Been lurking on here for a long time, and I figured it's time to contribute. I've been around cars my entire life...to list the VWs, Audis, Porsches and Mercedes that I've seen change hands in my immediate family alone would be another thread in itself.
My first car was a 1980 Mercedes Benz W123 240D that was totaled by someone more concerned with her cellphone than driving. Besides a short affair with a 1999 VW MK4 GTI VR6, that incident left me carless from 2006 through 2012. In the meantime I became a competitive bike racer and needed something to haul gear at a low cost. It came down to either a Scion xB or a Honda Fit (not Euro ), and I found a black xB quicker for cheaper. Fast forward to 2013, and my xB looked like this:
The xB was perfect for everything I needed it for, but it lacked character. Those that know me from the cycling world know everything I take on as a project is usually obscure and always unique. I got a call from my good buddy Shane one day saying he needed to unload one of his VWs to free up cash because his second daughter was on the way. His family is my family, so naturally the xB was for sale the next day and I was on my way to pick up a new-to-me VW. I didn't even know what a B3 was. The next night I ripped around the block in a freshly rebuilt VR6 and took her home:
There is only one known owner before Shane with a skimpy paper trail of oil changes and basic maintenance. Shane did some major work under the hood but hadn't touched anything else. Once I started digging into it my to-do list got very, very lengthy. Here's the first set of photos I took to document the starting point:
In 1993 she rolled off the line as a LA9V Brilliant Black family rocket. At some point, all panels forward of the B pillars were swapped from a green donor. The clear coat on the hood and roof is shot. The hatch is dented and rusted. All the fenders are wrinkled from bad rolling. The coils she sits on are unknown and there's a few rattles I still can't find. This is where the fun began.....
My first car was a 1980 Mercedes Benz W123 240D that was totaled by someone more concerned with her cellphone than driving. Besides a short affair with a 1999 VW MK4 GTI VR6, that incident left me carless from 2006 through 2012. In the meantime I became a competitive bike racer and needed something to haul gear at a low cost. It came down to either a Scion xB or a Honda Fit (not Euro ), and I found a black xB quicker for cheaper. Fast forward to 2013, and my xB looked like this:
The xB was perfect for everything I needed it for, but it lacked character. Those that know me from the cycling world know everything I take on as a project is usually obscure and always unique. I got a call from my good buddy Shane one day saying he needed to unload one of his VWs to free up cash because his second daughter was on the way. His family is my family, so naturally the xB was for sale the next day and I was on my way to pick up a new-to-me VW. I didn't even know what a B3 was. The next night I ripped around the block in a freshly rebuilt VR6 and took her home:
There is only one known owner before Shane with a skimpy paper trail of oil changes and basic maintenance. Shane did some major work under the hood but hadn't touched anything else. Once I started digging into it my to-do list got very, very lengthy. Here's the first set of photos I took to document the starting point:
In 1993 she rolled off the line as a LA9V Brilliant Black family rocket. At some point, all panels forward of the B pillars were swapped from a green donor. The clear coat on the hood and roof is shot. The hatch is dented and rusted. All the fenders are wrinkled from bad rolling. The coils she sits on are unknown and there's a few rattles I still can't find. This is where the fun began.....
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