Return from lurking

[gr8hunter1 at comcast.net (Jacob Hawes)]

Ok, I am finally going to start putting some effort into the scirocco. 
What this means is that after several months of lurking I am coming out 
of hiding. There is actually a reason behind me just now taking the car 
out of storage. We just lost a car. My mom was on her way home from work 
in the alero when a guy t-boned her because he was watching the opposite 
direction of traffic and saw an opening he decided to take. 
Unfortunately my moms car was coming from the other direction (she was 
in the closest lane of traffic to where he started) and he didn't even 
look. So at 35mph her rear end was pushed toward the center of the road 
and the still moving tires took her directly into a telephone pole. She 
only has a few bruises from the seat belt but the car looks totaled.

If what we see as far as blue book and retail value is true we should 
get more than we have spent on the car. We bought it for cash from a 
friend, fixed a warped header that developed soon after we got it, and 
have done maintenance. So we should have enough to buy a small pickup 
(something we could use) and still have enough left over to make the 
scirocco a real daily driver.

That leaves us with two running cars with three people at home (all of 
us work and I go to school). Getting back to the point I need to get the 
scirocco running so we have three cars again. This means questions.

We know it needs brakes and something with suspension. I bought shoes 
for it a while ago and they have been sitting in the back end ever 
since. We also need to get pads but I am not sure which caliper the car 
has (the guy at the FLAPS said there were two).

The suspension bottoms out from going over rail road tracks, a high 
rising cross street, or even just pushing down on the back end hard. My 
dad thinks this is struts and as the cheaper option (I think) that is 
what I am going to replace first.

Something that I have not been able to track down is a leak at the rear 
passenger corner. There is always a little water in the corner but not 
enough to spread anywhere. I think the seal is good. How do I track this 
very slow leak down.

Something that I asked about last winter has happened again. Mold on the 
steering wheel. The car has been sitting and we always have a lot of 
humidity (in the form of precipitation), so I looked today and of course 
just like last year there is white and green mold. Last year I used 
tilex mold killer quickly followed by vinyl conditioner. I don't think 
that this killed it so much as just removed it from the surface.

Also the passenger door will not open from the outside. Just follow the 
bently? Well, when I find it that is.

-- 
	--Jacob Hawes
Cars:
	'80 Scirocco mk1 searching for a name and brakes
	'92 Ford Tempo for sale
Sharp pointy things:
	18" HI Kobra "pillow knife"
	17.5" HI Ang Khola Villager "camp axe"
	~48" Custom two hander. unnamed