ONE SAD DAY...Project F32 meets the maker [Russ Taylor]
Most whom frequent this site may or may not have met me before and even more would be unaware of some of my past projects. However, one of my most proud to this day was an intense build of a 2004 Volkswagen R32. What started as a simple upgraded R32, turned into a three month marathon to complete a total rebuild during the winter of 2006. Fueled by some alcohol, taunting comments and motivation from doubting friends, resulted in what I feel was one of my single most rewarding accomplishments. The spec for the build was to include among other things a full color swap and Stage1 Turbo System. Read more for full story…
What was more daunting is I would be performing 90% of the work myself in my home garage. With the help of a few talented friends that happened to work as Certified VW Techs, they were able to perform all of the mechanical tear down like the engine bay and interior trim and mechanicals. One weekend of destruction left me with an essentially bare shell to start the paint work. This had only been my fourth time doing a full respray on a car but nothing of this age. My past builds included a MK1 Rabbit, E36 318i, E30 318, MK3 Jetta, and a MK2 Jetta. Needless to say the expectations were high for a car at the time only having 30,000 miles at a little more than a year old.
The build went smooth with the exception of a few paint errors and a few nights spent sleeping on the floor in my garage leading up to the deadline. There were a few touches that completed the build including a super rare set of 3-piece Champion Motortsport 19s, Custom Alcantara Wrapped steering wheel, and an AVIC Boost Controller built into the dash.
I will stop boring you with the build details and get to the point of this blog. During the late winter of 2006 I decided to sell the car due to some personal reasons and I was forced to sell it for much under what I felt it was worth. The guy found it on EBAY, sent a check no questions asked, showed up and drove it away barely knowing how to drive a manual. I never heard from him or saw the car again after that. That was of course till about two weeks ago!
I kept getting calls and weird messages on my cell phone and I finally returned the calls. Turns out it was the owner and he wanted to get info about the build. He wanted to know costs, and specs for a lot of the stuff I added to the car. As it turns out the car had been left to sit for about two years. During this time period no one ever checked on it and it was left outside in the corner of a yard. It had been driven across the US once and sent back to New York with a shipping company.
This is where the story gets ugly. According to the new owner there was a defective part in the drain system that caused the car to fill with about 4 inches of water !! I can't even begin to explain the pain I felt when he sent me the pictures of the destruction. The car was covered in mold and looked as though it had been used to film a part of Mad Max. If I said then I had a bad feeling about the buyer...it was an understatement.
I wish there as moral to this story or maybe even a purpose for sharing it, but to this day I get emails from people and messages on forums asking me about the car. Well…now I have an answer for them !
Enjoy the pics and be sure to see the best ones at the bottom !!
-Russ Taylor
That was then...this is NOW.
Note the mold on the steering wheel.
