This 1983 urQ in Helios blue was M's restoration project. It was in atrocious condition. The wiring is almost guaranteed to fail, the fuel tank leaked, and there was rust everywhere. The rear brakes were literally falling apart. Cracking rubber, brittle plastic, you get the idea. He wouldn't have bought it had these things been known from afar.
The battery is in the back seat stock, which saves some work. The pre - 85 wiring job was a virtual gold mine of solder-less joints, corrosion, and 20 year old undersized wires. M delights in wiring diagrams and fabricated an entirely new one that never came to fruition. The links to it are in the menu.
The wheels were 14lb, forged, 15x7, Fuchs in et45. There were originally OEM cast 15x8 et24's.
This is the right rear knuckle. That tie rod ball joint was stuck and broke M's pickle fork with the help of the 5ft pipe. This is a one piece knuckle/strut (or struckle). A newer two piece design would fit on the car from other Audi's and that opens up a lot of options for suspension parts.
The stock control arms were totally shot. The ball joints only came on the first 581 urQs and are no longer made by Audi. The tooling was picked up by some firm in CA and their ball joints are sold exclusively through Autozone of all places! The mounting bolts for the control arm are recessed into the subframe and require some weird maneuvers to remove.
The subframe removed for science. Note the weird marshmallow like sway bar end bushings that skewer on the end like the frame mounts. One nice thing is that you can use the front bar in the rear! The subframe was replaced sometime in the past and was actually in pretty good shape unlike the arms.
