40's in a Bag

This past weekend I went to an exclusively euro car meet with big focus on VW and Audi. There were a few others which is why I prefaced as euro cars, but it was mainly German engineering. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring Val because I didn’t feel like she was “show ready” at the time but as soon as I arrived I knew I made a mistake. Even though this was my first time going to this meet, you can tell as soon as you pull up that this is a different type of meet. It’s a two day meet in Olivebridge, NY where you drink a 40oz and then place your empty 40 in front of the car that you like the most. It’s held on private property by the meet coordinator, Aaron, and his neighbor who generously let’s people camp out on his side of the property. The three awards you can win are the “People’s Choice,” award, the “Biggest Piece of Shit,” award and the “Coordinator’s Choice,” award. That last one is just Aaron’s favorite. 

The first person I met was JD. He had a beautiful ’86 forest green golf with a matching green cabrio converted to a camper in tow. They made quite the pair. I forgot to take a photo of his set up which I’m kicking myself for now but I’m sure I’ll be seeing more of him. He came over to the tent that me and Patrick, my boyfriend, were running and introduced himself. We swapped stories and we ended up talking about how I’m missing the driver’s side back third of my trim. I’ve been looking for that specific piece for a long time but could only find it in a pack of all six pieces of trim for about $150 at the lowest. Turns out, JD had the exact piece I was looking for at home and he gave it to me for free! When I met up with him a little after the meet so he could give me the trim, he had his two kids in the backseat of his golf and my heart melted. I love that his car isn’t just a show car to him, it’s for his whole family to enjoy. 

This wasn't the raffle car, but it was the car that should've won
in my opinion.

I spoke with Aaron for a little bit too and was pleased to find out that German cars are also a family affair for him too. He has his wife and daughter there the whole day and even up on stage with him. They raffled off a rare garage find Audi Quattro. It was the economy edition but still, it was a Quattro! For those of you who might not know why this is such a big deal, the Quattro is legendary for a few reasons. It’s considered one of the best all-wheel drive systems ever built because instead of being reactive, it’s proactive. This means that the system distributes torque equally to the axel that has more grip unlike other systems that only do this when poor conditions are present. In other words, that’s why this car is the perfect rally car. It predicts which axel will need more torque and is therefore extremely responsive and handles well too.¹  

Come on, LOOK at this sick window decal!

Even Aaron couldn’t believe he was raffling this car off, that’s how awesome and rare finding a quattro is. Patrick and I bought three raffle tickets between the two of us and were mentally preparing to take this masterpiece home all day, but we weren’t the lucky winners. If a quattro ever makes its way across my local Craigslist, you already know that it’s all mine. 

  1.    Blog.audiasheville.com/news/what-makes-the-audi-quattro-all-wheel-drive-system-so-outstanding/

This was the black Quattro's partner in crime. The photo
of the two of them is the header photo for this blog!

The Master List

I think just about everyone has this list in their heads of everything they want to do to their car disregarding money, time, and know how. Taking steps to actually getting a few of these things crossed off my list, I'm going to put it all right here!

Front driver’s side bumper gash

Shift Boot

Shift knob

New Steering wheel

Carpet

Glove compartment

Back speakers

Weather stripping on Passenger’s side

Cleaning the headliner

Find the last piece of side trim

Blacked out bumpers?

Replace center console piece

Cutting out the rust and welding not rusted metal on to it

Reupholstering the seats

New seats all together?

New hood

The order of the list is roughly starts with what I'm more likely to get done to true #exhaustpipedreams of mine that will probably never get done but hey, a girl can dream.

I'm happy to report that some of these items are already in works. I have the back speaker replacements ordered and ready for a sunny day. I met a great dude named JD yesterday at a VW and Audi car meet called 40's in a bag over in Olivebridge NY who said he might have the back driver's side piece of trim for me. I have the raw materials for the shift boot and glove compartment and now all I need is a special sewing machine that can handle vinyl and leather projects. Finally, I have a kit that can repair my front driver's side bumper gash. Just waiting on the sun for that one too!

Along with this list, I'm really interested in body work and interiors. I'm blessed enough to have access to some great high quality vinyl and once that specialty sewing machine is up and running again, I'm going to attempt my first car seat reupholstery project. 

Meet Val!

My pride and joy is my 1990 VW cabriolet. I bought her in September of 2017 after I crashed my '02 golf. She's everything I could want in a car, two door, convertible, and BRIGHT RED!

She makes the competition sweat with all 94 of her hp and is super practical for upstate NY. I bought her with every intention of making her my daily driver. Thankfully, she's a priss and sat in the repair lot all that winter (her choice not mine). The next winter came around and she found a cozy garage to hibernate in until warmer days. I learned the hard way that she's a snow bird like most of the older residents of New York.

I'm making this blog to post updates on her and to create a community of fellow motor-heads to help me along my journey. Val is the first car I've fallen in love with and I want to get to the point where I can do all of the work on her myself and eventually work on other project cars that I hope to acquire. Specifically, an mx-5 Miata from 1989-1997 only because if you don't get the poppy-uppy lights then what are you doing? Advice and/or anecdotes from any of your garage baby projects are more than welcome in the comments.