For three days, it rained ... slowly at times but continuosly, day and night.  That the kids were also on Spring Break at the time didn't help matters since being forced to stay inside most of the time meant they were driving me nuts (in fact, as I'm writing this, they still are!). 

So, instead of wrenching on the car as planned,  I used this as an opportunity to further reorganize all the shelves in the garage along with cleaning all my tools and reorganizing  my toolbox.  I also spent some time pondering an interesting idea that a friend mentioned to me about what I might do with the '83 bodyshell now that I've decided to install the V8 engine into my '85 instead.  As coincidence would have it, another Audi buddy of mine has started thinking about a project along the same lines as well ... unfortunately, he lives 2,000 miles away so collaborating with him on it isn't an option. 

The idea?  Shortening the car by cutting 320mm out of the wheelbase, from behind the front seats and in front of the rear seats ... the idea isn't a new one, of course, since that's exactly what Audi did with its Group B homologated Sport Quattro back in 1984.  There's also at least one company now making replica bodypanels for the Sport Q as well as converting Ur-Qs and Coupe GTs to look like a Sport Q ... well, almost.  The real cars used the more upright windshield and doors from the 4000 (nee 80) sedans to reduce glare on the gauges at night, in response to complaints from its rally drivers.  To my knowledge, no one has attempted to produce a replica of this yet since it would require modifications to the complete bodyshell intead of just the middle portion of it.  Besides, I think the real cars look ugly and utilitarian with the upright windshield; the converted cars, while not exactly pretty, look a lot nicer wtih the sloping windshields that Audi gave them. 

Although I'm hardly an expert on bodywork, looking over the bodyshop manual and at the stripped interior of the car -- I didn't realize that rainwater was leaking into the passenger compartment from uncovered holes in the rain tray that's ahead of the windshield and it flooded the passenger compartment hence the reason why I had to strip everything out -- it looks pretty straightforward, especially if you plan to install a rollcage since it will restore any missing strength to the bodyshell without requiring other parts of the bodyshell to be reworked as well.  The Sport Q replica bodypanels are readily available (although I'm not sure at what price, since they'd most likely have to be shipped over from the U.K.) and although the Sport Q used enitrely different suspension components, the geometry was identical to that of the regular Ur-Q despite the 12.56" difference in their wheelbases.  The Sport Q also had a unique dash and seats but I can easily live without those, especially since used pieces would be impossible to find -- Audi only built 214 of these cars, remember -- and it would be god-awful expensive, if not impossible to produce authentic duplicates.    

Other than the bodyshell mods, the only other mods that would be necessary are shortening the driveshaft (no big deal); making up shorter side windows (possibly a big deal to do with glass, a piece-of-cake if you use Lexan); shortening the wiring harness, brake lines and exhaust system.  Inside the car, you'd also have to shorten the rear carpet piece (easy) as well as the interior bodypanels alongside the rear seats and the headliner.  Oh, yeah ... since the trunk release is mounted on the driver-side door jamb, you'll have to shorten the cable as well. I'm sure I've oversimplified things here but the whole process doesn't seem all that difficult, at least with the proper tools.  Personally, I'd like to have the car on a jig when it's welded back together and perhaps even have somebody else do the welding since mine isn't that good but that shouldn't cost too much to farm out to a professional.

Alas, my car projects will have to be put on hold for a while as I've just learned that I've got some repair work to do in our bathrooms.  Paula started to regrout the tile in the tub areas and discovered that the cement board behind it has rotted ... so, it looks like I'm going to be removing the tile from the affected area, replacing the damaged wood and cement board (and while we're at it, probably the tub and fixtures, toot!) and then install new tile. Of course, I've never done anything like this before and with a little bit of luck, this project won't turn into a complete bathroom remodeling job ... if the damage we uncover is extensive enough, though, I'm afraid it may make sense to do it all at once instead of piecemeal over the next few years.  Needless to say, I've got my fingers crossed....