The next test to my amateur mechanicing skills was the day the door handle let go and i heard a clunk as part of the lever fell into the door, bu**er !
On seeing the mental prices being asked for second hand ones that would probably be of a similar vintage and therefore liable to break at any point without warning i ordered a passat handle conversion kit from Germany and a couple of new topran handles from Fleabay, these were listed as for a Passat 1988 - 1996 which of course with hindsight is daft because when the B3 became the B4 in around 1993 the handles were changed inside and out , outwardly they resemble the Golf Mk3 handles and the fixing screw is much further recessed than the earlier model, so the seller apologised and ordered me the correct ones on a special order, these took a month to arrive and were for the front rather than the rears i'd ordered to have a de-locked look but it was easy peasy to swap my barrels over , they came with locks & keys but i don't like to see 2 or 3 sets of keys to a car.
The handles cost £7.99 per side + £3 delivery and the conversion kit was £27 delivered.
This is the old lever alongside the fitted new one, you can see the difference between Passat & Corrado handles.
After drilling the first pin out that holds the lever into the handle mechanism i found out that with the right small screwdriver i could spin the pin round then put the driver on an agle to grip the pin and pull it out, the levers come with new solid pins.
My door now opens with the solidity of a new car, after a month of reaching across from the passanger side that is a relief.
Filled with a new sense of purpose i now removed the seats, wetvac'd the whole interior , carpets ,seats and boot, i cleaned the rooflining with carpet cleaner in a spray bottle using a cloth, the linings come unstuck as it is without wetting them through so it was safer this way.
I don't think the car had been valeted in well over a decade !
I could have built an extension on the house using the sand i found in the spare wheel well and behind the rear arch carpets
Then a new set of genuine carpet mats went down, i discovered one of the rear quarter panel interior trims was coming unglued so i removed it , glued the vinyl back in place , covered it in clothes pegs until it dried and then re-fitted it, good as new !
Next i treated all the rubber parts , door seals etc with Autoglym rubber and vinyl which left me whith nice clean rubber and a very dirty cloth .
Sorry i have no photos of these bits but some things are just too boring to show, and stopping to take a photo every few mins really strings out the job don(t you find
