Hey guys. Thought I'd add my car to the project page.
Nothing really major being done to it at the moment.
I thought it'd be nice to have a section where I can keep track of the cars progress so here goes:
I bought this car 3 years ago from a guy named Todd W. who worked at APR in Alabama.
I took the bus down to Atlanta to meetup with Steve Jensen and he drove me to Birmingham to Todds parents house to pick up the car. Thanks Steve!
Here's the car pictured shortly after I got it back to Michigan:
Car needed some serious attention to the paint as it was peeling in a bunch of different spots.
There were also a couple of dents. You can see in the second picture where the sheetmetal had sucked in when he rolled the rear fenders. Also the passenger door was a different color.
It also needed some suspension work, a headliner, the dash reassembled, a headlight, a new pressure plate, new drivers seat, hard start problem, new motor mounts, new turbo coolant return line,etc.
I had some work cut out for me.
It's wasn't all bad though. The car came with alot of parts and some interesting mods already done to it. It had a Intended Acceleration Stage 1 chip, Schrick 272 cam, A8 style 5 spoke rims, urS6 Eibachs, Boge TG shocks, upgraded turbo, stainless brake lines, etc.
It also had a fairly brand new out of the crate tranny and cylinder head which was good.
I had the car for a about a month when I had a engine problem creep up on a high speed jaunt on the highway.
I took the car over to Jim Bushs house for further investigation.
I lost the number 1 exhaust valve.
I bought a new exhaust valve and took it to the local machine shop for testing, cleaning and repair for $80. Total damage was around $200 with all the gaskets, timing belt, etc I put on at the sametime. Not bad.
It was time for some more performance mods. First up I did a BPV. I used the TAP Samco hose with a Bosch 710 valve(know using a Forge valve)
I the went ahead and put on some Bilstein sports in place of the Boge TG's. Instant difference in feel. The Bilstein sports with the Eibachs is a good combo IMHO.
Next up I had a Sach sport clutch kit installed.
Then I sourced a Euro spec 1B/2B single pass intercooler from Audi5turbotech.
Here is a comparison pic of the 1B/2B and the stock dual pass IC.
Installation was fairly straight forward. The only thing that needs to be modified to make the 1B/2B IC fit is some trimming of the front cross support.
Here is a pic of the IC installed.
A little later I upgraded the snub mount and snub mount bracket(not pictured)
It was time to address the interior.
I replaced the tan comfort seats with some black sport seats from a 200. I also replaced the headliner and dash. I also added a Grant steering wheel, A4 knob and Autometer gauges.
I then dyed my door panels from tan to black:
Before:
After:
I think they came out ok but are a little too shiny for my taste. I'll probably replace them at some point with some black OEM ones.
Anyways here's how the cockpit turned out:
The paint was really getting on my nerves and my friend Dan knew a guy who paints cars on the side. He said he could do it for $600-700. I figured why not.
The car being reassembled after being painted by me, Jim Bush, Greg Jacobs and Dan Adams.
The car with fresh Alpine White paint:
It's not perfect but it looks good. Someday maybe I'll paint it again.
The car needed some different wheels so I bought these:
RS4 reps in 16x7 35mm offset. I think they fit the car nicely.
So thats how the car looked as of Summer 04.
During the fall I added a custom made strut brace:
This helped tighten up the steering feel alot. I was skeptical but it works.
I then had to tackle a leaky gastank. The car had developed a small leak and I had to let it sit all winter into late spring.
I bought a used gastank from Chris at Force5. I took the tank to a local radiator shop that is a franchise for Gas Tank Renu.
They sandblast the tank inside and out and then coat it and bake it. Turned out pretty good and cost $300.
Recoated tank:
Tank was installed and harmony returned to the universe. lol
Harmony was shattered about 2 months ago when I hit a huge piece of metal on the highway.
Bent rim:
Everything turned out ok. I found a wheel shop not far from work who fixed the wheel for $75. Not bad.
I also bought new tires since the old ones were getting pretty old.
Thats it for now. More to come.
Steve
Nothing really major being done to it at the moment.
I thought it'd be nice to have a section where I can keep track of the cars progress so here goes:
I bought this car 3 years ago from a guy named Todd W. who worked at APR in Alabama.
I took the bus down to Atlanta to meetup with Steve Jensen and he drove me to Birmingham to Todds parents house to pick up the car. Thanks Steve!
Here's the car pictured shortly after I got it back to Michigan:


