New project: Audi TT 8N (mk1) restoration

One of the classic cars of the past decades, the Audi TT. The UK mag Autocar thinks its prices are likely to rise in the future. And with super low prices, what's to lose.

The TT is a reasonably simple car for being a specialty vehicle. Parts are easily available and maintenance reasonably cheap.

I always wanted one in the 90's when the car was first introduced but never got around to actually doing that. And the car was pretty expensive considering you'd need another car for daily driving anyway.

So this spring I came across a very low priced used one, and went and bought it. This is a base model 1998 coupe with 132kW/180hp in factory state, man transmission, leather interior, AC and Bose.

The car has an aftermarket performance exhaust with large dual pipes and has been to performance tuning, as I guess is usual for cars of this genre. And the old VAG 1.8T20V is supposed to be a tuning wonder.

The car runs smoothly, steering is solid, there is no clutch slip and basically no shaking even at very high speeds.

But on the outside, there is work to be done. The paintwork is pretty scuffed with a couple of really bad touch up jobs some scrathces, front bumper has a crack that is badly glued and painted, some minor rust spots in the side skirts and left front fender, one headlight is really dim, all wheels have moderate to serious curb rash, the interior is really filthy and the leather seats are faded.

So there's some work to be done.