the mechanic will say about the important parts underneath the engine, the car was running fine, I drove for half a block to find a parking space, backed up and all so it's driving. All the oil leaked out of course but I don't think the engine was affected. Yeh, too bad; the thing drove like a charm, not a speck of rust on it, it was garaged all its life by some rich audi fan who had a number of audis. Yes, if the frame is OK I'll probably keep it.

Thanks! cp

Replacing the hood, fender, bumper, and trim is a very easy job if there is no distortion. Four hour job. Try to find colors to match.

Look where the bumper is mounted to the unibody with shocks (near the radiator on the drivers side). If the impact was sever the mount will have crumpled as it is designed to do to absorb energy of impact. If no crumpling, then you probably didn't hit hard enough to do more than cosmetic damage.

Oil leak: Given that you drove very little your engine probably is fine.

Changing the pan requires dropping the sub frame under the engine but that is quite easy to do on a lift.

T44 qt's are getting more rare. Fix it.

If the parts donors you are looking at are turbo then the parts should fit. The only question, if they are not turbo, is if the hood is the same over the headlights.

T> Hi Steve, good to hear from you. Yeh, could have been worse, luckily no

Hi, thanks for your reply, I'll check the bumper mounts asap. So you're saying that this model is worth fixing? It does (did) drive very nice, engine sounds beautiful, sometimes I just rev it just for the pleasure of it :-)

For a 1986, it probably was the most generally advanced mass produced car, no?

Thanks for the advice!

cp

cp, Sure, if it's not really busted up, fix it! Heck, I'm contemplating making a "faux-v8" out of my 5ktq - if I do I'd have the body parts (bumper/hood/grille) for cheap - provided you're in the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada area. It was pretty advanced for its day - people are suprised when I tell them my car is an '87 - it looks fairly current even with the cars of today. The galvanizing of the body was definitely advanced for it's day. The hydraulic pressure accumulator....well.....sometimes the "road less traveled" is that way for a reason. Cheers! Steve Sears

1987 Audi 5kTQ 1980 Audi 5k 1962 and '64 Auto Union DKW Junior deLuxes (SPAM Blocker NOTE: Remove SHOES to reply)

T44 TQs have nearly a cult following. check the AudiWorld forum to meet some of them : )

T> Hi, thanks for your reply, I'll check the bumper mounts asap. So you're saying

Will do, thanks! cp

okedoke, we'll see what the mech says :)

tooo bad, I'm in Vancouver!

Yeh, people are surprised that this one is a '86, there's no comparison to North American cars of those years. I've got a UK review of this car against others of it's class, this one came out on top, no wonder.

cp