Car needed some serious attention to the paint as it was peeling in a bunch of different spots.
There were also a couple of dents. You can see in the second picture where the sheetmetal had sucked in when he rolled the rear fenders. Also the passenger door was a different color.
It also needed some suspension work, a headliner, the dash reassembled, a headlight, a new pressure plate, new drivers seat, hard start problem, new motor mounts, new turbo coolant return line,etc.
I had some work cut out for me.
It's wasn't all bad though. The car came with alot of parts and some interesting mods already done to it. It had a Intended Acceleration Stage 1 chip, Schrick 272 cam, A8 style 5 spoke rims, urS6 Eibachs, Boge TG shocks, upgraded turbo, stainless brake lines, etc.
It also had a fairly brand new out of the crate tranny and cylinder head which was good.
I had the car for a about a month when I had a engine problem creep up on a high speed jaunt on the highway.
I took the car over to Jim Bushs house for further investigation.
I lost the number 1 exhaust valve.


I bought a new exhaust valve and took it to the local machine shop for testing, cleaning and repair for $80. Total damage was around $200 with all the gaskets, timing belt, etc I put on at the sametime. Not bad.
It was time for some more performance mods. First up I did a BPV. I used the TAP Samco hose with a Bosch 710 valve(know using a Forge valve)

I the went ahead and put on some Bilstein sports in place of the Boge TG's. Instant difference in feel. The Bilstein sports with the Eibachs is a good combo IMHO.
Next up I had a Sach sport clutch kit installed.
Then I sourced a Euro spec 1B/2B single pass intercooler from Audi5turbotech.

Here is a comparison pic of the 1B/2B and the stock dual pass IC.

Installation was fairly straight forward. The only thing that needs to be modified to make the 1B/2B IC fit is some trimming of the front cross support.


Here is a pic of the IC installed.

A little later I upgraded the snub mount and snub mount bracket(not pictured)


It was time to address the interior.
I replaced the tan comfort seats with some black sport seats from a 200. I also replaced the headliner and dash. I also added a Grant steering wheel, A4 knob and Autometer gauges.

I then dyed my door panels from tan to black:
Before:

After:

I think they came out ok but are a little too shiny for my taste. I'll probably replace them at some point with some black OEM ones.
Anyways here's how the cockpit turned out:

The paint was really getting on my nerves and my friend Dan knew a guy who paints cars on the side. He said he could do it for $600-700. I figured why not.
The car being reassembled after being painted by me, Jim Bush, Greg Jacobs and Dan Adams.


The car with fresh Alpine White paint:


It's not perfect but it looks good. Someday maybe I'll paint it again.
The car needed some different wheels so I bought these:

RS4 reps in 16x7 35mm offset. I think they fit the car nicely.


So thats how the car looked as of Summer 04.
During the fall I added a custom made strut brace:

This helped tighten up the steering feel alot. I was skeptical but it works.
I then had to tackle a leaky gastank. The car had developed a small leak and I had to let it sit all winter into late spring.
I bought a used gastank from Chris at Force5. I took the tank to a local radiator shop that is a franchise for Gas Tank Renu.
They sandblast the tank inside and out and then coat it and bake it. Turned out pretty good and cost $300.
Recoated tank:

Tank was installed and harmony returned to the universe. lol
Harmony was shattered about 2 months ago when I hit a huge piece of metal on the highway.
Bent rim:

Everything turned out ok. I found a wheel shop not far from work who fixed the wheel for $75. Not bad.
I also bought new tires since the old ones were getting pretty old.
Thats it for now. More to come.
Steve