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First winter upgrade: brakes I hadn't had any problems with the original style square-pad calipers and 8mm solid discs which I had previous been restored by https://www.biggred.co.uk (circa £160). Maybe I don't drive fast enough. However, the TA Technix airride struts (future winter upgrade spoiler there) are Mk2f type not the early front struts I have been running. Actually the front struts I have been running are even earlier than the car as I picked up some '74 Audi 50 ones already powder coated to replace my well-used '77 ones, the difference being no return lip on the support where the bottom of the spring sits and these are the ones shown in very early manuals. The change of front strut design meant I wouldn’t be able to use the early 8mm solid discs as the hub return on those discs is too high (36mm) so the discs would foul on the splash guard. I still want to be able to run small high-offset wheels so decided to move to a stock Mk2 VW1 setup using solid 10mm discs which have a 29mm hub depth. For some insane reason the 19.7mm thick stock part-number pads wouldn’t fit and I was informed by someone with a huge amount of Mk2 expertise that this is normal?! Maybe alot of apprentices at VW Dealerships in the early 80s (before thinner pads came out to allow thicker discs to be used) had to spend time sanding pads down to fit. There are two types of thinner pads; 17.3mm for VW11 12mm thick solid discs and 15.3mm for VW11 20mm vented discs (e.g. G40). The 17mm pads would have fitted easily on the piston side of the caliper but looked to be tight on the outer side so I just jumped straight to the 15mm pads, popped on a bit of copper anti-sieze and they went on easily. Brakes bled, sorted so on to the next...